last day of class

two weeks of spanish have already gone by. although i feel like i only learned 5 new words, i learned many new concepts that i'll now have to practice. i'd like to return to the school for private lessons once i'm able to speak confidently. i'd like the private lessons for help with grammar and pronunciation. i loved studying but i couldn't take anymore intense spanish lessons at this moment. too too much to digest. the other girls in my class will continue with the lessons next week, I may meet up with them for a drink after their class.

lunch wasn't exciting. a couple students and i went to a salad type place near the school. i got an empanada (which i normally love) and some rice with vegetables. the food was so bland. i know that argentine food is on the plane/bland side, but this food was extreme bland. i didn't finish my lunch. tonight my roommates and i are going out for a nice dinner in our neighborhood to celebrate our last night in the host family's house . i'll eat my daily's worth there.

when i walked the pedestrian street to my 'subte' entrance there was a band playing christmas songs. i'm not a christmas person and i typically detest the songs but i couldn't help but smile so big!! It's 80 degrees out and december...how cool. i'm also skipping christmas this year, which feels nice. no stress of buying presents, no self inflicted pressure to be nice to removed family. i'm not sure of my exact plans for the day, but i was thinking about going to the beach.

when i reached my 'subte' entrance there was a digital message...something about 'line D'. crap, what is this? i asked the woman next to me "hablas ingles?" (Do you speak English) she didn't so i mustered some spanish together. "Linea D rompe?" (translated: Line D broken?) She said 'si'.

So I walked back to my school for some assistance on taking a bus. I have a 'Guiat", which is like the phone book of the buses. Not positive how it works yet, but you look at a map of where you want to go. The map is broken into squares. Your chose your destination block on the map, example: "A 2". Then you look up A2 to see which buses go there, then you look at the map to see where you are currently and what buses come there. There should be numbers that match. Anyway, with the help of an employee of the school they told me where to stand and which bus to get.

while I was near my school I popped into the 'locutorio' (store with the phone booths) to call an certified apple technician in Buenos Aires. Naaman has several issues and is only 2 months old tomorrow. the graphics card is getting worse and worse, the camera doesn't work and one of the two USB ports doesn't work.

I made the call and to my luck the person answering the phone didn't speak english. (i say to my luck because i really need to be forced into practicing) I explained my issues, they told me the times they're open. I'll take Naaman in Tuesday for repair.

It cost 92 centavos (less than one peso and in coin form) for the call. I only had 80 centavos or a 2 peso note. There's sort of a coin crisis here, so knowing that I asked the woman which she prefer. She didn't blink an eye before choosing the 80 centavos, even though it was less. she didn't want to part with her change. (I didn't want to part with my coins either. I had a one peso coin, but if I would have given it up I wouldn't have had any coins to take the bus, and that's the only way to pay. coins only)

3 buses past me. i just kept standing there trying to figure out why. the fourth one stopped, i think because someone put up their hand up to wave the driver down. My driver pimped out his bus. He had some fringe going on in the inside of the windshield, a custom floor where he sat and some bling contact paper around his speedometer and other controls, he was just missing the bobbing head Chihuahua.

^(photo above: the coin machine on the bus that only accepts coins. The driver can't give change)

I'm very good at getting lost so I was prepared to take a tour of the city. I kept paying attention to the street signs out the window, which are on the side of buildings (most of the time). I was pretty sure we were at my stop so I asked the driver and I was correct. Wow! what a surprise, I can find my way without a GPS.

Now I'm just working on packing. Things don't fit the same and I didn't even buy anything new here, besides my flower for my hair. Maybe I'll leave some packing for tomorrow morning

I'm not sure if the hotel has wi-fi, so I don't know when I'll post again. Tomorrow I leave the host family's house at 11ish. I'll move into my apartment on Tuesday at 4. For the next few days I'd like to finally be a tourist and go sight-seeing.

Besos from Sunny Buenos Aires
(Besos = kisses)