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Monday, February 23, 2009

Rain, rain, go away.

We had a cold, windy, and rainy weekend with not a whole lot to do. It ended up to be a good thing because we had the time to figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our trip. My main goal of coming down here was to learn spanish, of which I grossly underestimated the difficultly. After talking, Brent and I decided to take our last month here (April) and give it one more intensive try. We are going to take two weeks of 4 hour a day classes in Santiago, Chile, and one week of classes in Cordoba. Also in the month of April we will be going to Igazu Falls, which is supposed to be fantastic. Even before that (as in next Monday) we will be taking a plane to Mendoza to see the Andes Mountains and all the amazing vineyards in the area. I may even paraglide while I am there! Our friends from New York are going to be there and we are looking foreword to hearing all of their travel stories.
Tommarow we will be going to the Spanish school's Buenos Aires office and seeing what deals we can swing. Speaking of swinging- afterwards, Brent is playing golf and is in a private team beer tournament. Wish him luck! I will be taking a riding lesson and cleaning house and waiting to welcome the conquering hero home.
Later!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Victory is mine!

Sunday was an excellent day. I was in my first horseshow outside of the United States! Brent and I walked over to the barn around 11am and found my trainer. We found some good seats in the stadium and hung out for a bit (yes, you still have to wait around, just like a show at home). I was in two jumper classes, one at 1.0 meter and one at 1.10 meter. Fortunately I was unable to convert meters into feet or I may have chickened out. Well In the 1 meter class I think I got either 1st, or 2nd out of about 12. They don't use regular ribbon colors down here so it was kind of hard to tell, I thought I was second, but then they made me lead the victory gallop, so who knows? I had the first rail in the second class so no ribbon but a ton of fun.
After the show Brent went home and I went back to the barn to help put the horses away, and to ride one of my instructor's sale horses. Unfortunately, said horse and I had a small misunderstanding on the correct way to ask for a lead change and I was put in my place, which is apparently on my ass on the ground. I am fine, just a bit stiff. We communicated much better over the jumps- REALLY NICE HORSE.
After a shower, Brent and I took a bus back to the Feria de Mataderos and had a great time. We saw street musicians, folk dancers, a marching band and many fights with silly string. We sat down to get a sandwich and ended up talking to a group of Argentines about North American music (and I use the term "talking" loosely, I understood maybe 25% and Brent was about 40%). Whatever we said must have been what they wanted to hear because one guy gave us a copy of his band's cd. I think Brent might have accidentally said he knew Frank Zappa personally, rather than saying he knew who Frank Zappa was - a cause for much excitement and statements of undying fan loyalty. We took lots of photos and I will get after Brent to add them to the blog.
Later!

Friday, February 13, 2009

New people, new oportunities

This past week has been a week of change. Our good friends from Texas got an opportunity to start a restaurant in Galveston TX and cut their trip here short. We will miss our partners in crime. We went to their apartment to say goodbye and it was like Christmas! They were kind enough to give us their cell phone, books, and a hair straightener, among many things they won't be taking back to the states. Thanks guys!
Our spanish teacher, Carlos, left for vacation this week, so we started class with a new instructor, Marco. Our first lesson was great, with lots of conversation exercises and even some homework. I am looking foreward to next week's lesson.
Brent played golf with a new guy on Thursday, and surprise- he was Brent's age, not 80! After golf we all hung out at the apartment for a bit and then went to dinner. He has been here for a year and plans to stay for another year so Brent will have a golfing buddy for a while. Its nice to have someone to ask advice on where to travel and what not to miss.
I took 2 riding lessons this week, and today my instructor Leo asked me to show one of their horses in a show on Sunday! I am excited for the opportunity, and also a bit nervous.
Tommarow is Valentines Day and Brent and I plan on going to the park for the day and then a nice dinner. Should be fun!
Happy Valentine's Day to you all!
Later!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Just your average weekend in Buenos Aires

