Go Fish.

Today was orientation and it began by taking a bruise to all of our egos. We were required to have our host parents take us to the first day of school; she even gave me monedas to catch the bus home. hahaha It was very entertaining and humbling to feel like a wide-eyed, naive child again. It's whatever, though, without our host parents help, every single one of us would have been at least an hour late and that is if you are proficient in Spanish, so it was obviously a smart move! 

Anyways, at orientation I learned a lot of really interesting things

1. thieves "go fishing" at atms after the banks close and the gaurds go home. By this they mean the "fishermen" stick a hook up the slot where cash comes out. The genius behind this method is that it hooks the money on to the hook, makes it look like the money was just jammed (not sure how you can miss fishing wire...or if they even use fishing wire?), and still prints a recite so you have no argument to say you didn't get your money if you try to come back to the bank the next day. Crafty. 

2. We played the name game as an ice breaker. The guy next to me is from lithuania and his name for the name game was Silly Sharky...sooooo, his name is Sharky? No sé...

3. Got a tour of San Telmo, the birth place of the Tango! Apparently tango started off as the scandalous and inappropriate dance for prostitutes, but then the French saw it and loved it and because Argentines want the approval of all Europeans, Tango was then accepted! (I also found a potential yoga studio in San Telmo, its the bohemian area of town...they are very public with their affection in San Telmo, too...haha)

4. Met all of the kids in my program, which was great, they all were really nice and friendly. It will be interesting to see who I end up hanging out with since I plan on taking most of my courses at the universities rather than taking them through the program.

5. The last--and most important--thing I learned today was that my mother is 100% WRONG. I have an AMAZING sense of direction, I am very adept at reading maps, AND I know geography! I was with a group of Americans and one other spanish speaker today and we all decided to walk home (it is apparently pretty far). They wanted to stop and purchase some miscellaneous things on the way but we got very lost under the direction of the other spanish speaker and one other girl who claimed she knew where we were. False. Neither of them had no clue. haha Up until then, I had just been cruising because I was enjoying the walk and company, plus, I like getting lost. You learn the city better and faster that way. Anyways, I had a general idea of where we were and I led us back and successfully got everyone where they needed to go! 

Lastly. It is freaking FREEZING here and I regretfully left my warmest stuff at home. BUST. 

It was about 40 degrees F all afternoon and even colder this morning. NOT COOL.

but whatevs, it's over now.

Ok, too-da-loo!

Annette