Traveling for Adventure

Dog on!

2011-04-25T11:48:00.002-04:00

This Sunday our dog Ramona took her first steps off of dry land and lept (in all honesty was carried and shoved) into our world of sailing. Our day at the boat began as usual with some boat improvement and maintenance. Once again, Brent totally surpassed all my expectations. He was able to dive under the boat, find the spot on the keel to attach a cable and then find the tiny hole in the bottom to shove the cable into so I could attach it to the wench. Presto! We have a working retractable keel!
Once the chores were completed, we shoved off of the dock,and off of another dock, and off a boat, and off another boat and headed out to open water. Apparently the change in the keel also changed the response time in the steering. Oh well at least we didn't damage anything.
The weather was perfect and Ramona handled the wind and the waves like an old salt. She wasn't a huge fan of heeling over but gained confidence over time and best of all she did not get sick. Our little boat was flying on a broad reach the whole way home, taking half the time to return as it did to go out. Brent took a turn at lowering the sails and then skippered us into a perfect landing back into our slip.
After settling our boat we headed out to the deck for a beer and Ramona met a fellow boat dog named Amber. After Ramona got her land legs back they ran and played and swapped stories of the sea. Well maybe not stories of the sea, but they did take turns smelling each other's butts. I think she will make a fine sailor!
Later!

Taking out the 'rents

2011-04-18T15:05:00.002-04:00

A lot of progress has occurred within this last week. We have done some sanding, painting, sleep area modifications, and most amazingly, Brent has given us POWER! Also we had our first passengers on a sail and have met many fellow boaters at the marina. Yeah us!

Last Sunday we took my parents out for our first passenger sail. I was a little uptight about the whole deal, knowing that my mom tends to be a worrier and my dad is a bit of a control freak. I could just imagine the stress ramping up in blood pressure and vocal volume if our parking shenanigans go the way they have been - mainly bouncing into every boat (softly) on the way back to the slip with the two of us debating about which way to push the rudder while holding the reversing propeller in the water. Add the 'rents and we have a recipe for disaster! Fortunately (miraculously) we had perfect sailing weather, had a fantastic time and were able for the first time to back into our slip without any problems. After getting the boat put away, we headed to Scuttlebutts for a drink and a snack. From the animated conversation I could tell that Mom and Dad had a good time.

This weekend we concentrated on getting our boat into condition. I spent what felt like 20 hours polishing all the metal and sanding the teak. I now know why Popeye has such big forearms! I also did some interior painting and helped Brent cut boards for the sleeping areas. Brent really impressed me by getting all our battery power working like it should. We celebrated by staying out on the boat way after dark for a game of cribbage.

Our next goal is twofold. Brent wants to take the next electrical step and get shore power working, and I want to try sailing out of the pass into the gulf. Hopefully between Brent's charity pancake breakfast, Easter, work, and my Dad's bday we will have a chance to even look at the boat this weekend.

Later!

We are sailing!

2011-03-27T22:27:00.001-04:00

This weekend we got our first taste of the sailing lifestyle. Saturday Brent went out and wrestled with the electrical on the boat and then picked me up for a big evening marina style. Pillows and blankets in hand we went out to the boat, dropped everything off and headed to the marina bar to take advantage of the 2.99 oysters and 2.00 beer. I have to say, people near water are a lot nicer than people in general. Brent and I had the chart of St. Andrews Bay out to learn the water depths near us (you will find out later which of us actually looked at the chart) and everyone who walked by asked us where we were headed and offered advice. We met a few folks that kept their boats at the marina and ended the night at our new friend Adrian's boat for a little live music.

Sunday morning we awoke to the sound of waves lapping on the hull and jumped into action. We ran home for a little breakfast and to let Ramona out and pick up some Subway lunch for later. The weather was warm but overcast but no rain in the forecast. By 11:00 we were back on the boat, motoring out.

We started out one step at a time. Mainsail up,back and forth across the bay. The wind and tide were working against us and we seemed to be making absolutely no headway. Brent and I both took turns at the tiller with about equal success. On my turn we finally got a break on the wind and picked up enough speed to do a smooth tack. Suddenly we just seemed to stall. As I am looking at Brent trying to understand why the boat isn't turning, he gives me the fantastic info that yes, I have managed to run us aground. No problem, we have a retractable keel! Unfortunately when Brent went to wind it up all that came up was a broken wire. Note to self: sign up for Sea Tow Monday! Luckily the tide was in our favor and we were soon on our way.

After a lunch break we got daring and put up the jib sail. Holy crap! We increased our speed by about 80% and both of us got our real first taste of the excitement of sailing. We had our little boat screaming thru the bay to the point we were a bit awed by the power of the wind-yeah right, we were more or less scared x!&*less! Still a ton of fun!

After 5 hours of fun we brought our boat safely back to the marina and wrestled the bitch back into the slip with both of us having the biggest feeing of accomplishment. I think this sailing thing might be for us!

Til next time!

Fran

what a nice post!

2011-03-16T23:52:00.002-04:00

Ah yes, the boat. I commend Fran for spending so much time and effort cleaning the boat. It really does look nice and we had a wonderful time last night. However, tonight, the eve of our trip to New Orleans and family vacation, the markets took it on the chin, and here I sit feeling very uptight. Now I know why pot is the drug of choice for stockbrokers. Worrying about other people's money is unnerving.

I will likely spend a lot of time on the boat over the summer because it is very relaxing. I think learning to rely on wind and water and your equipment will be much more fun. Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear unrest is not good for the soul or people's retirement plans.

The runup of the Yen, municipal bonds, government deficits, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, regional managers, rental properties, and non-profit fundraisers make sailing sound like a dream. And by the way, if I win the lottery, I want $2ook for the rest of my life and I promise to give the rest of it away to charities all over the world as I travel by sail.

Get it back together world. I want to enjoy sailing and seeing the world without so much stress.

first night

2011-03-16T21:05:00.002-04:00

In my brain I have been imagining sitting on a boat, having a beer, and looking across the water discussing life's questions. After 5 hours of killing mildew and Kmarting for pop lights I got to fulfill that first ambition.

Brent and I hung out at the spiffy clean boat last night after dining on $1.99/doz oysters from the marina bar "Scuttlebutts". Holy crap! $1.99?!? Our bartender Sarah sp? was super. We sat in our boat till the dew set in and had a fantastic night dreaming and planning our Summer on the water. I think I might have a hard time getting Brent to leave the dock. He is a bit afraid to move onto the next stage of our adventure- learning how to sail. He is way too good at imagining the worst case scenario- out of gas, no wind, run aground, sea monsters, giant octopus- you name it, he's contemplated.

Fortunately he will have at least a weeks reprieve as we leave tomorrow for New Orleans and from there a cruise to Mexico with his family for a week. Maybe we will get a chance to sail some Cats to get his confidence up! Anyways I know I will be chomping at the bit to get back and test out our new toy. Hopefully I won't lose sleep worrying about her while we are gone.

Later!

We gotta boat and a dream

2011-03-14T21:32:00.002-04:00

I know its been a long time. What can I say, we have been wrapped up in the mundane day to day existence that is living in my parents' guest house, going to work, and trying to save money for our next big adventure.

After about a 6 month debate on what we should do next - move to Holland, get a VW van and drive the PanAmerican highway, join the Peace Corps, live for a year in an all inclusive resort- we finally decided on buying a sailboat and traveling the world. I should probably let you know that neither Brent or I have ever sailed a boat bigger than a 12 ft dingy and have never been out of sight of land. Thats OK, if it was easy then it wouldn't be an adventure!

We decided to start our blog again to keep track of our progress toward our goal and hopefully entertain you guys while we are at it.

