Ok so this will be a quick post since I haven't been up to much new since the last one and the fact that I'm also typing this on my iPad which is slower and will inevitably lead to some typos. I'm about to start traveling non-stop so the rest of my blog posts should be pretty entertaining.
I've been continuing to hang out, eat, live the dream, etc. here in Buenos Aires. Unfortunately I've picked up a pretty nasty cold over the past few days that has put a damper on properly celebrating my last weekend here.
Last weekend Joe, a fraternity brother from Davidson, was here for a little while with one of his friends from Davidson, Lorena, who is originally from Argentina. I joined them for an adventure to the city's Chinatown (Barrio Chino), where I found some creamy peanut butter, which I was pretty excited about. Later the three of us went to dinner at a parilla with Dolores, a family friend of Lorena. Dolores was a really interesting person: In addition to running ultra-marathons and such in her spare time, she is also the illustrator of the Spanish version of the Harry Potter books. I thought that was particularly cool since I actually have a copy of her work with me right now. I'm about to finish the 5th (Harry Potter y la Orden del Fenix). I've been reading them to practice my Spanish.
Last Sunday, I went with some of my roommates and friends to Tigre, a beautiful city an hour away from Buenos Aires. The weather was great and the city is very nice. It is on a bunch of different rivers and other bodies of water and is a popular weekend getaway spot for people from BA. We took a water taxi to an island where we got lunch on the river and walked around for a bit, exploring the island. It was a lot of fun. Somehow, I ended up being an American in a group of 6 other French people, so I stayed more quiet that day than I normally would.
Tuesday was my 22nd birthday. This is the second year in a row that I've celebrated it here in BA. (As you can imagine 21 was not quite as big of a deal as it would have been in the States). I had a little party at a popular bar here called Sugar. There were about 7 or 8 nationalities represented, which I thought was pretty cool. In addition, I was serenaded with 4 different renditions of the birthday song: French, Portuguese, Spanish, and English. It was a crazy night and a lot of fun.
The past two Fridays I joined my old coworkers for lunch and really enjoyed seeing them. Yesterday, my old boss showed me all of the new stuff related to the work I did last year. It was really cool to see that I had actually done some really useful work for them. After lunch, yesterday I said goodbye to all of them, which wasn't fun. Unfortunately I'm just getting started with the goodbyes.
Fortunately, I'll be saying hello to my sister, who arrives here tomorrow. We'll be hanging out in the city for 3 days before heading west as we make our way across Argentina to Santiago, Chile over the next 2 weeks. From there, she'll fly home and I will fly to La Paz, Bolivia. After a few days in La Paz, I'll travel through Peru for the next two weeks before flying home from Lima on August 31. I'm really excited, but the relaxing part of South American adventure is definitively over. I will be constantly on the move for the next month.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
There's just too much to see waiting in front of me
And I know that I just can't go wrong
With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of my running and all of my cunning
If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane
Though the weather in Buenos Aires is hardly that of Margaritaville, I find that Jimmy Buffett’s infinite wisdom applies perfectly to the last couple of weeks I’ve spent here in Buenos Aires. Despite the fact that I am here to do little more than enjoy life, I have not been bored for a second—just living the dream. This post is a disorganized summary of what I’ve been up to for the past week or so.
The piso compartido where I’m living is now full, and we have a great group of people from all over the place. In addition to the original two guys, we now have girls from Brazil, France, Chile, and Austria, and another guy from France. It’s a solid mix that results in a lot of different languages flying around. We often eat together and go out at night together and have a really good time. As a group, we usually end up speaking Spanish, but with some people I speak English, and I also have gotten to practice my Portuguese with the Brazilian. Strangely, I have not had many problems at all switching from Spanish to Portuguese here, like I did speaking Spanish in Brazil.
It’s a great group of people, and I’m really lucky to live in such a fun place. I’ve spent most of the past week doing the same thing: wake up, gym, food, errands/relax/read, tango/swing/salsa, food, bars, etc. It’s a tough life. On that note, I’ve been keeping up with the dance stuff, and have now moved on to the intermediate level of tango and swing, though I’m staying in the beginner salsa class for now. All of those classes are usually fun, but often somewhat frustrating due to my impatience and total lack of body awareness. I do like a challenge though.
Last Sunday, the city of Buenos Aires had elections. Voting is mandatory and they banned the sale of alcohol after midnight on Saturday night (technically Sunday). I found all of that to be a little strange. Needless to say, nightlife was somewhat limited that night.
Since the bar closed at midnight that night, I went with a few friends to Freddo, a famous ice cream chain here (Have I mentioned that ice cream here is delicious and way better than in the US?). There was a big crowd in line and all of a sudden a full-blown fist fight broke out between two guys. It was pretty ridiculous. From now on I’ll be sure not to accidentally take someone else’s helado.
