La Mitad

well, it's official - I'm half-way through this South American adventure. What a time it has been. Unfortunately I don't have much time to write a nice reflective entry on all things I've come to realize here - that will have to wait for one of these days when life slows down.

Today I had my final exam for Spanish - level 2. I debated whether to even take the exam since it really doesn't matter at all for me. I've opted to take private lessons for the next two months - essentially for the same price I was paying to be in a class with 8 other people, I can be in a one-on-one setting with an instructor. I'm starting 2 hours of private classes daily on Monday.

The exam today went exceptionally well. I scored 90 percent, which was a huge surprise for me given that I found the material this month quite difficult and also didn't have much time to do homework between traveling, working, studying for my consulting course back home, oh, and, going out partying.

This weekend is shaping up to be incredible. Tonight a bunch of us are heading to a music festival here. The Strokes are playing, along with a bunch of other bands. After that, I'm heading to a party for my Argentine friend Ramiro - it's his graduation party from University. Should be a great time. I originally told him I couldn't make it because of the concert, but reminded me that, this being Argentina, it would be social suicide to show up before 2am anyway!

Tomorrow I'm moving into my new apartment. This place is incredibly sweet and is only a few blocks from where I am now. The neighbourhood (Palermo Hollywood) is truly the best place in the city to live - there are so many great restaurants and bars, and it's so close to the biggest parks in the city, which makes it great for me to get my runs in.

Tomorrow I'm also heading on a Halloween run with the Buenos Aires Hash House Harriers. The guy I'm renting the apartment from runs this group - there are chapters all over the world. Their motto is 'drinkers with a running problem'. Tomorrow will be a 10k run followed by mass quantities of cerveza and food - I think they even serve beer on the run.. which is strangely ironic. Should be a good way to start the evening.

After the run, we're all heading to a birthday party for an Argentine friend of mine.

On Sunday, I unfortunately have to be coherent enough to attend a meeting for my CMC working group in Canada. It's over the internet, but I think I'll be spending most of Sunday morning preparing my material since I'm leading this phase of our project. The deliverable is due November 11th or so, so I'll be happy when that date is past.

That's about it. I'm off to start my 3-day party for this week! chau.

How time flies...

wow.. it's easy to get behind on keeping this blog updated! Let me tell you my life has been quite hectic these days. I've been frantically trying to find an apartment (found a sweet place, thank god), living the good life (i.e. mucho restaurants and fine wine), working, studying, and trying to find time to travel.

This past weekend we went to Montevideo, Uruguay. It's a city of about 1.5 million people, and is much smaller than Buenos Aires. We had a good time there, but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. After having a string of 30 degree days in Buenos Aires last week, I was definitely looking forward to spending some time on a beach (Montevideo is surrounded by water on 3 sides). We were greeted by 12 degree weather, so, unfortunately the beach is going to have to wait for a bit.

I have about 3-4 trips left to take before I'll be ready to return to Canada. My plan for the next few months is as follows:
- Rugby game (Nov. 5th - Argentina vs. South Africa)
- Soccer game (to be determined)
- Trip to Mendoza (home of the best Argentine wines)
- Trip to Iguazu Falls (apparently this place puts Niagara Falls to shame.. It's at the Brazil/Argentine border, so I'll have to make a jaunt across to Brazil!)
- Trip to Mar del Plata (this is the beach destination for Argentina. It's about 4 hours away by car, so it's definitely possible for a weekend trip).

This weekend is shaping up to be quite busy. We're checking out a music festival on Friday (the Strokes are playing) and then hosting another massive party at the residence on Saturday. I should get the keys to my new place this weekend too, so I'll have to find some time to make the move. Luckily it's only about 3 blocks away.

Tonight we're heading out to celebrate the birthday of my roommate Niccola. She's from Ireland and I think is turning 27. Sorry for the shortness of this entry, but I've gotta get some spanish homework done before I head out! chau.