In the last few months we have put our preparations into high gear. Brent went to a boat show with my Dad, we got a subscription to the magazine Attitudes and Latitudes, spent way to much time on Sailboat listings.com looking at boats, and discovered that we need a lot of training before we will be ready to set sail.

Our first step was enrolling in Sea School (thanks Mom and Dad) to learn the rules of the road and how to read and plot a chart. After 2 weeks of intense study both Brent and I passed our class and qualified for our 6 pack captains licence. We will be legally be allowed to take up to 6 people out on a boat for money as soon as we take a drug test, take a cpr class, and the real stumper, get lots of hours of sea time. How do we get sea time without a boat?

In order to move toward our goal of living on a sailboat and sailing the high seas we need to get some time on a boat. After a search on Craig's List looking up everything from Hobie Cats to Sunfish, Brent found us a sailboat that seemed too good to be true- a 26ft 1979 Helms sailboat for only $1700! We found a slip in a nearby marina called Sun Harbor for cheap and our new "practice boat" arrived today. And so the adventure begins...

2009-10-27T14:36:00.001-04:00

Home again, home again, jiggity pig

2009-05-11T18:03:00.003-04:00

It truly felt that South America did not want us to leave. First the bus incident in Mancora, then a wonderful 10 hour delay of our flight to Buenos Aries. This layover had the added bonus of a Grippe de Cerdo scare. Everyone in the airport was wearing surgical masks (except us and the old man and small child sitting behind us coughing furiously). I have a hard enough time understanding Spanish-the last thing I need is something to make it sound more muffled! We finally caught our plane around 9pm and arrived in Argentina at 2am. I was really disappointed and felt cheated out of my last night in that great city.
The next morning we did some last minute shopping and went to my favorite empanada place, Remanio's, for one last south of the equator hot pocket and a liter of beer. Then it was back to the airport for our 10hour flight back to the EEUU.
Our flight was uneventful, aside from noticing how incredibly rude and impatient Americans (in this case stewardesses) are to people who do not speak English. It is as though we go out of our way to make foreigners feel stupid and unwelcome. I mean, if you are serving coffee and tea and a passenger asks for a cafe con leche, I would think you can figure it out without adding attitude or rapid fire questions in English to the mix. Thank god almost every single person I had dealings with in South America were kind, helpful and tried to make me feel welcome. The behavior I witnessed from the USA airline and airport workers made me a little embarrassed to be an American.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we were completely surprised to see our friend Jason at baggage claim waiting to take us to our temporary home here in Atlanta. I know for sure our friends would go out of their way to help others, lord knows they have all bent over backward to help us throughout our incredible journey.
I know it seems as though the interesting material for this blog may have dried up, but I plan on continuing to write and keep you updated on our next adventures. Thailand? Amsterdam? the Pan American Highway? We will keep you updated!
Later!

Ciao Peru

2009-05-04T09:17:00.003-04:00

We had an awesome time in Mancora, Peru. The town is a small surf town that makes you think what America's beaches might have been like 50 or 60 years ago. No highrises, no chain hotels, but lots of little mom and pop hostels. Ours was named WaWa's and was located about 70 feet from high tide. This was also the local surfer hangout, due to its prime location right at the point break.
Brent and I spent a lot of our time sitting in the sun, but we did get out and move a little bit. We took surfing lessons and I really loved it. How about that, a sport I like that I can get into for less than $300. Maybe not a great sport for Atlanta, but I will be in Panama City Florida for a while so maybe I will be able to keep it up. Brent took some kite surfing lessons. He learned to fly the kite very well and was able to practice in the water some, but ran out of wind and time before he could attempt the board and kite together. I went running a few times and explored the area. On the first run I headed out and ended up seeing where the real people of Mancora live. Kinda scary. I took a wrong turn at the beach an was in the middle of shanty town. No power, not sure about running water, but surprisingly neat. Still I was a little nervous being "white american girl with ipod alone" but made it thru without incident. I have found that every Peruvian I have met has been extremely friendly and helpful.
We met a fellow American at our hostel named Earl. He was traveling alone from California and we hit it off immediately. I got a lot of surfing pointers from him, as well as some really funny and interesting stories.
Our last day in Mancora was supposed to be Friday, leaving on the bus at 5pm. However, when we arrived at the terminal, we learned that it was labor day and no busses were running. You would think they might tell you this when you buy your ticket 5 days earlier. Fortunately we had wiggle room in our schedule and were able to enjoy a bonus day at the beach.
We are flying out of Lima this morning and will be spending our last night in South America in Buenos Aires. I am looking forward to seeing my adopted home again and am sad it is only for a one night stand. Well, gotta finish packing.
Later!

bring on the beach!

2009-04-22T09:28:00.002-04:00

I have found that 4 weeks in Lima is about 3 weeks too long. The people here are amazingly friendly, the city is safe, the spanish school is well run, it's just, well, boaring. Lima is too much like any other city in the states. I have eaten more fast food and watched more tv than I have in the last 5 months. I know that is my own fault, but the other options feel touristy and like a rip off. I can't really explain it, but I know I can't wait to see some other parts of this country.
We are headed to the northern coast of Peru, to a town called Mancora, on Friday. It is a 17 hour bus trip; I look forward to looking out the window and seeing some new landscapes.
We have 3 more days of school, unless the learning god strikes me with lightening I have not learned nearly as much spanish as I thought I would. I feel that I tried really hard but language does not come easy for me. Hell, I have a hard time with english pronounciation! ( Just ask Brent the story of Cheyenne.) We hope to continue taking classes in the states because I don't want to forget everything I fought to learn on this trip. Speaking of learning it is time for class so-
Later!

In sickness and in health

2009-04-19T18:16:00.002-04:00

On Friday Brent woke up with a sinus infection and was pretty miserable for most of the weekend. After class he came straight home and went to bed. I felt fine so Sarah and I went out for manicures and pedicures- only about $15 total! One of the girls was learning english so we had fun correcting her pronunciation of difficult words, like sausage. Listing to a young woman trying to say sausage over and over cracked us all up. She had a good time trying to fix my pronunciation as well. Sarah's pronunciation is fine, but some of the things that come out of her mouth...A 50ish balding american man came into the shop with two 20something, spanish speaking girls, one on each arm, and Sarah asks, "Are they your daughters?" Oops!
After our day of beauty we returned to the apartment to pick up Nate for dinner. We went to parque Kennedy to a restaurant we had been to before and apparently had tipped too well the last time, becuse we had 2 waitresses fighting over serving us. Unfortunately after the battle was over, the girl who won kinda sucked. Sarah and I ordered margaritias and when we got them, about 15 minutes later, they were so strong that we couldn't drink them. We sent them back for more mixer and didn't see them again until we were done eating. They tasted the same, except strangely a bit colder. Oh well.
There is a tiny bar across the street from the apartment that had a band so we stopped in on our way home and listened to a Beatles/Rolling Stones cover band. Sarah was the first to call it a night at around 12, I headed in about 1:30, and Nate headed to the casino and did not return untill 4ish! Good times.
Saturday after a late lunch we had to say goodbye to our friends. They caught a bus north to continue on their trip to Equador. Hopefully we will meet up again back in the states! Brent seems to have recovered from his illness and we will probably go out for dinner and then get ready for our last week of spanish classes, I can't believe they think I am an intermediate!
Later!