Our Friday started normally enough. I went running in the morning, had a riding lesson in the afternoon, picked up the laundry, and made a rather blah pasta for dinner. I was pretty tired and thought I would make it an early night. Then we got invited out to try our luck at the Puerto Madero Casino.
As Brent and I got in the cab to go, I jokingly said to Brent, I hope you brought your key because I am not staying out till 4 in the morning!
At the casino, which is a huge riverboat with 4 floors and games of every type, we met our friends at the blackjack table. They had been there a while and were beating the house. Brent and I sat down and I discovered that I am just as unlucky in spanish as I am in english. It was a ton of fun. There was one strange man playing at our table. He kept saying something in Italian, grabbing his shirt under one armpit, and then pointing at my friend Deidre. Weird. Oh and later that night Brent, Deidre, and I were getting a drink and talking at the bar next to the roulette table and the same guy stood up from the table and shushed us! I don't think I have been shushed since I was 12 years old in Sunday school. I had to look around just to make sure we were still in a casino bar!
We called it a night and got into the cab to go home, and guess what time it is? 4:30.
Saturday consisted of sleeping and eating and watching the bootleg dvd's we bought 3 for 10 pesos in the subway.Two of the movies, 7 pounds, and Benjamin Buttons, were copies of the film sent out for reward consideration. The third movie, Operation Valkrie, was filmed by someone at the theater. You could see people getting up from their seat, and the guy filming kept coughing and wiggling. Too funny.
Sunday we woke up renewed and decided to check out the Matameros Fair. We took the #55 bus from Plaza Italia and got there around 3 o'clock. Unfortunately they were having a special Carnival event and the fair wouldn't open until 7. So we found an outdoor cafe next to a band and had a snack. While we were sitting there, a couple of girls sat down next to us and we started talking some in english and some in really poor spanish. Turns out that one of the girls is a golf equipment salesperson and almost a professional golfer. The other girl works for a television station as a set designer. I think she designs the set for a soccer talkshow on channel 11- but that's where the really poor spanish may have misled me.
After chatting for a while, we got in their car and headed to Boca to watch the game in a old school bar with some old school fans. Boca won and we headed to Palermo for dinner. We had a great time, spoke more spanish than I ever have, and hope to see a game in person sometime soon!
Later!

Friday, February 6, 2009

I'm Julie, I'll be your cruise director.

For those of you who are The Love Boat fans, you will recognize that line. We have had friends visiting for the last two weeks and had the chance to tour Buenas Aires and its surroundings with fresh eyes. Hopefully our guests had as much fun as we did, and Brent and I did an ok job as "Julie".

We got a chance to take the boat to Colonia, Uraguay while our friends were here. We rented scooters and saw the town and beaches. Unfortunately, the weather was overcast, windy and rainy, so the city wasn't as charming as it could be. Also, if you plan on heading over, tourist class is perfectly fine. Don't pay extra for first class unless you just have money to burn. And when you get off the boat in Uraguay, DONT throw away your boarding pass! When you try to get back on the boat to go home they will ask for your old pass and get pretty bent out of shape if you can't supply it! Overall- we are legal in Argentina for 3 more months!

We had better luck with the weather when we took our friends to Tigre. We went on a Sunday and there were a ton of people, but not so many to make it uncomfortable. When we got off the train we headed to the market (which is huge by the way) for some souvenir shopping. Brent saw some really great looking cowskins for cheap so I am sure we will go back to the market before we come back to the states. He thinks cowskins are going to be the next Members Only jacket or pet rock and wants to try to fill a suitcase with them to sell at home. I'm sure Customs will have no problem with that! After the market we rented a water taxi for a tour of the delta. The boat was small enough, and the river high enough, that we were able to go thru some really small and beautiful canals. The taxi took us to the Alpenhaus Restaurant and Hotel, where we had a great lunch on the river and did some people watching. I think if we moved to BsAs permanently I would have to be friends with someone who had a river house!

We really enjoyed playing tour guide and seeing our friends from home, but I am a bit worn out. I need a vacation from their vacation!
Later!