And now, on to the pictures:

- The first picture is a shot I took looking towards the obelisk (obelisco) which is essentially the central point of Buenos Aires. We went to a theatre nearby to see a performance of the Shanghai Circus (like Cirque de Soleil but about one tenth the price).
- The second picture is of the guys I went to Montevideo with. From left: Matt (from Missouri, fluent in Spanish, lived in Montevideo before, roommate at the residence,); Gene (from Arizona, same spanish class as me); Wes (from California, next level up in spanish)
- The third picture was taken on the ferry to Montevideo. I was practicing my juggling and an argentine kid was quite taken with it. I taught him how to juggle (kinda).

"Always go better"

This is what my roommate Marie says. She’s from Germany and is basically the social butterfly of the residence. On her trip to Iguazu Falls last weekend (I’m planning to go in a few weeks) Marie started the ball rolling on a residence party that truly rocked. By the time this morning arrived, more than 100 people had been partying on our rooftop terrace, on a lovely spring night in the heart of Palermo Hollywood, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After being out late on Thursday night, class on Friday definitely tired me out. We’re learning to use the past tenses in Spanish (yes, there are TWO past tenses, basically making it twice as difficult as English!). I expect that using the past tense will make my Spanish conversations much more interesting because I'll actually be able to tell a story, or talk about something other than the present. As of right now, I’m really only comfortable saying what’s happening right at this moment. I.e. I am Blair. I live in Argentina. I work at… etc.

The weather in Argentina has been steadily improving each day too. Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous so I was quite happy to squeeze in a run after work. Our party guests started arriving at 10:30pm so we had the evening to spend preparing food and drinks. Well, the night from there is basically a blur of Spanish/English/beer and wine. I invited a bunch of people from work too, and they managed to make it. We finally decided to head to a club at about 4am, which, of course, is about the right time in this culture.

The problem with the entire evening was that I was supposed to have a group meeting at 8-9:30am for my Certified Management Consultant program. The meeting is via the internet and the rest of my team is in Canada. My original plan was to squeeze in a few hours sleep and wake up for the meeting, but, as the night went on, I began to accept the wisdom of partying straight through till morning.

We left the club around 6am and headed to a restaurant. Argentina doesn’t really do the traditional breakfast of home, so, what we ended up with was the most incredibly massive steak sandwich at about 7am in the morning. That, coupled with two cups of coffee, left me sufficiently wired to attend my meeting.

Of course, immediately after the meeting I took a nice nap and rolled out of bed around 3pm today. I spent the remainder of the day apartment hunting. I’m planning to live with a friend of mine named Gideon from Colorado. We looked at a number of ads today – essentially for less than half of what I’m paying to this residence, we could have a very nice 2 bedroom apartment. One of them even had a Jacuzzi on the balcony. That’s the one I’m pulling for. Stay tuned.

And now, on to the pictures.

The first picture is a shot of the roof. Essentially there were people surrounding all sides. Lots of fun.

The second picture is of me and my colleagues at Deloitte. They're all around the same age as me and have been quite helpful to me in figuring things out around the office.

Oktoberfest - It's not just for Germans and Canadians anymore

Ahh.. Oktoberfest. The festival of beer. The celebration of the harvest (or something like that). This past weekend we continued our exploration of the Argentine countryside by taking a trip to the village of Belgrano in the region of Cordoba to take part in the Fiesta Nacional de Cerveza.

We traveled about 15 hours by bus to get there. Luckily the first 10 hours were in super-first class 'cama' service. Which essentially means a double decker bus with seats that turn into beds. Oh, and they serve you a nice glass of whisky before you go to bed! Sadly, the other 5 hours of travel were decidedly less luxurious.

Anyway, the festival was completely incredible. It was in a huge park, with a large stage of german entertainment and brewery and food stations set up around the outside. As you'll see from one of the pictures above, we all bought steins complete with neck lanyards, which was quite convenient. Also quite convenient was the price - approximately $1.75 to refill the stein. Ahh.. good times.

We stayed at the festival until about midnight (from 5pm) and ended up meeting lots of cool people. I got to practice my spanish lots and was quite happy to get a few compliments on my ability to understand and speak the language. I still feel like I'm progressing a little bit each day, but even everyday tasks remain challenging.

