Culture Shock!!!

Hi guys

We arrived safely- let me tell you all about it so far...

We woke up yesterday morning - Friday 19th March - at 3am, got dressed, and headed off to the airport where we got our luggage wrapped and then stood in the queue to check-in. I had really hoped that since we were there so early we could secure some emergency exit seats but unfortunately the person that checked us in said they were already taken. After a quick latte with my folks at good old Mugg ´n Bean it was time to head through to board our flight to JHB.

Much to our delight as we boarded the plane we discovered that we had been bumped up to Business Class - what a great start to our day!!! I´ve never flown Business Class before and it was nice to drink out of a glass and eat off proper cultery - nevermind the big comfy seats and a copy of the Cape Times. We were blessed again with the most spectacular sunrise which which watched as we flew - our Father was blessing us big time!

Once in JHB we had to make our way to the correct terminal and get through passport control etc. We couldn´t seem to find our terminal so ended up doing a bit of a tour of OR Tambo but eventually found it. They´ve become real strict about hand-luggage and my hand luggage was 2 kgs overweight but then I just took out my camera and travel guides and it was fine - got to pack them straight back in again so don´t quite know what the point of that was.

We boarded the plane that would take us to Buenos Aires and I must say I was disappointed with the plane. It´s one of the really old Boeing´s so for example there were no on demand movies - just a few old screens that came down from the ceiling of the plane so had to strain to see anything. Movies showing were ¨The Fantastic Mr Fox¨ which I managed to sleep though as it was a bit odd, ¨Wolverine¨ which I actually enjoyed, ¨Alvin and the Chipmunks¨ which I slept through, and finally ¨The Blind Side¨ which was great. Our seats were situated in the very last row of the plane. We initially thought that this was bad as we didn´t think we could recline our seats but soon discovered that we could, it also enabled us to stand and stretch regularly and we were right at the food and refreshments which means we were first to get when it came out!!!

All in all the flight was okay, managed to get about 3hours of shut eye and we landed at about 3¨45pm - the buttons on this keyboard are not working properly so I´m having to use the ¨ key instead of a colon - sorry. The brackets are also not working. We went through immigration quickly and hassle-free and then got our luggage, changed some money and went out to find our transfer. I searched around until I discovered ¨Laura Kirsten x1¨ written on a piece of paper and stuck to a pole. It seems they didn´t know about Brad - ha, ha - even though I´d given them our full names and details. Then it was so odd, we went to stand by the girl that called us and she looked so awkward and confused because her paper said x1 and now there were 2 of us. She was standing with about 3 other people and they were having a huge conversation about this now in Spanish. They couldn´t speak English and we couldn´t speak Spanish so it was quite entertaining. They made a phonecall and then we just stood and waited, and waited. Finally she said to come with her. We made our way outside and stood at the drop-n-go spot. We waited and waited and the girl kept checking her watch and then glancing at us. I sensed that the driver was late and that she didn´t know how to communicate this with us. Finally the driver arrived and we packed our luggage in the boot and off we went. Now this was quite an entertaining trip. He couldn´t really speak English and we can´t speak Spanish but he decided he was going to have a conversation with us nevertheless. I decided it was now or never so whipped out my phrasebook and had a go. It was funny but he appreciated my attempts and I think we managed to understand each other every now and then. Brad was also engaging in this and we were having a good giggle. Reminded us so much of being in Taiwan. The driver was talking and talking and he kept swaying over from lane to lane as his attention was clearly on our conversation and not the road. There were times when we were actually driving straddling two lanes!!!

We arrived at our Hostel, Ayres Portenos, in San Telmo. It´s okay - they definitely made it look much better than it really does on the internet. We have a double room at the end of the 3rd floor right by the kitchen and bathroom. It has big doors that open out to a balcony which overlooks the street. Very basic - let me repeat - VERY basic. Just a bed a table and two chairs. This is the one hostel where we don´t have a private bathroom and have to use a shared bathroom. The bathrooms are also quite old - think of the bathrooms at a campsite and you´ll get the idea.

We needed to make contact with my folks back home to let them know we´d arrived safely. Unfortunately the telephone´s at the hostel are not working and we had to head out to find telephones that we could use. The lady at the front desk of the hostel gave us some cryptic directions and we headed off. Our first adventure out onto the streets of Buenos Aires! We were met with strange sights and smells. Again it reminded us of Taiwan. We were taken aback by the number of old cars - not vintage but old and dilapidated - as well as the garbage lying on the pavements. We thing that made the directions so cryptic was that we didn´t actually know what we were looking for. But true to her directions we discovered an internet cafe with telephones and were able to make our call back home. Quite pricey R22 for a 2 minute conversation!!!

