2009 Comenzando un paso nuevo!!!! El Año de VICTORÍA VICTORÍA VICTORÍA!!!

After a 6 month vaca....my blog writing is back! Too many things have passed in the last 6 months to put down in words. Thus, I will start from 2009!

The new year was brought in with my wonderful ¨Argentine¨family the Attencio´s in Mendoza. As always, I had the most enjoyable time with this querida familia. The highlights included, chanmpagne filled new years, our favorite passage through the mountains, breathtaking wine tour visit con Adriana and lots of Pileta (pool) time!!! As always la pase SUPER SUPER SUPER BIEN!




January and February did not bring too much excitement. Although I did have a wonderful trip to Tandil. After a year and a half of promising my friend Agustina, I finally made a visit to her hometown. Tandil is a city 5 hours south of Buenos Aires located 100k west of the Atlantic ocean. It is surrounded by mountains and beautiful rural landscape. The highlights of the trip included: night bike tour, hike up to mountains, visiting of the (remake) of the tilted rock, more biking through the beautiful outskirts of the city. (sorry the exact names have escaped me) Along with the scenic beauty, there were alot of fun nights oout. The first 2 days were spent with Renata (my Brazilian) friend and of coarse agus. When Renata left, Karen (german friend) came...which in all led for some fun nights!



Other news of February was the sad departure of two of my best friends here. After a 10 month stay in Argentina, Karen went back to Germany. Shortly following Renata embarked on her one year internship in Orlando Florida. It is very strange surreal feeling when a close friend leaves. I know since I had great connections with these people that I will remain in close contact, but still it is like a daze to say good-bye. Of coarse there is sadness but for me the sadness really does not come real until the person is actually gone. Obviously since there departure I have talked with them constantly, but there will always be a void here without them. I know since I will be here for two years more I will see many more close friends come and go...I guess the most I can do is maintain the friendship that really had an affect on me :)

Now to present...The start of March has brought a new etapa to my life. After endless and endless and endless searching, I FINALLY found an ideal job!!!!! On the first work day of the month (02-03-09) I got the offer and started work at eCGlobal Panel..a market research company. In my first week I have already learned more than you can imagine. I will be starting off the job part-time which is ideal as yet in less than two weeks I start my master´s program in International Relations and Business!!!! After a 3 year sabbatical, I will be studying once again!!! The masters should be very stimulating and challenging (as it is 100%) in Spanish!!!! I am looking forward to the challenge and ready to confront it head on...

As the year started out with some lows, I am climbing up once again and I will not stumble because this is the year of VICTORÍA VICTORÍA VICTORÍA!!!!


BESOS Y HASTA LA PROXIMA!

Pure Serendipity!

During the long weekend in August, I took advantage of the free time and made way up to Mendoza. As I had visited Mendoza during the summer, I got a new glance of this beautiful city surrounded by the Andes during the peak of the Winter. I was so fortunate again to stay with my dear friends Carolina and Manu and family. Their family is absolutely divine. Throughout my 5 day trip, I was taken on beautiful passes through the mountains, and treated to delightful home cooked meals. You never realize how much you miss the warmth and comfort of a warm house until you have been away from it so long. Highlights from the trip included: Mateando along the river along the mountains, A delightful and muy RICO asado with the Attencio´s, An amazing day trip up to the Penitentes where we visited some stunning sights, Batemen! (en castellaño of coarse!)More TLC, and not to forget the unfortunate incident with teh Pelotudo driver hitting Caro´s car as we were on our way out one night....Words can´t describe the beauty of Mendoza, so The pictures will truly say it all!
Que lo disfrutes!
Besos

visitors gallore!

The past month has been filled with the excitment of visitors! First I was graced by the presence of my bestest leah marie. we had quite the delightful time together :) The weekends were action filled as we hit most of the tourist hot spots including, San Telmo, Ricoleta, Palermo, Feria Matederos, la Boca and Tigre :) During the week we also wined adn dined, as I showed leah the gastronomic wonders of the city! And of coarse we also thouroughly enjoyed the Buenos Aires night life as we did some ¨Bolicheando¨throughout the city. Some top moments included: 2 hour (mishap) trip to Tigre...yips, wonderful birthday celebration for Leah with Rico fajitas...followed by some special dancing in the kitchen, special impressions ;) secret confessions jajaja, laughs laughs and more laughs. Overall Leah´s visit was amazing...already miss my best friend of 23 years :)


My second round of visitors, delighfully were my parents. We also had a wonderul week filled with lots of exploring, good eats and a fabulous Tango Show! As I have been living in Buenos Aires for 11 months now (wowza), I finally had my first true tango show experience. The show was amazing! We had frot row table accompanied by a muy muy rico cena...Overall it was great to have some great TLC from the papás...

