Los Perros, Family and Last Days in my 20s...Days 13-18

Hola! I was a bit lazy the last few days and didn't feel like writing, so I didn't. I also didn't feel like doing much productive, so instead I read about 3 full books, and watched episodes of Six Feet Under over the weekend. Sometimes you just need a lazy weekend I think! I did of course spend a lot of time walking around exploring my neighbrohood, but that was about it as far as activity goes. I needed to rest up since I have company for the next week!

One of the things I have noticed here the most are the dogs. Or los perros. Granted, I'm a huge dog person, and missing my little dude like crazy, so that's probably part of it. But I swear, they are everywhere! In huge packs, with their walkers. Who knew Argentina had dog walkers? I certainly did not! But the thing I notice the most isn't the fact that there are dogs, but that they are so well behaved. A single dog walker will have 20 or so large dogs and will either be walking them around, barely holding onto the leashes not having a care in the world. And it works! They just walk along as they are supposed to, not pulling or jerking or anything. It's amazing (at least to me, who has to struggle sometimes with my 15 pound dog to keep him walking beside me.)

But what's even more crazy to me than that is that when the walkers are just hanging out at the parks with their dogs. ALL off leash, no fence, just hanging out. And they don't run away! They just play and hang out and people come up and pet them and it's OK. Like it's no big deal for a person to have 20 large dogs, of various breeds, many which we would consider "dangerous" in the US wtih absolutely no way to control them if they were to say "go after" someone. Except they don't. They just chill. It's the coolest thing. It makes me wonder what we need to learn from the Argentinans on how to train dogs! Below is a photo of the dogs I see every day when I walk in the park after lunch, they are the sweetest most well behaved bunch, I look forward to seeing them every single day:

And this laid back attitude towards dogs kind of is representative of what the culture here is like. I can't figure out the right words to describe it exactly, but it is much more laid back here. In so many different ways. I really like that part of living here. Now granted, it has it's downsides, laid back can sometimes mean that the service here isn't what I'm used to in the US. But for the most part the laid back atmosphere is something I've come to enjoy very much.

In other news, my family arrived on Monday! Or part of my family at least. My mom, my sister and her boyfriend Thomas. I am thrilled that they are here and I get to do my best to show them around this city, and hopefully another city or two while they are here. Exploring is so much more fun when you have people with you to explore with! We've already eaten one fantastic meal, and I introduced them to the ice cream here, and I think it's safe to say they enjoyed it. So kudos to my mother for getting a passport and white knuckling it through an 11 hour flight, hopefully she'll think it was worth it by the end.

These past few days officially wrap up my 20s. I'd love to write that I'm handling this with all the dignitiy and grace in the world but that would be a flat out LIE. Mostly I'd like to drink myself into a stupor and pretend I am NOT turning 30. But since that won't do much other than give me a hangover, I'm going to have to come up with a better way to ring in this milestone birthday. Thank goodness I have people here to do it with.

Counterfeit Bills, Chinese Food and Sting...Days 11 and 12

Sunday morning I woke up feeling pretty bad. Kinda like I had a bad hangover except there was no drinking the night before. I'm pretty sure the culprit was the meds I on and the fact that I had to up the dose on Saturday night. But that's another story for another time. I spent most of the morning just laying around reading (I'm going through an insane amount of books now that I have my kindle back!) but figured I should probably leave the house at some point.

I walked around my neighbrohood for a bit trying to find any type of food that looked good. There is a little food court type area somewhat close to me and I figured it was my best shot since it had so much variety. As it turned out, the Argentinian version of Chinese food not only looked good, but tasted good, which is kind of a feat for me these days (another lovely side effect of the meds, but I digress.)

I was really happy and feeling a bit better after eating so I decided to walk around some more and do some exploring. I bought some fancy looking chocolates at cute little store next to one of my favorite new ice cream places. I then took the change from my chocolate purchase to the ice cream store to buy a cold water. I handed the woman 20 pesos (a little less than $4) and she looked at me and said "Falso!" Which I could only take to mean that the sweet little chocolate shop had given me fake currency. I was so mad! So I walked right back over there, showed the bill to the woman who'd given it to me and luckily instead of arguing with me (like I was expecting, I'll admit) she apologize profusely, tore it up and handed me a different bill.

