I arrived in BA on Sunday and it already feels like I've been here a week. When we got to the airport on Sunday, we easily got our luggage and passed through customs. A taxi took us on about a 20 minute ride to the student residence in the Congresso district of Buenos Aires. When we were passing through the outskirts of the city, we noticed the poor conditions of many homes - stacked houses that were falling apart, called the slums. Little did we know that this was where we would be volunteering. On Sunday when we arrived we were shown around by the "mother" of the residence named Rosie. She doesn't speak a word of English, so I am still pretty confused about any instructions she gave me. She showed me to a room on the corner of the building - one of the largest rooms. I took a short nap and then went out to explore the city. We found a Parisian cafe where we ordered a pepperoni pizza Argentinian style. Afterwards we walked around the city, trying to get to know our surroundings better. We saw enough of the city and went back for another nap - everyone seems to sleep a lot here. Sunday night we went out for appetizers and explored different parts of the city. On Monday we went to the GIC office to find out our assignment because we had no clue what we were doing. We found out we were going to be working in the slums, and were told to come back for an interview the next day. We met some other kids from GIC - from America, Poland, Ireland, and England. After lunch, we sort of wandered around and then went back to our residence. We went out to dinner with two guys from Poland and then went to a venue where a band from England was playing. There were about 100 people - mostly foreigners. It was definately a unique crowd, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Today we're going for our interview with the program we're volunteering with L.I.F.E. This was a lot to write - but there's so much to say about BA.
XOXO
