Correo Argentina, la puta que te parió

It has been too long since my last update, I apologize. I've been pretty busy, which is great news of course. I'll try to break this into sections.
Au Pair Stuff
I started working as an au pair for a family with 3 kids: Ana (10), Jose/Pepe - he goes by both -(12), and Juan (15). Obviously, these kids are a little old for a nanny, which means I basically am more of a friend slash teacher. I hang out with them, speak English, try to force them to speak English. Most of my days involve teaching Ana or Jose how to bake something and every day involves me eating a lot of the delicious groceries that are too fancy for my budget. Today, Ana wanted to show me off to her friends so I came over early and jumped on the trampoline with them. Jose loves music, so I'm making him a mixed CD that will stay far away from "I gotta feeling". Jose loves that song yet, inexplicably, cannot remember the days of the week in English even when I sing that part of the song to him. Juan is reading 1984 for class, which I somehow eluded in high school so I'm looking for a copy so I can read it with him. Overall, the family is awesome. They are going on vacation for 2 weeks, though, so I will be bored and have to buy a lot more of my own groceries. Ana gave me several hugs today, which sounds like no big deal, but because everyone kisses on the cheek to say hello/goodbye, there is minimal hugging. I truly miss hugs, so Ana made my day.

American Forum
I work as a private English teacher that businesses hire to teach their employees. I don't have any classes, just 2 private students. I like one of them, a 24 year old from IBM. I basically just help him with business emails and phone calls. Adrian, on the other hand, is not so easy. He is 30, boring, and hates basically all the best classroom activities such as reading aloud, practicing conversations, and watching videos. He will be difficult to design lesson plans for. The company seems pretty unorganized and I don't get paid well, but it's something. There are also immersion weeks that involve students taking intensive classes all day for a week straight. I get to pick up shifts during those weeks. Luckily the 2nd week of my family's vacation there is an immersion student so I'll at least have a little extra work.

Correo Argentino
The mail system here makes no sense. I went through hell to get the packages I was sent. On Wednesday the 7th I got a notice saying I had missed 2 packages from my mom. I had zero time to go the next day and Friday was a national holiday. The notice said to go to the Pueyrredon office in the next 10 days. I went on Saturday and had to ask someone what the hell was going on with all the different lines. Once I figured it out, I waited an hour. I was pumped when I got to the window, ready for my packages, but instead I was handed another piece of paper and told I'd have to go to Retiro (a different part of town) to get them, but of course not til Monday because they were no closed.
So, Monday I go to Retiro, to what I believe is the only Retiro post office. I was outside when they opened, ready to go. Once I get to the window, she informs me there is another post office several blocks away and that is where I need to go. So, I walk for 20 minutes until I find it and in that 20 minutes 103 people had taken a number. I sat and waited. I realized I had forgotten my passport but I did have a photocopy of it and a drivers license. I assumed this would work. After over an hour and a half of waiting, I discovered I was wrong. I left with nothing.
Monday night, I came home and had another missed package. It also said to go to Pueyrredon. I figured I'd save myself the trouble and just go to Pueyrredon first then get all 3 packages at Retiro. I went on Tuesday in between jobs and, to my great surprise, was handed a package! It was from Abby and I hugged it so tight the entire way home. It was this awesome wine opener set and a funny card. It was awesome!
However, no matter how uplifting that experience was, it could not erase the pain of Retiro. Yesterday, Wednesday, I showed up at Retiro as it opened. This time 66 people were in front of me. I had my passport and I sat down, ready to wait. Waiting is exactly what I did, for a little over an hour. Once I got to the window, I was given some little stubs with numbers on them and told to (you guessed it) wait in the next room. In the next room there is one terrible speaker that crackles and squeaks every time some incomprehensible man gets on a microphone in the back and rattles about 20 6 digit numbers off in a row. No one could understand him. Eventually, a woman with normal dictation skills took over. I waited another hour waiting for them to call my numbers. Once I got there, the employee was, of course, fascinated by my last name. (For those of you who don't know, the president's last name is Kirchner- spelled exactly the same and not at all common. I cannot present my ID without getting asked "en serio? Kirchner?"). He asked me if I knew what was inside my packages, which was a useless question because he was getting out a knife to rip them open anyway. Once he taped them back up I put one in my suitcase I had with me and the other some nice guy helped me tie to the top of my suitcase. My suitcase then weighed well over 10 kilos (22 pounds). I had to drag said suitcase, running, to the train station to try and get to work on time, then walk 15 blocks with it to my family's house. It was worth it because there was peanut butter and, for some unknown reason, some airheads. I gave most of the airheads to Ana and Jose, who were obsessed with them.