Monday night I went out to a really cool percussion concert event thing called Bomba del Tiempo (Time Bomb) that happens every Monday here. I went with Catherine and her friend Chris, who was in town for a week on vacation. Wednesday night, the three of us went to La Cabrera, which is the most famous parilla (steak house) in Buenos Aires. It was amazing, and since it’s only a couple of blocks from my place, I’ll definitely be going back another time or three.
Tuesday, I was at the gym in a classroom alone doing P90X Plyometrics with the video on my iPad. One of the trainers there saw what I was doing and came in to watch. He started asking me about it and ended up taking a seat for 45 minutes to watch me do it. It was kind of absurd, but very amusing. Later, the owner of the gym asked me where he could get those videos.
The Copa America has been going on while I´ve been here. It’s kind of like the World Cup except for only Latin American countries. It happens every four years and is a really big deal down here. This year, Argentina is the host country. I made sure to watch every Argentina game in a bar, donning the jersey I bought last year when I was here during the World Cup. Saturday they lost to Uruguay in an epic quarterfinal game that went down to penalty shots. I was pretty pissed about that loss. The rest of the country is too.
Sunday, I had the opportunity to go to La Plata, a city about an hour away, to see a game live. Through 90 minutes of regulation and two 15 minute overtime periods, Brazil and Paraguay were tied 0-0 (The American in me was begging for more scoring!). Paraguay ended up winning on penalty shots after Brazil missed all of theirs. It was crazy. Despite the lack of scoring, the game was a great cultural experience. I’m just mad because now Argentina and Brazil are out of the tournament.
Meanwhile I’ve been noticing all the bandwagon hype in the US from the Women’s World Cup, which nobody here knew was even happening. I’m proud of the US team and all, but after living in Argentina and Brazil, where everyone lives and breathes futbol, I think it’s a little ridiculous when a lot of Americans randomly pretend to care about soccer every four years or so.
After we got back from the game in La Plata, I went out with a group of friends to finally see Harry Potter (in English with subtitles). Because we were in a hurry, right before the movie began, I ended up eating McDonald’s, something of which I am not proud.
And I know that I just can't go wrong
With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of my running and all of my cunning
If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane
Though the weather in Buenos Aires is hardly that of Margaritaville, I find that Jimmy Buffett’s infinite wisdom applies perfectly to the last couple of weeks I’ve spent here in Buenos Aires. Despite the fact that I am here to do little more than enjoy life, I have not been bored for a second—just living the dream. This post is a disorganized summary of what I’ve been up to for the past week or so.
The piso compartido where I’m living is now full, and we have a great group of people from all over the place. In addition to the original two guys, we now have girls from Brazil, France, Chile, and Austria, and another guy from France. It’s a solid mix that results in a lot of different languages flying around. We often eat together and go out at night together and have a really good time. As a group, we usually end up speaking Spanish, but with some people I speak English, and I also have gotten to practice my Portuguese with the Brazilian. Strangely, I have not had many problems at all switching from Spanish to Portuguese here, like I did speaking Spanish in Brazil.
It’s a great group of people, and I’m really lucky to live in such a fun place. I’ve spent most of the past week doing the same thing: wake up, gym, food, errands/relax/read, tango/swing/salsa, food, bars, etc. It’s a tough life. On that note, I’ve been keeping up with the dance stuff, and have now moved on to the intermediate level of tango and swing, though I’m staying in the beginner salsa class for now. All of those classes are usually fun, but often somewhat frustrating due to my impatience and total lack of body awareness. I do like a challenge though.
Last Sunday, the city of Buenos Aires had elections. Voting is mandatory and they banned the sale of alcohol after midnight on Saturday night (technically Sunday). I found all of that to be a little strange. Needless to say, nightlife was somewhat limited that night.
Since the bar closed at midnight that night, I went with a few friends to Freddo, a famous ice cream chain here (Have I mentioned that ice cream here is delicious and way better than in the US?). There was a big crowd in line and all of a sudden a full-blown fist fight broke out between two guys. It was pretty ridiculous. From now on I’ll be sure not to accidentally take someone else’s helado.
Monday night I went out to a really cool percussion concert event thing called Bomba del Tiempo (Time Bomb) that happens every Monday here. I went with Catherine and her friend Chris, who was in town for a week on vacation. Wednesday night, the three of us went to La Cabrera, which is the most famous parilla (steak house) in Buenos Aires. It was amazing, and since it’s only a couple of blocks from my place, I’ll definitely be going back another time or three.