The whirlwind that is Lima

2009-04-17T16:59:00.002-04:00

It has been a few days and we have been fairly busy. Our friends decided to prolong their stay in Lima. We have been having fun with them at night and working hard at school during the day, so something had to give- sorry!
This week we went to dinner with a couple from Lima who spoke minimal english. You would think that would make for a pretty quiet evening, but fortunately Sarah is getting pretty good in spanish and at the reduced rate of speed I was able to understand most of it, and even participate a little. We went to a parrilla in Barranco and had a great meal, I think I like the meat (especially the chorizo) better here than Argentina. Blasphemy!!!
Wednesday was the highlight of my week. After class a group of us met up and headed out for a little parapente-ing. For those of you not in the know, a parapente is similar to a parachute, a hanglider, and a kite. You stand on the edge of a cliff attached to a guy and parachute thing already full of wind. Then you take a few running steps off the cliff and you are flying! I had a great time with spectacular views and a few scary moments- my guide decided to do a few acrobatic maneuvers- and a beautiful landing 15 minutes later right back where I started. Amazing! Others, however, were not so lucky. Brent and Nate both took off smoothly but apparently had eaten too many cookies, because both of them ended up down on the beach and had to cab it back up the cliff with their guides. Needless to say they got a bit of teasing. My guide was Marco Antonio Mercado www.tandemperu.com and I would recommend him without a doubt. Interestingly, there were no releases signed before we took the jump. I have a sneaking suspicion that all casualties from this sport are drug out into the sea and never mentioned again-that would be bad for the tourist trade! Anyway our group made it back safe and sound.
The rest of the week was spent preparing for our test today. Brent and I both passed with flying colors, Brent flew a little higher than me and brought in a 94, I didn't hit the beach, but I was a bit lower with an 87.4. I am not as good as Brent in the oral section (that's what she said...ha), but do a little better with the grammer.
Tonight unfortunately Brent is not feeling well and has a bit of a fever so he will be unable to join the rest of us for a night of celebration and carousing; we will just have to have fun without him!
Later!

Felize Pascua

2009-04-12T14:54:00.002-04:00

We spent Easter weekend with our friends in Lima, rather than heading to the beach. After many days of travel and roughing it, Sarah and Nate were very content to stay in one place for a bit. On Friday we headed to Barranco for dinner and then back to the apartment for some cards and scrabble. I lost at every game and called it a night. Brent, on the other hand, won at cards, lost at scrabble, and then decided to head to the casino around 2am. Bad Idea. We will leave it at that.
On Saturday we went down to the ocean for breakfast and looked around the mall a bit. Apparently I should stay away from either raw fish or roadside eggrolls because my stomach was not 100%. Who knew? After breakfast and a nap, Sarah and I went for a walk around and did some shopping. Last night we went to a great restaurant and listened to some music before returning home for a rematch of cards. I lost again.
We began Easter sunday getting back to our North American roots- all you can eat Sunday Brunch. I ate my weight in french toast. We are planning to go bowling this evening after a busy day of scrabble and watching the masters in spanish. Should be fun!
Happy Easter!

Semana Santa? Is he anything like Christmas Santa?

2009-04-09T16:41:00.001-04:00

This week is Semana Santa which is the holy week leading up to Easter and apparently has nothing to do with Santa Claus. School is closed tomorrow as well as most of the stores. Since we have a long weekend ahead of us, we are going to do as the locals do and head to the beach! Our freinds are coming in on Friday, and Saturday morning we a hopping a bus to Playa Asia which is about an hour or so away.
Yesterday Brent and I went on a school excursion to the city market which is very much like a huge flea market. If you have a need for any kind of pirated brand name goods from Calvin Klien perfume to Quicksilver skateboards, this is where you go. We bought a few dvds to watch for ourselves and a bunch of kid disney type movies to give as gifts. In total we came away with 12 dvd for $12. Can't beat that, right? The only problem is...All the animated movies are in, you guesed it, Spanish. Oh well I have always thought it was easier to learn another language while you are young.
After the market, we took a cab to a new barrio called Barranco. It lies on the coast and is very scenic. We walked around for a bit and found a restaurant to sit on the deck and watch the sunset. The restaurant is named El Delfin and we had the best waiter,Louis, that I have had in almost 6 months. He helped us with our spanish and brought us samples of local dishes. We tried choclo, which is like eating the half popped kernels in the bottom of the popcorn bag, only bigger, we had our first pisco sour, some delicious ceveche, and a dessert which unfortunately I cannot remember the name of, but was like a small funnel cake with honey instead of powdered sugar. After dinner we joined the staff downstairs to watch some futbol.
Brent has been having some luck at the casino; winning another $100 soles from the house the other night. I let him go on his own, there is no sense in me loosing cash on one side while he wins it on the other.
Tonight we will probably go to the grocery story and have a quiet night at home. We need to rest up for our beach weekend !
Later!

You know you had a good time if you spend the next day in bed

2009-04-06T16:11:00.003-04:00

Friday night was a long, fun night. We started the evening at the apartment of one of the students from school. His apartment was a little small, which was good for forcing people who don't know each other to talk and get to know each other. There was music, food and drinks, and a mix of people from school and locals as well. At about midnight the party moved to a dance club called Sargent Pepper's. It was really fun. The space was like a big courtyard with barstools and countertops in one section, and a big dance floor in another. There was also a separate room kind of outside with tables and chairs. The music was mostly from the USA, with a few latin songs mixed in. After we were all sweaty and tired we hopped in a cab and headed to a casino. Brent learned how to play a new poker game and was very successful. I, on the other hand, stuck to blackjack and had my usual bad luck. At about 5am I called it a night and walked back to the apartment. Brent didn't leave till they shut the place down at 6am!
Needless to say, our Saturday was a little slow in starting and consisted mostly of eating and sleeping. I did some laundry and we had indian food delivered.
Sunday we got off to an early start. We walked down to the Larcomar (the outdoor mall on the ocean) and had the breakfast buffet. Oh my God it has been sooooo long since we have had breakfast! Sausage, eggs, french toast- it was great. After breakfast we took a walk down to the ocean and watched the surfers. It is really easy to get lessons to learn, there are booths set up about every 50 feet were you can sign up. Brent and I are both considering giving it a try before we leave. Then we headed up to catch a double decker bus tour of the historical parts of the city outside of Miraflores (our barrio).
The downtown portion of Lima, while it has many old and beautiful buildings, is very dirty. Not with garbage or graffiti, but with the smoke from cars and buses. All the buildings had a black film on them and after we were done, I felt like I had a film on me as well. We got to see a lot of neat churches and palaces, but my favorite place was the catacombs under the monastery. There we piles and piles of bones and skulls- creepy! When we returned home we were worn out and called it a night so we would be ready for our next week of school on Monday. I have a bit of homework from class today so...
Later!

Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin...

2009-04-03T19:14:00.002-04:00

Holy cow it is already Friday and we have finished a week of school! It feels like we just got to Lima yesterday. I will say we did fit in quite a lot in our first week.
We found a apartment. It is the largest and most comfortable apartment yet if you can get past the lack of ac and no balcony. There are, however, incredibly large sliding windows that open all the way and make me feel as though I should have some kind of saftey harness on every time I walk past them- we are on the 10th floor!
We have been to see 3 bands at 2 different bars playing 3 different types of music. We have made some friends and went with them to watch Peru get clobbered by Brazil in a world cup qualifier. We have walked down to the ocean to see the sunset and taken a walking tour of our barrio. I have sampled some delicious seafood, tried grilled beef heart (surprisingly good!) and drank a soda called Inca Cola which is bright yellow and tastes like pink bubblegum. Tonight we are meeting up with some friends from school to go to a party. I guess I should be saying holy cow it's only Friday!

Wanna make some money? Bring AIR CONDITIONING to Lima!

2009-04-01T20:21:00.002-04:00

Well we committed to an apartment today, and we should finalize things tomorrow and possibly move in tomorrow as well. I have to admit, it is not my favorite becasue it does not have a balcony or AIR CONDITIONING! No one has air conditioning here. The school doesn't, the restaurants don't, the hotels don't, no one! But the place has plenty of room, internet, tv, a full kitchen, washer, and all the plates, dishes, etc. and is a short walk to the school. We will actually have enough room to have guests over for dinner, cards, drinks, etc. So, Fran and I look forward to it anyway.

