Days 4-6

Hola!
I am writing from a computer lab at the UBP, my school for the next five months. This keyboard is horible. Well, not horible except for the fact that I can´t use it. But alas, I can finally type words like niño and manaña and whatever word you would write with Ç (¿façade?) without searching for the symbol. It really is the little things that count. Anyway, here I am in Argentina. Un poco extraño para mi. Let´s recap. Saturday night I did not ¨salir¨to the ¨bolliche¨but instead went to a birthday party with my family. It was for the 30th of one of the daughters, the one who lives down the street. It was interesante. They held the party at a soccer field in the Centro, the downtown of the city. Her husband runs it for kids. We had tacos with meat that was cooked on what they use for asados-- this big grill thing. Yummm. I was bummed not to go out with my international friends but 1. I wasn´t sure what my mother was asking when she asked for plans for the night; I just nodded and said ¨si¨so she was very excited that I was botching my plans for her party, and thus I was stuck going and 2. It ended up being fun and I stayed up drinking fernet (an Argentine kind of liquor) mixed with Coca-Cola and explaining US customs to Argentines until 6 am!! The young kids were up until at least 3, and one of the sisters in the house went out at 2:30. I don´t know how I´m going to keep this up. Alas, Sunday I slept all morning until lunchtime (at 2) when I ate more deliciousness. For dessert? Fruit salad... with wine poured on it. Alberto, the father, recommended it and it was actually amazing. I had it again at dinner. I did nothing else all day.
Monday, class officially started but we just listened to an informative lecture about academics and grading here and our program, then did Visa paperwork and then took a exam to measure our level of Spanish. Today, we came back to the University, and I found out that I placed at the highest level, so I´ll be with that group until the end of the intensive month of February. I´m not sure how I did it but I´m sort of wishing that I didn´t so that it won´t be as hard. Oh well. Today we learned about the jesuits and then I went and ate empenadas in the school cafeteria. YUM. This afternoon we all have a city tour-- it´s funny; they say ¨city tour¨in English but I can never make it out. the tour is kind of like tur but faster. Anyway, we are taking a double-decker bus. Interesante. It´s also one of the daughters´in my house 25th birthday. Fiesta tonight I think. I don´t know when I will have time to take my siesta or do my homework, but it´s all good.
Two things I´ve learned here: I really do like tomatos, and other food that I would not have had the guts to try at home. and also, I can be anyone I want to be here, and in 5 months I´ll leave and it won´t matter. I lie all the time. on accident. For example, Alberto knows that I am studying language,but when I tried to explain to him that I want to go into editing or publishing, he got literature. So now he tells any visitor that I want to be a teacher. I was going to correct him, but it´s not easy, and I realized that it sort of just doesn´t matter. The next person I meet I´m going to tell that I want to be an astronaut. I´ll see how that fits me. Already, no one believes that as a girl I play rugby. Esta bien. I´ll become a 22-yr-old nureoscientist who swims.

That´s all for now folks! Stay posted, and I´ll try to take more pictures. It´s dangerous to use electronics on the street.