Tuesday, I was at the gym in a classroom alone doing P90X Plyometrics with the video on my iPad. One of the trainers there saw what I was doing and came in to watch. He started asking me about it and ended up taking a seat for 45 minutes to watch me do it. It was kind of absurd, but very amusing. Later, the owner of the gym asked me where he could get those videos.
The Copa America has been going on while I´ve been here. It’s kind of like the World Cup except for only Latin American countries. It happens every four years and is a really big deal down here. This year, Argentina is the host country. I made sure to watch every Argentina game in a bar, donning the jersey I bought last year when I was here during the World Cup. Saturday they lost to Uruguay in an epic quarterfinal game that went down to penalty shots. I was pretty pissed about that loss. The rest of the country is too.
Sunday, I had the opportunity to go to La Plata, a city about an hour away, to see a game live. Through 90 minutes of regulation and two 15 minute overtime periods, Brazil and Paraguay were tied 0-0 (The American in me was begging for more scoring!). Paraguay ended up winning on penalty shots after Brazil missed all of theirs. It was crazy. Despite the lack of scoring, the game was a great cultural experience. I’m just mad because now Argentina and Brazil are out of the tournament.
Meanwhile I’ve been noticing all the bandwagon hype in the US from the Women’s World Cup, which nobody here knew was even happening. I’m proud of the US team and all, but after living in Argentina and Brazil, where everyone lives and breathes futbol, I think it’s a little ridiculous when a lot of Americans randomly pretend to care about soccer every four years or so.
After we got back from the game in La Plata, I went out with a group of friends to finally see Harry Potter (in English with subtitles). Because we were in a hurry, right before the movie began, I ended up eating McDonald’s, something of which I am not proud.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Buenos Aires
Ok first of all, in response to some recent public criticism by my sister on Facebook, I would like to invite everyone that reads this to make suggestions on ways to make the blog more entertaining.
So I’m in Buenos Aires now and have for the most part gotten settled in. Getting out of Rio turned out to be tricky. After packing up all of my stuff and leaving my hostel, I headed to the airport last Friday to find out that my flight to Buenos Aires had been cancelled thanks to ash from the volcano in Chile. After I waited in line forever, the fine folks at TAM Airlines told me that I was confirmed for the soonest flight out, on Monday. I ended up spending the night in a low-grade “hotel” in the basement of the airport and waking up at 4 AM to put my name on the waitlist for a flight that morning, which turned out to be full. Having once again been told that I was confirmed to leave Monday, I headed back into Rio to stay at another hostel. When I arrived there, I got an urgent email from Expedia saying that I was confirmed for a flight out that night. So I headed back to the airport in Rio, enjoyed an hour delay and eventually landed in Buenos Aires around 1:30 AM and got to a hostel an hour after that.
It has been really, really cold here in Buenos Aires. The hostel didn’t really have heat so I was miserable that night and slept very little. I spent the next day watching the Wimbledon final and checking out a couple of rooms to rent for the month. Both were initially very disappointing, but the second was obviously the better choice so I moved in there that night. All of that was less than ideal, but this trip isn’t an easy-going vacation. Dealing with some difficult and often uncomfortable situations is part of the experience and is definitely helping me learn more about myself.
I’m living in a piso compartido. It’s kind of like a dorm in that I have my own room with a bed and furniture, but I share a kitchen and bathroom with everyone else. The problem is that the kitchen and bathroom are outside, and like I said, it’s been freezing. I’m getting used to it though. It’s a new place, and I currently share it with Andrés, a Venezuelan law student, and Sebastien, a French engineer. The location of the apartment is fantastic. For those of you who are familiar with the city, I’m in Palermo Soho on Armenia and Cabrera, a few blocks from the Plaza Serrano. I’m actually overwhelmed by the number of cool cafes, restaurants, bars, and stores in the neighborhood. It took me a few days to get my Spanish back and to stop speaking Portuñol but I’m speaking it pretty well now.
Living in Buenos Aires again for a month, I have a few simple goals:
1) improve my Spanish
2) eat a lot of delicious food
3) exercise a lot to make up for #2
4) try new things
I joined a gym a few blocks away and have been keeping up the P90X (see #3) in addition to doing some yoga classes in Spanish (#4), trying to make up for the large quantity of delicious food and beverage that I am consuming. My diet here consists mostly of steak, empanadas, choripan (a sausage sandwich more or less), beer, and wine (#2). I did find some oatmeal and after a long search some peanut butter so maybe I’ll start eating more healthy foods soon, but I doubt it. Everything here is delicious and incredibly cheap compared to the US. A good filet mignon would be anywhere from $8-25 here, with the $25 variety being of the highest quality.
