A few experiences thus far.

I've been here for about five days now, and as many of you already know, I feel like my Spanish has improved more than it did this entire semester. Each day sometimes I can feel my Spanish getting better by the hour. The more I converse and the more I listen to people, the more I start thinking and processing in Spanish. I never really understood how people learn languages through immersion. But it works. It just does! And I am so excited.

Today I had my first day of class. There are just two other girls in my class from North Carolina and Iowa. We were quiet the entire first half of class, and right after we walked out the door for a quick break, we all let out the same sigh of exhaustion and I said, "I'm TIRED OF SPEAKING SPANISH". This seemed to break the ice because we all got a good laugh in and from then on we couldn't stop talking to each other. Granted, it was in English. But it was the first time any of us had had contact with the outside world! We couldn't stop talking about all the things we've been experiencing, and the emotions we have been feeling. One of the girls, Lindsay, lives just two blocks away from me, and tomorrow we are going to take the bus downtown to school together. I am meeting people, and getting more and more excited by the minute. I learned a lot about the Argentinian accent, which has been an especially difficult barrier to break through this first week.

My host mom is absolutely amazing. She takes SUCH good care of me! She is very concerned for my safety, and almost every day she goes over a mental map of the neighborhood with me. This morning she made sure I knew exactly where the bus would pick me up and drop me off. She is so cute and friendly! (linda [leen-duh], as we would say here).

Tonight was so much fun. Betty's nephew had a birthday party at a really good restaurant, and rather than sitting with her and the rest of the adults I sat with her cousins' sons and her own sons. I felt really comfortable just talking to them and saying whatever I wanted to say. I have found that when I don't say things correctly, it's just sort of funny to most people. And I'm never going to get better with my Spanish if I don't talk to people. A lot of them understand what it is like to learn another language and have a lot of patience for me. I even found out that the son of one of Betty's cousins listens to a lot of the music I enjoy like Radiohead and Sigur Rós. He told me Radiohead is coming to Buenos Aires in April! Díos mío.

Unfortunately tonight I had my first major embarrassing lingual moment. I told about 5 or 6 people who were listening to me that american food as a lot of condoms in it : ( Yikes. I said "preservativos" assuming that was the correct word for preservatives. They just burst out laughing, and one of them explained to me that "preservativos" means condoms in Argentina. I think I turned bright red. But at the same time, everyone was laughing, so I didn't feel too embarrassed. Tomorrow I will have to tell Betty that story. She'll get a kick out of it.

I have to wake up in four and a half hours. Oops. Thanks goodness for siestas, ¿no?

Chau.