I asked around at work if this is common and they said yes, for tourists. Ha. So I'd imagine this will not be my last experience with counterfeit currency while I am here! I tried to get her to show me how to tell that the bill was fake, and she did, but I don't think I'd be able to recognize it on my own. To me it was very subtle.

On a differnet topic, on most mornings to and from work the "remise" driver (remise = private taxi) plays either music in Spanish or the news in Spanish. I always try to listen as I'm trying desperately to learn and can only ever pick out words so far, and even that is few and far between.

This morning however, I was in the car, listening away and relaxing when all of the sudden I realized I could understand a little bit. And for a split second I was so excited! Was my Spanish really getting better? Could I really understand more than one word? Um, NO. Turns out this particular radio station likes to throw in a bit of Sting every now and again. I am an idiot. I could understand him because he was singing in English. I'm just glad I didn't try to share my excitement over my budding language skills to the remise driver. I was embarassed enough in my own head.

St. Patty's Day Buenos Aires Style and Salad...Days 9 and 10

I wasn't expecting to see anything really St. Patricks Day related on the 17th. I've always thought of St. Patty's day of more of a US holiday than anything. So it felt like a little bit of home when I stumbled upon this in the park near my hotel:

It was really cute. They had face painting, live music and of course, beer. It felt just like home really. Well except for the fact that everyone was talking in Spanish - so it felt mostly like home. I love this aspect of big cities. You can be walking around, running errands or whatever, and all the sudden you're in the middle of a festival. Or find a new restaurant you've never seen before. Or a random market. Maybe that's why I'm such a city girl. They are always surprising you. And so far, Buenos Aires is no different in that way! Each day I find I learn something new.

The other thing I discovered this weekend was salad. It seems that here in Buenos Aires they aren't too fond of vegetables. Now I'm not too fond of vegetables either, but I try to eat them every now and again. And I was thrilled to find a place that had some salads on the menu that contained more than lettuce. And it was huge!!

And let me tell you, the first five bites were amazing. I was starving and apparently starved for some green in my life. The next twenty bites? Not so great. The salad really wasn't very good, but you know how it goes, when you're really hungry and you're craving something, those first few bites are amazing, even if it isn't all that good. So I'm still on the hunt for a good salad place. Although this place did have the option of dining outside, so I took full advantage of that and ate my salad, sipped my wine and had a nice leisurely dinner. Granted, any Argentinian wouldn't consider it dinner since I ate at like 7pm, but being an early dinner girl at heart, I think it still counts. Eventually maybe I'll work my way up to the late dinners the people here seem to love so much!

Tango, Cockroaches and Work...Days 6, 7 and 8

Yes, the second word in my title is cockroach. UGH. I cringe just thinking about it! On Friday night I went with some coworkers (who are here for two weeks from the states) to see a tango show. This tango show involved a three course dinner. It was a little bit of a "tourist trap" I think because it was pretty expensive ($100 USD) but also quite worth seeing in my opinion. Tango originated in Argentina and it was simply amazing.

But first, back to the cockroach. So we order our dinner and they bring out the first course which for me was cheese filled sweet potato gnocchi with a cream sauce. It was amazing. And thankfully it was a small portion because it was SO good that there was no way I could have helped myself from eating everything on the plate. Really, it was that good. I'd eat gnocchi every single day if it wasn't for that pesky gluten and carb counting thing. Boo.

Next up was the main course, I ordered the beef with potatoes, a typical Argentinian dish. What I did not order was a live cockroach in my dinner. But alas, they thought I needed a little something extra! Ha. About a third of the way through my steak a little cockroach runs off my plate and onto the table. I almost died. My heart is still racing thing about it! We tried to get someone to come over to help. but no one did, they just ignored us completely. I ended up killing the dang thing myself because it just kept running around the table. I smashed it with the bottom of a wine glass on top of the comment card they had given us. I think the dead cockroach said enough don't you?