I’ve stayed surprisingly busy so far. In addition to going to the gym, I’ve been branching out and taking dance lessons (#4) at a famous Tango place a block from my apartment. So far, I’ve been two nights, taking classes in Tango, Salsa, and Swing. It’s actually been a lot of fun, but I am not very good.
Monday night, I celebrated the 4th of July with an American friend, Catherine, who I met at the Tuck Business Bridge Program at Dartmouth I did a couple of years ago. I also visited her in Istanbul, where she lived for a year, back when I was studying abroad in Madrid. We ate dinner at a fancy American restaurant called Kansas. It kind of reminds me of Houston’s. I had their specialty, barbecue baby back ribs. They were tasty.
Since then, I’ve been enjoying life here, going out with different friends every night. Today I got lunch with my old boss and coworkers at the place that I did my internship last year and it was great to see all of them again. This evening I did a wine tasting, learning a little more about Argentine wines, including the Torrontes and Malbecs.
Despite some struggles at first, life is now great and plus, it seems to be getting warmer.
So I’m in Buenos Aires now and have for the most part gotten settled in. Getting out of Rio turned out to be tricky. After packing up all of my stuff and leaving my hostel, I headed to the airport last Friday to find out that my flight to Buenos Aires had been cancelled thanks to ash from the volcano in Chile. After I waited in line forever, the fine folks at TAM Airlines told me that I was confirmed for the soonest flight out, on Monday. I ended up spending the night in a low-grade “hotel” in the basement of the airport and waking up at 4 AM to put my name on the waitlist for a flight that morning, which turned out to be full. Having once again been told that I was confirmed to leave Monday, I headed back into Rio to stay at another hostel. When I arrived there, I got an urgent email from Expedia saying that I was confirmed for a flight out that night. So I headed back to the airport in Rio, enjoyed an hour delay and eventually landed in Buenos Aires around 1:30 AM and got to a hostel an hour after that.
It has been really, really cold here in Buenos Aires. The hostel didn’t really have heat so I was miserable that night and slept very little. I spent the next day watching the Wimbledon final and checking out a couple of rooms to rent for the month. Both were initially very disappointing, but the second was obviously the better choice so I moved in there that night. All of that was less than ideal, but this trip isn’t an easy-going vacation. Dealing with some difficult and often uncomfortable situations is part of the experience and is definitely helping me learn more about myself.
I’m living in a piso compartido. It’s kind of like a dorm in that I have my own room with a bed and furniture, but I share a kitchen and bathroom with everyone else. The problem is that the kitchen and bathroom are outside, and like I said, it’s been freezing. I’m getting used to it though. It’s a new place, and I currently share it with Andrés, a Venezuelan law student, and Sebastien, a French engineer. The location of the apartment is fantastic. For those of you who are familiar with the city, I’m in Palermo Soho on Armenia and Cabrera, a few blocks from the Plaza Serrano. I’m actually overwhelmed by the number of cool cafes, restaurants, bars, and stores in the neighborhood. It took me a few days to get my Spanish back and to stop speaking Portuñol but I’m speaking it pretty well now.
Living in Buenos Aires again for a month, I have a few simple goals:
1) improve my Spanish
2) eat a lot of delicious food
3) exercise a lot to make up for #2
4) try new things
I joined a gym a few blocks away and have been keeping up the P90X (see #3) in addition to doing some yoga classes in Spanish (#4), trying to make up for the large quantity of delicious food and beverage that I am consuming. My diet here consists mostly of steak, empanadas, choripan (a sausage sandwich more or less), beer, and wine (#2). I did find some oatmeal and after a long search some peanut butter so maybe I’ll start eating more healthy foods soon, but I doubt it. Everything here is delicious and incredibly cheap compared to the US. A good filet mignon would be anywhere from $8-25 here, with the $25 variety being of the highest quality.
I’ve stayed surprisingly busy so far. In addition to going to the gym, I’ve been branching out and taking dance lessons (#4) at a famous Tango place a block from my apartment. So far, I’ve been two nights, taking classes in Tango, Salsa, and Swing. It’s actually been a lot of fun, but I am not very good.
Monday night, I celebrated the 4th of July with an American friend, Catherine, who I met at the Tuck Business Bridge Program at Dartmouth I did a couple of years ago. I also visited her in Istanbul, where she lived for a year, back when I was studying abroad in Madrid. We ate dinner at a fancy American restaurant called Kansas. It kind of reminds me of Houston’s. I had their specialty, barbecue baby back ribs. They were tasty.
Since then, I’ve been enjoying life here, going out with different friends every night. Today I got lunch with my old boss and coworkers at the place that I did my internship last year and it was great to see all of them again. This evening I did a wine tasting, learning a little more about Argentine wines, including the Torrontes and Malbecs.
Despite some struggles at first, life is now great and plus, it seems to be getting warmer.
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