We walked around yesterday after class and found ourselves looking out over the pacific ocean, full of surfers, from the cliffs just a few blocks from our apartment. It was also sunset, so it was breathtaking. This city has really surprised us. Why don't more people break out of the rut and visit places like this? It would change your whole perspctive on other governments, and people that visit us in the states. I'll just stop there.

They have really good food here! Lots of seafood, good steak, cheap lunches, 14 soles for both of us today, that is about $4 for lunch for two. You can only take $100 per transaction out of the ATM, so that is kind a pain in the ass when you need to pay rent. Oh, well, we are glad to have such a great bank that eats those fees for us, thanks Private Bank.

Fran promises more pics tomorrow!

We are in Lima. Where are all the beans?

2009-03-31T15:59:00.004-04:00

We have been in Lima for 2 days and so far it is nothing like I expected. The city is clean and modern, the people friendly, and I haven't seen a single bean. I have however had some delicious seafood, listened to some great live music, and met some nice people of all ages in our spanish school. The only thing I would change is our housing, and Brent is working on that. Our apartment through the school is hot and does not have a real kitchen. We will be looking at apartments tomorrow.
I am very glad we decided to go back to school for our last month in South America. There is nothing like being forced to practice for 4 hours a day with people who are as interested as you are about learning. The students here are a little more diverse than in Argentina. There are the students just out of college, but there are also two women here who I am pretty sure are even older than me!
We took a brief walking tour of our immediate area yesterday, and this afternoon we are going with some classmates to a park with some kind of light show with fountains. I have no idea what to expect, but if it is anything like the rest of our trip I am sure I will be pleasantly surprised!
Later!

Lastima Dia

2009-03-28T20:42:00.002-04:00

Today was our last full day in BA. It sucks sucks sucks sucks....sorry got on a roll there. We spent the day a little hung over because last night we hooked up with our only authentic, born here, raised here, friend at The Drink Gallery and ended up talking till 4:30 in the morning. His girlfriend was really nice (first time we have met her) she is from Finland and speaks great english but is like me as far as being timid to speak spanish. We swapped some amusing stories about misunderstandings in spanish. For instance, you would never say estoy sucio if you were trying to tell someone you were sweaty and dirty, because you would essentially be saying I am a dirty girl -wink wink. Anyway it was entertaining to have someone besides Brent to talk to.
We woke up this morning and finished our last errands. We went and bought a new duffle bag, Brent dropped off our excess luggage at the bed and breakfast, and I donated our excess clothes. I still have to clean the apartment tomorrow, but aside from that, we are ready to go.
Argentina played Venezuela this evening in a world cup qualifier so we went down to our sports bar and watched Argentina put a whupping on those whimpy commies! 4-0. There was a group of guys watch the game with their dog. Every time Argentina scored the dog went crazy! After the game the dog got on a motorcycle (and this was a big dog) and rode away with his owner the whole way down the street popping a wheelie!
As we walked home, I knew we had good karma following us when Brent found a 10 peso bill laying in the sidewalk right around the corner from our apartment. It was almost like Argentina was trying to bribe us to stay (or paying us to leave; kinda a half full, half empty proposition).
Anyway you pour it, we are off to Peru tomarrow!
Later!

The lions are pacing

2009-03-27T16:43:00.003-04:00

Today Brent and I are trying to get everything packed up for our trip to Lima. Neither one of us wants to do it and spend a good bit of the time pacing around our small apartment, bumping into each other. The second one of us goes into the bedroom to make an attempt, the other jumps onto the computer to look up something "useful"- like do people in Peru use pepper as a table condiment? Well maybe not that obscure, but clearly the internet is being used as an avoidance mechanism.
We just have so much stuff! We didn't even buy anything! We are giving a garbage bag of clothes away before we leave and I still don't think we are going to fit everything in. We fly out of here on Sunday and tomorrow we are going to drop off a few bags at the bed and breakfast we will be staying at when we return. Thank goodness they were nice enough to let us do that, or we would have had to hire Peruvian sherpas to get our bags from the airport to our lodging. We will be staying in a shared apartment thru the school for the first week, and then we may try to find our own place. It will be nice to have a daily routine and I think fun to live with some different folks for a while.
I am not sure about internet access in Peru so I may be a bit hit or miss with the blog for the next few days. Be assured I will get back to it as soon as possible!

3 more days

2009-03-26T19:18:00.003-04:00

I thought I might jot down the names of some of the places we have enjoyed while we have been here so at least I would have a record for the next time we come down.

Restaurants:

Las Cholas- really good chicken quesadillas, good beef tamales.

Jackie O's- excellent lamb.

El Cantones- chinese delivery. fried rice mixto is excellent. Also pollo frito con salsa de ostra.

Bokoto- favorite sushi. Buenos Aires roll particularly good.

La Fidanzata- empanadas are cheap and good expecially the cabresse. Great place to watch River play on Sundays.

Parilla Pena- best steaks.

Campo Bravo- excellent pasta dishes.

Palermo subte station- cheap tasty choripan.

Places:

La Rural- great festivals and expo venue

Nuevo Chicago- cheap neiborhood with delish street food and live music

Campo de Golf- Best course for next to nothing

Geba equestrian/ hippocampo

The countdown continues

2009-03-24T21:44:00.002-04:00

Today I had a lesson at the farm. It was not over big jumps. In fact it was over poles on the ground. I could not do it. Could not focus. Too many things going on.
Kinda like what is going on in our lives right now. What are we going to do when we get home? What are we good at? Hell, what can we sell?!? Instead of solving all of life's questions we decided to go watch some polo and get a choripan.
Tonight we went over things we did not accomplish, and things we thought we would find here and did not, and things we thought we wanted to do and did not do. On top of Brent's list was that we did not live in a sleepy little beach town. On top of my list was that we did not find a new meaningful career here and still do not feel comfortable in Spanish. Maybe we will accomplish both in Peru, who knows. All I do know is that I will be back!
Later!

Nancy Negitivity

2009-03-23T18:16:00.003-04:00

I am one of those people who likes to assume that things, places, or events are going to be terrible; so that when they turn out good, I am pleasantly surprised. I am trying to keep that knowledge about myself in the forefront of my thoughts as I consider our move to Lima. To be honest, I know next to nothing about Peru or Lima. Brent's feeling is that is what makes travel exciting, wheras me, Negative Nancy, is feeling like we may have made a hasty decision.
Today we sold all our unwanted books to a book buyer and picked up a copy of Loney Planet's South America Guide. Granted, South America is a large continent with many countries, so there were not a whole lot of pages dedicated to Lima, Peru. 5 pages. Most of them filled with information about the poverty levels, the constant fog, the unmetered taxis, the unsafe areas at night, ect. So, of course, I am a little freaked out. There is a reason I chose to come to Argentina and Buenos Aires in particular- it sounded (through months of research) like a great place. Even without the dose of negativity beforehand I would have been pleasantly surprised. Brent promises to go get a guide book devoted solely to Peru tomorrow. I only hope it will be full of fantastic complements so I can retire some of my fears. Come on, Peru! Surprise me!

Flashback from the past

2009-03-22T20:23:00.002-04:00

They say sound can trigger all kinds of memory from your past. I have to agree with whoever "they" are after listening to a band from my past, Donkey. After about 2 bars of the first song I was transported back in time to when I was 25, carefree, and full of Potential. Donkey is one of the best bands I have ever had the pleasure of seeing live, yet they only lasted a few years, breaking up for God knows why. What could this possibly have to do with our trip to Buenos Aires, you might ask? Well, it is an all good things must come to an end situation. Sometimes you just have to move on.
We are headed to Peru on Saturday to continue on our journey of learning and exploring life outside of the states. I am a bit sad about leaving although I am looking foreward to meeting new people and experiencing a new culture. But... what if they like eating dinner at 6 pm and all the girls wear nothing but turtlenecks and sweatpants? You can only assimilate so much!
Tomorrow we will go back to the school where we started or language learning process and arrange for 4 weeks of classes in Lima and then book our flight and confirm our apartment. Also I am meeting with a local bookseller to sell all of our books, and later go by the salvation army and donate the clothes that I now know I will never wear again. Hopefully that will get our luggage down to a reasonable weight.
I know you can never go back, but I hope when I here the sounds of tango, or the call of an ice cream seller, I will be happily transported back to Buenos Aires, just as I was transported back to those great times in Atlanta by the music of Donkey.

