Today I woke up feeling very good about myself. It has been starting to wear me down, the whole not having friends situation. Even though it had only been less than a week since I got here, I still was feeling like I was missing out on something. On Friday night I went out to a restaurant with 3 other girls from my class, so that was nice to get to know some people that I see on a regular basis. They are all older than me, but I feel like I can hold my own in the group. Two of the women are from Australia. One's 32 and has been to 58 countries and wants to travel to the remaining 140-something countries left before she dies. Wow. The other Australian is 27 and here during her work break, and she is super relaxed and fun to talk to. The last girl graduated from college a few years ago and will be here for the full two months like me (the others are here till Feb) and is very friendly as well. Last night I spent time the Australian who is 27 and named Kirsten. She found a house on craigslist just the other day and it's a nice living setup. We cooked up a stirfry and I ate tofu for the first time in 4 months! Last year I was eating it every day without a second thought, so to go that long without it was pretty uncharacteristic of me, but it simply isn't available in Valdivia. Around 11 a friend of one of her friend in Australia came over who is from Argentina named Nico. He met Kirsten's Australian friend 13 years ago when the friend came to Argentina to study abroad. It was so cool to hear that their friendship has lasted this long, because I would like to think that I don't have to give up all the connections I made in Chile when I go back to the States. Nico proposed that we all hang out more to talk in Spanish and for Kristen and I to get to know the city better, to which I had no objections...It felt so great to speak Spanish for almost 4 hours straight with him and Kirsten. I had been missing out on speaking the language for a while because I don't know people who live here yet other than my host family and we don't spend that much time together. Also, I've recently talked to two other friends who know people from Buenos Aires who I might be about to hang out with! So yes, feeling much better about that. Now I am at the table eating breakfast with my host dad while he reads the paper. I can tell he's a good guy and I want to get to know him better, but it's hard because he works really early in the morning and therefore goes to bed directly after dinner. Sometimes we run into each other in the morning in the kitchen when I manage to raise myself out of bed in the darkness to go on a run before class. Today is Sunday, which means that I am going to head over to the biggest market in Buenos Aires with lots and handmade crafts as well as a flea market section. I went to a few smaller markets yesterday in local plazas and ended up finding a few really cool items that I bought. So in the first week of being here I've gone through a very ample range of emotions that overlap and even blend into each other. But, throughout it all I can recognize that I've accomplished quite a bit. With all my walking, I can now navigate around the city with ease. I am going to walk to the market on the other side of town today, which will take about 1.5 hours but I enjoy the walk and I have the time so I figure why not? Anyway, I wanted to make sure to write today because I have just had a lot of positive things fall into place. I am always aware that my mood and perspective can change in an instant, but luckily I do have some control over how I react to my circumstances which is quite an empowering discovery.