Saturday 8th December - Touch Down in South America!

Ok i´m going to try my best to summarise my first 24 hours in South America/Argentina, it´ll be tough but I think the force is with me!

The flight from Madrid (Spain) to Buenos Aires, (Argentina) was TERRIBLE!!!! Well for everyone else except me that was! As I had checked in 15 hours early for my flight I had the luxury opting for a seat with Leg-Room, thats as good as it gets on Air Iberia I assure you. There was hardly enough room to walk down the aisle, nowhere to put my hand luggage so kept it at my feet (with no seat in front of me) and service...forget it, that is reserved for some other aircraft on some other airway!....oh and I know you´re still wondering why I checked in 15 hours early for my flight, the airport is only 30 minutes from the city, as my flight wasn´t till 1.30am the following morning it seemed pointless to walk round with my pack all day, got the picture? Great. Lets move along...

So I spent the best part of the flight asleep, alternating having my feet either on top of my bag (hand luggage) or directly on the floor, taking off and putting on my eyemask and earplugs after the bi-hourly DVT stretches and wondering if I was imaging it all or was there really no in-flight entertainment?

I arrived into Buenos Aires in the morning, changed funds (currency is pesos, $1NZ = 2 pesos, a 2 scoop, waffle cone icecream costs 3 pesos - its cheap), collected my bag then made my way to the domestic airport (1 hrs drive away) where I checked my bag in to its final destination of Cordoba, but not before passing through customs and being asked where I was from and being told to go straight through! No interrogation, no search no need to go into my lifestory! So lesson for this hour, not only is it handy to have a child or for that matter even be pregnant (as they get through the queues no bother), but it also helps to be from NZ! See, Kiwis - we got it all!!!

Fast forward abit now, am loosing concentration...as are you whoever you are reading this (thanks)

At the domestic terminal unveiled my trusty LPSA (Lonely Planet South America) and hunted me down some local transportation to town, 0.80 pesos & 15 minutes later i´m in Buenos Aires City Centre, armed with a Spanish Phrasebook and enthusiasm to boot! Roamed around the streets searching out the Palace and balcony from where Evita sung her famous ´Don´t cry for me Argentina´ (jealous Marco?), and resisted busting out a re-enactment, found myself back in McDonalds as I was starved (Air Iberia has their passengers on a diet) and marvelled over how the cleaner swept rubbish back into the premises and how folk were queuing up for McInternet Terminals! Hilarious....damn something else I never thought of! So yeah it was fun cruising around, practising some lingo from my trusty phrasebook and dodging the multitude of potholes and rubbish lining Buenos Aires´streets.

Flight to Cordoba was 1 hour, touchdown was amazing I thought I might explode, pretty excited to be at this place i´d spend 7 weeks learning Spanish, hanging with the locals and hoping like hell that what i´d booked over the net was not a swizz! Was there really a language school, did I really have a house to go live in, would someone collect me at the airport??? Fears of course which were put in my head by everyone but me!

No one there to meet me, great! Then I hear this dude calling out Tutti, Tutti to every female he sees, I thought to myself ´hmm, could it be me hes looking for´, shutup BT get on with it. So on we go, my driver collects another fare, love his practicality there! Cordoba is beautiful, much greener and cleaner than Buenos Aires and I cruise along to a gorgeous sunset....Cordoba here I come! My fellow passenger and I sit in silence until we arrive to my destination and she realises I speak no Spanish, to which she asks if I want her number! Sweet, contact no. 1 - she may regret this. Makes me promise to contact her...(she may really regret this), I assure her I will learna da Espanola first then meet my promise. Into my new home where Mimi (mother of the house) greets me as Tutti (this is now my name in the house), shes looking gorgeous and i´m thinking hey I didn´t think it was that exciting I was coming to stay, only to find out her son is getting married in a couple of hours and the Grooms Bridal Party is in attendance....if only i´d known, id´ve brought my best gears! Quick intros and shown to my room then someone comes in to translate for Mimi, are you hungry, are you tired, are you thirsty, do you want a bath, are you hot (asked as one question I might add, with no time for me to respond), meet 3 other students also staying there who are from Brazil also studying Spanish (is essential for their employment in Brazil, they find it bizarre that I would study for fun) then get introduced to Marta, a young girl (no speak-a-da-English) who has been brought in to look after me, (she made me a cuppa tea and heated my dinner then was at my door at 3am when I arose for a pitt stop! Well, thats some care!). Household arose around 1pm the following day, I thought great lets get outside and do something only to find I was sadly mistaken, everyone was tired so would need more rest. I secured my own set of keys and hit the street in search of life, not much going on as it was Sunday and everything was closed, I did however find an icecream shop! Hellaluyah! Was around 5pm by this stage and the streets were coming to life, seen a motorbike with 3 children and 2 adults on it (no helmets), families galore doing the family thing in the park, young boys playing soccer with flat balls, stalls selling crafts, popcorn, hotdogs and cold drinks going up everywhere. Back to base for dinner and listening at the dinner table to all the conversation, and trying despearately to add my 2 cents worth. Mimi has loaded me up with Childrens books, spanish encyclopaedias, maps and verbal language correction! What more could I want from my jaunt of learning Spanish?. Its been a big day, new places, faces and jumbled phrases, am looking forward to tomorrow! First day of Esquela (school).

Ok thats enough for now, infact it may be enough for a very long time...I hope you´re still awake!!

Take care & hasta luego!