I'm in Puerto Madryn!

After orientation in Buenos Aires, Fulbright sent all of its little minions off to their provinces. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how I got so lucky as to end up here in Puerto Madryn. Back in 2020, the commission sent us a Google Form to note our preferences. Then, allegedly, after this form, they sent our "profiles" to a few different provinces and those in the provinces choose us. I suppose I sounded cool, but to be completely honest, I don't even remember what I wrote in my Fulbright application statements, so I just consider myself very very very lucky.

I suppose I should probably orient you. Argentina is cut up into provinces like so:

Puerto Madryn is in Chubut, one of the five provinces in Patagonia. It's the blue province towards the south.

Puerto Madryn is on the Northeast side of Chubut next to that little peninsula (Peninsula Valdes, a UNSECO world heritage site).

And here a bit closer:

Puerto Madryn is traditionally a tourist spot because of the sea and the obscene amount of wildlife year round. Here you can see Southern Right Whales, Orcas, sea lions, penguins, elephant seals, lots of birds, alpaca looking animals...you get the picture.

When we learn about our placements, we are given the contact information of our "referentes" or mentor. My referente, Sol, picked me up from the small airport in Puerto Madryn on Sunday the 20th. The flight from Buenos Aires was about 2 hours, and while many would consider this lucky, I got stuck in the Emergency Exit aisle. Thankfully, no one was in the middle seat because that's where about half of my body was for most of the flight, because if you recall, slurping airplane windows are a fear of mine.

We arrived at this small, so cute, little airport in Puerto Madryn. We were the only plane there. This is the baggage claim room.

After grabbing my luggage, I quickly realized that I only knew what Sol looked like based on her profile picture from WhatsApp and vice versa. At this point, I still didn't have service and the airport wifi was subpar, so I started to awkwardly make eye contact with people until Sol sort of recognized me. As you will learn through my adventures, traveling to a different country and speaking in a different language means having to suffer through many many awkward situations.

As soon as I arrived, it started to rain, which apparently is a good sign, although they promised me that that type of rain never happens. This is what I was told about the derecho in Iowa, but weird weather stuff still happens there, so I don't really believe this.

Sol brought me, her daughter, and one of her colleagues, Martin, to dinner at Mr. Jones. I got the impression that the server thought we were a cute, happy family when she asked Sol and Martin if they wanted anything to drink but left me and the daughter (who's 17) hanging. Thus began my very first meal in Puerto Madryn - pizza and french fries.

Disclaimer: Pizza here is not pizza but dough with stuff on top. For example:

At one point during dinner Sol said that she couldn't imagine a world without french fries, so I knew I was in good hands and that I was in the right place.

These first two weeks, I'm staying in an Airbnb close to the center of town with the best view on the planet that I cannot get enough of

The rest of my first week has passed with long walks on the beach, vegan treats, new friends, and awkward moments. Here are a few little stories from this week.

The easiest way to make friends when traveling is to search for other tourists then ask them to take your picture and start a conversation. While this may sound creepy, it seems totally normal because you're clearly traveling alone and need picture help. I made a guy from the Netherlands take this picture of me.

Then we saw these guys,

and BOOM new friend. 100% success rate. 10/10 recommend this friend-making method.

Jann taught me all about how we should all move to the Netherlands. As a mechanical engineer, he was traveling throughout Central and South America on a work sabbatical of about 3 months. He told me that about 1.5 months into the trip, work called and told him to come back. He said "if you make me come back, I'll quit."

They gave him 3 more months to travel. Just let that sink in.

He left on Thursday for Iguazu falls after we grabbed a bit of Mexican food. I will discuss the quality of Mexican food here at a later date...I have a lot to say.

On Wednesday, Sol and I taught an intro class and were instructed to take pictures, so I made sure to pose so that she got my good side.

This week I also went to the gym for the first time. Sol told me that she goes to a good one with weights and what not, so I walked the 0.80 miles to check it out. When I got there, the door was locked because there's a code guests have to get in. This seems great in theory like oh cool I'll be safe in the gym, but not great in practice for newcomers who awkwardly try to pull on and push open the door. The kid working the front desk finally opened the door and showed me around. Now, every time - every single time - there's this awkward newbie vibe, I lose my ability to speak and hear in Spanish. The words, the grammar, everything. It all leaves me. So when I leave and ask the kid how much it costs per month to use the gym, I miss the number and have to ask him to repeat himself. The second time I also miss the number so I do the awkward smile and nod with the impression that the gym costs 500,000 pesos per month. That's (officially - more on this later) about $5,000. With no reference as to how much gyms actually cost here, I really was about to lug 500,000 pesos to the gym for my weekly workouts. Would that be greater than half of what Fulbright is paying me the entire time I'm here? Yes. Would I have paid it? Also yes.

Thankfully, Sol is amazing and let me know that 500,000 pesos is quite a lot of money for a gym membership and that he probably said 5,500. I now can confirm. He said 5,500.

Learning a new language in real time is hard.

Later this week I went to buy wine at a little store across the street from my Airbnb. I got to the register, whipped out my cash, feeling confident and everything, and.... I was 150 short. I mean that's super embarrassing as is, but when the language you're speaking is clearly not your first, it's somehow even worse. Apologizing profusely, I asked if I could leave the wine and come back. Well, of course I could because that's how stores work, but I was panicking and this question made sense in my head. I ran back to the Airbnb, grabbed the first bill I could find knowing that I had some 1000s in my wallet and ran back to the nice cashier lady. "Okay I'm ready," I said with confidence, again whipping out my cash.

I had grabbed a 100.

I. Still. Owed. Her.

I must have looked pitiful because she offered to help me count my money. She clearly felt bad for me, this poor girl who could barely count. It was pity wine at this point. She told me to take the wine and bring back a 50. What a homie.

This week I also tried an alfajor for the first time, which is like a large cookie of sorts (yes it's vegan).

I went on lots of walks on the beach. I'm clocking in TONS of steps per day like yesterday I walked 8 miles.

I cooked with a scary gas stove you have to light yourself.

I ate vegan food, which, thankfully, there is a lot more than anticipated! I will not starve!

And I ate more Mexican food and celebrated my birthday with some new friends!

I am so grateful to be here.