Che, boludo, mirá!

Have I mentioned that I love Buenos Aires? Or was I always too busy whining about work and other crap? Well just in case-- I love Buenos Aires! I loved the city before, but was always also dwelling on the annoyances that come with living in a new, disorganized place-- lack of money, flaky people, loneliness, blah blah blah. Well now, I have had my proverbial attitude adjustment. And though I'd be genuinely happy to be back in this city and reunited with friends no matter what, the truth is that I can credit a large part of my extreme happiness and carefree attitude to:

1) my glorious (but hopefully temporary) unemployment. I absolutely <3 free time, window shopping, and just generally not having to be anywhere, ever.
2) the fact that I am thinking in dollars. Man, when I'm not making a pathetic Argentine salary in pesos and am back to thinking like a dirty American, this city is SO CHEAP! It's funny how I never even noticed that before. LOVE IT.
3) the fact that these are my last 2 weeks of vacation before I re-enter not only the US, but also reality... and I have every intention of enjoying them!

I'm staying at Claire's house in Palermo for now which has been cozy and perfect , and I will also be crashing with some other friends over the next couple weeks. In fact, there is actually a possibility of getting to stay at my old apartment for a few days, since they appear to have an empty room, so that's kind of exciting too! I miss San Telmo so much. Wow, I missed everything, and I didn't even realize it. The city is beautiful, exciting, and full of things to do! I've already taken a couple long walks, and never seem to run out of places to explore.

I also have started going to the gym with Ali. She's not only a workout superstar (and my deep fried tour of South America needs to stop NOW if I plan on fitting into the airplane seat), but she's also a member of the nicest gym in Buenos Aires, Megatlon, and was able to finagle me a free 5 days pass. I'm on day 2 and loving it. This weekend when it expires, I plan to do some running in the gorgeous parks in Palermo. Man, I love warm weather.

I'm feeling generally positive, and just happy and excited about everything. Since when am I so darn positive?? I mean, even the idea of leaving and moving home and being broke and unemployed.. I don't know, it's so easy to see the down sides, but I've really been focusing the up sides lately. Instead of viewing my return to MA as a bad thing, I see it as an opportunity to spend some time with my family, eat and live healthier along with my parents, go back to my jewelry making and sewing and other creative projects I haven't done in a while, hopefully find an interesting job, learn some Portuguese (since I'll be living in a very Portuguese community), and developing myself in general. Maybe living outside of a city, filled with temptations and parties and drinking, isn't such a bad thing. Being outside, being with family, reading, cooking, kayaking, writing, being creative, and being relaxed all sound like pretty good substitutes.

Anyway life is good! I am going to enjoy these last 2 weeks in Buenos Aires as much as possible. As sad as I will be to leave, I am thankful to have this time now to have one last hurrah here!!

Milestone?

Today marks 3 months in Buenos Aires! And what a 3 months it's been. So much has happened, so much has changed. I'm excited to see what the next 3 months bring!

Parte de la familia

I'm having a fantastic time so far! I really, really love Buenos Aires, and I think it's going to be a great year abroad. I've been here only 2 days, and I'm already loving it. Of course, I haven't started school yet, so a lot remains to be seen, but my first impressions are phenomenal, and that's gotta count for something. If only the men were taller, and I didn't think my colon was going to give out on me from so much meat, this might be the perfect country.

So when I left off, I was getting ready to meet up with Ali, Bata, Nathan, and Scott for dinner on Friday night. We ended up going to a place near Ai's house called La Payuca, which is a place that specializes in carne a la parilla (grilled meat). In addition to sharing a couple bottles of fantastic Malbec, we loaded ourselves down with a ton of meat and potatoes. Bata, Scott, and Ali split a huge meat sampler (I forget what it's called) which had a little bit of everything-- and I mean everything-- including kidneys, intestines, some sort of gland, the whole bit. They said it was delicious... it looked like this:


Nathan and I split a delicious carne de lomo, which is pretty much a prime rib, or something to that effect. Yummmmyyyy!


You eat it with a series of these salsas they give you. The one on the left is the classic Argentine chimichurri, then the next one is salsa criolla, the green one is provenzal (my favorite!), and the last one was a sort of spicy tomato sauce.