Decision made

2009-03-21T20:12:00.002-04:00

Well here it is- we are going to Lima for a month. We are going to go to school 5 days a week for 4 weeks and experience living in a different country. I have a few concerns; I feel bad about not seeing Cordoba and Iguazu Falls, and I am afraid that I won't like Lima and I will be stuck there for too long. Brent assures me that we will be back to Argentina in the near future and we should leave some stuff to see for next time. So I guess I am on board with this decision.
The major benefit for me is the chance to go to the beach. I spent most of the day online trying to find an apartment with an ocean view. The prices for apartments seem to be inline with the prices here in BA. Other good things about going to Lima are:
1. We won't have to move around once we get there- no housing hassels.
2. We will get a chance to meet up with our friends from New York.
3. Studying at the same school for the 4 weeks straight should cement some knowledge into my brain.
4. Suposedly the spanish they speak in Peru is clearer, slower, less slangy, and closer to real spanish than anywhere else in South America.
5. Lima is much further north, so it should stay warm through our stay.
If this sounds like I am trying to convince myself that this is the right decision, well I guess I am. It's funny, I thought 6 months would be plenty of time to see and do everything I wanted to do, and that I would be ready to come back to the states at the end of the trip. How could I have been so wrong!

The world's shortest blog entry

2009-03-20T19:56:00.002-04:00

Today I finally got Brent to realize that we have to start making real plans for our last month here. He spent most of the day on the computer looking up spanish schools in Peru, Chile, and here in Argentina. We now know more than we did but still no decisions. I vote for sushi, wine and sleep and try again tomarrow!
Later!

Really? Every day?

2009-03-19T18:03:00.002-04:00

Brent and I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out career paths for when we return to the States. We have a few requirements for our careers, the major one being one of us has to make at least $20,000 just to cover our expenses. This fact eliminates job possibilities like taking puppies to the park, or selling friendship bracelets outside the supermarket. Unfortunately, we might be able to squeek by on Walmart pay so that has yet to be eliminated. One job that I have always thought I could do and enjoy is writing. Foolishly, in a drunken ramble last night, I let Brent in on this idea, resulting in me promising to write something on the blog every day. This means, my loyal readers, that there may be some really boring blogs coming your way. I mean, it is great down here, but everyday is not a circus. For instance- today I woke up a little foggy, had a sandwich, got dressed, Brent went to play golf, I went to ride. Blah blah blah.
Oh- but did I mention I met a girl from Sweden who is now riding out at the barn and learning Spanish? I have a new practice partner! Or the guy who rode in my lesson who has 3 horses at the barn and a good sense of humor? I have a new friend! Or the flock of 15 green parrots I walked through on my way home? Crazy nature! Huh. I guess I was wrong. Things could never get boring down here!
Later!

countdown to outtahere!

2009-03-18T19:43:00.002-04:00

Brent informed me tonight that we have exactly 10 days left before we leave BA for parts unknown. I have to admit it depresses me a bit; I love this city. Tomorrow we will be making our final reservations for school in Chile on the coast and Cordoba in central Argentina, not to mention our side trip to Iguazu Falls.
Last weekend was relatively uneventful, we went to the park to study spanish on Saturday, and on Sunday we went to Codigo Pais Festival. What that basically entailed was a $20 peso ticket to go see Atlanta College of Art and Design's Fall Fling. There was some really bad statuary, "outsider art" graffiti, and a bunch of clothing designers selling painted jeans. The photography was pretty good though. It made me think that we could put something like that together in Atlanta pretty easy and make some money. Brent wanted to try to make some money here by simply standing next to the ticket booth and telling every guy who came up to give him $10 pesos to tell him not to go in. Win- win situation; you saved $10 pesos and didn't have to waste your time looking at women's homemade purses and headbands! We left and went to watch some futbol. Much more entertaining!
Later!

Winos on wheels

2009-03-11T21:03:00.006-04:00

We are back in BA after a great trip to Mendoza for the wine festival. We flew in to meet up with our friends from New York and do a little sight seeing on the west side of the country. Overall the trip was fantastic, but it began rather dubiously. The hostel we had reserved was scary. I mean, I've stayed for a week at the Knights Inn in Lexigton, KY and this was worse by far. The paint was pealing, the beds were sagging, the carpet was threadbare, and I think there may have been a homeless man sleeping in the corner under a pile of rags. Needless to say, we found a nicer, although more expensive place to stay, the Hotel Zamora.
There was alot to see and do while we where there. The first day Brent and I rode bikes around the city and its fabulous parks. I hate to keep bringing it up, but why doesn't America have nice parks? This place was huge, with a big lake where people were rowing sculls, a paved trail up a mountain, a zoo, soccer fields, golf, horses, you name it. We had great weather and had a fantastic time. Later that night we met up with Nate and Sarah and went to a parrilla for dinner. The service was great and we got to try something new- teet! What is teet? You might recognize it by it more common name, udder, or maybe cow booby. It tasted a bit like tofu or a spongy piece of fat. I wouldn't recommend it but it was not horrible.
The next day we went on the bike wine tour. Fantastic! Basically they give you a bike and a map and you go at your own pace thru the vineyards. We sampled some fine wines and got an education on how they were produced. Towards the end of the bodega trail some of us would have paid money to throw their bikes in the back of a pick up truck and hitched home, but I won't mention any names. Anyway, we made it back to the bike rental place and then the day took an unexpected turn. We sat around the rental place and had a few beers and then realized that it was getting dark and we were the only people besides the workers left there. We asked one of the guys to call us a cab. About 5 minutes later a guy and a girl pull up in a jeep truck thing with 2 seats in the front and like a pickup all open in the back. That was our ride! We got in, along with the rest of the workers and headed back to the city. We made one stop along the way for gas and beer, the whole time the stereo is blasting The Doors. We tried to explain to the guys that if they did this in the States we would all be in jail. I love Argentina!
The next morning we were off to go rafting. The weather was a little overcast, but they put us in really attractive (NOT) wet suits so I wasn't cold. The river itself was really fun with rapids the entire way. Afterwards we ate lunch at the outpost. There were some guys there from England whose raft had completely flipped over during the trip. Their guide, trying to show off a bit, attempted to open their beers for them but ended up shattering 2 liters of beer and sending a shard of glass into one of the guys arms. Blood and glass everywhere. That evening we saw the parade of queens. Every grape producing town had a float and if was a bit like Mardi Gras without the boob flashing.
Our final day was pretty low key (thank God!). We got together for lunch, went and saw a movie, and then did snacks, wine and cards. I could not win to save my life but had a great time. We called it an early evening (1:30) and went to bed because we had to get up for our flight back home at 5:30. Mendoza Rocks!