We decided that since we were already out we´d take a stroll through the streets to see what we could discover - it was already about 5pm by this time. The streets are lined with old worn down cobble stones and are narrow lined with tall, narrow, colonial buildings. Old buildings with quaint shops. There were stationary stores and little mom-n-pop stores which reminded us of Taiwan. Then there were little designer boutique stores - which reminded us a bit of Stellenbosch. We also discovered plenty of Antique stores. We ended up at a plaza which was surrounded but little restaurants and side-walk cafes as well as some live entertainment. We realised that it was actually a good time to get something to eat as it was dinner time but then came the challenge of finding out what was available and of course what it would cost. Each of the restuarant has representatives standing in the square, handing out promotional pamphlets, and trying to convince you to come and eat at their restuarant - reminders of Vietnam. The only problem was we couldn´t really understand what they were saying and felt really awkward because we couldn´t come to a decision. One guy showed us the menu and the prices were quite high. We told him we´d come back and then he brought out another menu with cheaper items - it had some English on it too - so we decided to take the plunge. We took a seat at a nearby table.

There were some street performers who came to do the tango and it was very entertaining. I must say that seeing it in real is certainly an experience not to miss. Most impressive. When we initially headed out to find the telephones we didn´t realise we´d end up going out for dinner at the same time and I had left my camera at the hostel. I was so sorry as I could have taken the most fantastic photos of them dancing. At that point I decided my camera will accompany me everywhere for the rest of the trip.I couldn´t believe how little the lady was wearing though - let´s just say you have to be SUPER-confident to wear that outfit while standing still, nevermind while you´re being flung around into all sorts of positions! It was a bit awkward though because afterwards she came around with a hat to a few selected people - and we were of her selected few - to ask for a donation. We were so caught off-guard and felt so uncomfortable because we had no idea what would be an appropriate amount and we also didn´t have any small change, only bigger notes. So we had to act all dumb and try tell her we´d give later. Eventually someone came to take our order and with the help of my phrasebook we ordered what we understood was a sandwhich.

When our sandwich arrived it wasn´t quite as we´d expected. It was basically a piece of fillet in between what looked like two rather large communion wafers -lol!!! And a generous portion of french-fries accompanied it. Now if you know Brad and I you´ll know we´re rather healthy eaters and so stuffing our faces with meat and french fries wasn´t exactly appetizing. But it was a meal and we were grateful just to be able to order it. Something very strange happened shortly after our food arrived. These two little boys - I´d say around 8 or 9 years old - came to stand next to the table and were speaking broken English telling me they want some of my food. I was so shocked I didn´t quite know what to say. Luckily Brad came to his senses and started telling them off, just then the waiter arrived and told them to go away. I was trying to figure out what the story was. Were they street kids¿ - sorry the question mark sign isn´t working on this keyboard so I´m going to have to use ¿ instead. I can easily identify street kids in South Africa but realised that everyone looks the same here to me and I first thought they must be someone´s kids who are just darn naughty running around the plaza. But then I took a closer look and saw that the one boys shirt was a bit torn. Still don´t know what the story was.

We made our way back to our hostel, and were VERY tired by this time so decided to shower and head to bed early. By 11pm we were in bed and realised that we´d been awake for exactly 24hours. The night did however not quite turn out as we´d planned. Sleep was regularly interrupted by people using the kitchen to wash their stuff and loud laughing, talking and partying from the people in hostel. This carred on until just before 6am. We had heard that the people in Argentina only come alive at about 10pm and night and party until the sun comes up. Turns out this is very true. So what we had hoped would be a restful evening was anything but that. We´re going to see if they can´t move us to a different room or find alternative accommodation because I don´t think we can do this for another 2 nights. Not if we want to be sane enough to enjoy the days ahead.

Brad is still not feeling so great. For those of you who didn´t know, Brad went for an injection last week which was special cortisone cocktail injection to sort out his hayfever and allergies. Brad has the unfortunate ability of being one of those ¨one in a million¨ cases and turned out to have every single side effect of the injection. One of them is that his esophegus won´t close properly. This means that everything that he eats keeps making it´s way back up giving him terrible gastric reflux. The poor guy has been suffering with this now for the last week. Also it kept him awake most of last week so he REALLY needs sleep and between all the packing, flying, and hostel noise last night he hasn´t been able to get nearly enough. Please keep praying he´ll experience a full recovery so that he won´t be robbed of any of the joy of this trip.

We decided to get up at around 6:30am - hey I just found the colon sign, it´s another key with a totally different symbol - as it was pointless laying in bed anymore and come type this update. Time to get going though - need to plan the day ahead and see if we can do something about our accommodation problem.

Till laters!!!!
Adios