Rant

Disclaimer: I have been having a rough couple of days and have decided to just write a blog of complaints, so don't feel compelled to read it, it's really for myself. As I'm sure you can tell from my previous posts, I'm having the time of my life, but today is my 2 month mark and I'm just going to indulge in some cathartic complaining!!

This is what I hate about Argentina right now: 1. Inefficiency and inconvenience. That just about sums it up. Every little thing you need to do here becomes an ordeal. Going to the store. Going to the doctor. Getting something printed. Our visa thing took 7 hours. I spent 3 hours today trying to get a simple signature for my medical release form. Bus rides to school take 40 minutes. There are lines for everything, and no one is in a hurry or cares if you are. There is always paperwork, or a strike, or a delay. The store closes early on Sundays. The worker forgot to make the copies you ordered. 2. Men staring. Seriously, you feel like a piece of meat. It is just completely normal and accepted to look a woman up and down blatantly, whip your head around after you pass her, beep, whistle, cat call, and generally act disgustingly. Also, women look at you and judge you. Basically everyone stares at you in an unfriendly and creepy manner and you feel the need to be paranoid constantly because everyone is just loitering around giving each other weird looks and you think you're going to be robbed. 3. Overly skinny women. There are no women athletes here, so no one has my kind of body. They are super into plastic surgery, fashion, tanning, etc. My host brother makes comments about me being fat all the time. Here that is supposed to be endearing (ironically). I don't find it very endearing, personally. 4. Eating dinner at midnight. I want to be in bed. And I'm starving at 6:00. 5. Girls and boys can't just be friends. If you hug a guy, it automatically means you like him. People don't hang out in mixed groups. And jealousy is expected and encouraged in relationships. 6. The photocopy system for classes. I don't care if there's not a book, but they could at least have all the photocopies together instead of having to go down every week, stand in line for half an hour, find each document on some computer / in a book in the library, pay with monedas, and have random papers floating around everywhere. 7. Lack of customer service. If you don't have exact change or at least some monedas, people just won't serve you, instead of rounding down or something like they'd do in the U.S. Cashiers blatantly hold conversations with each other or on the phone. People at a desk at a place like migrations or a bank will stand up in the middle of your conversation and go to another cubicle to chat or grab some food. 8. People talking in class. Really rude. 9. Confusing bus system. The bus guide doesn't show you where the stops are. I always get on the bus going in the wrong direction. And accepting only coins is the most inefficient and annoying thing ever. 10. No peanut butter. Or baking. Or good dark chocolate. Or Heinz ketchup. Or bread in my house. Or butter. The list goes on and on. 11. English music. Everyone here listens to music in English. I am here to learn Spanish. 12. No seat belts in taxis. With the way people drive here, not wearing a seat belt is just asking to get killed. 13. Dog poop everywhere. There are streets by parks where you can't look up for more than 5 seconds cuz you're bound to step in some. 14. Accents/vos form. People speak so fast and in such a different style than the Spanish we learn in the U.S. It is incredibly hard to understand. 15. Lack of monedas. An extreme coin shortage in a country that demands the use of coins for its main transportation. 16. The subway closes at 10:30. People don't even go out till 2 or 3 AM. Why? Well, there is my judgmental, typical American list of unfair generalizations. Now I feel better. Soon I will write a list of what I love, and I'm sure it'll be much longer. Yesterday in my Theology class with just 5 Argentines, me, and the professor, the majority of the class was discussion. When the Argentines spoke amongst themselves I couldn't understand A SINGLE WORD in some conversations. In others, just the last word of each response. I was exerting such mental effort but with all the back and forth and laughing and interrupting and slang I just couldnt follow anything. When the professor speaks I can understand, and when other students speak to me, for the most part, but listening to my peers speak to each other is like listening to German or something sometimes. I've been here 2 months, what the heck! It's not even like I don't know the vocabulary it's that I literally can't make out the words they're pronouncing it's all mumbling and spoken inside their mouths. Ugh. I almost walked out of my class in tears at several points because I was so lost and bored and I wanted to understand the topic cuz it was really interesting but no one spoke to me and I couldnt have interjected if I tried. A guy brought mate though and we all passed it around, so that was nice. I got home late last night after soccer, tired and upset, and ended up crying for the first time since I've been here. Luckily my host brother stayed up talking with me, and has promised not to speak to me in English at all for awhile. He went out to a kiosk at 1 in the morning and bought his mom (who had received some sort of bad news) and me chocolate and said his grandpa always said "when you're having an ugly day you need something sweet." Claudia also noticed something was wrong right when I walked in, even though I thought I was acting cheerful and fine, so it kind of felt like I was back with my real mom (but not really of course, mom!). Then I skyped my family today after this long hassle at the hospital today getting an electrocardigram and all for soccer (so unnecessary) and missed my mom so much and it was sad. And I am homesick, even though I don't want to go home, if that makes sense.

Okayyyy, that is all. Claudia and Fran are gone discussing some kind of family issue with his siblings for dinner, so I ate dinner by myself. But actually that was fine because I ate quickly, early, and as much as I wanted..non of which usually happen. And then I ate ice cream out of the tub just to be rebellious haha. Tomorrow will be a better day. This weekend we have our first soccer game and I'm going to the Boca/River game, so that will be awesome. Hasta pronto.