Milanesa, anyone?

So I made it to Argentina, in case you were wondering. I’ve been here for almost 2 weeks, though it feels like 100 years. In that time I have:

• Met the other 20 people in my program
  

  Program friends!

• Spent three days in Buenos Aires being a tourist and being oriented
  

  Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. How many times have I studied the events of this Plaza?

• Eaten lots of new foods and liked most of them
• Seen Evita’s grave
  

  Grave of Evita

• Flown to Mendoza and met my host family
• Seen the Andes
  

  Andes Selfie

• Learned how to work the keys to the apartment
  

  The keys here are different, but really cool!

• Been further oriented
• Managed public transportation
• Communicated almost solely in spanish
• Managed to walk 6 blocks to the Program Office without getting lost (those who know me well, know that this is a great triumph for me)
• Walked a lot further than 6 blocks without getting lost
• Started Spanish class
• Found the Argentine version of Wal-mart (though they actually have Wal-mart here, too)
• Gone to Vía Blanca (pre-Vendimia [big wine festival] parade)
  

  Vendimia is about celebrating the harvests of Mendoza province, music, and choosing a beauty queen. I’m not sure what part of this he represented in the Vía Blanca parade, but I really appreciated his abs… I mean participation.

• Eaten the fruit thrown to me during Vía Blanca
• Been called a tourist
• Been spoken to in english because everyone assumes I don’t speak any spanish
• Visited monuments
  

  Monument to General San Martín the Liberator

• Learned they layout of the city (more or less)
• Learned lots of new words and a new verb tense (vos, anyone?)

Among other things, but those are the highlights.

I’m having lots of fun! There are definitely things I miss about the States, but this is great city! You can walk almost everywhere,it’s beautiful, there are plazas and coffee shops aplenty, and we have a view of the Andes from our kitchen table.