Sun!

Since today was the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere and it's their shortest day of the year, the sun doesn't come up until around 8am and it's just after 6pm now and it's already dark outside.  I am definitely missing my Seattle summer and super long days, but today it was beautiful and sunny.  Ana was so cute, she said "Here in Argentina we don't have much to brag about - the economy is terrible, the government is terrible - so our weather, we always talk about our good weather!"

Everyone here is sooo nice, people greet each other with kisses on the cheek.  Today we went to a lunch at the university, it was kind of a farewell for Melissa and the other exchange students that are finishing up their semester.  There were students from Brazil and Columbia and France and England and America, it was pretty cool.  Some of the students had a band and played some ccr and the police, there's something really comforting about hearing american music in a foreign country.  When I told the singer that he did a good job singing american songs, I found out that he spoke English, and when I said I was from Seattle the first thing he said was, "Oh, Jimmi Hendrix!  Pearl Jam!  Kurt Cobain!"  The campus is pretty small, I think there are 4 large buildings, but that's actually a really good thing because I can't imagine going to a university as large as UW in another country.  Speaking spanish is going pretty well, my first thought when I woke up this morning was "I have to speak Spanish today... all. day. long."  I had to look up the word for "spoon" (cuchara) before I went down to breakfast because I could not remember it for the life of me.  It's so fun talking with Ana and Melissa; Melissa speaks castellano with a french accent, and I speak castellano with an english accent, and we're always comparing how words match up. 

I bought a monthly pass for the train, at $24 USD it's a really good deal because el Tren de la Costa that goes by the university is more of a tourist train and costs $3 for individual trips, although the train that goes downtown is only 82 centavos (less than 30 cents).  The station at Maipú, which is 3 blocks from the house, is the connecting point for the two trains, which is really convenient.  And Ana said that taxis are really cheap, which is good because I don't think there are any trains that run past midnight.

Daniel is watching TV and I just heard "GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAALLL!" from the other room.  If you're surfing channels, 4 or 5 in a row will have soccer games.  I think we're going shopping around Olivos tonight.  Buenos Aires is so huge - I haven't even been downtown, but even in the outskirts along the river the stores and theaters and restaurants and neighborhoods just go on and on and on.  

I've hardly taken any pictures, but here's one of my room.