It's a great day to be an American

Today, after my run through 3 de febrero park, some argentines asked me where the United States Embassy was.

It floored me. I hadn't even opened my mouth and they knew I was American. Wearing my puma sweats, tennies and hooded sweatshirt apparently screams AMERICAN. Or more accuretly United States Citizen. Argentines don't refer people from the United States as "American" because everyone from Canada to Tierra del Fuego is "American." They are very particular about this subject.

Back to the argentines: But then after they asked me and I responded in my awful accent with incorrect verb tenses and minute pauses inbetween each sentence, they smiled and nodded at me and I knew they had no clue what i had just said. When they asked me where the embassy was (in Spanish) they thought they were asking someone who spoke Spanish. Only after i opened my mouth did they know I was from the states.

This seems to be the theme of the week. I am obsessed with not looking, sounding, feeling American. And I'm not really sure why. I guess I feel like for this to be home for 6 months, i have to be at home here. I can first try to look argentine- with black converses and tight jeans which are all the rage here. Eventually, hopefully, I will sound more argentine. But I wonder if I will ever feel argetina.