Updating this blog hasn't been an easy as I hoped. I've gotten some good posts out there about trips and events, but feel as though I've neglected one of the primary reasons I made this blog, which was to communicate with you guys about what I'm up to and what actually living in Buenos Aires is like.
So, where to start? Well, the most current happening over here is a certain injury I've been tending the last two days. On Tuesday after work I decided I'd bring the ol' skateboard to work, and head over to this amazing plaza outside the faculty of medicine (the med school in BA). As luck has it, after about 5 minutes skating around and warming up I managed to come down wrong on a nice easy warm up grind, a trick I have literally done countless times without problem. What happened next was my toe caught the ground, and my weight came down on my folded ankle. It didn't really hurt, but I knew I had caught it pretty good. It swelled pretty immediately, but oddly enough only on 2 by 4 inch section of my ankle at first, like a massive spider bite. I was still able to walk on it ok, so I hobbled over to the faculty of medicine main entrance and waited for a doctor to come by. Once one did, I disculpame-d and asked him if he thought I needed to head to a hospital. He said if I could walk ok, which at the time I could, that icing and anti-inflammatorys should do the trick. I finally went to the hospital the next day and have apparently strained it pretty bad. Looks like I won't be up to much the next three weeks.
day 1 swelling
day 3 coloration
at least I finally found bagels in Buenos Aires, which makes having to spend so much time at home much more bearable, at least for a half hour a day.
so what else?
I'm still working for the Spanish and TEFL school downtown where Dan and I got our TEFL certifications. They've kept me pretty busy. On top of my usual duties of scheduling, coordination, communication, correspondence, activity planning, weekly dinner outings I've recently been given the added responsibilities of coordinating all the teaching practices for our TEFL trainees, as well as creating and maintaining a TEFL blog for our school. The coordinator before me warned me that the job entailed doing "everything, basically running the school". I guess I thought she was exaggerating... nope.
Most of the friends that we had during our first few months here (except a handful of Argies) have returned back to their home countries. It's been an interesting experience having friends cycle in and out of our lives here, even in a short 9 months. Our social circle pretty much revolved around our roommates at the last house, mostly French exchange students and their friends, as a matter of convenience (not to take anything away from the cool people we've come to meet and truly enjoy). We've been in a new apartment for the last 2 months and have made friends with the other residents and a few of their friends. Unfortunately neither of our jobs lends itself well to expanding the social circles. Dan spends his time teaching English to older people with jobs and lives, and while I do spend much of my time with students roughly my age a. fraternization with the students is discouraged by the directors of the school, so really the only ones I ever end up being friends with are those that stay in Buenos Aires after their time at the school which leads me to b. most students come for a week or two and then move on from Buenos Aires. We've been fortunate to make a few friends that aren't going anywhere and usually have a good number of things to do, so the last thing I mean to imply is that our lives have been boring, they have simply been in flux.
Overall I have to say that things are good. winter (if you can call it that, it hovered in the 50s and only dropped below 40 on a few occasions) is over, the sun is out, I'll be back on my feet in no time, and there's still plenty to enjoy. I'll have a good chunk of free time over the next couple of weeks, so I plan on getting some more posts out regarding my experience living here. Check back soon to see what I've been up to, find out a little bit about Buenos Aires and Argentina, and hopefully leave more entertained than when you arrived.
Suerte y un abrazo a todos
