Placement test and money

So today was the day of the placement test, and it finished earlier than I expected. Mimi showed Taylor and I where to catch the A10 bus (which does work on Mondays ;) and rode with us most of the way. She had to get off before us, because she had a doctor's appointment.

Taylor and I were the first ones to arrive. They gathered all the PECLA students into the same room. There were the CC-CS students, and some from Brazil and a girl from Germany. After explaining the test, they had all the Brazilian students take the test in another room. (Their program lasts for only one month.) There were some parts where I'm sure I did just fine, but I'm pretty sure I completely bombed some other parts. Not that I didn't understand the test, but it made me realize that I really need to expand my vocabulary, and work on other tenses.

After the written part, Taylor and I walked around the UNC campus once so we could start familiarizing ourselves with all the different buildings.

I was so nervous for the test, and I stressed over the written part. But I ended up taking my oral exam early. I kept stressing about it, but it actually wasn't so bad. They asked basic questions about my life to test my oral skills. I ended up telling them how my dad was in the military, and that I was born in Japan, and had lived in Italy. One question I get asked a lot, and they asked me en la entrevista is the origin of mi apellido. I know "Hudak" isn't a very common American sounding name, but it amuses me how often the question pops up. And sometimes when I give the answer, people ask me if I have a dual citizenship with Slovakia.
But I'm pretty sure I did much better on the oral test than I did on the written test.

After our entrevistas, Taylor and I walked with another girl from CC-CS who lives near El Centro and we went to different shops to buy transformers, converters, phone cards and notebooks. I didn't buy anything myself because I didn't have any cash yet. We stopped at a bank so i could exchange my traveler's checks, but when I got to the cashier, I found out that most banks in Argentina don't buy American Traveler's checks. But the man at the cashier's desk was very nice, and when he realized that I was an extranjera he spoke slowly, and wrote down the address of a place that does buy traveler's checks.

After we said Good-bye to our classmate, Taylor and I went searching for Barujel where the man said I could exchange my traveler's checks. We eventually found it, and I was able to exchange my traveler's checks. It was a bit of a pain in the butt, but it was worth it. Taylor and I went straight home on the bus afterwards, and we were successfully able to find out way home! I'm pretty sure we'll be experts by the end of the six months.

When we got home, there were men working on the lights and electricity in Mimi's kitchen. We had some maté with Mimi, and then we each went to our rooms to rest for a bit. I wanted to go online when I got to my room,but my internet connection kept going in and out. I then noticed that my connection timed out when my ceiling fan turned off, because of the electricians working. I decided to just give up and go online when they left. I meant to take just a short nap, but because I walked so much today, I was out like a light! I fell asleep around 4:15 and woke up around 6:30, just in time to catch Mimi making empanadas.

It was my first time eating empanadas, and they were delicious! We also had wine for dinner in celebration because today was Taylor's 21st birthday! ¡Feliz Cumpleaños!

After dinner, Mimi said she was tired (we all were) and said that we were to get to school by ourselves tomorrow (which I think we can manage by now ;)

Tomorrow we find out if we placed into the advanced or intermediated Spanish class. It's not a total loss if I place into the intermediate class. Both classes are somehow supposed to bring us all to the same level of Spanish by the end of the month. Wish me luck!