Getting the hang of it

I'm slowly but surely figuring things out. I'm not entirely sure why but this city seems hard to me. There's an energy of gotta go gotta go gotta hustle...but that might just be me projecting. It's definitely a work in progress. I feel like this mural I found while out exploring the city

Ready to go. There might be a lot going on around  me but I have the peace of mind to be successful. At least that's how I feel in the moment. I have been getting messages from people who support and love me, which has more of an effect on me than they know and that I even realized it would have. 

In other news, I've been walking around the city quite a bit. Here are some pictures from a recent excursion

                                 

                                                                                              

                       

                                    

                                                                                        

From the top: a monument near the national bank of Argentina, a surprise concert from the municipal police wind band in the botanical garden, a cool alleyway and another concert from the Israeli philharmonic that I actually planned to go to because it was awesome and free. The next up and coming adventures will be my first big test and moving into a hopefully permanent apartment. I feel good things coming. I happened upon this sign on my way back from eating dinner with some new friends:

I'm pretty sure what it says is a good omen: Soon you will enjoy the city more :)

Things have started

Classes and things and stuff. Everything!

I've been walking around the city a lot. Not taking public transportation has the benefits of saving about 10 pesos a day, moving around and seeing a lot of the city.

I've been looking at apartments and trying to find ways to make money (despite being technically prohibited from working) This means that I'm afoot pretty much about 3 or 4 hours a day, including the time that it takes me to walk to school. Everything seems quite difficult now but this is what I wanted. Adventure!

Here is the "Obelisco" which is near my new apartment

I'm also sure that I will look back on this and think the exact same thing that I think now about what I've already accomplished: I don't know how I did it but I did. 

Estoy aqui!

And so my trip began

 finally managed to get everything packed away :)

After a harrowing 25 hours of flying, running to gates, not getting let on to flights, losing things, finding things and barely making it, I finally arrived in Buenos Aires! Everything would be pretty much perfect if I hadn't lost my luggage...and there wasn't this burning pain in what I think is my right lung....

 

Oh well...

My apartment is artsy and awesome and full of interesting people. Most of us are from my program but there are a few new folks.

 It definitely gives me sort of a hostel vibe

I spent today figuring out how to exchange dollars into pesos via the unofficial rate..which entails knowing a guy who knows a guy and then sketchily meeting with him at an agreed upon time/place. This might be questionably legal but it also means I get 2 pesos more per dollar which is a great help, especially where I'm at.

Tomorrow I have a Spanish test and the first meeting of the GSP folks which should be really exciting. There are people coming from the GSP programs at Bologna university in Italy and Freiburg in Germany...it's going to be a pretty diverse group. Looking forward to it :)