days 1 to 3

Hola,

I made it alive! I do not know how these things work, and i am on a computer that has funky characters, so you will have to bear with me...
Luckily, I was able to get on my flight, thanks to Gretchen, and I even had THREE seats to myself which made sleeping a breeze. The flight was about ten hours from Dulles to Buenos Aires. Once in B.A., I made it through customs and tried to find my baggage. After standing at the baggage carousel for probably an hour, I started to wonder where the heck my suitcase was...well, I was at the wrong carousel! When I looked at the computer, I thought it said to go to carousel 2, but it was saying to go to desk 2 if your bags were lost. That was fun, luckily, there was a man that made the same mistake and he spoke good spanish to get us around the chaotic airport. Then, with bags in hand, I had to find a legit taxi company to get me to the domestic airport that is 45 minutes away...easy peasy. I followed the guy to his car and buckled up for the ride of my life! The people here have noooo concept of traffic rules...they were on the wrong side of the road, not even on the road, cutting people off, speeding, the works. All of the sudden, we came to a standstill and my driver said that people were running bulls across the road in some kind of demonstration...WHAT! He was able to maneuver around the mess, but it took some really creative driving. While on the highway, I noted that the landscape was like Florida. Well, some of it, then we got to the poorer areas I guess and there was a LOT of grafitti. It was amazing how many people were walking around on the highway, near the highway, etc. Once at the airport, I had 6 hours to kill, which I managed to do between calling the parentals annd people watching. The women all have looooooong dark hair and are tan and skinny and glamorous. >They make me feel like a short haired, blonde, american blob with pale skin and no sense of style. Also, they talk sooo fast and in a dialect that slurs words like I have never heard before. To say that I am out of my element is the biggest understatement ever. I made it on to my plane and into Cordoba without incident, and now I am in my new room. My host family is composed of Carlos, my dad, Mirta, my mom, Luciano, 30, Mika, 27, Laura, 24, and Carla, 21. Carla speaks really good english, but the parents hardly speak any at all. I thinkk they think Im stupid because i cant understand, but I will be able to eventually! I am looking forward to tomorrow because I get to meet everyone from Clemson...it will be nice to see Americans even though we are technically not allowed to speak english. Soon, I will buckle down and be all Spanish, all the time, but right now I need to ease myself in. My house is so nice, it is pretty big with a pretty courtyard and lots of room-there is no air conditioner, but it is actually not that hot considering it is like 84 degrees. Alright, that is enough for today, more tomorrow maybe


chau