Cómo se dice, "homesick"?

I've never been homesick before.  Not when I went to college for the first time, and not when I lived in San Francisco by myself this summer.  Of course I occasionally missed home/Pomona and people in both places, but nothing I would characterize as "homesick."  In fact, I never really knew what that meant.  Well now I do.  Homesickness is when everything about a new place makes you irrationally irritated and several times a day you find yourself wishing you could just go back.  But I can't go back, at least not until December, so I'll deal with it and hopefully regain my positive outlook on my time in Buenos Aires.  In case you're wondering, here are some things that annoyed me on a recent afternoon:

1) Why is it winter here? I don't care about science and how the Earth's spherical shape creates hemispheres with opposite seasons, it's JULY, dammit, and it shouldn't be 8 degrees Celsius!

2) WHO UNDERSTANDS CELSIUS?! NOT ME.  All I know is that 8 degrees Celsius is real cold.

3) Why am I always lost? Yeah, I eventually find my way home, but sometimes it takes 10 minutes of standing on a corner deciphering my bus guide and 15 minutes walking to the stop for the bus that I thought was closest but almost certainly wasn't.  And then 10 minutes waiting for the bus, all in 8 degree Celsius weather! (FYI, 8 degrees Celsius is somewhere around 45 degrees Fahrenheit)

4) Where is the American food?  Yeah, the food here is mostly delicious.  But it's ALL THE SAME.  Seriously, half of my meals have been pizza or empanadas, or some combination thereof.  I just want some vegetables, yo! I'm pretty sure my body hates me for the lack of nutrients it has been getting lately.  Out of frustration I had a PB&J (PB and J both brought from home) and a glass of milk for lunch a few days ago, although the taste of the bread kind of overpowered everything else.  You see, my host family makes their own bread, but it doesn't especially taste good (I'm hoping that the blandness indicates some sort of nutritional value... maybe?)

5) Why does everyone speak Spanish all the time? Seriously, this is getting old.

6) On the real, I haven't been exercising much (it's hard to find a gym that I like, okay!), but after a day of trying to understand a foreign language nonstop, I'm completely exhausted.

Part of the problem might be that I've sorta been a bum the last week.  Orientation is over now, so I don't have much motivation to leave my bed.  I hate to admit this, but I spend over half of the day in my room sleeping or on the Internet.  Last night I fell asleep at 10pm, woke up at midnight to brush my teeth and change my clothes, then slept until 11am this morning.  But this is also a bit of a chicken-and-egg dilemma; I don't leave my house because I don't know what to do once I leave my house, but I don't know what there is to do here because I haven't left my house.  I'm blaming it on the weather, which is additional incentive to hermitize.

I know that everything will be better in a few weeks, after I start classes, become more familiar with the city, the culture, and the language, and hopefully make a few friends.  To do this, I'm planning to join an ultimate frisbee team here.  We'll see how that goes, because most of the Argentines with whom I've talked about ultimate have no clue what it is.  But since ultimate will be only once a week, I might also join a fútbol team, though I haven't played soccer since I was 8.

In other news, I finally chose some classes.  Ultimately I will only need to take 3 classes (or 2 if I end up getting an internship), but for now I'm enrolled in 4.  They are:

Argentina Reciente II (1983-1999) - Recent political history of Argentina
Historia Latinoamericana 
Capitalismo, socialismo, y revolución social contemporánea
Análisis Político: Conflicto y Cooperación en Latinoamérica


As you can tell, I'm eager to learn about the history, politics, and social dynamics of this country and Latin America in general. I'm sure I will learn a ton, but I'm also sure that there is no way I will keep up to date with 100% of my schoolwork, at least while I'm in 4 classes.  The double-whammy of having to learn in a foreign language of which I currently only have a basic grasp and the desire to enjoy my time in a new city ensures that I will probably spend most of the first months barely hanging on.  But that's the point of study abroad, right?

The kids returned yesterday from their weeklong winter vacation to their grandma's house.  It's nice to have them back, because I have two little monsters with whom I can pretend to be dragons.  They still don't know/can't pronounce my name, but I'm hoping we'll get there soon.  Moira explained to me today that it's my fault, because my name is hard to pronounce, while hers is easy.  I think she's pretty close to getting it, though; today she called me something along the lines of Rum.

It's cat mating season, as my host mom informed me.  My window faces several rooftops where cats like to chill after dark.  Not much else to say about that.

A cat chillaxin' in Cementerio Recoleta

There are also tons of cats that live in el Cementerio Recoleta, a cemetery where famous Argentines, ex-presidents, and military heroes are buried.  Well not so much buried... The cemetery is filled with beautiful tiny buildings made of marble, inside of which the caskets are located, with glass windows for viewing.  It's a bit disconcerting to walk past and actually see the casket which presumably has a dead body inside (or whatever remains of the body).  The cats just roam around in the cemetery, and it's on the whole a very bizarre experience.

So when we got here the program paired everyone up with a tutor.  Surely they explained their purpose, but I was either not listening or just not understanding Spanish.  Anyways, I assumed from his title that Rodrigo would be helping me to figure out my classes.  To my surprise, he scoffed when I asked if he also studied political science at UBA.  "No," he said, "I'm a musician!"  Being thoroughly confused, I resorted to my mode of late: Act like you understand and maybe you will.  Probably not, but maybe.

I eventually learned that my tutor was actually just a young guy that Middlebury pays to be my friend.  The good thing is that it doesn't seem like he's getting paid, but rather he seems to actually enjoy teaching me what young folks do here.  Rodrigo is friends with two other guys' tutores, so on Saturday all six of us when to a party at their friend's apartment.  Being musicians, they have lots of hipster artist friends, and the party felt straight out of a scene from Woody Allen's recent film Midnight in Paris.  There was a girl chain-smoking in corner while painting, and after a period of socializing, a jam session broke out.  Our tutores are fantastic Spanish guitar players, it turns out, and it was an amazing scene to see such incredible talent concentrated in one room.  There were more guitars, bongo drums, and singing, at it was all indescribably beautiful.  These are the kind of Argentine friends I need.

I have no pictures to post this time, because I never have my camera with me.  This is mostly because I'm absent-minded, but also because I'm afraid of getting my camera snatched.  Once I understand better where I will and won't get things stolen, I'll be taking more pictures.  I'm going across the Río de la Plata to Uruguay with some friends from my program for our last few days before school starts.  I promise to have pictures of that adventure next time!

¡Chau, amigos!

PS to those of you who have facebook chatted, emailed, and video chatted me, I appreciate it! Seriously, there is nothing I appreciate more than real friends who understand me.  Keep it up, and if I haven't talked to you yet, let's do so soon.  And although you might think your silly American life isn't exciting compared to mine in a foreign country, know that I still care!  Let me know how you're doing!