I'm feeling awkward

2009-03-01T20:05:00.003-05:00

Brent and I spent our last week golfing, riding and taking spanish. On Saturday I found a free tango concert next to the planatarium that I invited a girl I met named Mary from Germany/Ireland to meet us at. The music was amazing with old guys(maestros) on the accordian, piano and crazy chicks singing their lungs out. Apparently a good voice is not a requirement for fame in tango. Anyway, we hooked up with Mary and went to dinner and had a greatly intersante conversation about politics. Fantastic evening. Unfortunatly she is leaving on Thursday to go back to Germany.
On Sunday we had every intention of going to a polo match butwe were rained out.. Instead we went to our many local bars and watched every soccer game played. Our first team, River Plate lost big time , but our second team, Boca, were the winners in their game.
After soccer, we went to a local bar "The Soul Cafe" and Brent immeadiatly went to the bathroom.. While he was gone these three guys had this bet going on about pick up lines; the line of the night was "I'm feeling awkward". They tried it on me to see what the response wound be... it was laughter. When Brent got out of the bathroom, there was a armwresteling contest, and yet another dicussion about pick up lines. I was ready to go, so we headed out to the patio to smoke another cigerette. While we where there, a really cute girl was walking outside to follow Brent and neglected to open the door befored trying to come outside. I havent laughed that hard in a long time. Once we got home Brent wanted to go to bed, but instead he went out to get a bottle of beer and some smokes. The kiosko said it was too late to buy beer, so he only got smokes, but contnued on to one of our local bars and was able to convince them to sell him beer after hours. YEAH! His skills are getting scary. Until next time, oh yeah, he may want to race dirt bikes when he gets home.

Rain, rain, go away.

2009-02-23T20:13:00.002-05:00

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!

Victory is mine!

2009-02-16T19:30:00.003-05:00

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!

New people, new oportunities

2009-02-13T20:32:00.003-05:00

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!

Just your average weekend in Buenos Aires

2009-02-10T08:27:00.003-05:00

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!

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

2009-02-06T14:31:00.002-05:00

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!

Chino, Ingleterra, y Los Estados Unidos

2009-01-22T15:47:00.003-05:00

We have had a lot going on since last I blogged! We have a new apartment, I went riding at a new barn and met an interesting person, we experienced Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino, had a house guest, and are expecting friends from the States this weekend!
Our new apartment is located about 4 blocks from the old one so we were able to stay in Las Canitas. The new building is huge and very new. The complex has a nice pool, a workout room, laundry, and a bbq area. The only drawback is that the apartment is a bit smaller and desperately needs some balcony furniture. The pool area is pretty busy and I hope I will be able to meet people in the building.

Last Sunday our friend Deidra, Brent , and I went down to Chinatown for Chinese New Year. We got to see lots of dragon dancing, fireworks, crazy street venders selling all the crap like ceramic golden cat statues, chopsticks, fans, and anything else that you might expect to have Made In China stamped on the bottom. The food was amazing. I tried everything they were selling. My favorite was a deep fried glob of dough with some kind of vegetable. Seriously good. While we were there we ran into Dedra's spanish teacher. He seemed really nice and we will probably get some lessons from him while our teacher is on vacation.

Our friend and roomate from Bariloche came into town this week and is staying with us before her return to England. We have really enjoyed hearing about what she has been up to since we last saw each other. She has been spending time traveling the country and stayed in Mendoza, Cordoba, and visited the falls. And an added bonus- she's cooking dinner for us tonight!

Finally, Our friends Chad and Nicci are arriving on Sunday to spend a week or so with us. I am really looking forward to showing them around this city that I have grown to love!

Chill Dude!

2009-01-12T18:38:00.003-05:00

Wow, it feels good to get back to writing again. Fran thinks she has taken over the blog. I guess she has for a little while. Well, as you may have read in Fran's previous blog, she is getting a little bored and paranoid. We have now reached the point where we are not freaking out about where we live, where to buy food, how to get money, how to speak the language, or where the hell to find things in the city. Just the point you are praying to get to when you move to another country. So, now what do we do? That is what Fran has been freaking out about for over a week now.

I have met a local attorney who is origionally from Peru, so he speaks spanish and a fair amount of english, and we get together for golf about twice a week now. He usually invites two more players, so far a few Argentines and a Frenchman, and we play 18 then hit the club bar for a round of drinks and conversation. So each week, I get two additional spanish lessons, golf, and drinks with the "boys", all for the incredible price of about $40 including rental clubs, greens fees, and drinks. So, I must say, I am feeling very positive about Buenos Aires.

Now I know this is not benefitting Fran much, so I have gotten to work. On the agenda:
1. Find her a new riding club- her old one sux!
2. Rent a car and find a place to picnic and see the finish of the Dakar ralley just outside Buenos Aires.
3. Make arrangements for our friend Louise to visit between Jan. 20-24 before she heads to England.
4. Encourage all you people back in the states to come visit!
5. Make a required trip to Colonia, Uraguay to renew our visas and do some day trippin'.
6. Hit the beaches of Villa Gesell again.
7. Book a trip to Iguazu falls.
8. Book a trip and all the acommodations and and fishing trip, wine tour, etc to Mendoza.
9. Head back to Tigre for some R&R at a private club on the river.

I think we are doing fine. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know!!

The parks here are really nice, and you have to let the ladies win sometime or bad things tend to happen ya know.

Like the sands of the hour glass...

2009-01-11T13:37:00.002-05:00

I am one of those glass half empty people. I'm happy and cheerful most of the time but in the back of my mind I am usually waiting for something to go wrong or worrying about something. I have a hard time "living in the moment". Brent, on the other hand, lives in the nanosecond. I guess that is what makes us a good team. I only bring this up because, as is my nature, I have begun worrying that we are not going to have enough time to see and do everything I want to. Are we going to fly to see the falls? Are we taking a bus to Mendoza? How long are we going to stay there? Should we see Salta, or go to Cordoba? How about Uruguay? It gets a bit overwhelming, especially when Brent's opinion usually is "whatever you think." But then again, it is free rein to do whatever I want. Hmmmn...

This week has had its ups and downs. I went from my first experience of homesickness, to never wanting to leave here. (That is until Brent reminded me that they do have Winter here.) We upped our spanish lessons to three times a week, which I am sure will help a lot. We found a new grocery store nearby that has amazingly cheap meat. I bought 2 huge tbone steaks at least an inch thick for $11 pesos! (that's less than $4 US) I have been cooking at home lately and have mastered the steak in a frying pan. I am pretty good with scallops as well. Cooking is kind of a challenge when the oven has only one temperature-f**ing hot, but yet doesn't have the broiler feature. There are 2 frying pans, one tiny, the other huge, and no sauce pans. Just call me the magic chef.

We went to our corner bar on Thursday to watch the college football finals. The game started here at 11pm. I made it thru the first 3 minutes of the 4th quarter and had to call it a night. It was, afterall, 3am! I hate Florida and didn't want to see them win anyway. Also, I am still in my January's Two Weeks Of No Alcohol so it got a little tedious being so close and yet so far. Brent made it through to the end and is not participating in January's Two Weeks Of No Alcohol, so he was a bit out of it in our spanish lesson at 9am Friday!

Yesterday we spent in the park. I packed a picnic, Brent carried the blanket, and we hung out under the shade trees watching the paddleboats on the lake and people trying to learn how to rollerblade- always good for a laugh. Oh, and I woud be remiss if I didn't let you know that I beat Brent so bad in Scrabble that he just quit rather than playing it out to the end. Big baby!

2009's brief bitch and moan

2009-01-05T16:08:00.002-05:00

I figure everyone is allowed to complain about their circumstances at least once a year, regardless of what those circumstances may be. So realize that I know that I am in a fantastic country, with wonderful weather, friendly people, cute husband, and essentially, aside from a few dishes and some laundry, a life of lesiure. But...

I miss my dog, my parents, and my friends. I miss Michalob Ultra. I miss tampons with applicators. I miss being able to speak to strangers, and I miss being able to explain what I need to people who could help me. I think it sucks that all the riding instructors at the barn are on vacation for a month. But the MAIN THING I miss is sleep!!!

