Yes, I am in fact in Buenos Aires, I have no doubt of that. However, this city is so very Italian. My professor joked with us that people here actually believe that they are true Italians and will learn random words to throw around. The swear with hand motions as well, which he proceeded to teach us. Whether to warn us away from the motion or what, I am not sure. They sound like they are speaking Italian, pride themselves on their ice cream (with reason), and have huge family dinners that drown out the stumbling speach of a poor study abroad girl.

My host Madre (Susana), as you may have guessed, had one such dinner last friday. Dont get me wrong, I’ve attended large family dinners, but never anything like this. I only know how 4 of the 8 guests are related to my Madre, but they all knew each other very well. I was situated between my Madre and an aunt who was old, commanded attention when she spoke, and had such a thick accent that I had no idea of what she spoke. They wandered between paying attention to me, and argueing with someone at the exact opposite end of the table.

Apparently I am expected to be able to hear/understand/respond when people at the other end spoke to me, but for the life of me I could not even make sense of their words, even when the only one who spoke fluent English tried to translate. It was just too loud. Thankfully, Argentines are opinionated enough that I could nod and laugh and it was not remarked upon too badly. The one part of the crazy conversing that I did manage to discern was when they started to talk about the current economic situation in the country. And only that because I heard the name Christina (current president) said repeatedly. All of the sudden Susana’s son looks at me and, in spanish of course, asks, “So how do you like Obama?” Shaken out of my concentration to follow the conversation, I responded that I liked him well enough. After explaining that I was too young to vote for him before, and would most likely vote for him in the fall, the conversation again fell to Christina.

We ate more food than I ever thought possible. We started with cold meat things. Both were made with a pancake like tortilla and, in each case, rolled or layered with ham/tuna, veggies, a bit of mayo, and Im not sure what else. They were both delicious. After repeatedly asking if anyone wanted more of either, we moved on. Next up was cut like butter beef cuts. Excuse my lack of knowledge on what it is called, I am unpracticed in the ways of meat eating. It was good, as far as meat goes, and we were once again asked if we wanted more and more. After relaxing for a while we moved on to ice cream. Did I mention it is delicious? Well it is. Of course I still had room in my poor stomach to manage some coffee flavored ice cream!

Half of the group went to smoke on the balcony after desert, during which time I was called over to sit next to someone I do not know anything about, where I had my first full, civilized conversation of the evening. He had just enough knowledge of English to pull us through ruts and I had just enough Spanish to hold a decent conversation. We talked again of Obama and then moved on to how I like the city, what I was studying and general conversations. For the first time in 2 weeks I began to believe that I do know enough Spanish to get by and learn more for the next 4 months.

Did I mention that dinner started at 10:30 at night? Perhaps I should have. Because of the late start (or normal by argentine standards), we didnt finish sitting and talking until after 1 in the morning. Slowly people began to filter off so that I went to bed at 2. As the evening wore on and I got more tired, I understood less and less of the language. The one thing that I did understand, was a challange issued by the son. He told me that by the time in returns in 2 weeks, I needed to be better at Spanish. Now that is a challenge that I accept, and will rise to the occasion. I cant wait.

All in all, an amazing dinner. Hopefully my first of many of its kind!

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina