Bienvenido a B.B.A.A.

I landed this morning at about 8am local time after spending the night in what must be American Airlines´ oldest 767. I got really lucky in that the seat next to me was empty, so I had two whole seats to myself (which is really more like having one and a half seats, but whatever), and was able to get some sleep, sort of. I´m not sure if it was my being nervous about coming to Argentina, alone, without being particularly proficient in Spanish, or the general stressfulness of the last couple of weeks, or the fact that I kept contorting myself in pretzel shapes to try and take advantage of the extra seat without accidentally hitting the flight attendant call button, but I kept having really vivid, strange dreams. (Normally I can sleep like a log on planes.)

By the time the plane landed I was in full freak out mode. "What if immigration decides to grill me? I´m not sure I even know the reason for my visit!" and the old standby ¨What the f&%$ am I doing?¨ Fortunately, sitting in the back of the plane gave me plenty of time to calm down while waiting to deplane, and waiting some more to go through immigration, where the agent took a look at my passport, stamped it and sent me on my way without batting an eye. I collected my baggage and found the car that L., my host mom, had arranged for me.

On the way in, looking at the trees, plants and birds alongside the highway it really began to dawn on me that I really had flown half a world away. Traffic was terrible, due to a subway strike, but the driver held forth on the history, culture and current events in Buenos Aires, and I definitely was able to follow at least half of what he was saying. L. met me at her apartment, which is an absolutely gorgeous turn of the century building with high ceilings, tall windows and doors, and a patio courtyard. I also met L.´s two sons, who are both university students, and also the family dog. (Yay! Dog!) For the near future, I may well end up staying here.

I spent the afternoon wandering around the neighborhood and window shopping. It really doesn´t feel all that cold here (it´s late fall now, like November back in the U.S.), but people were pretty bundled up, and the shop windows are showing coats, hats, scarves and gloves on the mannequins. It feels really weird to purposefully go from warm weather (I think it was like 90 degrees in Chicago right before I left) to cold weather. Then again, this will be the second time I´ve ¨skipped¨ summer (the first being the summer I spent in Alaska). On the plus side, I can stock up on fall clothes early, as it´s not like Boston doesn´t have its fair share of cold weather!