Those of you who know me know that I had cancer and while I am fine now, I am required to take Tamoxiphin (sp?). Unfortunatly one of the side effects seems to be either freezing to death or sweating my ass off. Needless to say, it makes for some restless nights. If anyone has heard of anything that lessens these side effects let me know!

There you have it, my 2009 bitch and moan. Now for the good stuff! We took another spanish lesson from Carlos and concentrated on conversation. Brent and I both felt like we got a ton out of it and have upped our lessons to twice a week. Last night we had a farewell dinner at a delish restaurant with the 2 couples we did New Years with. Sara and Nate left today to head to the Southern portion of the country. We are going to try to hook up in Mendoza for the wine festival in March. It was a beautiful day today and we went to one of the parks and layed out in the sun. It was very relaxing, except for a small bird which tried to take Brent down. Fortunatly I was there to help him fend off the beast. Brent has golf tomarrow and I think I'm going to hit the art museum.

Ok, looking back I'm sure you are thinking she sooo has no reason to complain, and well, you would be right!
Later!

New Years Eve like the locals

2009-01-03T10:47:00.002-05:00

Brent and I spent New Year's Eve with our new friends from Texas at thier apartment with another couple from New York. Here in Argentina, New Years is more of a family holiday where friends and family go over to each other's homes and have buffet dinner, play games, drink a bit, and shoot off or watch others shoot off fireworks. We followed that format to a tee and ended up having one of the most laid back and fun NYE ever. I didn't have as much to drink as Brent, who couldn't remember the cab ride home and was a bit sluggish the next day.
On Jan. 1 we went back to good ole USA traditions and met at a expat bar for a full day of burgers, nachos, and bowl games. I ate and drank as much as humanly possible to prepare for diet, exercise, and no drinking January. Hopefully by Feburary I will be able to fit into my clothes again.
Yesterday Brent and I walked down to the staging area for the Dakkar Rally. This race usually takes place in Africa in the desert, but due to terrorist saftey issues it was moved to Argentina and Chile. There are all different classes of racers, from motorcycles and 4 wheelers, to jeeps and suvs, all the way to huge trucks. The trucks facinate me. They aren't little pickup trucks, they are closer to big rvs or schoolbuses. They have crazy big tires and are just so random. It wouldn't have suprised me if they had a garbage truck division.
This morning I took another lesson from Leo, which went well. I am going back tomarrow to ride some of the barn's horses that need exercise, which may turn into a permanent gig!

You people are going to scare away Santa Claus!

2008-12-29T09:22:00.004-05:00

We just got back from a wonderful Xmas at the beach. We rented a car and just headed south down the coast, stopping at every town to have a look. It was a bit like Goldilocks and the 3 bears- "This town is too small, this town is too big, ahh this one is just right...", only with no wild animals rousting us out of bed in the morning. We stayed in a town called Villa Gesell. It is located about 4 hours south of BA and is about half the size of Hilton Head. Our hotel,Hotel Merimar, was right on the beach, it had a pool, and breakfast was included with the room all for about US$60 a night! The owners and staff knew a bit of english, and we knew enough hand gestures to get us through check in. Our room was huge and had the biggest balcony overlooking the ocean. Literally we could have had 15 people over for cocktails.
On our first night we walked into town and ran across an outdoor ampitheather where they had a choral Christmas concert going on. We found a great restraunt within listening distance called La Delfina and Brent did a fantasic job using his spanish to communicate some pretty difficult concepts, such as how the music was nice and could he have a toothpick. Overall a great night had by all.
Christmas Eve began with a shopping excursion to buy a cooler and some beach mats. Originally we were going for chairs, but even the most rickety uncomfortable chairs ran about US$40- are you kidding me? You could, however, purchace one on layaway for about $3.50 a month. Who does that?!? Next we were off for a day at the beach, where even with #15 sunblock I was fried. Still it was great and very crowded.
Right as we began to think about Xmas eve dinner, it began to rain. Since we were walking, we ran into the first restraunt we came to- mistake. The food was easily outshined by the ambiance; and the ambiance consisted of plastic chairs, florescent lights, and kids from the only other occupied table running around and screaming. Needless to say we ate as fast as possible and then bee-lined it to an icecream shop so we could feel good about humanity again.
When we returned to our room around 11:30, the rain had stopped and the fireworks were begining. Everyone down here shoots off fireworks, from 3 year olds with Roman candles to 80 year old guys with m80's. Its crazy. I have never heard so many explosions in my life. This went on until 3am. It got to the point where you were like ok, I know its really pretty and sounds pretty cool but enough already!
On Xmas day we went to a cafe for lunch and to mess with the internet. Then we went to Mar Del Plata to go see the port and the wild sea lions who live there. Let me tell you, those guys stink! Still they were cool to see, and Mar Del Plata was pretty huge. I was not expecting a Miami type town down here.
Ok, final thought, I know this ran a bit long. One of the best things about going to the beach here in the Summer is that because it is south of BA, it is cooler. It is great to get out of the hot city and go to the shore and not feel like you jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
Later!

Pato? I thought that meant duck!

2008-12-20T19:01:00.003-05:00

After a long night and morning of sleeping I was able to motivate Brent to get off the sofa (in his defense he is reading a really good book) and go on an adventure. We rented bicycles without any ID in the park near our place and headed off to the nature preserve, Reserva Ecologica Costanera Sur. Now on the map, this place looks fairly close by, but in reality, which included about 3 stops along the way for Brent to explain to me that we were going the wrong way, it took about 45 minutes to get there. It was well worth the trip! The reserve is beautiful, with birds and marsh and beautiful views of the river. There is a loop trail that you can walk or ride that is lined with benches and great places to lay down a blanket for the day. To add to the excitement, we saw someone feed a 2 foot long lizard a hamburger! The only drawback was the fact that while I did remember spanish flash cards, somehow sunscreen slipped my mind. I am a wee bit crispy.
After turning in our bikes we walked thru the polo fields for a short cut home and discovered Argentina's national sport- Pato! I know you thought it was soccer, but we learned differently today. Pato is like a cross between basketball, polo,and soccer, all played on horseback. We stumbled into their semi finals and let me tell you, these fans are as rowdy as any Boca Jr fans! In fact, after a questionable call that resulted in a player falling off, a 60 year old lady leapt out of the stands and ran onto the field to express her displeasure to the ref. It took 3 people to get her off so play could continue! The finals are tommarow- I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Horses and lions and tutors, oh my!

2008-12-15T09:16:00.003-05:00

Brent was able to get the money problems rectified Friday afternoon, thank goodness! So with pesos to burn we began our fantastic weekend. Friday afternoon I went to the stable for my first lesson. I was a bit early, so I sat and watched the lesson before mine and got to meet the wife of one of the students in the ring. She and her husband are in Argentina for a year and plan to see and do everything- including learning how to ride. We have plans to meet for dinner this week.
My lesson was soooo much fun! Maximo is a good instructor and speaks english great, but I told him I needed to learn horse words in spanish and he said he would help. I got to ride a nice horse and got to jump. The only drawback was how incredibly sore I was the next day.
On Saturday Brent and I took a train to a city named Tigre. It is located about an hour outside of BA on a river delta. I really don't know why anyone would ever want to leave this country; every place I have been, I have loved! The train station let us out at a river that is lined with trees, grass and a walking path. You can catch a boat tour of the area, or if you know where you are going, they have water buses. Brent and I grabbed something to eat by the water and then took the 1 hour tour. The area is beautiful and I took lots of pictures because it is really hard to describe. All in all, we had a full day outside the city with train transportation, food, drinks, and a tour for a grand total of 70 pesos! (A little more than 20 bucks!) We will be going back!
On Sunday, Brent and I went our separate ways. Brent went to play golf and Jo and I went to the Luhan Zoo. We took a bus to get there, and after about and hour and much confusion, the bus dropped us off on an exit ramp off the highway in the middle of nowhere. As we stood there looking around I noticed a chain link fence and some rather large birds behind it. We were there! The Luhan Zoo!
This was the strangest zoo I have ever seen. For $10 each we got to ride an elephant, hold a baby bear, get inside the cage and pet lions and tigers, sit next to a thousand pound bull seal, and have a full grown monkey jump on your head! Seriously, this place would not last an hour in the good ol'USA before somebody sued!
The zoo itself is like going to somebody's farm. Everything is dirt paths and chain link. If you wanted, you could camp overnight and grill out. They even had a swimming pool. I told Jo that it wouldn't suprise me if they unloaded a dozen otters into the pool while you were swimming. It was just that kind of place. Amazing.
Today we had our first real spanish lesson with Carlos. He is very good and laid back. He has a good way of explaining things and Brent and I both feel we will get a lot out of the lessons.
Today I will be trying to find a cheap rental car to drive down to the beach for Xmas. Wish me luck!

