The Buenos Aires Pub Crawl

Guess what . . . . I have a job!! When I first got here I found a Craigslist posting from a group that organizes bar hopping events (side note: Craigslist is absolutely amazing and I don't know what I'd do without it). Its called the Buenos Aires Pub Crawl and its a group of people (mostly from the States) and they take the people who come (mostly international travelers) out to a bunch of bars and then to a boliche (i.e. a dancing club). My job is to promote and to help out at the events. Its a bit different than most of the jobs I've had but so far I like it. Its fun plus I get to meet a bunch of interesting people from all over the world. And best of all, my coworkers all seem like great people too work with. Don't worry . . . . I'm still being responsible and I'm not going to get caught up in anything (I already got a lecture from my Dad jaja). Maybe this will be my little reward for busting my ass so hard while I was in the States last. So far its been a pretty good reward.

Besos

To Experience . . . .

You may already know this but I have this weird obsession with lists. I make lists for everything. Shopping lists, to-do lists, to read lists . . . I probably have a list for every other day of the year. Strange, I know. But anyways, today I turned one list into a bit of art/decoration. These are all the things I want to experience while I'm down here (most are in Argentina but not all). Somehow last semester I didn't end up doing a lot of the things I had planned so this time I am determined to experience them! And now its a little bit of decoration and a little bit of reminder above my desk. If there is anything big I missed, let me know.

P.S.
Two posts in one day means that this blog has become my second favorite way to avoid actually doing my reading for class . . . .

Olavarría

For Semana Santa (aka Holy Week) I took a mini vacation to the town of Olavarría which is the hometown of Santi and Majo (two people I lived with last semester). It was about a 7 hour bus ride that flew by because Norma (former roommate), Christo (also lived at the Resi last semester) and I slept the whole time. Friday we got a little tour of the town, had fish and rice for dinner and then enjoyed a bit of the night life. For me, Saturday was the best part of the trip. We woke up and around 11 we drove out to Santi's parent's country house. It was about an hour drive through fields and farms and it looked surprisingly like the drive on I-5 when you are north of the grape vine. Just flat fields with occasional houses or clumps of trees. We ate an amazing asado that was mostly carne (i.e. cow meat). Mmmm and my favorite is the choripan! After eating copious amounts of meat we all laid around in the grass outside and napped. The weather was absolutly perfect and it was the most relaxing thing I've done in a long time. When we woke up we enjoyed some mate and fracturas (little pastries with a fruit filling or chocolate drizzeled). Then we explored the camp a bit and saw the horses, mini ponies, sheep, cows, orchards and miles and miles of pastures. By the time we finished the sun was setting and it was absolutely breathtaking. It was a really nice día en el campo. Saturday night we had more yummy home cooking and checked out more of the nightlife.

Sunday we went to Majo's parent's house for lunch. Again we had a delicious asado but with different kinds of meat than the day before and great red wine. I was brave and I tried liver, lamb and something else (I still don't know what it was). Of the three the only thing I didn't like was the liver, ewwww. After lunch we had some ice cream and chocolate eggs (because of course the commercial parts of the holiday exist everywhere . . .). In the afternoon me, Santi, Majo, Norma and Christo all piled into Majo's dad's truck and he drove us back to BsAs. But since it was the end of a long weekend we of course hit a ton of traffic trying to get back into the city. So Majo's dad decided to take a short cut and explore a bit. We ended up driving through probably 25 or 35 miles of country back roads but it worked and we got around what a huge traffic jab that was probably because of an accident.

Overall it was a really great weekend and here are the rest of the pics. I love going home with people and getting a glimpse of family life outside of the city. It is also refreshing to be in a house, with a loving family eating "mom's" delicious home cooking." Jaja. This trip did re-awaken my desire to get out and travel more while I'm here. I spent quite a bit of today planning out some of the trips I want to make and trying to decide when I'm going to go where . . . .

Chau, besos.

Sunday Morning

I think there is a good chance that this is the most unproductive I've ever been. Even when I was in Msvl for two months with absolutely no responsibilities I got more done than I have in the past week or so. And with the holidays I know next week will be more of the same. Ehhh I hate feeling like this but sometimes I just don't know how to get out of it. Hopefully once I have more responsibilities and get into a more regular schedule it will get better.

Oh I did have a big achievement today though! My Señora is out of town for two weeks and when I woke up this afternoon (yes it was past 12) the internet wasn't working. So I fiddled with equipment a bit but still, no internet. So . . . instead of giving up I found the number and called tech support. I talked to the guy and he walked me through what I had to do to fix the connection. I am posting this so obviously I got it to work. Now, the exciting part of all this is that it was all in Spanish! I mean tech support or customer service can be hard and a major pain in the ass in general, but doing it all in your second language (and I don't know computer jargon in Spanish) is hard! So ya, I was very pround of myself.

P.S.
Did you know that hotdogs taste absolutely amazing at 5:30 in the morning??

Classes, Cooking, Conversation

I can't believe its been almost a month already. It is kind of scary, how fast time goes by. Every year just goes by faster than the one before it and everyone tells me that this is the way it will always be. That the older you get the faster time seems to go by. I don't want it to be like that! I want things to pass slowly so I can take everything in and enjoy the little things in each moment.

Ah, anyways . . . things are going well here in BsAs. I changed my schedule around at UBA. I'm now taking History of Argentina and Theory of International Relations. History is a bit boring but I like it because it is giving me a more in depth understanding of things I already know a little about. I've only had one Theory class (I joined the class during 3rd week) but I really really like it so far. The readings are very stimulating and it seems to be quite relevant to my major (go figure from the title and all).

My exciting news: my cooking is improving! I cooked my first real peice of meat the other day. Steak with sauted peppers and onions. Mmmm it was quite yummy if I do say so myself. Even my old standby - pasta - is getting better. I'm figuring out new varieties and new kinds of sauces.

I've also been a little home sick lately too. I think its probably because I was without internet for about two weeks so I haven't really been able to talk to anyone from home. I miss my family so so much. I want them to be here so they can share some of these experiences with me. And I miss all the things I do with my friends from home. I'm sad I'm missing baseball season (but I do get to listen to UOP games online). And I miss my girls in San Diego, especially Dollar Scoop. But, now that I have internet I can start catching up with people I miss and start making arrangements for people to come visit me . . . . yay!