I'm here!

So. Starting from Saturday, after getting through security in the MSP airport, I soon found out that my laptop would not turn on. Great. If it had only happened a few hours before, I could have easily fixed it.
Anyways, not the end of the world. Today I got the internet to work but otherwise I can't do anything else since apparently my computer cannot locate it's own software. Ah well.
Anyways, I had a 2 hour flight to Dallas, hung out at the airport for 5 hours, had a 10 hour flight overnight to Chile-most uncomfortable I have ever been. I finally got a few hours of sleep but then was woken up to breakfast at about 5am. Then I sat in the Chile airport for another 5 hours, and had a one hour flight to Mendoza, and spent about another hour going to customs and everything.
I FINALLY got picked up from the airport from one of the Work the World staff and was brought back to the house. Which is HUGE and so nice. There are 10 students staying here (9 girls, 1 guy), and we are on our own every night and weekend, so we all have keys for the house and have every night and weekend to go out or plan trips or just hang out in the house! I'm in a room with three other girls, and we share our own really nice bathroom. There are two other bedrooms upstairs, and the guy stays downstairs. There is a nice backyard with a pool (which isn't being used as it is their winter here) and a cute balcony...I will try to upload pictures later. I got a tour of the house and then was free for the rest of the night.
I met the other people in the house: all nursing or medical students. One from Alabama, 4 from the UK,  2 from Canada (they speak French and English), another 2 from Canada who only speak English, and me! It's fun hearing everyone's accents and different ways of saying things. I learned that in the UK, yoga pants are called "joggers", tennis shoes are called "trainers" and a "jumper" is a light sweater thing. I think.
Everyone in the house is so nice and welcoming and we're like a little family :)
Today, I overslept (oops) but people here are never very punctual anyways. I had a one-on-one Spanish lesson from 9-12, which was actually really fun! Most of the stuff was review, so I asked a lot of questions and we practiced how to say things the Argentina way, which was very helpful.
Then, I went with Alex (a girl from Alabama who is also a nursing student) on a tour of Mendoza led by Martin, the assistant program director (who picked me up from the airport). We ate lunch at this place called Sabina , which was quite interesting. You picked food from a buffet, but it was all cold. Then you microwaved all your food and weighed it and paid by the ounce. It wasn't bad, but not the greatest.
Then, we walked around town for a few hours, taking buses around a few times. We stopped at a chocolate shop and tried Alforjas, which I can't even explain but they are REALLYA good. I will have to bring some home!
We learned some history of Mendoza, like how in 1861 there was a huge earthquake that destroyed almost everything and 80% of the population died. The next year, there was a huge rainfall which caused a mudslide from the surrounding mountains. After this, they decided to rebuild the city. There is now a huge park next to the mountains, so that if another mudslide did happen, it would not hit houses and people right away. I have yet to visit the park, but I have heard it's very nice. Mendoza is actually a sort of region of Argentina, and it is huge. I am living in "Ciudad" which means city.
Mendoza is also apparently a desert. Or a desert surrounds it. I wouldn't have known if I wasn't told though!
Later on tonight, a few of us went to walk around. We first changed our money at the place that looks very nice but is part of the "blue market" because they give a really good exchange rate to tourists, which is illegal. Oops. It seemed safe enough to me, and I'm alive!
I should have brought more cash, because the exchange rate for American dollars is twice as cheap as it is to just use your card to convert to pesos. Ah well.
After that, I booked two trips-which with the great exchange rate, was only $48 total! On Sunday, Alex and I going up into the mountains on a full day trip. Then on Tuesday, we're going horseback riding and then having an Argentinian BBQ--"asado" afterwords. I have heard great things about both trips so I am really excited.

I love it here, and I think the 5 weeks will go by quickly. I am excited for the adventures I will have and will try to update this more--hopefully my computer will magically start working better!