Studying Spanish in Argentina turns into more of a life lesson/journey

So here is the beginning of yet another adventure in the life of Olga. I would like to give all of you a little preview of what I experienced in the past 48 hours.

As most of you know I was suppose to fly out the 27th and arrive on Sunday the 28th, however the universe had other plans in store for me. While sitting at my gate, I was told that the flight was delayed until the following morning at 9 am. So Irina picked me and we went home. At home I must have spent 2.5 hours on the phone with customer service representatives, all of who assured me that my flight would go out that following morning at 9am. The moment I hung up the phone, I received an automated system call advising me that my flight has been cancelled and that I have been placed the next day’s flight. Please press 1 to accept or 2 to reject was the automated message. At that moment I was on major freak-out mode. Not only can I not reach anyone from the school to advice them I will be one day late but I’m also worrying about the placement test that I will be missing.

Long story short…I arrived one day late with one bag lost (the irony is that it is my EZRA madricha backpack with my name stitched in it). You would think something with your name on it wouldn’t get misplaced but such is life.

After the 40 minutes taxi ride in which I complete passed out for, I was finally at my building. Sadly my roommate was not there. With my lack of Spanish, but amazing skills of using my fingers, I was able to get Ricardo (not sure if that was his name) to hold my luggage in a storage room. As soon as that was taken care of I proceeded to the school, which I knew was 3-4 blocks from the apartment.

Arriving at the school, one of the directors was like o0o perfecto, your class just started. At that point I wanted to be thrown into a hole, like wtf people, can’t you give the poor girl a break. Sadly, I proceeded to the class in which I found 3 other students and the cutest little Spanish teacher. She reminds me of younger Ms. Diaz (for those of you who took Spanish in LMG). Two of the students were from Swiss and another girl was from Holland. She’s sweet and understands English, which means she’s my new friend ☺ She also got incredibly burnt from just one day in Argentina.

Any who, just as I was about to step out of the school and finally go to the apartment, the front desk girl was like o0o stop and stay for the welcome class. So I was like fine, and yet got suckered into an hour of an introduction to Buenos Aires. Sadly it was all in Spanish ☹ I understood some of the basic things, but 70% of the time I was clueless as to what was being said.

During the lesson, the girl was talking about some drink called matta. Then she passed it around and said something like try it. I looked at her with a confused face and thought of how Valerie would react to that. I simply passed it right along and just about every person in that room, tried it. I wanted to scream out and be like GERMSSSSS PEOPLE, come on, don’t you have any understanding of hygiene.

After an hour, I had enough and simply walked out. I arrived at the apartment, met Marcella (30, works in a jewelry store and rents out her extra room to the school), she’s a sweet woman, but has no food in the fridge. I don’t understand what she eats. As soon my bag arrives, I’ll introduce her to oatmeal and tea ☺

So now I have napped, unpacked like 35% of my things and trying to cheer myself up. Everyone at home has and is so supportive of my stay here, but I can’t help but feel homesick. I haven’t felt well in over 3 weeks. My body aches and my heart hurts. When I planned this trip, I thought it would be like a dream coming true, but now I just cant think of anything but being with the people I love.

My mind and heart are in a different place right now, and it’s a struggle to have them united. I just remind myself, Olga, this is yet another adventure, another lesson in life. I always have some fear and feelings of being home sick during the first few days of a journey. With everything that has occurred in the past month and the fighting in Israel, my heart hurts. I begin to lose hope and faith in this world. However I must remember that in order to be great and truly understand life to a higher and deeper level one usually hits a stop in the road. Reminds me of the quote, “There is no success without failure”

Well I’m getting super tired and its already 3 am in Argentina. Must be up by 10/11. Have to get a sim card, make some phone calls and get to class by 2. Maybe I’ll finally have a real meal.

Well thank you for reading and hope you’ll enjoy the next few series of Olga’s life journey in Argentina ☺