Now that all of my visitors have left, I am tired! But still ready to have my next visitors come experience the life of Buenos Aires!

El Pelotudo Bus driver...

As the excitement of my life revolves around my daily trips on the collectivo, I thought I share a recent observation...Bus drivers have a very tedious job. IF dealing with the crazy drivers of Buenos Aires constantly cutting them off isn't a job of its own, then dealing everything else must be over time. As the last few days have been rainy, I am sure the bus drivers wake up dreading the worst for the day of low visibility, bad road conditions, and cranky wet people. So has I got on the packed bus the other day and the driver started to take off, one of these wet cranky people ran up to the bus and pounded on the bus. Since the bus driver already moved past the stop and the light was about to turn, he did not open the doors for the person. I mean come on! I felt for the wet person! It would of taken 1 second for the driver to open its doors! And this my friends is the opitime of the PELOTUDO bus driver!

CUMPLE EN ARGENTINA!

Last Wednesday I spent my first birthday in Argentina. My 24th birthday as I like to call it here was muy rico! During the day I was so busy with work I had no time to breathe. Upon my arrival home I started the preparation for a wonderfully RICO middle eastern feast! With great help from my roommate Pao, I prepared a MONTÓN DE COMIDA...
EVEN though the party called for 9 most the people came after 10:30 (that is Argentina for you) a part from my European friends...Overall around 25 people came. The night was filled with good food, good ol laughs and muy buena onda! No podía a pedir más! I could not have asked for anymore more"

Entonces lo pasé muy rico!

Bienviendo 24!

Trip Back to the good ol EEUU....

This week I recently returned to a very exiting and action filled trip to the United States. After a 8 month sabbatical, I returned to Chicago and Madison for 10 days. This trip was nothing but crazy! Thinking back, the trip was a grand whirlwind! My trip began as I took an overnight flight from Buenos Aires to Miami to Chicago. Upon arrival, I was greeted by one of my Chicago bestest Emilia...Thereafter we spent a wonderful afternoon in Evanston where we enjoyed a fabulous soy cappachino then some delicious Asian fusion. After taking a nice stroll down the tranquil town of Evanston, I then took a train into the city where I saw my adorable cousins. I could not believe how much my little cousins had grown since I had last seen them 8 months before! The marathon day continued as I met up with some friends for Happy Hour! By the time 12pm rolled around, I was . It was interesting to think that at that same time in Buenos Ares (2am) I would nearly be going out and getting my evening started!! The next day, I hopped right on a bus and headed up to Madison for the wedding festivities to begin. As soon as I arrived, I took in the beaming sun over the capital as the bus rolled into Madison. From the onset of my arrival, the bachelorette madness began! Starting with going to my favorite Natural foods grocery store, we bought the essentials to a rico party...After a nice de-stressing jog, the bachelorette party was under way. The night was definately an enjoyable one for all with lots of laughs! The next morning I was off yet again as I kept to my training regiment and did my longest run the big 20 miler! For this run I was lucky enough to be entertained as my friend Court rode my bike next to me for over 3 hours! It was wonderful to catch up and hace some motivation for the long distance. It was also very beautiful to run around lake Menona, through the arb, and then back to my parents place. Best yet, I finished the run by arriving at my favorite place PASQUALS! How i love my Mexican food! With my heart rate still going, I showered up and headed right down to Chicago! The week down in Chicago was nothing but action filled as well as I was once again running around seeing friends, doing yearly doctors and dentist appointments, and spending time with family. Overall I had a great time..it just seemed to breeze by so fast! By Thursday I made my way back up to Madison. After taking the long route thought the MKE to have lunch and coffee with a friend from college i finally made it into Madison only to be greeted by my dad! That night we went to the YMCA for quite the interesting and fun workout. By his suggestion, we did this Latin dance class...this was absolutely hilarious watching my dad try to grove to this aerobic workout among 50 woman. I couldnompletelyxhaustedt not look at him because I was laughing so hard. The thursday night could not have been more complete without going to the Essen Haus. As Kristin and I walked into the door, we happened to see her groom to be´s bachelor party causing mischief. So we reluctantly went into the other room to have our own catch up! It was quite the show to later driver her brother and her dad home then later her groom :) we will just leave it at that. As Friday rolled around, I went out with my Two Madison queridas for a fabulous and most RICO dinner with my dad for a TRI CELEBRATION. Courtney and I were both celebrating our birthday as well as Mary´s recent job offer in NYC!!! We then continued the party at Courts with some wonderful wine and conversation! By Saturday, the big day had come for Kristin´s wedding! The ceremony was very short and beautiful as it was held in the asembely room in the Capital. Afterwards, Mary and I promptly made our way to the Dane for some good ol home brew beer before the celebration set off. As we were leaving the dane, there was a sudden down poor. Luckily we were only blocks away in order for us to run into the hilton quite steadily. When we arrived we also found out there was a tornado warning. So unfortunately we were not able to enjoy the beautiful lake view. Instead we were hurried into the reception all. TYPICAL WISCONSIN CRAZY WEATHER!!! Overall the reception was very fun wedding. Unfortunately as the next day rolled around I had to do my final purchases and say my final good-byes to Wisconsin :( My dad very generously drove me down to OHare...With all of the storms my flight was ONLY two hours late! I was so tired from my roller coaster trip that I was almost able to sleep the whole time! And the next morning I arrive back to reality de mi vida en Argentina!!!

