If you don't have time to read what is about to be a lengthy post, please read the following summary in order to understand my general feelings about my experience thus far:

LA AMO BUENOS AIRES!

Before I met this brilliant city, I rode on some pla

nes. That was both fun and horrible at the same time...thank you Delta.

We had no problems on the flight to Atlanta except that we were slightly delayed. Fortunately, in Atlanta, the flight to BA had been pushed back one hour. So we ate, waited, boarded, then were subject to some horrid Delta management which is definitely not worth writing about.

After much deliberation and frustration, I ended up in the middle aisle between two men who were very skilled at sleeping on airplanes. I do not have those skills, so I stayed awake for most of the flight and watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, part of Invictus, and another movie which never gave its title.

When we landed in BA, we had no problems passing through customs for our overly expensive Visas or finding our luggage. We were able to exchange our dollars for Argentine pesos easily (the exchange rate is a little more than 3 pesos per dollar). It was almost 10am by this time, so we found a cab that took us directly to ou

r 'residencia.'

When the cab dropped us off, we walked around the block until we found the place where we (Jose and I) live. The dull and slightly rude landlord greeted us and took us to our room.

I will make it a personal goal to NEVER climb six flights of stairs while carrying eighty pounds of luggage. It was worth it when we finally reached the top of the 'residencia,' sweating and panting. Our room is pretty sizable with a high ceiling, beautiful wood floors, two large windows, a desk, two beds, four chairs, a dresser, some nice abstract art, and one bathroom for the two of us. The bathroom is large, as well, with another dresser, a shower, sink, toilet, and yes, a beday.

I'm still too afraid of the beday...

The 'residencia' has a community kitchen, living room, washing machine, and, my favorite part, a large terrace right outside our room where we can look down on the street!

After we settled into our room, we went to the bank to get our rent money. This was my first real experience IN the city. I was waaaay too curious and I had to stare at everything! Even though it was in the middle of the day, the streets were full of people. I thought this was pretty interesting because technically we do not live downtown. We live in Recoleta, a neigborhood or 'barrio.' But since around 13 million people live in BA, the whole city seems busy.

Most of the stores open up to the street and on every block there is at least one news/magazine stand and multiple street vendors who lay their merchandise on a blanket on the ground. They sell everything! Scarves, electrical converters, pirated DVDs, socks, underwear.

The people themselves are very interesting: Buenos Aires is a very European city with very European citizens. Everyone has very light skin with dark hair (for the most part), and everyone dresses very well. It's winter here, of course, and these past two days have been relatively warm for the winter (or at least that's what I hear). Yesterday it was around 50 degrees and today it rained a little and the temperature dropped about ten or fifteen degrees. So nearly every person wears a pea coat or some other kind of nice coat.

Unfortunately, I am very tired. It is almost 3am here and last night I stayed up late as well, getting to know the people in the 'residencia.' I have only typed one-fourth of what I wanted to say and I haven't even started on the good stuff!

I will write more later!

Things I have learned about BA:

Everyone dresses fashionably.

Crossing the street without the 'WALK' sign is completely allowed, if not recommended.

When it rains, most of the stores close.

The public transportation is one of the cheapest in the world. Twenty-five cents for a subway or bus ride!

The only picture that I could get to load was the picture of my school, UADE.

I will put some more picture on Facebook tomorrow.

I miss you all!

Ciao,

Clint