que se yo

well, it has been a week since I left my lovely Estonia. It has also been a week since I wore socks or anything with long sleeves, which for February can be considered as quite an achievement.
My main thing here in Buenos Aires has been trying to get used to the weather, taking showers 3 or more times a day and speaking speaking speaking Spanish or... castellano (pronounce kasteshano).

After a veeeery long and boring flight (and no I did not meet any cute guys on the plane) I finally landed in Buenos Aires at midnight. In my mind I had already accepted the fact that I will either have to spend the following days wearing the same clothes and lose the Vana Tallinn and Viru Valge I brought for my friends, or just spend loads of money to buy new things. To my surprise I saw my dear new suitcase on the luggage line. It had an orange sticker of Estonian Air saying "heavy" (through some miracle I managed to convince the check-in woman that I can fly with 31 kg instead of 20 without paying for the extra) but who cares! My suitcase was there and all the things were fine!

So my next concern was if someone would really be there to pick me up. And yes! My friend Martin was there to take me to my other friend's house. Getting out of the airport was a bit of a shock for me since I was welcomed by a big wave of hot sticky air, and yes it was already past midnight! Then I realized I have to do some major acclimatizing.

The trip from the airport to Beto's house in Villa del Parque neighbourhood took, well I think around 1,5 hours because Martin is not really from the capital and he had not been around this area too much. And well, I would say that I think even if I live in Buenos Aires for 20 years I would still be able to get lost without any major problem :) This place is really not small :)
Looking for Beto's street we had to ask for the road from... 1) a few drunk people on the street corner 2) some old people 3) POLICE! And you can guess who finally gave us the right directions :)

It was 100% pure joy to see "mi hermano" Beto, althought I thought to myself that he must be already very sick and tired of me because there is always some problem related to my trips :D So the first three days I lived with the family of Beto. His mom is incredibly friendly and at times I really felt bad for being such a freeloader :D

The heat of the first days was really horrible, on Wednesday the temperature reached 37 and it is bloooody humid here so the air conditioning (aka AC) has really been one of my best friends here :D One night I put it to 16 degrees and when Beto entered the room in the morning, he was sure he saw some snowflakes flying around. But I guess they understand me, I am from the north, eh :D

Being here now is very different from what was the first time. Then I had this "wooooooow, I'm in Buenos Aires" excitement. Now I'm here with the feeling of "ahh, I'm here, I'm supposed to be here". The streets are still a bit dirty and the people are still extremely friendly (especially the taxi drivers and the kiosk salespersons who always ask for my number when I buy credit for the mobile phone or call me muneca (the doll)... one of the joys of having blue eyes).

One thing is different tho, I have been practicing spanish since day one. Due to the fact that Beto's mom doesnt speak English I had to start immediately. I have to admit, it is an effort, and sometimes at night I switch on the TV and put on a channel with English, because my brain is soooooo tired. But I think I am doing pretty well, although some people say I speak like a Spanish person and some friends still dont believe that i understand spanish =) But I do, even if it means that I have to ask some of my friends to speak VEEEEEEEEEERY SLOOOOOWLY as if I was a kid =) It has only been a week, so it will come. Considering that Jaago (for those who don't know, he is an Estonian who has lived here since November) who before coming here didnt speak anything is now able to speak really well, I think I will be allright =)

A very important part for settling in has been getting Argentinean phone number. And OH MY GOD. I think I have just called once. Here the cool thing is to send messages. I have some friends who can send messages for free, so I think.... I have received ca 200 messages and sent 100 in just one week. I am thinking that it is just because I am new here and everyone wants to be in contact with the new thingy, right? :D But its cool, makes you feel more welcomed and less alone :)

What else have I done? Ah! been out! Well, I haven't managed to go to a boliche (disco) yet. So far we have only been to bars. But it has been really loads of fun. One thing that I have to get used to is that going out at 2 am is a totally normal thing. So in order not to be dead (con cara de muerto) I have started to take siestas in the afternoon :D I have been drinking also one of the most popular drinks here Fernet con coca. For those of you who haven't tried it.... it tastes a bit like Jägermeister but is way more medicine-tasting :D And at first I really didn't like it, but it sort of grows on you... especially if people keep buying it for you and you cannot really say no :

Right now I am in my hotel, where I will stay until Friday. It is sort of like an apartment hotel because I have a living room and a kitchen too. And its quite nice. It even has wifi! Although it took me 3 days to get connected because the stupid woman in the reception didn't tell me that the password letters are in CAPS.

If you have any questions, please write :D I promise to write more often now :)

besos