September 10, 2018: I love being abroad!

I couldn't fall asleep last night because I was in such a good mood. Moving houses, meeting new people, eating ice cream immediately before going to bed... good recipe for staying up late.

Today the ole hollerin' neighbors' dogs woke me up. A natural alarm clock, if you will. I took a quick shower (the hot faucet barely works so that's kind of funny) and then ate breakfast. It was a bowl of cereal, an apple, and 6 crackers with some slappin' jam. I noticed that I enjoyed it a lot more because there is a window right next to the kitchen table that lets in sunlight and I didn't feel so cold and dark and rushed to eat my meal. If you haven't noticed, the theme of this new house is sunlight.

I went to see Juan and the good news is that my Achilles has improved a lot. It's traicionero so it's possible it starts hurting again but for now I'm grateful it doesn't. I went to IFSA afterwards and filled out some forms and did some homework until I was too hungry and too irritated by other humans to keep working lolol. I got comida por peso and it was really good except for the disgusting gnocchi I got. I then walked to the subte and bought Clarisa some flowers on the way.

I now take the subte línea D instead of línea B and I enjoyed both my walk to and from the new station. It takes about 13 minutes and there's a ton of shops and sights I pass along the way. The station is right outside of a really cool looking plaza so I'll have to check it out when I have time.

I gave Clarisa the flowers when I got home and she was very grateful and told me she loves the kind that I got her. Little does she know I just bought the cheapest bouquet hehehe. I mean it also was cute and colorful though.

I kind of just laid around for a while, did homework, and napped for a bit until I went to Julie's house at 7:30. We created a study guide for our upcoming test and that was so very proactive of us. Ooh and our class was cancelled today!!! I feel bad that my teacher has a fever but not that bad since I didn't have to sit and listen to her lecture for 3 hours hahaha is that cruel?

Here's a cool mural that's literally around the corner from my house. I swear the vibes are so much better in this new house and barrio. I just feel overall a bit (actually a lot) happier all the time here. Working with Julie was fun and we shared mate! Her very kind host mom offered us some dessert bread she made and at the same time Julie said "No, gracias," and I said, "Sí, claro." Hahaha so I ate both slices.

When I got home, my host mom's sobrina (niece) was over and I met her and then got ready to eat dinner with them.

We ate lentil stew and it was amazing. She also cut up an apple and put it on a plate with a whopping WAD of dulce de leche. Basically they watched me eat it all. The dinner was sooo soo soo fun. We ended up sitting at the kitchen table for 2.5 hours talking!! We talked a lot about zodiac signs and how my life is so much better in this house and of course comparisons between the US and Argentina... a theme that comes up in almost every conversation. Clarisa's niece Vicki was so sweet and interesting to talk to. I hope she visits again soon!

After dinner I finished filling out our study guide and caught up with various friends from Davidson. Now I'm gonna head to bed... goodnight from me and my beautiful new barrio.

Song Recommendation of the Day: "Euphoria" by Echos