First days

This is my first attempt at blogging. I thought that this would just be a lot easier for everyone, especially for me. So if you're interested in what I'm up to I'll try to keep my blogs current. If you're not interested, you're not required to read them!

In case you don't know what's going on, I'm spending a year with ACA (Adventist Colleges Abroad) in Argentina at the Universidad Adventista del Plata. The plan is to learn Spanish! And do lots of cool things while I'm here :)

I left the U.S. a week and two days ago, on Sunday the 12th of September. After two long flights, and a lot of uncomfortable plane naps, I arrived in Buenos Aires on Monday morning to overcast skies and a cold drizzly rain. Not exactly what I expected from Argentina, but it IS still the end of winter here. There were 3 other girls on my flight with ACA and after we got our luggage we met up with the rest of the ACA students that were flying into the airport and with Horaldo and Sandra, our two ACA leaders that had come to pick us up. Once we had managed to squeeze all of us and all of our luggage (the bigger challenge) into a bus and a van, we were taken to an Adventist vegetarian restaurant in Buenos Aires where we had lunch.
Finally, we had a 6 hour bus ride to the school, which is in a little town called Libertador San Martin. Luckily it didn't quite take the full 6 hours, and we got the the school around 8:30pm. They fed us again, and sent us to our rooms where we got to meet our roommates. Most students have two roommates, at least that's how it is in the girls dorm. My roommates names are Rubi and Karen. They are sisters and live in Mexico. Both are super sweet and kind, and I'm enjoying getting to know them. They don't speak English however, so I'm having to work very hard on my Spanish in order to be able to communicate with them. Some day I hope to be able to hold an in depth conversation with them, rather than the one or two sentences I am able to construct painfully and slowly as of now. The dorm provides the bedding for the beds so we didn't have to pack that with us. There are 3 floors in the dorm I live in with two bathrooms on each floor. So far I haven't had any problems with running out of hot water in my shower for which I am very thankful. The toilets are pretty much the same (no squat pots like in Borneo!) but I still have to remember not to flush my toilet paper. Here they throw it all away in trash cans.

Last week was a pretty chill week. We had meetings usually every morning but most of the day was free, which was a big change for me after my busy schedule this summer. I explored the town and lot, and the campus. The campus is pretty much right in town, but surrounded by a big fence that closes at 8. To get in or out we have to swipe our cards, and we are required to be back on campus by 10:30 every night.

The town is pretty small, about 5,000 people, most of whom work at the university or at the hospital here.
There are dogs eeeeverywhere here. And way too many pigeons. They like to roost on the ledge outside my dorm room window and...well, do whatever pigeons do. Poop, make noise, fly around. Often they wake me up in the mornings because they are so loud. My roommates tell me that at some point everyone gets pooped on by a bird. That's just the way it is. I'm hoping to be the exception to that rule.
On Saturday afternoon a big group of us went on a hike to the puente negro or Black Bridge. It's an old train track bridge, about a 6 mile hike round trip. It was a beautiful hike and I was having a lovely time until we reached the bridge and I realized that not only was it extremely high, but I also was going to have to cross this sketchy old bridge knowing at any moment were I to slip and fall I could plummet to my death on the sharp rocks in the creek below! I exaggerate some, the bridge was still sturdy but it is true that had anyone fallen, well...bad things would have happened. But I faced my enormous fear of heights and crossed the bridge on my hands and knees, clinging to the ties and scooting along foot by foot. Yes, I looked dumb, yes people made fun of me, but I survived! And felt extremely brave afterwards :) A good day's work.

Sunday we did more exploring. We got up early to take the 8:20 bus to Parana, a bigger town about an hour and half away, then found out to our chagrin that the bus left at 10:30 on Sundays. We spent the day in Parana. Most of the shops were closed since it was a Sunday, but we were able to find a buffet to eat at that had rather delicious food. A lot of interesting foods too, for the braver eaters, like rice with squid in it. Mmm!
There is a Walmart in Parana but we didn't make it there. It's farther out of town and you have to take a taxi or bus to get there. We found a supermarket that sufficed. Walmart will just have to wait for next time.

Yesterday was our first day of classes. I somehow lucked out and have afternoon classes most of the week. I'm taking Grammer, Composition, Conversation, History of Argentina, Folklore, Current Events, spelling, and Geography. Most of the classes meet once a week, usually for two hours.
Today we didn't have classes because it was Dia del Estudiante which means day of the student. The school had a bunch of games set up on the soccer field for us, like ping pong, giant blow up slides, a mechanical bull, and a giant human foosball inflatable court. I'll definitely get pictures of those up :) And yes, I did in fact ride the mechanical bull!

That's it for now. There's probably things I've forgotten to say, but I'll just get it another time.