Me + Humidity = not a happy couple

Okay. So I always claimed to like heat. And I feel like the heat here in Argentina isn’t bad, maybe in the upper 80s. But I never claimed to like humidity. It’s absolutely terrible. I walk outside and I already feel nasty. Agh. This week it’s either been raining or so thick with humidity that it’s bearable but miserable. Hopefully the weather will better over the next few days…

As for yesterday I took the placement exam. I was surprised; the exam was just a 2-page interview from a magazine with a bunch of the words taken out and we had to fill in the correct verbs. That doesn’t mean it was easy. There were some complicated forms in there, but it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. And there was no oral evaluation. In Brazil, when I started learning Portuguese, I had a more comprehensive test and an oral evaluation and I felt confident about the test’s results. Here, I’m not really sure how they could evaluate well. But, enough about that.

After the test, I played on the internet a bit yesterday, cherishing the precious wi-fi I get at ISA headquarters. This was followed by another meeting about safety and university info. Finally, I was free. My friend Clarissa and I ran errands. That in and of itself was interesting. To buy a notebook, we couldn’t run to a Walmart or the grocery store because everything’s not about convenience like in the U.S. No, we had to try to search out the nearest bookstore. After asking a million people, we came across a bookstore and asked for paper. No luck, we needed to find a “commercial” bookstore. Eventually we made it and we each left with 11 pesos less (about 3.25 USD) and a new notebook and pen in hand… ready for classes. We finished off the afternoon picking up some basic things at the grocery store and grabbing a small ice cream cone before heading home. Although it was muggy, I took a quick jog around the neighborhood. In the afternoon, it is certainly bustling with a lot of people! The jog was really good though because there is so much to see. I ate supper at around 21:30 with my host mother and then headed out with Clarissa to take a walk and see what was in the neighborhood.

As for those Spanish classes, they start this morning. My class goes from 9:30-14:30. Hopefully I can withstand a solid five hours of class, but we’ll see. A lot of my Spanish has already come back so I can’t wait for even more to come back once classes start.