And that my friends was the most action filled 10 days of my life...Phew...

I thought as a Prolude I mention some general observations of returning to the United States after being abroad for so long....
1. FREE WATER...this is a thing that all American´s take forgrantten!
2. People being on time...I mean this concept is non-existent in Buenos Aires
3. Huge HUGE food portions...no wonder why Americans are so fat!
4. People don´t litter...There is actually a sense of decency and respect towards the environment
5. The concept of the Beso a pon greeting is thought as strange...When i inherently did it people thought I was some freak
6. WHEN you live on the peso and make pesos you are broke in the US!
7. People go out and eat so incredibly early!
8. Diversity...Apparently that doesn't exist in the ARG
9. Driving lanes DO EXIST...trying for the first time in 8 months was a little shaky at first but i survived since people do drive in one lane not three
10. And last but not least...was it weird how much I longed to go back to my vida Porteña=????

Hasta el proxímo

Besos

ADVENTURAS en el COLLECIVO

Every day, sometimes various veces I ride the collectivo (public bus) to and from work, to all parts here and there and far....The bus system in Buenos Aires is very efficient (well actually nothing in Argentina is VERY efficient), but it is the best public transport i have encountered. No matter what part of the city you are in, you can find a bus from point A to B. The city even provides a pocket like guide with a grid that tries to show where you can catch the bus. The GuiaT shows every neighborhood of Capital Federal with an accompanying grid that tells what buses pases in that quadrant. This should be simple end of stories, HOWEVER...one must still figure out what 5 square blocks in the A1 or D5 the buses actually passes and where exactly. Normally, the only way I really find out where the bus stops is by asking or seeing it pass by on a second street.

So, as I have been riding the bus almost everyday I have come across some interesting observations. One, when a elderly pregnant, or child-filled person enters the bus, IMMEDIATELY someone offers to give up there seat. At let me tell you seats are valuable on the collectivo. 90 percent of the time the bus is completely filled with people barely having room to hold on to a handle bar during an extremly turbulent ride. I would like to think that people are as curdious in the United States, but I think that it is more part of the culture here to respect the elderly etc. Its also interesting to note how times I have tried to give my seat up to elderly men, and they always always insist on me staying. That is just an interesting thought to contemplate....The second interesting thing I have noticed the other day was this 20some year old Argentinian laying his mark on the seat in front of him. You can imagine how uncomfortable i felt trying not to stare at him. He was even CHANGING MARKERS....seriously seriously! CHANGING MARKERS TO LAY HIS BAND NAME OR SOMETHING! TODO BOLUDO!!!! or maybe just good free press....sit on that....

As I roll a pon many more interesting occurences en el collecivo...it will definately be noted!

Hasta La Próxima (intersante) vez!