Why did I decide to move to Buenos Aires and what will I be doing here?
I had some left-over money from Fulbright and some time before starting the Appalachian Trail (scheduled for July 1) and also lack of fortune in finding a job for the intervening time. My Fulbright friend Julia was planning to move here with Katie, her friend who recently finished the Peace Corps in Peru. Things just started to fall into place and here I am! My plan is to study Spanish, work and/or volunteer and traveling.
Some things that have happened so far
I arrived to find that it was indeed summer and that people speak Spanish- surprise, surprise! Julia and Katie were already here in our grand apartment with high ceilings and balconies in a pleasant part of town. We're subletting rooms here for the first two months. We have American and Argentine flatmates and sometimes it seems like we're living the film, L'Aberge Espanol. One of the Argentines in named Diego and he is in a music school and plays the bandaneón, a sort of small accordian, in the tango style. Totally gives the place atmosphere.
Argentines follow a very different schedule: they eat dinner around 11pm don't go out until 2am, getting home around 6am. The one time I tried doing this I got really tired and fell sick the next day. Probably I just needed the rest after the week of marathon, travel and resettlement. I've been feeling better since I started eating steaks and gellato.
The very first day in Buenos Aires I ran into a bunch of people communicating in sign language on the street! I started talking to them and now I have some contacts in the deaf community. I have been emailing Graciela- who is a teacher at a school for the deaf- so it seems likely I can continue my research into international deaf culture and national sign languages! And no, Argentine Sign Language is not like ASL or Russian Sign Language!
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