La primera semana

(Originally 'posted' on 12/20/08)

Well gang,

I’m almost at the point where I could be writing this whole email in Castellano, minus some potential grammatical errors and complex sentence structure, but in the coming weeks, I may start that to see if I can catch any of you sleeping at the wheel. I’ve begun cracking down on my English use with locals, and almost demand they speak to me in Castellano... Of course, they oblige, but it often slides back to English – we typically laugh, and then jump back to the local tongue.

I’ve found there to be many phrases that don’t necessarily have an equal in English – for example, I was speaking with a friend yesterday about my iPhone and my desire to use it here with a local Argentine number, but that I would need to unlock it... This is where we got in to a little difficulty, as the term ‘lock’ (or the verb, to lock) does not exist in the Spanish language. I tried explaining it using examples – specifically using a door, keys, and a door handle, but we didn’t get very far. In English, you can open/close a door without keys, which indicate a locking mechanism, thus the verb, to lock, but in Spanish, you open/close a door (as we do in English), but when you want to “lock/unlock” a door, you simply add “con las llaves” (with the keys). So, in explaining my need to unlock my iPhone in order to use it with the local sim card, it took an extra 10 minutes because we were at odds with how to describe the context to eachother in Castellano. Alas, we got there and the message was understood, followed by a good laugh and a sigh that we got through it, ha!

I’ve begun to venture out a bit more in to the ‘tourist’ zone, having acted as a tour guide for a new friend visiting the area. He’s actually the brother of a business contact who is down here for a few days by himself before he too is joined by another friend, so we got together on Wednesday afternoon for what amounted to be a 5-hour walk around town. I was relatively surprised at how familiar ‘those’ parts of town were to me, as I had really only been zipping around town when I was here last year. The architecture here is incredible – it’s a mix of old-world French (for those of you who have had the chance to visit Paris, many of the buildings share in that ornate, hand-crafted, detail-oriented style), a little third world, and modern/developing areas...

Unfortunately, I’ve realized that I cannot pull pictures off of my ‘new’ memory card because it was not pre-formatted, so I need to buy a cable for my camera so I can plug it in to my new laptop – just another thing I’ve learned about living abroad: these are the things you don’t necessarily consider before you depart on foreign adventures. So, I’ve switched back to my old memory card, which holds fewer pictures, so I can start to upload my photos for everyone to see...

Not a whole lot else to report, as I’ve just been meeting new people, making new friends, and trying to speak like a local. I think there are couple of things to note that may not go over well with my parents – I’ve now been told by more than a few people (all of whom were strangers when I met them) that I could pass for an Argentine once my Castellano improves a bit, but that I already have the look and the speed at which I am picking up the language has surprised even my friends who are here... So, I hope that can all come down to visit me, because if I continue at this pace, I’ll be on a fast-track for citizenship and may never leave... Haha, j/k (maybe)...

There’s a big ‘fin del ano’ fiesta tonite outside of the city in a grandiose garden that I’ve been invited to, so I figure, when in Rome... I should have my camera situation sorted out by later today, so I’ll be sure to send along a few pics when I get them on to my computer.

Until the next installment...

Besos y abrazos!

Chau,
Adam

P.s. There may be a new little-companion in my next installment, we’ll see... Un perrito!