In Buenos Aires... Finally!

Hola amigos y familia!

We arrived in Buenos Aires last Friday after two and a half very long days of travel. Our journey began on Wednesday morning, when we nearly missed the train we were taking from Boston to NYC. We literally jumped on the train as it was pulling out of South Station, which left us without enough time for proper goodbyes to Jill's family :( When we arrived in NYC, it was raining, and we had no hands free for umbrellas because they were tied to our bags. Jill's friend Bliss works near Penn Station, so we headed over to her office to say hello and store our 4 big suitcases and 2 backpacks. We decided to walk the 10 blocks or so in the rain--bad idea--we got soaked. We hung around Bryant Park and Times Square while we waited out the workday so we could get our last real US meal with Bliss and Jill's other friend, Steph. It was so nice to spend time with them and have some familiarity in our last rushed moments, and Bliss was super helpful in letting us store our luggage for the day and helping us get to the airport. Thanks so much Bliss for helping us out and Steph for squeezing us into your day!

We were pretty tired by the time we got to JFK, but our flight took off at 2 AM as expected so everything was okay so far. When our five hour flight landed in Mexico City, we figured out that Mexicana (our airline) had canceled our second flight without notifying us. Our flight to Buenos Aires was supposed to leave at 8 AM with only a 3 hour layover, but they had put us on a later flight leaving at 10 PM making it a 17 hour layover! We tried to figure out how we were going to spend 17 hours in the airport but soon found ourselves falling asleep in chairs at restaurants. Luckily Jill's mom had packed us some amazing food, which really helped tie us over, and Sara's mom used some hotel points she had built up to get us a hotel room, which allowed us to get some solid sleep and made the time go by MUCH faster! At 10 PM, we finally boarded our plane, backed out of the gate and the flight attendants went over the safety precautions. Shortly thereafter, we pulled back into the gate. A mechanical problem meant we had to deplane and spend another hour and a half in the airport until it was fixed. After we took off about two and a half hours late, things were smooth sailing until we landed in Buenos Aires...

About a month ago, we set up an agreement to rent an apartment for a month upon our arrival here. We had been in touch with the landlord through email but were unable to get in touch with him when we landed, so we headed over to the apartment. When we got there, we were lucky that the other tennant happened to be there. He let us into the apartment, but we couldn't get into our room because he didn't have a key for it and the previous tennant hadn't finished moving out. The apartment was supposed to have a phone that could be used to make local calls, but we found out it only recieved calls. So for about an hour, we went back and forth between a phone/internet cafe and the apartment to try to find a phone number that actually worked for the landlord. None of the numbers he gave us worked. We went to an art gallery near the apartment because the landlord's girlfriend supposedly worked there, but she wasn't there either. When we went back to the apartment to figure out our next move, the previous tennant showed up. Both he and the current tennant told us about how awful the landlord was. The wireless internet had been out for 8 weeks, the phone couldn't be used to make local calls, they had once forgotten to pay the electricity bill so the power got turned off, a balcony had flooded during a heavy rain and the landlord wanted to take any repairs out of the tennants' deposits, and the room had not been cleaned since the previous tennant hadn't finished moving out. We felt overwhelmed and stressed out to the max, so we fled to a hostel to get some rest and figure out our next move.

We decided not to live at the apartment with the sketchy landlord, but since it was Friday, we weren't going to be able to find real housing until the next week. We lived in the hostel for three days, and on Monday night we moved into the apartment we're staying in now. It's in San Telmo, a funky artsy neighborhood - it's a small cute studio with a seemingly great owner. We'll be here for a month while we find our more permanent housing and hopefully employment. So after a pretty hellish and hectic first coupld of days, we're finally finding our feet here in Buenos Aires.

A few glimmering moments from the last few days that kept us anchored here:

-Taking a walk on our first night in BA to get some food, we stumbled upon some local people juggling in the park - Sara joined in and passed with them while Jill cheered and tried to translate juggling terms on the side.

-Jill meeting up with Walter outside his apartment in San Telmo with a big hug and un beso where she used to hang out all the time with Betsy when she studied abroad, and then also running into Graciela, the director of the program she came with last time, hours before she had to fly back to the US.

-New potential friends, a Brazilian woman and a Colombian man living in BA (both gay), who originally emailed us about housing, and now have invited us to go to pride with them next week.

-1.5 liter bottle of local beer costs about $1 US and Superpanchos (Sara's new favorite snack) cost even less than that.

-The owner of this apartment works for Konex bomba, a really cool drumming show that happens every Monday night in BA and has given us free invites.

-Bidets in every bathroom, no matter how tiny. And they are better than you think they would be, actually kinda nice.

Es todo! For now, we're off to a circus/juggling festival for a few days. Welcome to our blog!