Insert heart eyes emoji about Argentina here
Hola Chicos!
Its been a little over 2 weeks since we've been here, and it already feels like we belong. I know people when i walk on the street and can give people directions!! go meeee.
Things here are so different from back at home, and insanely enough i experienced culture shock when we left the city and headed north to the suburbs. (ill get to that in just a min.)
Everyone person that i know (that is in college) has been on spring break these past 2 weeks. I have avoided snap chat through the help of my constantly awful wi-fi connection on my iPhone. Argentina might as well have its on dictionary of words; too many differences to keep up with. For instance: Back home Playa= beach, sand, sea, fun, ya know the rest. Here playa means parking lot..... the other day i saw a sign that said "Playa solo para Abogados. I was pumped (aka life goals).. until i looked down and saw that it was a fenced in concrete parking lot ... Spring break fever ruined.
Back to the cultures shock. Luckily enough, we live in el centro (basically like the downtown area) so everything is centrally located and an easy max 20 min walk away. Yesterday was the first time we had to take a bus. we were nervous but we managed, it went so smoothly it was almost too good to be true. Ben, a guy on the Maryville College Men's Soccer team, came to Cordoba last spring and he put me in touch with one of his friends he made at his school. His school is in the north of Cordoba, a 30 min bus ride away from el centro. This part of town is basically the suburbs and the exact opposite of the cities infamous apartments and tall buildings. Ben's friend, Fede, Invited me to a Soccer game that him and his friends/ intercambio group were going to. I brought Alison with me and we explored the dark side.
The game was awesome experience! The fans were crazy, loud, constantly screaming the words to the songs, and throwing paper confetti in the air. This is the only picture I have from the game because we couldn't bring our purses in and I left my iPhone at home. It was a little sketchy, but still an awesome time!
Now for more soccer! I'm not sure what I was thinking when packing, but I left all my soccer stuff at home.. no cleats.. no indoor shoes.. nothing... so this week I have been on the hunt for some cleats and I finally got a pair! I signed up to play with my university's team, and yesterday was the first practice. Practice was at 8:30pm at the main campus, which is about 20 min away, but an hour by bus due to all the stops. I brought my roommate Paula with me, and we waited at the bus stop for over 30 min... no bus. the bus didn't come to our stop because their was a protest going on in the center, by the shopping mall. I was crying on the inside because i Already missed my first class today. ( i thought it was offered at 8,9,10.. wrong it's from 8-11) Paula flagged down a taxi and we rode to campus. it cost us like 80 pesos but whatever we got there.
The "fields"- i say it like that because the fields are just as good as the Scotland yard below our field... Where you at Bermuda Grass?! Anyways... the first 5 min were a little shaky and they had me play outside mid.. uhhhhhh.... I didn't know how to say no.. can i just play forward so I dealt with it. Towards the middle/end of practice i was typical Monica running around every where doing my thing, and the girls on the other team were like DO NOT GIVE THE BALL TO MONICA!! they like me... i think lol.
This morning, the repair man came to bring back our washing machine that we have been missing for over a week, and i thought that was all the ruckus going on. Nope, another manifestation (protest) right out side of our house at like 10am!!
Argentina is a wild place!!
Until next time,
Mòni (that's what everyone calls me here, nicknames are a thing)
