What I have learned so far.

I think I am learning a little.

I have found a new favorite coffee drink. It is only here in Argentina, it is esspresso with a little milk and foam. It is called cafe cortato and it is how I start my days.

I am learning how to stay up late and sleep in the mornings. It still is weird to eat so late but when I cook for myself I find that now I don't eat until 8.

For you who have heard about the limits to my kitchen use you will be glad to know that I am making it work out quite well. I roast a large amount of veggies every few days that I eat with rice or crackers. I even found refried beans in the grocery store. I never thought I'd be so happy to see refried beans!

Cold!

Winter! I knew it would happen, but that doesn't meen I need to be happy about it! It is cold outside and it is dark when I get up in the mornings. I expected this to be one of the difficult parts of adjusting here.

At first when I got here it still had the after glow of summer. It was the final days of heat and hanging out in the parks. Having those nice days were very important for me. If I had gone from warm spring to cold winter rain I would not think so much of my new city.

With the cold weather comes germs and bugs. Yes that is right, I have had my first Argentinian cold. In case anyone is wondering they are the same here too. On a possitve note, I have a bakery/cafe down the street that I hang out at when I wish I had a livingroom here I found that they make beautiful soups. I had their chicken soup which was just what I was hoping for when I had a cold. It tasts like really good homemade Lipton soup.

Subte

This is a very big city which is good for me because it has been challenging me to take public transportation.

For the first time in my life I am actually using buses and the subway ( which is called el subte here). The subte is very crowded and with all the bodies it get quite stuffy and uncomfortable. The good thing it has going for it is that it has beautiful ceramic murals. I will eventually take more pictures of these murals but thisis all I have right now.

Funny story

The last couple of days have been very long. I am tired. Not your normal tired but the kind of tired that comes with learning everything you know over again and a new language and culture ontop of that. I understand why most babies sleep all the time, that is all I want to do.

Well last night I was staying late working on my lesson plan to prepare for teaching grammar Friday. Time went by until it was just Lula and myself working in our classroom. The place closes around seven but we decided we would work until the people who close up decide to let us know it is time to leave.

It is 7:01 and Lula gets up to get a piece of paper off the printer when the worst kind of siren begins to go off. We have no idea what is going on and go look into the hall to see if anyone is around. Nobody is there, we have been locked in the Bridge Argentina office.

All I can say is I am so glad that Lula as there with me because I really wouldn't know what to do. The saving grace was that Lula had saved our teachers number in her phone so we were able to call her and have her help us out.

When we left the building there were about 4 police cars and one motercycle there. I am glad I did have to explain anything to a group of police in Spanish!

They have gluten free options

Only a few people will be excited about this. I found a libres de gluten store. I had lunch there today and it ended up being very good. They had pre-made salads and dishes with potatoes and rice that all looked very good. They also had some amazing desserts such as this alfajor cookie (a classic cookie for Argentina) that I bought and have been nibbling on. In the middle of the cookies is a large amount of dulce de leche which is very very tasty.

To all my gluten free friends I just want you to know that I thought of all you today when I at my lunch.

Crossing the street

Drea this one is for you.

You would hate crossing the street here because the only way to saftely cross the street is to j-walk. If you are in the cross walk and the light changes the cars will honk right before they hit you.

Every morning I have to cross la calle de Julio. To successfully cross this street in one traffic signal I must run. Why? Because I have to cross about 16 lanes of traffic.

As a pedestrian you have little to no rights to cross the road. I have to remember this.

What I have been up to

It has been a while since I posted and so you might be wondering what I have been up to. To tell you the truth I have been learning about how little I know about English. On top of that I have started teaching my first classes! To say the least it has been an exausting two weeks and I am so happy that the weekend is almost here.

I am also excited about the weekend being soon because I bought rollerblades!!! Turns out it is a happening thing here and once I get some practice in I am going to join a rollerbladeing group. I haven't tried them out yet but that is my plan for Saturday. It has been about 6 years since I rollerbladed so I will see.

Dogs

Dogs are very popular here. In the fancy neighborhoods it is not unushual to see a dog walker walking 8-12 dogs at one time! I am always very impressed with the dog walker and the dogs, how calm they all are.

Most people that are walking their own dogs ushually don't use a leash and sometime not a coller. The dog just walks its self and somehow dosen't get killed by the speeding cars that won't stop for anything.

Also when the owner of the dog goes into a store to go shopping the dog just sits patiently by the enterence until it's time to go.

Learning everyday

This is a very interesting experiance, to go back to not being able to comunicate some simple feeling, thoughts or needs. I find it very humbling and challenging. I am also excited to find that I am learning. I am already noticing that I can understand questions and conversation on a very basic level. I think I must fit in around here pretty well as far as how I look because i have been asked for directions by argentinians. If I could only find the words, I could answer their questions.

Yo soy Ruth. Yo soy de la Estados Unidos. Tango dos hermanas y dos hermanos. Me gusto beder cafe cordado aqui en Argentina. Estoy feliz aprender espanol. :)

Ciao ciao beso