Afterword, we checked out a brewery called Buller in Recoleta, where Ali insisted I try the sampler of all 6 of their locally brewed cervezas... she was right! Fantatic. First time I've ever liked a "light lager," to be honest. My personal favorite was the Honey Beer, 3rd from the left. The boys shared a couple pitchers of the IPA, which was reeeeally good, but not quite as hoppy as I'm used to.


About halfway through the sampler, I started to totally pass out and realize that I was waaayyyy more jet-lagged than I realized. (Nathan told me the next day that I kept on apologizing for "being lame" and they kept saying "don't worry about it, you're tired and you won't even remember this in the morning," and sure enough, I definitely do not remember that conversation.) I was totally delirious and passing out at the table, so we finally said our good byes to N and S, and I went and slept on Ali and Bata's midget couch, where I sweated profusely all night long. Wow it is hot.

Anyway, yesterday (Saturday) was a total blast! Every Saturday Ali and Bata drive to his hometown of Adrogue (a suburb about 45 minutes outside the city) where they have lunch with his entire family, and I was lucky enough to be invited! It was incredible-- not to mention, delicious! From the moment I walked in, I felt incredibly bienvenido. I met Bata's dad (Jorge) and mom (Adriana), sister (Paula) and her boyfriend (Maxi), brother (Nachi-- short for Ignacio) and his girlfriend (Sofi), grandmother and great uncle, and aunt (Cristina). What an awesome family!

Bata's dad, Jorge, cooks up a mean asado (basically an Argentine barbecue, with tons of yummy meats cooks on the grill), and the whole family are excellent hosts. I mean, they are hilarious, laid back, a ton of fun, and love food just like me. :-) We spent all afternoon on their gorgeous back patio by the pool drinking soda and wine, eating asado accompanied by potatoes, a mixed salad, a capris salad, palmitas (hearts of palm), and ice cream for dessert.

Jorge cooking his asado:


My yummy plate of food-- lomo (steak), choripan (chorizo on bread), provoleta (grilled provolone cheese), salad, and wine.


Not everyone, but most of the table (L-R: Ali, Adriana, Bata, Jorge, Paula, Maxi, Me):


Food side note: I ate intestines (chinchulines). They were DISGUSTING, but I tried them. I may or may not have spit them out in my napkin...) I did not, however, try to glands or the kidneys. Baby steps.

All in all, it was a fantastic day. Sunny and not uncomfortably hot (probably high 70s), a day by the pool with great people and food... what more could I ask for? Plus, they are hilarious. At one point we got to talking about how Ali and her family always pee themselves when they laugh too hard! (Apparently Ali once peed in the dressing room of an Ann Taylor, while trying on a dress, which she peed all over, and then in turn her mom peed all over her own khakis, and Ali balled up the dress, threw it in the corner, and fled the mall. Hahahahaha!!!) The best part was then everyone started chiming in with pee stories, and I was cracking up sitting there realizing this is the kind of thing MY crazy family would discuss at dinner, and how nice it was to be with a laid back bunch who aren't afraid to talk about a little pee.

Also, in addition to telling me how fantastic my Spanish is (admittedly, it is really good, better than I expected after a 3 year hiatus), they also couldn't get over how tall I am. At one point Jorge pulled out a tape measure and measured me, since I wasn't sure of my height in centimeters. So there we all are out on the patio, crowded around me as I got measured-- 175 centimeters, by the way! Soy muy alta! It was hilarious.

After stopping by for a visit with one of Ali's Argentine sisters, Victoria, and sharing some yummy yerba mate, Ali and I took the combi (shared bus) home to BA, while Bata stayed with his family.

I stopped by my residence long enough to change my clothes and confirm that yes, I live with a bunch of studious Americans who don't seem to get out much or speak any Spanish (avoid! avoid!), I took off once again for dinner with Nathan, Scott, and Ali. By the time I got to N&S's hotel (a short walk from my place), it was about 11:00, which in Argentina is just in time for dinner! We decided on Italian food, since there is a huge Italian culture here and the Italian food is top notch. We dined on really yummy pasta at a tiny restaurant owned and operated by an Italian man and his sweet Brazilian wife, and then headed over to San Telmo to check out the bar scene. We ended up at a sort of Bohemian style bar called Gibraltar, where we drank $8 peso Quilmes beers and looked at boys. I think San Telmo is a bit of a touristy area, because a lot of the people definitely were not Argentinian, but I was struck by how short the boys here are. Uggghhhhh. Beards are very in here, though, so at least there's that. :-) Anyway, we ended up staying out until after 4:00am... again, totally normal for Buenos Aires, but today I'm exhausted.

