So I left off with the end of my time in Chile. After five weeks in Santiago I boarded a bus that would take me over the Andes, through Mendoza Argentina, and 24 hours later to Buenos Aires. Buses are the most common form of transportation in South America, and they're a lot cheaper than flying. I paid and extra $10 to upgrade to 'Cama' which is like first class and fairly comfortable. I like driving and traveling and thought the sights over the Andes would be awesome so this seemed like the best choice. It was. I would absolutely recommend it if you ever have the option. Breathtaking views (I promise I'll include some photos later) and fairly easy and comfortable. Getting across the boarder was kind of a hassel and took about two hours - they make everyone get off the bus, get all the luggage off, and stand in line for visas - but it does save Americans from having to pay the $140 for a tourist visa. Definitely worth it.
I arrived in Bs As at about 8:30 in the morning. One of my dad's grad students is from Argentina, and her brother and his family live just outside of Buenos Aires. He was nice enough to meet me at the bus terminal and take me to my apartment. The lady who owned the apartment was not expecting me until much later so I spent the day and Sebastian's apartment with his family. This was just the first taste of how helpful and kind Argentinians are. So a big thank you to them and to Soledad for all of their help.
Monday I started school. The way ECELA works is that you are supposed to be able to transition seamlessly from one class at one school to the next class at another school. Of course nothing is seamless here and they had me in the wrong level when I showed up, but after a little bit of rearranging I got off to my first day of Intermediate classes in the B1 green level.
I had kind of a rough start in Buenos Aires. The other students in the class were at a lower level than my classmates in Santiago and the class was very slow. I also wasn't getting as close to the people I was meeting at school, and wasn't really happy in my living situation. I was living in the apartment of a woman (maybe about 60 years old) and not with other students like I was in Santiago. The first week there was a couple from the school living at the apartment but they left and then it was just me and Amalia, and it was kinda dreary. I also still didnt have a telephone so it was hard to make plans with people and I ended up staying in my apartment a lot. Also the internet was terrible so it was impossible to post pictures and talking on skype was awful.
I was also supposed to be doing medical shadowing here for the four weeks I was at the school. So my first week I started asking the school for information about it, and they kept telling me that they didn't have information but would let me know when they did. So I waited...and waited...and waited...and after about two weeks I finally learned that the doctors and hospital that they have worked with in the past had taken off for the summer and didn't want to have anything to do with the school until university resumed in the fall. So I had four weeks of medical shadowing I had paid for and had to figure out what to do with the money. But nothing that I tried to do (taking another week of classes, taking private lessons, taking salsa classes) worked out. So after much back and forth and trials and failures I ended up just getting a refund of the money and not doing anything. This seems to be kind of a recurring theme down here.
So all in all I just did the four weeks of classes at ECELA in Buenos Aires and finished up the B1 level. At this point I would only have four more weeks until I finished all of the Intermediate classes and moved on to advanced. This means if I were to take four more weeks of classes I would have learned all the grammar and after that its just talking and reading a writing and learing vocabulary and reviewing. So at some point I may go back to school to finish up the B level.
My last week in school however I was able to switch apartments and to live with other students in a very cute apartment. Once I switched apartments and spent some more time at the school I began meeting more people and was infinitely happier. However, because of silly mix-ups I found out Tuesday of my last week that I had to be out of my apartment by Saturday that same week and wouldn't have anywhere to stay. So I frantically started searching for apartments until on Thursday of that week, my computer completely died. So I now had no way to search for an apartment and no where to stay come Saturday. At this point I was kind of starting to stress out but also sure that something would work itself out. And it did. But this has become a long post so I'll save the outcome and my time since getting out of school for another post. I also promise to post more about sightseeing around the city and the extracurricular activities in another post. So hang tight and check back soon for more Argentinan adventures! Se extraño!
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