Day 1 of Classes

Hola! It seems like forever since I last posted instead of 24 hours; so much happened between then and now. After I published the last post I helped the management (Sebastian and Esteban) build the sukkah for a bit, until the hour grew late and the cellphone stores were in their final hour. I walked down the main road in Belgrano, Avenida Cablido, and using my very limited Spanish, I was able to find a locutorio, buy a SIM card, activate it, and put 50 pesos of Argentine minutes. The cell phone is turning out to be very convenient.
After my first successful navigation of Buenos Aires I began calling my contacts (thanks to all who set me up with someone!). One friend (go Perel!) gave me the numbers of some of her family in Buenos Aires as well as an envelope to bring to one of them, and made the conveyance of said envelope my mission of the evening. I took my first (and hopefully my last) taxi ride to the apartment of this older couple (last name Worms) to give them them the envelope. When I entered they were just about to eat dinner, and they insisted that I enter and join them. Their son and his wife and two kids were visiting from Israel, but they all spoke English (and German and Spanish), and we had great conversations about healthcare in America and Israel, business in Argentina, traveling, retiring, and, of course, they gave me tons of tips for survival in Buenos Aires. They also invited me to their sports club! People here continue to be awesome. I walked home after that and showered (in the small but clean shared bathroom) and collapsed before ten, way before any of the Israelis even got back from wherever they were, the first time I've done that in ages.
I woke up early and met Esteban downstairs; he invited me to go to shul with him. We went to the Beit Jabad Olleros for Shacharit, I got an Aliyah, and I was unable to find anyone who spoke English. I did, however, find out that one of the Israeli girls at the hostel has American parents, and therefore perfect English, and believe me, it was quite a relief to hear unaccented, fluent English. I polished off a bag of pretzels that I bought in Queens for breakfast and went down to Once (a neighborhood) to the language school (Centro Universitario de Idiomas) to sign in. I gave myself a half an hour buffer zone, in case of any commuter confusion, and they initially told me to be there 2 hours early on the first day. I commuted correctly and the fellow who told me to be there half an hour early was mistaken, so I had a few hours to kill, which I did by sending out more emails to contacts, getting an invite for Shabbos day at Rav Oppenheimer (thanks Noah!) and a text from someone who runs a blog called International Jewish People (in Buenos Aires) to hang out (thanks Google!). I also got a random phone call from the Worms' relatives inviting me (I think) to their house for Sukkos (though it was hard to hear; I have to call them back). I now have an invite to Raquel (thanks Kinney!), Rabbi Oppenheimer (Noah!), the Goldschmidts (Perel!) and, most probably, Raquel's daughter (Kinney again!). I also spoke to my mom on Skype (go Skype!), so all in all, the few hours before class were quite productive.
Class itself is tough. They decided to place me in level 2 right away based on my placement test, and the entire class is n Spanish. I am able to keep up for the most part, and, though the first class is an introduction, i learned that the usage of vos instead of tu that the Argentines use for the informal second person pronoun is actually traditional, and that the traditional name for the language is not Espanol, but Castellano. I also that some of the word structure is similar to Hebrew. For example, the word for why literally means 'for what' (LaMah, for what; Por Que, for what). Spanish also makes use of Shoresh verbs and complex conjugations based on the subject and uses gender and quantity specific adjectives. It is also a bit like Australian slang; when Michi Hayman, an Australian friend, came for Rosh Hashanah, he asked 'how are you going,' meaning how are you? In Castellano they say como andas, literally 'how are you going,' meaning the same thing. Otherwise class was uneventful (though there is a girl in the class on a gap year between high school and college who said, in her introduction, that she hablo Hebreo. I must find out more).
By the time class finished (at 4) I was starving. Once happens to be one of the more heavily concentrated Jewish communities; it is like Borough Park except with non-Jews also. I found the first kosher pizza place and had my first Argentine Pizza (not so cheap though, despite everyone telling me how cheap the place is. Hm...). It hit the spot though, and I was ready for lulav hunting.
It took me a good hour, but, a lot of walking and one bakery later I found a yeshive (or ieshiva) and bought my arbah minim for sukkos, which, in the end, were not much more than what they cost on Main St in Queens). Alfahores, by the way, are delicious. They are very crumbly cookies with very sweet and very delicious dolce de leche sandwiched in between, rolled in coconut. Also very tradtitonal here; it is a day of tradition. In the topic of not changing, the frum girls here Buenos Aires dress exactly the same as the frum girls in the States. Almost makes me feel at home. Kidding!
I decided to walk back to the hostel (partly motivated by my desire to see the city and partly by the alfahore), and it did not seem like such a long walk. My map is not scale however, and I underestimated the distance; the walk took an hour and twenty minutes (not terrible, but with stuff and later in the evening, not ideal). One thing that struck me about the city was, well, it is dirty. It's a pretty dirty city. I haven't gotten downtown yet, and the residential areas are a bit nicer, but the parts that I have seen so far are not very clean; there is litter and dog poo on every block. Perhaps I've only been in the not-so-great neighborhoods. I hope that's the case. Now I am off to do homework; yes, I traveled to Argentina just to find myself doing homework.
Ciao for now!