This is the world's longest blog post, so I will stop now. I am going to go on a drive and some sort of tour with Nathan, Scott, Ali, and Bata today, and then later on get ready for school. Yes, I start school tomorrow! Wish me luck. I'm semi-terrified.

I have arrived!

I'm in Buenos Aires! After 19 full hours of planes and layovers, I finally made it! It was a long journey, but it was well worth it, and I did manage to get a bit of sleep on the plane. Ahem, well actually I had the *pleasure* of sitting next to an obese Texan on the plane from Newark to Houston, who kept telling how messed up my "politics" were (I hadn't actually told him any of my "politics," so I guess he was just judging me by appearance?) as he practically sat in my lap, his huge thigh bulging over his seat and onto me, and his foot jammed under the seat in front of ME. Luckily I have a smidge of class, because I wanted to smack him. However, I had a nice, young, normal-weight guy next to me from Houston to Buenos Aires, and somehow I managed to sleep for about 6 of the 10 hours.

ANYway, after I picked up my luggage I got my arranged ride to my residence and showed up about half hour later. This is my street:


The brown door on the left here is my school, and the one on the right is my residence:


I was greeted by a girl named Paige who showed me around a bit. It's a nice building, kind of a fancy converted urban mansion with hardwood floors, tons of windows, a big winding staircase, and a rooftop terrace. Apparently there are about 20 people who live here. I've met about 10 so far in passing, and am having trouble remembering everyone's names. Everyone is here for different reasons, and so far I haven't met anyone who is on the same program as me, though they claim there is one other living here. There are people here studying Spanish, doing internships, and working on various things, so it seems like a bit of a mash up.

I'm living in a tiny double room with a British girl named Victoria who is here volunteering for 5 months. She seems pretty nice so far, however the room is going to be a problem. Ugh, I am glad I'm only going to be here for 4 weeks. I have one drawer to myself, half of a very small shared armoire, and a cubby thing for toiletries. Plus, I have a narrow little twin size bed and a lamp. Hmmmm.

I took one look at my 140 pounds of luggage, and my 2 shelves, and panicked a little... looks like I'll be living out of my suitcase! :-/ This is my ENTIRE ROOM: (my bed is on the left)


Anyway, after quickly settling in, I gave Ali a call and she, Nathan (my old co-worker from AAC) and his boyfriend Scott came and met me!!! yay!!! It was so great to see them all!! It was a totally unrealistic greeting committee, as Nathan and Scott are just here on vacation and are leaving next week, but it was so great to see some familiar faces after a long grueling trip! We all went out and got some almuerzo at a restaurant around the corner from my residence: beer, pizza, and empanadas de carne, jamon y queso, and humita (corn). Delicious!

We walked Nathan and Scott back to their hotel, which is located in the same neighborhood as me (Recoleta), and I got to see a bit of the area. It's a great day to walk around today-- not too humid, high 70's, and nice and sunny. Wandering through just a small part of Recoleta, it seems like a lovely area, with trees lining the streets, sidewalk cafes, and lots of little shops. They all seem to close around 4:00 and reopen later, so most things were closed while I walked around, though I did manage to stop into a grocery store and pick up some soap and toothpaste. Ugh. I'm dirty.

Even though I'm exhausted, I actually have a relatively busy weekend ahead of me. Tonight after I shower and unpack a bit I'm off to find my way to Ali's place (she claims it's only a 20 minute walk, but I don't think that factors in how lost I will probably get) and then have dinner with her, Nathan, Scott, and Ali's boyfriend Bata-- steak, baby! You know, when in Rome... then I'm sleeping at Ali's place, and tomorrow we are headed to her host family's house in the 'burbs for an asada and some swimming! Sweeet!! It's supposed to be nice and hot and sunny. Sorry, Bostonians. No more winter for me!!! (Mwahahaha)

Anyway, this all feels like it's happening really fast, but I'm just diving right in! I can't believe I'm in Argentina!! It is so exciting! I think I might be a bit delirious right now, and thus incapable of fully expressing myself, but I can say that I am very excited for whatever adventures lay ahead. Right now I'm really overwhelmed by everything-- new roommate, unpacking, catching up on sleep, meeting people, and starting school on Monday-- but that's just me. I've only been here a few hours and I'm already putting pressure on myself to have it all figured it. It'll come... more later. :-)