So here I am, at the end of my journey to South America. And what have I learned? Well, it's hard to say, but one adage remains true: absence makes the heart grow fonder. I never knew how much I liked Brooklyn until I was away from it for 2.5 months. Or maybe it's being away from my friends, or both. Either way, I am ready to come back and jump right back into my life, of which I know is eagerly waiting for me. But I do not want you to think I didn't have a good time down here. On the contrary, I had a blast. But instead of recapping everything, instead I 've decided to compile of things I will miss, and things I will not miss. Here goes:
Miss: The fact that it's summer.
Not Miss: Being really sweaty.
Miss: The charming people with alluring Spanish accents.
Not Miss: Not being able to communicate with everyone
Miss: The fact that you can sit at a cafe or restaurant for hours and they don't care and won't bother you
Not Miss: How much of a pain it is to get a check if you're in a rush
Miss: Not having to feel like I need to order anything "to go"
Not Miss: Not being able to order anything "to go"
Miss: Drinking coffee to enjoy the flavor and not to keep me awake
Not Miss: Not being able to find a decent cup of coffee... seriously, what's the deal with that?
Miss: The amazing red meat.
Not Miss: Most of the rest of the food, or lack-there-of. I miss good sushi, thai, and god help me even chinese food
Miss: The fact that there are always people hanging out after midnight
Not Miss: You just can't get a good mixed drink down here. They're just not into getting wasted.
Miss: Licuados. It's hard to find a really good, fresh fruit shake in America.
Not Miss: Having to always order water and specify "without gas"
Miss:Having nothing I have to do.
Not Miss: Finding things to do when I have nothing to do.
Miss:The exchange rate.
Not Miss: Always having to find a way to get small change.
Miss: The cool people I've met down here
Not Miss: Not being around my good friends
Well, that about covers it. I hope this has been both educational an informative. I will be rotating back to los Estados Unidos in 2 days. See you soon.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Solamente yo...
So, I've been here on my own for a whole two weeks. I have been keeping it very low-key. I went out a lot when Ezra and Gabe & Courts were here, so I've been trying to take it easy. Haven't been drinking and been doing a lot of reading. In fact, I have managed to read the entire Harry Potter series in 12 days. It was the only interesting books in English I could find. I would say the later books are or will probably be better than the movies, whereas the earlier books weren't as good. It definitely gets darker as you get along, though I do feel it loses a bit of steam with the last 2 books and spends most of it's time giving you backstory rather than keeping you interested. I am, however, eagerly awaiting the 7th. So I guess I'm a part of that club now...
Other than that, I have been doing some shopping for gifts for friends. I can't help myself. It's the best part of being in a foreign country. I have one more thing to get and I'm all caught up. I have been watching the NE Patriots climb their way towards the superbowl, even though the commentary is in Spanish. I have managed to do some writing, though not as much as I'd hoped. Still plugging away though...
Yeah, not too exciting, but hey, I'm on vacation so who cares. In my last week and a half I might go check out a few things I have not yet seen, but I kind of crammed a lot of touristy shit in with Gabe and Courts, so I'm not promising anything.
I am definitely ready to return to my regular life. The bocce courts are calling...
Other than that, I have been doing some shopping for gifts for friends. I can't help myself. It's the best part of being in a foreign country. I have one more thing to get and I'm all caught up. I have been watching the NE Patriots climb their way towards the superbowl, even though the commentary is in Spanish. I have managed to do some writing, though not as much as I'd hoped. Still plugging away though...
Yeah, not too exciting, but hey, I'm on vacation so who cares. In my last week and a half I might go check out a few things I have not yet seen, but I kind of crammed a lot of touristy shit in with Gabe and Courts, so I'm not promising anything.
I am definitely ready to return to my regular life. The bocce courts are calling...
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Gabe and Courtney continued...
It's been long enough that I won't remember exactly what we did every day, but I would like to start this post with some pictures of our trip to the Recoleta Cemetary. This place was by far the highlight of our tourist activities. It's an immense cemetary with many famous Argentinians, Eva Peron not excluded. It's essentially like walking into a village of the dead, and very rich and/or famous. I went camera crazy, so here are some of my favorites:
Walking into a place like this, you can't help but feel a certain sense of awe. It's a place with it's own spirit and life to it, which I suppose seems like a paradox considering it's full of dead people. It's as if the wind whispers secrets down the corridors of the tombs. If you ever find yourself in Buenos Aires, this place is a must-see.
At a cafe outside the cemetary is a huge palos borracho tree. There are a number of these behemoths all over BA. They are quite impressive.
I would like to take a moment to share with you another gem I found while down here in Buenos Aires
That's right, Papa Gino's has made it to South America! On another note, Courtney spotted a Dominoes Pizza one night. I guarantee you these are not the same businesses. If America ev er comes down here there's going to be a lot of explaining to do...
