1st Day/Long Day

This is me in my room at my host family's house after a day and a half of travel. The smile came easily, a combination of relief and excitement.

All of my flights were on-time and reasonably comfortable. The 9 and a half hours I spent at the Miami International Airport allowed me time to make calls to friends and family, catch up on reading, and get some exercise by walking laps around the airport. The long flight from Miami was remarkably comfortable. I slept as well as could be expected for such a flight and the airplane was brand new, with video screens for every passenger that offered games, movies, and music. I chose to do none of these things and even turned down dinner so that I could attempt to sleep amongst the three screaming children surrounding me. As an aside, it's unnerving to watch the expressions of people around whom babies are being seated on long airline flights. It's as if they'd just been told that they would within minutes come down with a short-term stomach flu: Sadness followed by resignation to the fact that the next 10 hours will not be easy ones. I arrived in Buenos Aires and quickly identified my bag by its broken wheel and the big stupid looking dolphin on the front of it. I'd recently purchased this $9.99 masterpiece after a bargaining session at Marcs, a general store in my hometown of North Canton, Ohio. I was very prideful of this deal up until the moment that the bag's right wheel broke on the first leg of my journey. Then, as I took the same bag off the baggage carousel in Buenos Aires, the second wheel snapped off as if it had been glued on with art class Elmers glue. Luckily, the zipper held, but in lesson, that's what you get when you pay 9.99 for a suitcase. My second bag I couldn't find. Taking a lesson from a January trip in which I had valuables stolen at the EZE airport, I had my duffel bag, the one with more expensive items, cellophane wrapped so that no one could get into it. The problem is that many people have cellophane wrapped bags and they all look the same. So, if you don't have your name on the bag, it can be really difficult to identify it (yes, duh). After finally finding the bag by tearing away the cellophane to reveal the cheap brand name, I headed over to customs(aduana) and for the first time on a trip to Buenos Aires had to put all of my bags through the x-ray scanner (EZE is cracking down on people importing expensive foreign made goods, especially technology, into the country). I was stopped for my laptop and was worried for 30 or so seconds that I would have to pay a 50% tax to bring it into the country. However, I turned on my stupid American no hablo espanol act and when asked if the laptop was used or new, responded with the truth (used), and was allowed to go free (which I did quickly before the customs official wanted to take a closer look at my laptop or the various mp3 players I had in my bag that I was planning to give to my host family's kids as gifts) Argentina charges high import taxes on foreign goods to encourage people to buy only products made in Argentina. I don't blame them, especially considering the state of the U.S.'s trade deficit with China and the impact that has and will continue to have on the strength of the dollar. However, I can't say that I don't enjoy my cheap laptop, despite the heavy price the U.S. has paid for such things...

Outside of Aduana, a driver waited for me with a sign with my name on it. On the way to my host family's place, we chatted about the U.S. presidential election and the Paro Del Campo in Argentina. I'll reflect more on our conversation in a future post.

I was greeted at my host family's house by my great host mom, Argelia. She and her husband and two girls live in a giant 100-year-old European style house with 3 floors, a huge terrazo used for grill outs in the summer, and apartment guest rooms separate from the house. I spent 2.5 months last summer/Argentinian winter at their home while taking Spanish classes. Now, I'm back for about 2 weeks until I move into an apartment that Argelia's friend found for me. Argelia and I talked, drank tea, and snacked on cookies all morning as her husband and children wandered down the stairs at different hours to greet me.













After chatting with Argelia and then later with her brother and sister-in-law, I ventured out from the house to pick up groceries, check out the site of my next apartment, have clothes ironed for interviews, and to get some wool sweaters dry cleaned. Despite the talk of food prices increasing substantially, which they have, food is still very affordable in Argentina. I was happy to see that I can still buy my favorite torte de calabaza (a pumpkin pie with a layer of mozarella cheese and carmelized onions) for slightly more than a dollar. On top of that, everything else appeared to be pretty darn cheap. My shopping list included a large box of rice, vinegar, a large bottle of soy sauce, eggs, cue tips, and shampoo all for about $9 USD. At the lavadora or laundrymat, the cost of having 5 items professionally ironed was about $2.25 USD. And finally, the price of having 3 sweaters dry cleaned was a costly $8 USD.

After the errands, I ended my evening with a walk around my old neighborhood and enjoyed the 50 degree first night of South American winter.



This picture was taken at about 6pm in La Plaza Guemes. As usual, kids were playing soccer and skateboarding outside the steps of a grandiose basilica.