The Adventures of 2 Yankis Part III

I started my pre-intensive Spanish class on Monday. I have it four hours a day (9-1:30 w/ a 30 min break), Monday to Friday until the end of February. My professor, Raquel, is such a nice lady. She only talks to us in Spanish, which is making it so much easier for me to understand people when I leave the classroom. The grammar and content of the course is really easy, but it's a great review for me. It's also more than just learning how to speak Spanish, we learned how to make yerba mate (a traditional drink here), we went to the mercado to learn the names of fruits and vegetables and the best ways to cook them, and just great tidbits and stories about Argentinian culture. Walking through the butcher markets with whole pigs, skinned sheep, and whole pieces of cows is a good way to check whether or not your gag reflexes work well. On Sunday, Patrick and I went to mass at the Cathedral. It was so cool inside! Here, there's a church probably every 3 blocks. But they're not normal churches. They are all so elaborate and ornate. The mass was a bit conservative (no premarital relations!!), as was expected in a Latin American Catholic Church. I think I'll only be returning to admire the work of the slaves (we overheard a tour and the guy said all the churches were built by slaves, go figure). Another thing to be careful of is the driving. I'd say that only about 1% of the drivers would pass drivers ed. in the U.S. Instead of slowing down when people cross the street in front of an incoming car, the drivers wave their fists, shout, and speed up significantly. I was definitely a witness of this. Also, some girls in my class witnessed a guy getting hit by a motorcycle. But I'll be fine, don't you worry.

Okay I think that's enough for now. I need to start getting ready for tonight, it's going to be pretty big. We're having a fiesta in our apartment, with some Brazilian, French, and American friends and then we're going to a club. The night life here is very difficult to adjust to. People don't eat dinner until, at the very earliest, 9PM, and then they don't go out until 1 AM. Good thing for siestas. I'll have another blog coming soon. Maybe Sunday, because I'm supposed to watch the Superbowl with Patrick and some American girls in my class, but I don't know if that's going to happen because if I can barely stand watching it in the U.S., I highly doubt it's possible for me to watch it here. Oh well. Okay, nos vemos muy pronto! Chau and les extraño mucho mucho!