Mi Casa Su Casa

Today was officially day one of the whole program. I found my way to the IFSA-Butler offices, and met some of the other students taking part in the program. They seem like a good group so far - they were all of the kids that didn't come down on the group flight. So I guess I'll meet the other 120 tomorrow. They must have chartered a 777. I did think that Orientation would last about a week before jumping into classes. Nope. It's going to go on for a month. I don't think that's orientation. Maybe try indoctrination. But it was good to meet the staff.

After the brief meeting I took a cab to my host family's place in the central-western part of the city, in the barrio Almagro. It's a nice part of town - there are actually trees here, which is a plus. It's just me and an older lady who has two kids. At first I thought she said that she was in the middle of getting a divorce from her husband, but then he walked in and sat down to have a coffee for a couple hours so I knew that must be wrong. Good thing I didn't take that subject further. Probably not the best way to start out on day 1. The house itself is great - a lot bigger than I thought it would be. The main room that everyone hangs out in most of the time is up some stairs that are actually outside of the house. So, with it raining today, in order to get to the living/dining room, I had to get wet. A little different, but I like it. Apparently they just had another student staying with them, and his name also happened to be Jake. He was apparently from California as well, and more specifically Berkeley. I thought, you have to be kidding. What can I say. We're a good group, us Jakes from the Bay Area.

Speaking of making a bad first impression, it probably wasn't the best move to drop a tostada straight into my coffee cup this afternoon. All I could do was laugh. They were a little surprised at first and then pretended that it never happened. I thought about eating it so the whole thing would go away, then I figured that might just be more counter-productive than actually helpful. I have to say though, it was a perfect drop. A swish. It didn't touch any clay on the way down. Sign 'im up!