January 01, 2007

Hi all. I’m sitting on my bed in a forth-floor apartment in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the first day of 2007. It’s 35.3 degrees but feels like 41. That’s celcius. It’s 95.6 degrees farenheight here, and it feels like 105.8. So says the television, although I haven’t actually gone outside today.That’s been the hardest thing to get used to, really – the fact that Buenos Aires in the summer gives a new meaning to the words “night life.” Parties get started at 3, people start thinking about going out at 2, and they may be out ’till 8. Compounded with language, culture and travel fatigue – not to mention a sore throat (something about humidity and plane flights?) and you have the explanation for me sleeping 10 hours or more a day. (sigh).

but on to better and more interesting things:
The family i’m staying with is composed of four people – the two parents, and then J and C, their sons, who are two and one year(s) older than i am, respectively. Everyone’s been very kind and understanding, as has the 92-year-old grandmother, and the rottweiler (Floyd, as in Pink Floyd – C says it’s a “sentimental” name). The apartment is beautiful, hardwood floors and high ceilings, and is in the downtown of one of the better suburbs, meaning it’s at the center of everything. The mother speaks no english at all, but is easily understandable, and so we get along famously. The sons both have a great deal of English, and so C and I have this thing going where he speaks english to me and I speak spanish back — although we do seem to speak a lot of english right now. J almost never speaks in english and i have a hard time understanding his spanish – he says (in spanish) that it’s better for me to hear spanish all the time, and in any case, when i can understand him, i’ll understand everyone.

Today, day 3, i followed about 80% of a TV program. The language is coming to me in leaps and bounds, comprehension first. I’m learning, though – here’s a few things I now know about navigating in a second language:
– Ask people to slow down, or to repeat themselves.
– Reherse conversations in my head – if i’m going to talk about something i did today, i take time while showering or sitting, or whatever, to run over the sentences in my head. Same with talking to servers at a restaurant, someone at a deli counter, whatever. Think, then speak. Otherwise i find myself standing at a counter, and i open my mouth expecting meaning to come out… and it’s gibberish. Fun and games.

In any case, it strikes me that i’m going on a bit, now, so i’ll write more later. Do send me an email if you’re reading this, as I’d love to know who’s following my trip :)

All the best

LN