We also took a trip to the Japanese Gardens, a second trip for me as those who actually read my blog will know. I couldn't resist a few more pictures:
On our way to another park, I decided to snap a few more pictures. Courtney is not fond of having her picture taken. But I of course can't help myself partly because I'm a shutterbug and partly because i think Courtney is beautiful. But try and convince someone of this while you have your camera in their face :) Anyhow, here's a few Courtney pics. I can only hope she doesn't yell at me to take them off the blog (you may laugh, but it's already happened once).
Now let's all make Courtney feel better by leaving comments about how pretty she looks, and just maybe I can leave these pictures up.
Anyhow, we made it to another park that was pretty big. There was a big flower garden and a lake with paddle boats. I of course was attracted to the graffitied statue:
That sums up the pictures I took while Gabe and Courtney were here. Other things we did were shop at some awesome crafts fairs, drink mate, and eat at Cabana Las Lilas. At Cabana Las Lilas, our steaks actually came out with this in them:
Estoy jugoso means "I'm rare", which is how we ordered our steaks. Awesome!
So now Courtney and Gabe have left and I embark on my 3 1/2 week-long stint of solitude, which as I post this is now less than 3 weeks. It's been nice being by myself for a little bit. I realized the last time I actually lived by myself was about 5 years ago for around 4 months in LA before I moved to NY, and I was too busy to enjoy it and I had a few friends around. Now I am in a foreing country and know nobody (well, that' snot entirely true), but the point is I am spending some much deserved time with myself. I hope I don't drive myself crazy ;)
Bye Gabe and Courtney. I will miss you for the next 3 weeks.
Walking into a place like this, you can't help but feel a certain sense of awe. It's a place with it's own spirit and life to it, which I suppose seems like a paradox considering it's full of dead people. It's as if the wind whispers secrets down the corridors of the tombs. If you ever find yourself in Buenos Aires, this place is a must-see.
At a cafe outside the cemetary is a huge palos borracho tree. There are a number of these behemoths all over BA. They are quite impressive.
I would like to take a moment to share with you another gem I found while down here in Buenos Aires
That's right, Papa Gino's has made it to South America! On another note, Courtney spotted a Dominoes Pizza one night. I guarantee you these are not the same businesses. If America ev er comes down here there's going to be a lot of explaining to do...
We also took a trip to the Japanese Gardens, a second trip for me as those who actually read my blog will know. I couldn't resist a few more pictures:
On our way to another park, I decided to snap a few more pictures. Courtney is not fond of having her picture taken. But I of course can't help myself partly because I'm a shutterbug and partly because i think Courtney is beautiful. But try and convince someone of this while you have your camera in their face :) Anyhow, here's a few Courtney pics. I can only hope she doesn't yell at me to take them off the blog (you may laugh, but it's already happened once).
Now let's all make Courtney feel better by leaving comments about how pretty she looks, and just maybe I can leave these pictures up.
Anyhow, we made it to another park that was pretty big. There was a big flower garden and a lake with paddle boats. I of course was attracted to the graffitied statue:
That sums up the pictures I took while Gabe and Courtney were here. Other things we did were shop at some awesome crafts fairs, drink mate, and eat at Cabana Las Lilas. At Cabana Las Lilas, our steaks actually came out with this in them:
Estoy jugoso means "I'm rare", which is how we ordered our steaks. Awesome!
So now Courtney and Gabe have left and I embark on my 3 1/2 week-long stint of solitude, which as I post this is now less than 3 weeks. It's been nice being by myself for a little bit. I realized the last time I actually lived by myself was about 5 years ago for around 4 months in LA before I moved to NY, and I was too busy to enjoy it and I had a few friends around. Now I am in a foreing country and know nobody (well, that' snot entirely true), but the point is I am spending some much deserved time with myself. I hope I don't drive myself crazy ;)
Bye Gabe and Courtney. I will miss you for the next 3 weeks.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
The Adventure Continues: The Arrival of Courtney and Gabe
Last Friday, the 29th of December 2006, my good friends Gabriel Ware and Courtney Arrived at Ezeiza Airport in Buenos Aires just as Ezra was getting into a cab to head to the airport himself to head home after having been here for a month. Courtney and Gabe will be here for approximately 9 days. Here is a day to day update of everything that's happened so far:
Friday. December 29th:
I realized as I was waiting with Ezra for his car to arrive that I had told Gabe and Courtney the wrong address to come to. Thankfully, the address I did tell them was less than a block away. I figured it would take them a while to get to my place after customs and a cab and all. So around 6:30pm I headed downstairs to wait at the address I had given them. Sure enough, as I walk down the street, there is Gabe and Courtney wandering around having just been deposited from their cab. I casually said hello and our vacation begun.
That night I took them to La Cabrera because it was close and it's one of the better touristy parillas. A few days before they arrived I had contracted some kind of throat infection. That day I had managed to find a health clinic and got myself some penicilin. Unfortunately, I was on doctor's orders not to drink alcohol for a few days. I did not partake in the wonderful San Felicien Malbec we ordered. Needless to say, we made it an early night.
