Bienvendios a Buenos Aires!

Again, I'm posting from the hostel. I think you can tell how cranky and tired I was from this post!

I’m sitting here at 5am updating from the Mexico City airport. I look a mess because I only slept a couple hours, and I’m really thirsty because I missed the beverage service on the plane. After a long walk, I finally found a food stand that sold bottled drinks. Hopefully Vitamin Water with a Spanish label won’t make me sick. I’m not worried, but I can’t say the same for a woman on the last flight. When we were landing, she walked down the aisle to use the bathroom, and the stewardess wouldn’t let her go. Then she started getting (very audibly!) sick in her seat. Welcome to Mexico everyone!

When I got off the plane, it took me almost an hour to find my gate. It’s not a huge airport, but there are very few display boards posting the departure gates, and not only were the electronic signs fizzing out (I’m not sure if there’s a technological term for this- imagine something from the Twilight Zone or a fifties television), but my airline wasn’t listed on any of them. So I went to an immigration officer who told me to go to the information desk, which had no one in it. Then I asked a security officer and she told me to go upstairs, which only brought me back to immigration. Finally, I found a Mexicana flight to Miami and asked the attendant to look up my flight. She directed me to the gate, which had no signage other than “no fumar.” I asked a girl if she was waiting to go to Buenos Aires, and she said yes so I figured I was in the right place.

So here I am. I have to turn my phone on periodically to see the time, because there are no clocks anywhere— not even on the Twilight Zone display boards! I asked a twenty-something year old girl next to me if she knew the time and we started talking. She was so excited that I was seeing the city for the first time, and I was excited she could understand my floundering Spanish! I realized early on that I speak softly in Spanish because I’m unsure if what I’m saying makes sense. After a while, the conversation flowed, and I didn’t worry about being perfectly correct. We talked about the fact that I’m wearing a tank top, scarf, and capris when it’s winter there. We also talked about the differences in bathing suits in America. I guess we cover up a lot, even in bikinis. That’s about it. She slept at this gate, because her flight from Miami came in last night and she didn’t think it made sense to book a hotel for a few hours of sleep.

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And here I am in the hostel, VERY sleepy but I wanted to email the family to say I'm alive. Buenos noches a todos!