Open curtains:
The day begins as I blink my groggy eyes once, twice, a third time. The haze clears from my vision and I fumble for my phone that rests on the bed, an irritating distance from my clumsy hands. The light on my phone illuminates the room, and I wince as it sears my retinas. I shift in bed, turning until I can find the perfect position, it has to be one that will last me another half hour; the time is 6:30, and I have to be up at 7:00. My intense tossing and turning makes the bed and my bones creak: weariness fills every inch of my body. 6:30 to 7:00 is a blur. I absentmindedly scroll through my phone, slowly adjusting my eyes to its extreme glare. Suddenly there’s a knock at my door, and an agitation fills my stomach. It’s time. Martin, my exchange partner, asks if he can enter the room. I slowly sit up and offer him a grunt of permission. The light turns on, and my eyes are seared once more, but this time I adjust quicker. I am eager to face the day! That’s a lie. It’s freezing; and so I jump out of my bed, and then right back into it. Finally accepting my fate, I hobble to the bathroom to get ready. After a good teeth brushing where I definitely DID NOT SWALLOW ANY TAP WATER (oops), I received a lifeline from Martin’s mother (hot tea, thank god) and hopped into the car.
I’ll take this time to briefly discuss how traffic works in Argentina. To sum it up, there are hardly any stops signs or traffic lights, and everyone simply relies on intuition to deem when it is the right time to merge or turn out. I KNOW ITS CRAZY; and yet I haven’t seen any crashes yet…take that as you will. The drive to school is scenic (not really but I enjoy dramatizing things), and I allow my eyes to follow every inch of road as we journey.
Upon our arrival, I am dropped off in a large classroom on the first floor: our place of captivity. I joke with my friends that it mirrors a medieval prison, as ancient looking books fill its bookshelves, and intimidating swords and shields hang on its worn, white walls (the school is a castle I’m not kidding).
Then we went to the zoo. I saw a meerkat. It was very cool. I had a good time. I ate ice cream. I went home. I took a nap. I ate dinner. The end!
Just kidding! This isn’t over yet.
The old mercedes bus (MERCEDES MAKES BUSSES?!) we load onto smells putrid, as if someone had mixed lysol with bug spray and then smeared it all around the interior. The ride to the zoo isn’t too eventful. I listen to music, but can’t enjoy it very much, AS MY LEGS ARE CRUNCHED AND CONTORTED GOOD GOD THERE WAS NO LEG ROOM. Anyways, the bus smells bad, has bad seats, and then we were at the zoo; and that’s what today is all about: THE ZOO!! Yeah that’s right, all of the other stuff was just an introduction.
When we get to the zoo (I’m not going to say “upon our arrival” again, that sounded pretentious), we are greeted by our wonderful tour guide (I didn’t catch her name but she was great). Now I’m getting a bit bored writing this and I also kind of dissociated for the majority of our time there so this next section really is going to be short:
I saw flamingos. Then pelicans. Then meerkats. Then Zebras. Then Antelope. Then bats. Then kangaroos. Then fish. Then crocodiles (or was it alligators??), then I ate lunch; AND THEN WE WENT BACK INTO THE ZOO FOR ANOTHER THREE HOURS. Let me put this in perspective. Wake up at 6:30. Arrive at the zoo at 9:00. Stay until 11:30. Eat. Go back. STAY UNTIL 3:00. I don’t remember like any of this stuff because by this point I HAVE LOST MY MIND. However, here’s what I do remember:
I gently press my tongue to an inviting, pink, sweetness. The strawberry ice cream, or should I say “frutilla a la crema,” bathes me in a refreshing, yet intelligent solace. Its richness paired with the freshness of the fruit creates a startlingly nuanced flavor: I am in heaven.
After this brief moment of nirvana, I took a much needed rest (a siesta if you will). Then, FINALLY, we loaded back onto the bus and returned to the school.
We rested a bit more upon our arrival, and then our partners were released from class, and I was taken home, free at last.
THE END! –Reid