The craziest thing about it is that no one cared. They eventually came over and took the thing, but never once offered to give me a different plate of food or do anything at all for what happened. My coworkers and I talked about if this had happened in the states - you get a live cockroach in your dinner at a fancy place - you're getting your dinner for free and they are probably going to bring you anything you want just to try and please you. Not in Buenos Aires! They just ignore you! And then come by at the end, hand you a bill holder and inform you that the tip is not included. I told him he could keep the cockroach as his tip. But since I said it in English I'm pretty sure he had no idea what I said.

Now, the show was amazing. And it was worth seeing. I'd just probably stay away from the food if I were to ever go there again. I'm not the biggest fan of bugs in my dinner.

In other news, I'm happy to say that I made it through my first week of work. And when everyone in the office speaks a different language than you, I think saying "made it through" is appropriate! Don't get me wrong, the people are amazing and nice and really sweet, but dang it is exhausting to try and make out words here and there and communicate. Although I'm trying, and the girls I work with are trying to teach me Spanish. It's really quite sweet. We communicate in a kind of hybrid Spanish and English right now. Although admittedly their English is much much much better than my Spanish. Hopefully by the end of this three month adventure my Spanish will be as good as their English.

Working, Gluten Free Bakeries and Warm Showers...Days 4 and 5

Lets start out by discussing how LITTLE Spanish I know. Very very litte. Apparently those two years in high school plus my little Rosetta Stone don't really cut it when living and working in Buenos Aires. Opps. Consider that lesson learned.

The office here is like nothing I've ever experienced. The demographic is very young and everyone is very very friendly. And I'd imagine they'd been even more friendly if they spoke English. It's a very open enviornment and a lot of time you can hear american music playing from a computer or two. Sometimes there is even dancing and lots of laughter during the middle of a work day. And there is always always a lot of kissing. Kissing to say hello, goodbye and anything else you can think of.

But it's also almost 100% in Spanish all of the time. People here speak varying levels of English and most do not prefer to communicate that way (which I understand!) So to say it's been a challenge would be an understatement. The urgency to learn Spanish while I am here is very real. So even though it's the last thing I want to do when I get home, I force myself to do a few lessons in my Rosetta Stone every night, even though I really just want to read something in English!

I'm happy to report that I only had to go tres dias (3 days, see how good my spanish is?) without a warm shower. And that on day four, the warm shower was the greatest thing ever. Well second only to the discovery of a gluten free bakery only a few blocks from my apartment. Yes, a gluten free bakery in the middle of Buenos Aires! I was (am) so excited! Granted, the baked goods are only so/so (that didn't actually stop me from eating more than I should have) but the empanadas were fantastic, which makes me a very happy girl. I love empanadas and now I can have one guilt free. I just have to keep my trips to the bakery infrequent and not buy more than one baked good when I go - otherwise we'll have a repeat of last night where I eat an entire days worth of carbohydrates in the span of ten minutes (stupid insulin resitance for making me count carbs - something I would NEVER have done otherwise!)

I am looking forward to ending this work week, which has been reasonably stressful, to start a weekend full of exploration, rest, sunshine and of course, lots of spanish learning.

Friends, Running and Cold Showers...Day 3

Sunday was an excellent day. Well, it was an excellent day minus the cold shower anyway! And I suppose if that is the only complaint that I have, I can't complain at all :-)

I started out the day with a walk around my "neighborhood" and found a Starbucks, which felt like a little piece of home, and was something I really needed. So yay for unexpected pieces of home close to my apartment! I walked around with my skinny carmel machiato (which costs just as much in Buenos Aires as it does in the US!) and explored a bit. It was a lovely way to start my day.

Next I put on all my gear and went for a run. 2 miles!! This is my fourth 2 mile run since getting the ok to run again, so I think next up I'm going to go 2.5 miles. I ran around the park close to my place and it was fantastic. Completely hilly and very hot, but still, really great to be out there and I was thankful for every second of it. It's amazing what being injured for 6 months will do for your attitude about running.

