I love it here. The city is such a mix of cultures and foods and art and traffic and noise and music. It's just fascinating. Buenos Aires is a "new city," which means that it is built on a grid, but it still has some incredibly beautiful holdovers from an older time, like the wood paneled subway car that I take to and from school each day. Argentina as a country has had a similar immigration policy to the U.S., in that it accepts a lot of immigrants from around the world, mostly from Europe, but also from Asia. This has resulted in a blended society, where you are likely to run across someone who is Italian-German-Polish, and who speaks Argentinian Spanish perfectly.

Speaking of Argentinian Spanish, if you've studied Spanish, you know that it is a little bit different than the Mexican Spanish that most estadounidenses are used to. The "ll" is my favorite sound, pronounced like "jsh" it gives a soft, lyrical quality to everyday phrases like "me llamo Saamra." Bianca has promised to keep me honest about Argentinian pronounciation when we're all back in the States together.

This evening (Friday), I went to a college party with my two housemates, Runa and Tara. They are both German, about 20 years old, and are staying in Susana's house for a few months while they experience Buenos Aires. They're studying tango, and picking up Spanish as they go. They have made friends with Susana's 22 year old daughter, who is currently at university, and we headed out to a party of one of her friends tonight. It was eye-opening to say the least. I felt about a hundred years old, surrounded by 17-20 year olds. The highlight of my evening was a 10 minute long conversation in which I attempted to explain to a Guns and Roses-obsessed young gentleman that: a. I don't really listen to Guns and Roses, and b. I was way too old to go out with his friend. In Spanish. Right.