After the festival, a few of us ended up having quite an unpleasant experience. We had heard that it would be difficult to get taxis back to our hotel, but we had no idea what we were in for. Essentially between the hours of midnight and 4am, we were abandoned by our group leader (that's another story altogether!), and three of us had to beg, cajole, and shiver our way home. We luckily were able to bribe an out-of-province cab driver into taking us to our hotel (10 miles away) at 4am. I think he took pity on my broken spanish telling him "tengo frio, tengo mucho dollares" - "I'm cold, I have lots of money". Anyway, all's well that end's well, I suppose.

We returned to Buenos Aires yesterday morning and I caught up on my sleep and homework. Things continue to be great here. It's hard to believe that I've been gone 5 weeks already. This trip has been amazing and, as tough as learning spanish is, I'm motivated by my end goal of one day being fluent in this language.

On to the pictures:
The first row are some shots of the stage and the festival crowd. Typically, Argentines don't drink to get drunk - public drunkenness is pretty rare. All bets were off at this festival.

The second row is a shot of my favourite beer stand there (I bought a t-shirt!) and a shot of me at the gateway to the festival.

The third row is a shot of a few of my friends from the trip. From left: Alejandro (from Argentina - tour guide who didn't know anything); me, Gideon (from Colorado - we're getting an apartment together, cool guy); Christian (from Argentina - very cool guy; speaks perfect english); Wes (from California, studies sculpture); Matt (from Arkansas - wears the Toronto Maple Leafs shirt so people won't ask him about George Bush); and Gene (from Arizona - we've been in the same spanish class for two months now).

Chau!

Skiing in the Andes

Ahh.. What a weekend. This weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to one of the most naturally beautiful places I have ever seen. Bariloche, Argentina is located in the Patagonia region and is approximately a 22-hr bus ride from Buenos Aires. As you'll see in the picture, the ride was made much easier through my decision to pack a bunch of beer! Luckily, it's also a 2-hr flight, so you can guess which option I chose for the return trip to BsAs!

We arrived on Friday evening and proceeded to check into an amazing hostel. For the equivalent of about $8 per night, we had a room for 4 people with a bathroom and had use of the on-site bar, which, of course, was ridiculously cheap. The hostel was filled with cool people, most of which were in a similar situation as us - adventuring in Argentina.

After a late night on Friday, we woke up bright and early to be at the mountain for 9am when it opened. Well, that was our original plan, but, as with everything in Argentina, things take longer than you think, so, after we finally rented all our equipment, bought our lift tickets and took the gondola up the mountain it was about 11am. Luckily, we had about 6 hours until the slopes closed, so it still made for a great day of skiing.

Our first day of skiing was absolutely gorgeous. We were surrounded by mountain ranges as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately, none of us brought a camera up the mountain that day, so we don't have any pictures! The next day, we all brought our cameras, but, as luck would have it, it was overcast for most of the day, which made for better skiing but worse pictures!

The following day I had a bit of a skiing miscue. I wasn't paying attention and, as the ski lift moved close to the ground (midway through the ride up) I got my ski poles caught in the ground and ended up bending them beyond repair. Of course, I figured I could just bend the pole back - which I quickly figured out was not the right strategy when it cracked off in my hand! Of course, I wouldn't let it get me down, so I skiied for a few more hours with broken poles and then explained what happened (in my broken spanish of course!). Amazingly, they didn't charge me to replace the equipment. Well, I think they didn't - hopefully I won't get a surprise on my next credit card statement.

Anyway, I opted to snowboard for the rest of the day. Unfortunately there's no pictures of that because I was smart enough to leave my camera for safekeeping as I attempted to figure out the sport.

This weekend we're heading to Cordoba, Argentina, which is about a 10 hour bus ride away. There's about 12 of us going to the biggest Oktoberfest party in the country. Apparently this region has a huge German immigrant population. Makes me wish I brought my Lederhosen!