Moto Madness

It is official: I am now an official student in Buenos Aires' University of Belgrano.  I went to get my visa today, and the visa/citizenship center reminded me of a DMV at home: very crowded and tons of foreigners.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that the whole process only took an hour.

Anyway, this was an interesting week as I eased myself into class and into the idea of having to work.  Luckily, there isn't any big assignment until early May, when I have midterms.  Nevertheless, it's strange to think that here I am in some awesome foreign city, with tons to do, and all of a sudden, I have to immerse myself into this working environment.  It's hard enough back at Maryland but it will be much more difficult in Argentina, a country that  until now, I have only associated with vacation.  For example, I was sitting in class, listening to the professors, just thinking that this is a joke.  But it's not because it's for college credit.  So hopefully by next week, I won't be spacing out for over 50% of class. 

Some interesting/adventurous moments:
1. I went to some nice quiet bar area nearby Wednesday night, and on the way, my flip flop broke, and I ended up walking barefoot for about 10 blocks, constantly looking down to avoid the abundant amount of dog poop that lies everywhere.  Then as I got into the bar, the hostess gave me a look like a I was a huge moron.  And I really did feel like an idiot, walking around barefoot in a bar.  That'll teach me to dress up a little bit when I go out at night.
2.  I went to minyan yesterday and I ended up getting a ride from some random guy in the community in his motorcycle, and although the trip was only about 5 minutes each way, I pretty much feared for my life the whole time.  Every law this guy could have broken, you name it, he broke it: failure to stop at a stop light, running red lights, driving on the other side of the road.  and that doesn't include that every time we were stopped, he'd weave his way past the different cars, and my feet/legs/arms all would nearly collide with the other vehicles.  The one law he did follow was that he didn't consume any alcohol before driving, but that probably was b/c it was a fast day. 

Last night, I went to Florida Street, a really popular area for shopping and restaurants, where there was a huge mass of people celebrating St. Patricks Day.  Apparently, it's one of the biggest parties in the world for St. Patricks.  Pretty rowdy, but no fights.  We waited in line to get into the KilKenny bar but it cost 80 pesos (20 dollars) to get in.  So we ditched that plan and settled for bread and water at some restaurant.  (I'm crazy right)?

My program is going to a private island tomorrow near a town called Tigre so it's too bad I'm missing that, but I've got Purim to look forward to.  Going to a purim party at Hillel tomorrow night, and I got an invitation to some family tonight for dinner.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Purim!

Ariel