Wednesday, July 1st ....birthday month!

I had an unexpected visitor around 7 a.m. this morning in the form of an obnoxious mosquito that would NOT go away. I don’t know if it’s attracted to my hair or what, but it was horrible. And I’m completely stopped up, so I would go under the covers, but then I couldn’t breathe, and it was just horrible. Finally, I put my hair over my ears so I couldn’t hear it buzzing, and just slept regardless of its location around my face. Of course, you know how when you’ve already heard it and then you start to feel things randomly? Yea…I was randomly swatting my face all morning, joy, as I lapsed in and out of sleep.

Anyways, I managed to stay in bed until around 9, and then I shrugged around to the kitchen, where to my surprise I found actual coffee! It was very nice to have the real stuff en vez de instant. Coffee is my new coke, in case you haven’t caught on. I really think now, man, I could go for a coffee, when I’m walking on my way home. Plus, I’m not a huge fan of coke (Dr.Pepper all the way!) and you can add sugar to your heart’s content in coffee, so that’s a definite plus.

So then, my host mom and I had a hilarious conversation about boys, which ended with me understanding that someone special is coming over Saturday, and I think I’m going to make myself scarce. Also received some dating advice which I will lock away until appropriate.

Then I got dressed, and headed over to the Roadhouse. Today I was getting my school assignment! Well, along the way, which is SO familiar, it’s funny, this lady comes up behind me, and is like “permiso,” and she asks me where a particular street is. Turns out it’s really close to my house, so I was able to inform her. This freakin’ made my morning for 3 reasons: 1) I looked friendly enough to approach, which is good b/c sometimes I worry the “hard” face I try to put on when I’m walking by myself might actually be working and be permanent. But let’s be honest, haha. 2) I looked like I knew what I was doing. I suppose confidence would sum that up. 3) I was able to help her in a friendly, Spanish manner! Sweet!! I hummed the rest of the way to the House, as I imagined my happiness blossoming around me and spreading to my surroundings, like one of those commercials where a scent affects everyone or something. I mean, if I’m ever going to imagine that, BA is the place, right?

Arrived at the House, where I saw a disgruntled client, if you will, being dealt with. And I saw one rep do it correctly, and one did it incorrectly, so it was a good opportunity to observe business-client relations. Then, Agustin, one of the Road workers, came out, and we headed to the school! We chatted a little bit on the way, nothing of significance, but right before we got there, he was like, do you want to do the interview in Spanish or English? I hesistated just a bit too long before saying Spanish, and he was like, are you sure, blablablba. And I was like, yea, if I don’t get it, we can switch. So we arrived at the high school, which still blows my mind because it’s just a segment of a building squashed into this block. Not my image of a high school at all, but that’s my small town side I suppose. We made it up the stairs, past the guard, up more stairs, and entered just a white-washed room basically, with doors leading to more white classrooms. When a bell rang and all the students came out, I realized how intimidated I was by them and their stares. Geez, it hit really fast. So then we had a conference with the English teacher, and I am proud to say that I understood probably 90%. And hopefully I understood it correctly, haha. But here’s the sad part:

All the schools are closing for two weeks, starting next Monday, so people can “recover” from the swine flu, whatever that means. Then, they have two week winter vacations. They come back the 5th of August…..and I leave two weeks later. But they were really sweet, and especially once I told them that I was collecting data for my thesis too, they were excited. So they told me that I can be in contact with the teacher over the break, and then in those last two weeks I can observe and also lead a debate in one of the classes. I mean, it’s better than nothing, right? And it will definitely be enough to get a taste of it. Right as we were leaving, this other teacher stuck her head in, and was like, who is this girl, all my students said was that she’s pretty. She said that in Spanish, and then found out I spoke Spanish, and was like, oh, haha, hola.

One other thing was they were very confused by the school structure. In Argentina, you go from high school straight into a professional school. There is no bachelor’s. So they didn’t understand what I was studying at first, but we were able to get the idea across, and then they really liked it.

On our way back, I asked Agustin what other options I had for the month of July, because there’s no way I would survive just sitting around. At first, he suggested one of the classes you pay for, like tango or cooking, and I was like, what? I’m not paying any more money. To which he responded that another volunteership would cost money, and that was how I find out that they donate to all the places where we volunteer. But I’m going to be volunteering b/c I did pay for that for this month through my program fee, so we’ll see what happens.

When we got back to the House, another Road worker got me to fill out a volunteer form, and so I worked on the receptionist, Angie’s, desk, who is out sick right now. I ended up using the internet there since my internet is shot, and I got to fill in as the door opener and such. Haha, it was fun. Plus, I figure I’ll hang out there until they place me somewhere ;) Also, Sebas, who started Road, is just amazing to be around.

So I finished my internet activities, swung by Sabores and picked up some lunch, then headed home. I watched Ocean’s 12, dubbed in Spanish, while eating lunch. Maria Laura and I also talked about me advertising my ‘services’ to some of her friends and perhaps picking up some extra experience/pesos while here, which I thought was a fabulous idea because it gives me stuff to do and takes away the potential stranger sketch factor.

After that, I read some more of my Agatha Christie book, which is progressing quite well, and just kind of hung out. At 7:30, I left to meet Rebe at the corner, and we headed to a free concert. We unfortunately began talking and went one street to far, which was a sketchy major mistake. But we made our way to the address, which ended up being a music school. The concert was free, so we weren’t expecting too much. It ended up being in a short room, but with a good turnout. The description would be a high school concert orchestra, except there were some old people in it. But it was obvious that most of the people in the audience knew someone there, which was really cute and fun to feel surrounded by love and families. The middle piece was tango, which was my favorite. Then, they finished, and everyone started clapping for an encore, to which they began to play the Happy Birthday song, I kid you not. And then they replayed part of their first song. It was really weird.

Then we headed back, and I found some frozen food left in front of the microwave for me. I made the mistake of attempting to heat it up on the same plate as my veggie side dish which was not frozen, and ended up with half steaming and half cold food. So I just mixed it, and you guys wouldn’t believe that I ate it if you saw it, because I honestly can only think to describe it as mush. But hunger called, and it really wasn’t that bad. I topped it off with a galletita, which I always have room in my tummy for, and for which I always crave. Then I showered, and got excited about sleeping in tomorrow.