Too cool for school

M/W I have Latin American Literature and Intermediate Spanish B
T/R Argentinean Contemporary Art and Latin American History

Professors are all super kind and because these classes are full of international students they speak slowly enough to be understood. I have a hard time though if I space out for even a few minutes, I have to concentrate on everything they're saying. Eek!

I've made quite a few friends but mostly from the US, there are no Argentines in these classes so I was starting to wonder how I'd ever meet any but today I shared my book with a girl who's dating an Argentine. She said she hangs out with his friends often and that she'd invite me out the next time they get together, possibly this Friday.

In my Spanish class we learned a whole slew of Argentine phrases: colectivos = bus (if it's a shorter distance), birra = cervesa (beer), they say "dale" instead of "vale" which is like saying "let's go" or somethin like that. Also the pronuncaition of the "y" sound like in calle is like a "ja" ugh...hard to explain over the computer but basically it's something to adapt to. If I don't wanna stick out haha

I joined the running club/team. The first day it was the coach, one of his coworkers, Kelsey, Sarah (girl from Denmark), and me. Most people here go to gyms if they want to workout and running doesn't seem to be uber popular. We went 9 kilometers the first day, woot woot. Today (we only meet up Monday's and Wednesday's) we ran around a park and stopped at 4 stations along the way to do sit ups and push ups. I'm going to be SORE tomorrow!

So I've been looking out for tattoos since I got here. I have seen VERY few and thought maybe it's not too popular but then at the party the other night with the Argentines, Augostine showed me two of his. So I think it's just because it's winter here. I wear pants and a shirt everyday, no one would think I had any tattoos either.

The peircings however, man would I have fit right in with my lip ring. Their lips for both guys and girls are VERY popular. The nose is not as popular but I've still seen many girls with them. The eyebrow is popular with the guys. Most people have more than one facial piercing too.

Greetings here: kisses! I love it. You kiss on the cheek when you are greeting someone or saying goodbye. The first day out for the running club Kelsey stuck her hand out for Carlos (the coach's friend) to shake when they first met and he was going in for a kiss, they ended up with a handshake but it just looked so distant and rigid. I like the handshake just as much as the next person and I recognize it's good qualities but kissing on the cheek just feels so much more enthusiastic and friendly. Relaxed/casual too.

That's another thing, of course all the American kids (myself included) were like 15 minutes early for class but our professors stroll in right on time or a little after. My first class of each day begins at 1PM ends at 2:30PM and my next starts 2:30 and goes till 4PM. Because it's all in one building they don't put time in between the classes to get to them. Unless it's for important things, like when I'm getting my visa stuff taken care of, punctuality doesn't seem to be of too great importance. I dig it though, again feels much more relaxed and easygoing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT DEBBIE :)