It was so hard to fall asleep last night/this morning because I was still in shock of being here. My first moments in Argentina weren't as shocking as when I first arrived in El Salvador last year, but just knowing that I'll be living here for 6 months is incredible. I don't think I broke a smile during the 30 min. car ride from the airport to my apartment. After my 24 hours of traveling, I'm a little bit exhausted, very overwhelmed (in a great way) by my new reality, and so ready to be here. I slept about 5 hours last night, but immediately jumped out of bed when I woke up and got ready in 10 minutes (See Mom, I can get out of bed and get dressed pretty easily). My roommates seem great and I look forward to getting to know them. I'm also excited for my pre-intensive Spanish course to start on Monday. But for now, I'm just going to try and take in as much as possible. I posted a picture that I took from my balcony. I live on the 10th/top floor so my view es muy lindo. I posted below a great excerpt from John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley that I've been using as my mantra (Sorry, I couldn't go without quoting a book). Okay that's all I have for now, time to unpack and do something. "Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process; a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like a marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it."
-John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley
