Todo Mundo y el Primer Dia de Escuela

Last night I met up with my Argentine friend Ivanna and went with her, her roommate Ryan, and friend Mareni to this reggae club called Todo Mundo. To get to her house, I took the colectivo (bus), which was great! I like it better than the subte because it takes you directly and you can see the city while you ride in the bus. Anyway, I met up with Ivanna and I think she was getting annoyed that I don't know the city well enough. She told me I need to sit down and read a map because its really easy. She is right though! The city is really condensed but its just like San Francisco, all one way streets which makes it easier to know how the buses come and go. Anyway, so we met up and went, free of cost to get in (bonus!) and a cab ride split amongst four people, very very cheap. It was fantastic, we shared a pitcher of Sangria which was $40 pesos so about $12 pesos per person which is like $3 USD. What a nice price for wine! The alcoholic drinks like mojitos and rum and coke are about the same price as in the US, so to find something to have while watching a great band that was this reasonable, was great for me. Anyway, we watched the band and then shared a cab ride to Ivanna's pad, where we sat around chatting until about 3 am. I didn't know how staying at someone's house late at night on a Sunday works here in Argentina so I told them I didn't want to warm out my welcome. This is where they explained to me that Argentines stay up late chatting and never will kick anyone out and besides they wanted me to stay. Ivanna's friend Mareni is very sweet and when I couldn't stay up any longer, she walked me out. I like hanging out with them because they speak both Spanish and English, so if I don't know how to say something in Spanish, they will help me out. But we never speak English more than that! So its a great tool. We're going to a kareoke bar on Thursday night because Ivanna is a singer of a Tango band, she loves music. Friday we going to see her profesor perform in a play as well. Anyway, so I got home around 330 and fell asleep around 4, so obviously I slept in late. It didn't matter because I had class today at 5pm hehe, I walked to school, which I noticed all the walking is making my legs super sore but more in shape. I love it but I do notice myself getting really tired at night for all the walking. Anyway, I got to school and went to the student store to buy some notebooks from my reggae rasta friend Jonas. One day, me, him, and Nicole are going to go to a reggae club. Anyway, after I had him help me out with the colectivos (buses) I left and waited for my class to start. The class I took today was Argentine and Latin American Literature of the 19th Century. Such a mouthful! The teacher is really really sweet, young, and funny. She read us the syllabus and I noticed that we are going to read books that I already read in my literature classes in Sacramento with Senor Blanc, my profesor from Argentina. We had to fill out a paper with our name, why we chose Argentina, and Latin American authors we had read. She noticed I put quite a few and asked me when and where and why and all that jazz. I told her about my Argentine professor and she smiled and asked his name. I understood everything she said, which is great, and I know being in the classroom and having lectures all in Spanish (5 classes!) always improves my Spanish 100%. Anyway, I met a girl from San Diego and Denmark, they both seemed really interested in Literature and focused on school, not just into partying and drinking and meeting boys. So I got their emails and added them on facebook. It would be nice to make friends that want to travel around and read about the history and so on. So I took the colectivo home, which was really easy, and then went to kickboxing. When I got home, Cristian and Tito had a lovely dinner prepared and I gobbled it up because I was soooooooo hungry from my long day. Before I had way to much time on my hands, today I felt like I barely had time to eat. So, that's a good change for me because I hate being bored. Anyway, I have Tango tomorrow and Argentine Traditions and Culture, its my longest day of school 4 hrs. Every other day is only 2 hours. I'm really excited, now I can see why they say one semester isn't enough time, with school the day goes by so much faster! So a lot happened last night and today as you can see from my long post. I'm really happy now and starting to immerse myself into the population and culture a little more. I'm going to help Cristian with his English, he has a test on Wednesday. Chau chau!
Rachel