Salty Pizza

I'm not sure why I thought it was a good idea to carry a bag of 5 months worth of luggage without wheels on it. That was such a loser move. Luckily, I had a nice taxi driver, so it didn't end up being a huge problem. The situation with the layover in Santiago was, basically, we dropped some passengers off on the way to Buenos Aires. We were back on board within 20 minutes. And after flying 12 hours to get to Santiago, the hour and a half the rest of the way to BA felt like 5 minutes.

When we got to the airport in Santiago, I felt very out of place, even though the locals were wearing shorts and leggings-for-pants, just like us good 'ole American University students. I was told that didn't happen here, but people are definitely doing it. At the airport in Toronto, all of the announcements were in about 5 different languages, but once we got to South America, no one cared if you didn't speak Spanish. That's your own problem. Announcements were in Spanish first, and if they felt like it, maybe an English version. When we touched down in BA, I felt happy that I had made it successfully. Relieved, almost, even though the language barrier is no more forgiving here. The accent is different that what I'm used to, and I feel like no matter how hard I try to listen and follow along, my brain just tunes it out. I guess I'm overwhelmed. I know it's the first day, but it's stressful not being able to communicate. Most people I talked to said it took them about two weeks to feel that they had a comfortable grasp. I guess it's good I came two weeks early. And things should be better once I'm in classes.

Starting about a month before I left, I began to anticipate my return to the US, just because I know how cool it'll be, and I guess I feel like that's when you're actually able to see the benefits and growth. But I'm definitely gonna enjoy my time while I'm here. Also, I think, every time I imagined studying abroad, it was more peace corp like and less modern (even though I knew there were cities here). I guess I'd planned to get my hands a bit dirtier. Perhaps an opportunity will come up. This is like being from a small town and roaming New York, except people don't speak English.

Even though I was extra tired and about to fall over, I decided to be social and go shopping with the girls who live in my room. I knew that if I didn't meet them now, I would probably never speak to them. I am pretty sure they are both from Brazil. We went to a wide street that was kind of like an outdoor mall. There were shops, restaurants, crowds, shady people in corners, ice cream stands, the usual. Another thing is that I have no idea what time it is at all. I don't have anything to go off of to calculate the time difference and I haven't seen a clock in a while. I don't even have a range anymore.

So I guess overall, I'm feeling a bit lonely, but optimistic that time and language practice will solve that. I'm going to keep forcing myself to get out there so that I can learn.

If these pictures ever load, I'll post them. Also, things here say "open 25 hrs a day"

TB