Then of course came the second cold shower of my stay. I was hoping that a different time of day might help with the issue but alas, it did not. And since I'm staying at an extended say apartment, there is only help on staff during certain hours, and Sunday doesn't include any of those hours. Luckily I was hot from the run so it wasn't as miserable as Saturday!

The best part of the day was meeting up with old and new friends for brunch. It was fantastic to see people I know here in the city and spend time with them eating fantastic food. I got to meet some of their friends, too, which was equally as great. Best meal I've had so far here - pork shoulder with a raspberry glaze, half a baked potato with cheese and onions and a mixed green salad. I ate every single bite. Amazing.

After brunch they were kind enough to show me around, and we did some wine shopping:

Argentina is famous for their wine. This store was exclusively carrying wines local to the country. Really neat. I can't wait to explore some of the wineries!

3 Months in Argentina...Days 1 and 2

Yep, that's right, I'll be hanging out in South America for the next three months. I can hardly believe it myself, I never ever thought I'd get this type of opportunity. But first, a little update since I last wrote.

I have basically spent the better part of the last 6 months battling running related injuries. I've spent a ton of time in lots of different doctors offices, physical therapists offices and at the gym or at home actually doing my physical therapy. I thought about writing about it here, but truthfully, I was so mad about the whole thing I kinda didn't feel like writing or talking about it, so I didn't.

That said, I finally got the OK to start running again two weeks ago. I have to start out really small, and I've lost any endurance I had built up over my training, but still, I'm thrilled. So hopefully this blog will be both about my travel adventures and about my return to running!

Now onto the travel adventures. I'll be staying and working in Buenos Aires, Argentina from March 9th - June 8th. I arrived this morning after what was probably the most comfortable overnight flight I've ever taken. Flying business internationally really is the only way to go. Although I tell myself this every single time I fly business and then am never willing to fork up the cash for that option when I fly for personal reasons. Maybe someday I'll have so much money I'll be able to always fly business (or even first!) class.

It was great. We had beds that were fairly comfortable and while the menu selection was impressive, I fell asleep before dinner was served (shocking, I know.) I woke up about an hour before breakfast was served and before I knew it we were landing. Amazing. The line at customs for American/Canadian/English people was very long, and slow. But luckily I met a nice guy in line and we talked the whole time which made the time fly by. I have a feeling I would have been really really bored if it weren't for the distraction of conversation.

Getting my luggage was a mess. Since I'm here for three months, I have a LOT of luggage and it's heavy. I'm pretty sure I pulled my hamstring lugging it all around. I'm sporting a super sexy limp right now. But I got it, made it through customs, found my driver and made it to the hotel, or rather the apartment. Where I'm staying is kind of a cross between the two, we have 24 hour security, but no restaurant or daily maid service. They have someone on staff from 9-6 every day and they clean your room once a week.

I tried to take a nap upon getting in, but that just wasn't happening so I figured I'd take a shower and wander around to find some food. Unfortunately the shower was ice cold, but I'm just crossing my fingers that it was a one time fluke and there will be hot water tomorrow. Walking around was interesting. Things here are more expensive than I expected! I went to the local grocery store to look around and a lot of the stuff was even more expensive than what I pay in Hoboken, and I find that to be really surprising. I'm probably just looking in the wrong places though - hopefully I'll find better deals once I know my way around.

I learned today that it is VERY hard to find food at 2pm. I walked around for 2 hours before I found somewhere that was serving something more than pastries and coffee. I ended up with empanadas which were amazing. So I suppose that's ok. But at first glance, it seems food might be a challenge for me here. Although that's a different subject for another day!

I'm back in my room and feeling very thankful for air conditioning. I'm probably going to try and unpack some more and call it an early night. I'm supposed to have brunch with some friends from the states tomorrow who have been living here for about 6 months. I'm very excited about this - it's extremely comforting to have people down here that I know. Hopefully they won't think I'm too annoying with my millions of questions for them!