It's official. I'm back in Buenos Aires and settled into the house of my dear friends Bianca, Alejandra, and Silvana. Getting from home to 720 Hualfin Street here in Buenos Aires was an adventure.
After two flights (about 10 hours and then 2.5 hours), I landed at Aeroparque Jorge Newberry... to find that my suitcase and a suitcase I was bringing to Argentina for a friend hadn't landed with me. I talked to an employee at baggage claim and reported the missing luggage, and he told me that they probably had not made the connection in São Paulo and that they should be arriving the next day. I told him that I certainly hoped so because my LIFE (along with all my gifts for my friends here) is in that luggage.
Waiting for my friend Katie's brother at the airport was a bit nervewracking, because I didn't have the suitcase I was supposed to bring him... nor did I remember exactly what he looked like or if he would still be waiting after I'd had to deal with baggage claim. Luckily he recognized me, though, and was very understanding about the luggage. His friend, who is a taxi driver, took me to Bianca's house on Hualfin Street, which is pretty far across town. The traffic was NUTS and it took us quite a while to get there- also, I was quickly reminded just how crazy the streets of Buenos Aires are. Lanes, turn signals, the notion of right of way- forget all that. If you can weave through traffic or fly in front of someone and cut them off, go for it. :P
We made it there alive, though. I got out of the car and thanked Katie's brother and his friend and went to ring the buzzer. No response. I waited and rang it again. Still no response. I tried calling Bianca to see where she was. No response. At this point, I'm thinking, "Wonderful. I'm in downtown Buenos Aires with an overstuffed backpack and my laptop, looking about as Yankee as possible. I just prayed Bianca would be home before I got all my stuff stolen. I took a walk around the block so the neighbors would stop looking at me weird and called her again. This time she answered and was just a block or two away from the house. Within a few minutes, her mom and sister also showed up and we had a little reunion after 2 years of not seeing each other. It was wonderful. :)
Later that evening and I, Bianca and I went and got french fries and a pop and just sat and talked, catching up on the last 2 years. We stopped at a Farmacity to get me a tooth brush :P and headed back home, where Silvana had dinnner made for us. It was so nice to sit and have dinner and chat with my old unofficial host family.
The next day Silvana and I spent most of the day either frantically calling the airline or waiting for them to call us. We were freaking out all day, since nobody could tell us where my bags were or if they'd even made it onto the first flight out of Chicago. I barely left the house all day. After all the useless customer service lines drove poor Silvana to the point of swearing at and threatening to set fire to the baggage claim office (joking, of course hehe), we finally got ahold of someone who could help us and by midnight my bags were delivered to our door, safe and sound.
That night I slept much better and finally felt like I was settled in and able to start enjoying Buenos Aires. The next morning (today, the 10th), I went and put credit on my phone, got some pesos at the ATM, and took a walk around, refamiliarizing myself with this part of Buenos Aires. In a few hours I'm headed to the University of Buenos Aires to present my study to a class and recruit participants. Wish me luck!
