Real Life

Hola! My new computer has finally arrived and so I can finally put Leah's mind at ease with another post about how I am not homeless in another country.

So I finished up my classes about four weeks ago now and I have been kinda puttering around trying to establish a life here since. The whole apartment fiasco turned out alright. My roommate from my old apartment left town the weekend that I needed to move out so I moved into his room for about five days which bought me more time to look for my own apartment. I then stayed with another friend who had an extra room for a couple of days and finally found an apartment of my own on Craigslist. I'm living with a 30 year old Argentinian girl in an itty bitty apartment, but its fully furnished and fairly comfortable. Its also very centrally located so its easy to get anywhere.

Other than that I've just been enjoying the city, trying to find a job, and keeping myself busy. And I finally got offered a job yesterday! I met an American girl in Santiago who worked with ECELA (my school) as an international representative. She lived in Santiago but worked with universities in the US to promote ECELA. From her I got the name of the (American) guy who runs ECELA and emailed him my CV and cover letter kind of on a whim. Well he was very helpful and they actually kind of created a position for me with ECELA. They are bringing down a group of premed students for a one month program this summer. I will be working with an Argentinian girl to set up that program and to work with the students and pre-med advisors on the trip. I'll also be talking to other students and advisors who contact ECELA with questions to promote our school. I'm going to take four more weeks of classes and work part time for a while and also do some volunteering at the clinics to kind of test them out before the group of students gets down here. One of the nicest things about the job is that I can do it from anywhere. They want me to stay in BA at least until July when the group comes down but after that I could move to Chile or anywhere else, and they actually want me to keep working from the US once I got back. It will also be partly in English and partly in Spanish so I'll get to practice some more Spanish. So I start the new job next week and I'll start classes again the week after. I'm really looking forward to it.

So now I have a house, and a job, and some friends and life is good. Unfortunately most of the friends I'm making are from the school so they're only here for short periods of time, which means lots of goodbyes. Fortunately some are staying for a pretty long time so thats nice. I'm also still trying to get used to the Argentinian ways of doing things. Buenos Aires is really fun and there is always something to do or see, but trying to live life here, and be productive and efficient is enough to make any American go crazy. Everything, from mailing a letter to paying my rent to trying to get my computer, has been a nightmare. I will definitely appreciate many things about the US when I get back.

I'm also hoping to plan a short trip or two within the next couple of weeks. My friend Julia and I want to go to Iguazu Falls, a huge series of waterfalls at the boarder between Argentina and Brazil. They're supposed to be some of the most spectacular sights in South America. I also want to go to Mendoza (wine country) before it gets too cold. I think it'll be nice to get out of the city for a while. Well I guess thats all for now. Kinda a boring post. Next time I'll tell you about all the fun things I've been able to do here. And also about how I find myself in a near death situation on almost a weekly basis :p Keep checking in!