Big City Life
Buenos Aires is such a weird, awesome city. It's the New York of South America, but with way nicer people. If you need directions, you can basically any anyone on the street. Not only will they stop to listen to you, they will give you detailed instructions, suggest buses and/or subway lines you can take. If they don't know, they will always direct you to someone who does. Bus drivers are also incredibly helpful. When a bus stops you can just walk up and ask if they are going where you need to go and the driver will gladly explain. It's a lovely thing for someone like me, who second guesses everything when it comes to directions. However, there were 2 terrible days last week that everything went wrong.

I have not been wholeheartedly upset since the day after I arrived. Of course, I have missed my friends and little things and had some sad moments, but overall, this move has shown to be the best decision I have ever made. It is for this reason I was so confused when, while waiting for my bus, I suddenly became overwhelmed with all the bad stuff that happened before I left, and was overcome with grief. I was standing alone in the cold, completely distraught, so distraught that I did not see my totally unreliable bus approaching. When I saw it, I started to flag him down (in Argentina buses only stop if you flag them down) but he didn't stop. Knowing that if I missed this bus, I'd be waiting for a very long time, I did not hesitate to start sprinting after it, waving my arms. I followed him for a couple blocks and lost him. I really had no choice but to walk back to the bus stop and wait for another hour.
This little ordeal began mt 2 day stretch of meeting all the big city douchebags I had avoided up until this point. Angry postal workers, unhelpful and unfriendly street people, and worst of all, incredibly rude bus drivers. The day after this happened was when I went to Retiro without my passport. Lots of angry, rude people! I was so rushed after the long wait I had to take a train to San Isidro (where I work, an hour ride outside of the city). The train is easy and I was right next to the station, so this should have been fine, but I had no idea how to get to my family's house from the station because I always go by bus. I called Jorge to look a bus up for me. I was so disoriented I didn't know which side of the road to stand on to catch the bus. Usually you can ask anyone around the area and they know, but of the 8-10 people I asked, no one could/would help me. So, I picked a side and waved down some buses to ask them. Again, this is done all the time so I was extra pissed when several drivers slammed their doors in my faces when I asked which direction they were going.


A visit from the US!
A week and a half ago I saw my friend Kadhir's status update said he was coming to Buenos Aires. I, of course, was incredibly excited. He studied abroad here a couple years ago and is just back for a vacation but I like to pretend he is my visitor. I had not seen Kadhir in a couple years and he was HERE in my city! Last Wednesday we went out for drinks and stayed out til about 4am even though I had to work at 8 and we have pretty much done that every night since. I can't help it, a friend from the US is here and I just want to soak it all up. He leaves on Saturday and I will go back semi-normal sleep schedules and be sad.


Basically, life here is still going really well. While I am sick of being portrayed as a "survivor" or some super independent girl who can make it through anything, I know that's who I am and it won't be changing. I'm proud and happy to be here, I just have to overlook some of the things that put me on this path in the first place. I'm getting really used to this place, it feels like home. I need some more work and I want to hang out with more locals, but I'm sure that will happen soon. Even though Kadhir and also my friend Amina (who has lived here for a couple years but is moving back to the States) are both leaving on Saturday, I still have plenty of my au pair friends who I love and of course Jorge, the most popular Colombian after Shakira, to keep me busy.

I know I have totally slacked on updates but I promise I'll keep up on this better. Please email me about your lives because I want to know about you too!