First day (this is going to be a long one)

So after the crazyness of o´hare with my bags being too heavy and my extensive train rides between terminals because we weren´t clever enough to go to the domestic flight terminal for a domestic flight, I land in Atlanta and bum about until I´m about to board the plane. I saw another girl with a Rotary blazer (they´re on the rage in Paris) and introduced myself, there was then a group of four of us on the grueling 10.5 hour flight from Atlanta to the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. Turns out that even if you have been on an airplane before there are always new things to learn. 1) the moon is beautiful, oh wait, that´s just the light at the tip of the wing... 2) never ever ever go to the bathroom barefoot. no matter how fearless. don´t. 3) don´t trust airborne meats. Finally i landed at 7 45 B.A. time, breezed through customs, and met my host dad and one of my host sisters. we took a cab from the airport to his office, he works for the government and lives in Buenos Aires from tuesday to friday. we hung out at his office and got some café con leche and media lunas. then we headed out for the next domestic airport.

First of all. traffic in buenos aires is rediculous. there are lanes painted but don´t auctually exsist. it´s the first time i´ve seen somebody be in the farthest left lane and still manage to turn to the right. and the cars were so close that i swear i could have stuck my toungue out the window and swiped a couple of windshields. i survived though.

i boarded and landed my catamarca flight, and had several family members and friends to greet me. it was pretty cool. I have two host brothers, Federico and Eduardo who are both considerably older but i have pretty much spent most of my time with them and my little sister Florencia (i felt reasonably tall in argentina, until i met flor, she´s twelve and she´s like 4 inches taller than i am, kind of reminded me of when i first met greta). Mi mama is really friendly and funny.

right away we had lunch and i saw my house for the next couple months. it´s great, not too big. my host parents totally spoiled me, i already have my own bathroom, a cellphone, and a computer (i´m not expecting to keep it..). I like them alot, they´re really fun.

after lunch we went sightseeing, we went up this road on a ridge that overlooked the city of Catamarca, que bonita! we also saw a pretty cool lake. We stopped by mi mama´s office and it turns out she´s a director of sports (or something like that) and there are a bunch of gyms for basketball, gymnatics, and a track.. oh and did i mention there are fútbol fields everywhere! two auctually accross the street from where i live. cool huh?

so then we came back to the house and i txted a girl from rotary and she got all the other kids to come to the plaza and i got to meet most of them. lucky me all of them speak english, this spanish businuess today has been exhausting! The plaza is basically a huge hangout for anybody under 20. it´s nuts, there´s so many people there. so we hung out and then went to get a pancho. a pancho is a footlong hot dog bun with three little hotdogs in them (i´m pretty sure they´re big vienna sausages) slathered in mayo, mustard, and salsa. they´re pretty good, i only had a bite of one of the guy´s . Gene and Jude´s is still takes the cake.

it was about 20 40 hours, yeah they use 24 hr clocks, and i asked eduardo and federico to come pick me up, they did but the back of the truck now had new headboards for my room and a nightstand. i´m totally spoiled. i love it.

for dinner we just walked over to this place that looks like a gas station to an american, but was really a burger joint with a gas station attached. i walked in and florencia has like 5 friends there and we all sit down to eat. burgurs were good. we walked back and now flor still has a couple friends over and i´m chilling with Eduardo in the kitchen.

Maybe i´ll go to sleep soon considering i have to catch a bus at midnight tomorrow to go to cordoba and i know those rotary kids wont let me sleep.