Evaluation

So it's been just a few days over a month since I arrived in Argentina, and I think it's time for an evaluation. It's also a lot easier to make this evaluation because I came home from Bariloche today to find that I had a new roommate (actually, I knew I had a new roommate, but I just hadn't met her yet).
Anyway, Kelsey is my new roommate, and she is from Michigan. We're a lot alike, and right now she's having a very hard time adjusting to life here in Buenos Aires, and especially with the family. It just makes me think about how my first week in Argentina was. When I first got here, all I could think about was the promise that my parents made me that I could go home if I didn't like it, and how I didn't want to disappoint them (and myself).
I think Kelsey is probably feeling the same way that I had been feeling, and it makes me realize how much of a difference a month makes in life - or for that matter, a few days, hours, or minutes... Already I've come so far with my Spanish. I'm still afraid to speak it, but it's getting easier - especially with people who know that I'm not a native speaker. And even though I placed into a lower Spanish than I would have liked, I learned a lot and I earned a really good grade with my class thanks to some hard work and a few homework checks from Pipa.
I'm starting to figure out the general layout of the city, and twice now I've picked out the bus that I need to take and I've gotten to where I need to go safe and sound (although, I'm very good at running on Porteño time - LATE!), and in the first week I couldn't even figure out how to properly pay the bus.
And originally I got to Buenos Aires, and I knew no one. Of course I get along with all my roommates, but we're also in the same situation and it was easy to cling to each other, but one month in and I had some very good friends some my program that I hope to keep in touch with for life!
I feel like I've already seen so much and done so much that I've had to have spent more than a month here, but really, a month it has been. The good days outnumber the bad, by a long shot, and I'm looking forward to so many more good days.

I'll be picking my classes tomorrow, and they start Monday - right after I get my visa! And from then on, I hope to do a trip a month, some with Emily and possibly Kelsey, and some with Jen. All of them, I hope, will be as much fun as I had in Bariloche, and hopefully my time here will continue it's uphill progression.

But until then (especially if you're reading this and your name is Kelsey), it's always important for me to remember that time passes, sometimes quick and sometimes slow, and that my parents and my best friends are only a skype call away.
To everyone who helped me through my first month: thanks. :) I couldn't have done it without your support.