un dia largo...

It has been a long day.

I knew I had a long day ahead of me when I woke up this morning, simply because I had three classes scheduled today, and I would be gone from about 8 in the morning until 8:30 at night. I did not expect, however, that my day would get off to such a rocky start. I tried my hardest to just laugh at everything that happened and take it in stride. Hopefully you’ll get a kick out it too.

So this morning, I woke up around 7:30, ate breakfast and then got ready for class. Pretty uneventful at this point. But I need to go back in time a little bit to the night before, when I was trying to make sure I knew where all my classes were today (cause they were at 3 different universities) and how I would be getting to each of them:

My first class of the day was going to be a class at UBA, and Tuesday was going to be the first day of class. In the schedule of classes that my program gave us, it had the building name and class room listed for my class among others. It said “Tucuman.” I had never heard of this building though. But I looked online, and it appeared that there was a building for UBA at Tucuman 3177. So I then figured out which bus to take to get near there, where I needed to walk, etc. I thought all was well for the next morning.

Well… after taking the bus and walking a couple blocks, I arrived at said building. There was a sign that said something about UBA but both it and the number of the building had been painted over. Clearly this building was not in use any more. So then I decided I would look around for a little bit on Tucuman and see if there was another building. There wasn’t. Anywhere within 5 blocks. So after walking for a little while (it was 9:15 at this point), I finally called one of the directors of our program and explained my predicament. After explaining that I had a class in this building “Tucuman” and I had no idea where to go, he had Clara (another woman who works for COPA) call me back like 10 minutes later. When Clara called, she said: “Carolina, I’m so sorry!! There was a mistake. That building doesn’t exist anymore.” And I’m thinking: “clearly.” So basically she told me to go to this other building on Marcelo T. Alvear and look for my class on the list of rooms.

After walking for 15 minutes, I got to the UBA building, and looked on the class listing. It said my class was in room 512, so I climbed the stairs and entered into the classroom. ( I was 45/50 minutes late at this point, which even by BA standards, is a little much). I sat down and thankfully the professor didn’t say anything. However, I could not understand a single word the prof. was saying. I had no idea what he was talking about, and after about 15 minutes of not mentioning anything having to do with the topic my class was about, it dawned on me: “oh crap. I don’t think I’m in the right class.” The professor hadn’t written his name on the board or passed out any syllabus or anything like that, so I had no idea if this man I was listening to was my professor or not. Thankfully about 10 minutes later, he let the class go.

It turns out that it was not my class at all. I did however find my class at 11:00 when they moved rooms after the discussion sections. (Whew!) At this point I was just a little too frustrated to be able to pay attention and dive right into the lecture the professor was giving. Not sure yet if I’m going to stay in this class…

After that, thankfully my day went without incident. It was pretty much smooth sailing from then on. I had a class at UCA (the catholic university) in the afternoon, and then a class from 6:30-8:00 at USAL. (Another private university in BA, started by Jesuits). I am learning how to work the bus system and I am becoming much more comfortable commuting around the city, whether it’s in subte, colectivo, or just walking. The city is so huge though and I really only know a small part. So much more to explore and learn!!

I don't have much else to say right now...

I do however have some prayer requests:

relationships.

There are a couple people in my program (Americans) who I have gotten to know and who I have really enjoyed hanging out with. The very first day at our very first orientation meeting, I sat down and this guy named Frank came and sat down in the seat next to me. Turns out he goes to Duke. (oh no!) But it also turns out that he loves God. We talked the other day about how it is such a tremendous blessing and an answer to prayer to have someone else on our program who loves the Lord and is pursuing his heart and his kingdom. Isn't it amazing how God knows our needs and continually provides for us? He loves us and cares for us so much. Much better than we could care for ourselves, no?

That being said, I have been praying for a while to really establish relationships with Argentines. So please, believe with me and pray that God would provide these friendships, with both believers and unbelievers.

discipline.
while i technically only have to pass my classes here, i want to learn as much as i can and improve my spanish as much as possible while i am here. this means i need to be disciplined and diligent about going to class and taking notes, doing my homework and my readings. please pray that God would give me discipline for this semester. i also believe that discipline is something that when practiced in one area of life spills into other areas. i am hoping i will be disciplined not only in my school work but with my sleeping, working out, spending, etc.

This is what is on my heart right now. I am exhausted, so I am going to bed.

Love,
Caroline

random fun fact about BA:

at midnight, every radio station plays the national anthem. So you could be listening to reggaeton or techno, but they always stop and play the himno nacional at midnight. so patriotic!