Hola!

The first post on the new blog! It has been a few days in the making, given that I arrived early on Saturday morning, but my first attempted post on Saturday afternoon spontaneously vanished, and I didn't have the will to re-type out what I had written. Given that it was not much more than a lengthly appraisal of Iberia's long-haul service, little of importance was lost. The short version is that Iberia got me and my bag here according to schedule although not in luxury and with an uninspiring film showing.

The last few days have been very much about exploring the city. Buenos Aires is huge, and looking at the map can be deceptive as to how far things are away. The city is organised on  a grid system, with everything measured in blocks (perhaps not an exciting concept for a North American, but quite different from the sprawling intersecting streets and alleyways Europeans are used to in their cities). Navigation is generally not that difficult, because there are a fairly small number of street names, with each one running right across the centre of the city. Building numbers are also aligned across streets so with a bit of thought you can work out where to head.

My accommodation is with an old lady who rents out 4 rooms in her large flat. The building is located in the centre of the city, in what I would describe as the Argintenean version of the West-End. The street is full of theatres, cinemas and restaurants. It's certainly a very bustling part of town, and whilst the tourists and visitors presumably make it a hot-spot for pick-pockets, the constant flow of people, cars and light, makes it feel relatively safe.

Today was also the first day at the school. Turns out there are no other students registered for my level (the school is very small and runs classes in the mornings and afternoons), so instead of the usual 4 hours of 2-4 students in a class I have 2 hours of individual classes. Hopefully somene else will come along soon (I'm not sure I fancy 6 weeks of only individual classes), but it's certainly good at the beginning to have the concentrated classes.

Photos to follow soon. At the moment I only have my not-so-inconspicuous SLR camera with me, which I'm not too keen to drag around with me for long periods of time. And anyway, I' m no great photographer so I feel the wikipedia shot of the street I live on will do as good a job as I can...