This morning I woke up from being in the middle seat for ten hours and was excited to 1) pee and 2) finally start our trip. I spent my time in the airport conversing with the classmates and reading my book. I took some melatonin and was out pretty much the whole flight. We landed and went through customs and got shuttled to our hotel (which I slept on even more). By our surprise, we got to check into our rooms early, so I got to brush my teeth and take the best shower ever.
Now I wanted to get a coffee and explore. I got a much needed latte (as shown in picture) and walked around the area by our hotel to get a taste of where we are staying. After that, we walked the the IES study abroad office where we had an amazing lunch. It felt almost like we were having a family lunch, and it made me so happy in the BEAUTIFUL weather. We had these sandwiches with freshly grilled meat and you can add your own toppings that were delicious.
My first impressions was that this country really reminded me of Italy. There are similar styles of buildings and the pace of society. When we were talking in our meetings the conversation of dinner being multiple hours long and people being very touchy seemed very similar to italian culture. I figured this would be the case due to a lot of italians live here. Something that I did not expect was that when I was talking out in public people seemed they were staring at me. I guess I just never really thought people were look at me. That could be ignorant to think no one would look at me, but when I am home I make a conscious effort to not stare at others when they are speaking a different language
After coffee, we had a meeting with IES about safety and procedures and Florencia was so thorough and helpful through the whole presentation. She made me feel really valued in having the emergency phone with her at all times and telling us how to be safe.
After that a group and I explored around the area more just by walking around. We saw different restaurants we are interested in going to tonight for dinner, got energy drinks, and looked in the different produce markets. It was super interesting to compare their smaller convenience stores to Americas huge grocery stores, and how the produce here is so much better.
These next two weeks I am really excited to see things I never have before, eat a steak meal, look at leather goods, and learn a lot. Today felt like a great intro day of getting comfortable in where I am staying, and seeing different things right away on day one.
