I knew that by choosing to put myself in an unknown country, unknown culture, and sometimes what appears to be a very unknown language, that I was signing up for the most exciting, wonderful, and scary roller coaster that exists. Whoever thought that six flags could come out with that...they are wrong. Just try moving by yourself to a different continent and try to start a life there. When everything is a challenge, trying to buy food, use the clothes washer, navigate public transit....it can be very draining.
I have been here a little over one week now, and I have had some great moments of emotion overcome me when I am just bursting with joy, knowing that this was the right decision to come here, and at times have returned back to my room, thinking, "What have I done?", and lamenting the fact that I won't be seeing American supermarkets, the availability of fresh milk, and juice containers that are larger than 1 liter, until December 21, which at times seems so far away.
Thankfully, that first wave of major anxiety has left me, and now, with all of my energy and drive to fill up my time, I have found too many activities and am realizing that before I know it, my my time will be up here...and then I'll be in a supermarket somewhere in the US, with my 2 gallons of fresh milk, ingredients for a salad, and lots and lots of orange juice in my shopping cart, while simultaneously lamenting everything that Buenos Aires had to offer, and all that I soaked up and learned to love when I was here.
Currently I am signed up for an intensive Spanish course (5days/wk 3hrs/day), which has such wonderful people in it. I am also taking an Italian class at the same university for languages, with all Argentinians! I am taking tango lessons 3x/week, and about to go to my first milonga tonight! I am signed up for a set of orientation classes for aspiring translators with the Colegio de traductores publicos de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. On top of that, while there was more I wanted to sign up for, and probably will soon...there are numerous concerts, plays, dance performances, and cultural events that I have the opportunity to attend with my new found friends...it also may occasionally include yoga and kick boxing classes (with this air pollution, I am very sad, but will definitely NOT be trying to run while I am here)....and while I will not be signing up for that chocolate class, because 12 Friday evenings is just too many...when I don't have many more Fridays than that here....there is so much to do in this city and I feel so fortunate to have landed here.
While I know I will have more lows, when I miss things very dear to me from home, I also know that I have already started to create the groundwork to keep having many great learning opportunities....I finally feel fully submerged in this porteña experience, and confident in myself that I can do it and can create a wonderful experience here.