Saturday, December 30th:
Gabe got up well before Courtney and I and headed to Micro Centro where all the government buildings are. We joined him later and checked out a few places including the market at San Telmo and the Puente de la Mujer footbridge. That night we had dinner at Divina Patagonia, a big favorite of Ezra and I when he was here. Gabe had the wild boar, Courtney had the Lomo (tenderloin of the cow), and I had the Venison. All in all it was a knockout again. Courtney was introduced to Cinzano, a common vermouth drunk down here. It is currently her favorite drink.
Sunday, December 31st (New Years Eve Baby!):
I should mention that the night before, Courtney had decided to plug her hair dryer into the outlet. She used my power converter, but this did not save us from, the inevitable... you guessed it, power outage. Thankfully, I have a cool landlord who came on Sunday to help resotre the electricity. We slept without AC for a night, but managed to live through it. Thanks, Courts... ;) (she's very sensitive about it, so be sure to tease her a lot)
It was pretty hot out and there wasn't much open, but that wasn't going to stop us. We headed to Plaza Cortizar to have a light breakfast and do some reading. We then headed to the Botanical Gardens.
This is a really beautiful park in the Northern area of Palermo that has many beautiful statues and is overrun with ferral cats.
These statues represent the 1st, 4th, and the 5th movement of Beethoven's 4th Symphony. In person they are truly breathtaking.
After wandering around some more in the heat and realizing that nothing else was open, we found a cafe and chilled out.
Later that night, we went to a New Years Eve Party that we knew about through this American couple I had met the night I went to Casa Saltshaker. Here we are before going out.
We're so cute. Here are some pics of us at the party.
That glitter shit was very annoying. I had to take a shower to get most of it off. New Years eve was similar to Christmas in that there were fireworks EVERYWHERE. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it, on ly that once midnight hit they appeared to be more and more frequent. They were exploding all over the city, and usually no higher than the 20th story of buildings. This made for a very exhilarating (and a little scary) show of lights and sounds. I tried to capture some of it on camera.
I have a video as well, but it's a little big, so you'll have to wait as I figure out how to post it.
So that's all for now. I have more to show you, including our awesome visit tot he Recoleta Cemetary, but we must head out for dinner now. Keep checking for more updates.
Friday. December 29th:
I realized as I was waiting with Ezra for his car to arrive that I had told Gabe and Courtney the wrong address to come to. Thankfully, the address I did tell them was less than a block away. I figured it would take them a while to get to my place after customs and a cab and all. So around 6:30pm I headed downstairs to wait at the address I had given them. Sure enough, as I walk down the street, there is Gabe and Courtney wandering around having just been deposited from their cab. I casually said hello and our vacation begun.
That night I took them to La Cabrera because it was close and it's one of the better touristy parillas. A few days before they arrived I had contracted some kind of throat infection. That day I had managed to find a health clinic and got myself some penicilin. Unfortunately, I was on doctor's orders not to drink alcohol for a few days. I did not partake in the wonderful San Felicien Malbec we ordered. Needless to say, we made it an early night.
Saturday, December 30th:
Gabe got up well before Courtney and I and headed to Micro Centro where all the government buildings are. We joined him later and checked out a few places including the market at San Telmo and the Puente de la Mujer footbridge. That night we had dinner at Divina Patagonia, a big favorite of Ezra and I when he was here. Gabe had the wild boar, Courtney had the Lomo (tenderloin of the cow), and I had the Venison. All in all it was a knockout again. Courtney was introduced to Cinzano, a common vermouth drunk down here. It is currently her favorite drink.
Sunday, December 31st (New Years Eve Baby!):
I should mention that the night before, Courtney had decided to plug her hair dryer into the outlet. She used my power converter, but this did not save us from, the inevitable... you guessed it, power outage. Thankfully, I have a cool landlord who came on Sunday to help resotre the electricity. We slept without AC for a night, but managed to live through it. Thanks, Courts... ;) (she's very sensitive about it, so be sure to tease her a lot)
It was pretty hot out and there wasn't much open, but that wasn't going to stop us. We headed to Plaza Cortizar to have a light breakfast and do some reading. We then headed to the Botanical Gardens.
This is a really beautiful park in the Northern area of Palermo that has many beautiful statues and is overrun with ferral cats.
These statues represent the 1st, 4th, and the 5th movement of Beethoven's 4th Symphony. In person they are truly breathtaking.
After wandering around some more in the heat and realizing that nothing else was open, we found a cafe and chilled out.
Later that night, we went to a New Years Eve Party that we knew about through this American couple I had met the night I went to Casa Saltshaker. Here we are before going out.
We're so cute. Here are some pics of us at the party.
That glitter shit was very annoying. I had to take a shower to get most of it off. New Years eve was similar to Christmas in that there were fireworks EVERYWHERE. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it, on ly that once midnight hit they appeared to be more and more frequent. They were exploding all over the city, and usually no higher than the 20th story of buildings. This made for a very exhilarating (and a little scary) show of lights and sounds. I tried to capture some of it on camera.
I have a video as well, but it's a little big, so you'll have to wait as I figure out how to post it.
So that's all for now. I have more to show you, including our awesome visit tot he Recoleta Cemetary, but we must head out for dinner now. Keep checking for more updates.
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