Holy crap! We are broke!

2008-12-12T09:53:00.003-05:00

We began the day normally; we both ran , took showers, ate lunch, messed around on line. We had a spanish lesson scheduled for 3, so we decided to take a walk and go get some money to pay our tutor. When we got to the ATM, Brent put in his card and nothing. Card invalid. Ok, maybe a faulty machine, maybe his card got zapped somehow. We go back home, get my card and I go to a different machine. Card invalid. Interesting. Flat broke in BA. ba
It turns out that our bank is changing systems and is mailing us new cards. Seems like we should have the new cards before they cancel the old, but what do I know, I'm not a banker.
Our tutor, Carlos, shows up and we explain our situation. He is the nicest guy ever. He drove us accross town to American Express to see if we could get a cash advance, but the office had already closed. Then he drove us all the way back and loaned us $100 pesos to get us through till tomarrow. Needless to say we will be taking lessons from him and recommending him to everyone we meet. I don't know if he can teach, but he sure is nice!
Brent is at Western Union today picking up money wired to us from our bank. They say they will have the problem rectified shortly.
Assuming Brent will return with some cash, I have a riding lesson at 5 that I am really excited about. Brent and I checked out the barn and the horses look great. Brent may play golf this afternoon, and we are supposed to meet friends for a night out at 9. Keep your fingers crossed, otherwise it is looking like scrambled eggs and alot of bad spanish tv all weekend!

It's like we live here!

2008-12-09T16:19:00.003-05:00

It only took a week or two, but we are finally settled into our new apartment. I know where the grocery store is, and have stocked our kitchen. I have cooked a few meals, and done the dishes. Brent has found a local bar about one block from here to watch the upcoming bowl games. He found a barber and got a haircut. So all in all, it's just like being at home. Well, kind of.
Sunday I went running and found the stable where hopefully I will start riding lessons this week. Lesson barns are the same everywhere. There were about 5 kids in the ring while I was there, learning how to trot. One kid had it down and was grinning ear to ear. Then you had the cryer in the middle, and the one boy who kept kicking his pony while the instructor's assistant tried to keep the pony in the ring. Take away the spanish and I could have been in Georgia.
Monday we attempted to go to the zoo with our friend Jo, but couldn't figure out what bus to take. Instead, we had a wonderful lunch at Las Cholas. The food is cheap, plentiful, and delish! They also serve the world's coldest Stella beer. Yum.
Today we hooked up with some friends and went to see a part of town called La Boca. We took our first subway (called Subte). Cheap and easy way to get around if you can stand the heat and armpits. La Boca is the home of one of the Argentine football clubs (read soccer team). We went in search of tickets for Sunday's upcoming game, and took a peak at the stadium. The area itself is very touristy but very colorful and fun. Brent and I bought mate cups from an artist who put our names on them while we waited. Well, that's all for now!

Just a quickie!

2008-12-06T16:33:00.001-05:00

Check out the pics of the apartment and a few from our night on the town for Fran's birthday. Gotta take my computer to the bar across the street so we can watch the SEC Championship. I hope to get some free beer out of letting them use my laptop to show the game in the bar!!

later, oh, look for our new friend Guadelupe in our pics!!

The sky is falling! No! A cat is falling! (Could also be called Cats always land on their feet, they just don't always walk away.)

2008-12-04T16:30:00.003-05:00

Today Brent and I looked at our final 4 apartments and we found a keeper! It is pooless (sp?) but is in a great neighborhood called Las Canitas on a quiet street that dead ends into the polo club. Brent can walk to golf and I can walk to a stable where I'm going to start riding lessons. It has a great balcony and comes with a bike and a maid once a week. All for $150 under our budget!
There is a legend (leyendo) in BA that if you shop for a new home on the last day of your 30's and a cat leaps off a high balcony into your path, then you get to be 39 for one more year- but only if you move into the next home you see. So that pretty much made our decision and I will be looking at 40 same time next year!
Seriously though, a cat really did jump off a balcony and landed about 20 feet from us. It was horrible. Apparently it was after a bird. The doorman from the building called the owner who came down. It was horrible. Needless to say I was in tears. It really was just horrible.
On a much lighter note we went to dinner last night and met a couple who just arrived 3 days ago and are living here for six months. They were nice and Brent is excited to have someone to potentially watch NFL with. We are going to meet them and a friend from school for drinks and a movie on Friday. Just when you think you are doing something unique, reality smacks you in the face.
We will be moving tomarrow so we will try to get some photos of our new digs this weekend- if I'm not too busy watching a polo match from my new balcony. Don't worry, I won't chase any birds.

Solo Espanol hoy, por favor!

2008-12-03T15:00:00.002-05:00

From the moment Fran and I woke up this morning we only spoke spanish to each other and anyone else we ran into. Consequently, as we strolled to look at a few apartments, we spoke quite a bit less to one another. We both agree that it is a fine thing to do and we may increase our mandatory spanish only days to two per week after we get through this first one.

Since we have no car here, we are putting some serious miles on our shoes. I would guess we walked 6 miles today so far round trip. Tomorrow we will see at least four more apartments. At least our first appointment has two apartments to show us and has offered to take us by car to the second one, which is very close to our third one. We would like to have this wrapped up by days end tomorrow. If not, we will have to abandon the search and go directly to the beach! We will rent a car for a few days and just drive down the coast until we find suitable housing for a few days. To be honest, we will probably do that anyway once we throw our bags in the new apartment.

I have also found at least two people that have offered to play golf with me asap. If I can wrap things up early Friday, I have been invited to join a threesome at 2:30. I really want to do that!! But fear not my friends, I expect to complete 18 in Buenos Aires very soon. Done for now, more on the way, perhaps some pics of the new apartment, or maybe the beach, who knows at this point.

So many decisions, So little time.

2008-12-02T16:52:00.008-05:00

Well let me begin by saying that although there were no turkey sandwich leftovers, and no pumkin pies, we had a truly wonderful Thanksgiving! The burgers were delish, as were the mashers (prepared by an English girl -I think that's what she called them), the corn (purchased by two very fit swiss brothers from the produce stand all the way down the hill), and the mate (supplied by a native Barilochian who thought she was just stopping by before her date). Before the food festival all our our guests were required to say what they were thankful for- entirley in Espanol! Ten people from all over the world with varying levels of vocabulary and all kinds of accents trying to express themselves after many, many toasts -let's just say it wasn't perfect spanish but it was a perfect evening.
I was surprised to find myself truly sad as we boarded the bus back to Buenas Aires. The peace and beauty in Bariloche is hard to beat.
And now that we are back in the big city the questions begin to pile up. Where are we going to live? Do we want to go to the beach for xmas? Should I go through the school for a spanish tutor? How can I maill all this unnecessary crap that I brought with me home? What are these chips? How can they be so delishious!?! I know that is not really a decision, but Brent just handed me a mediterraneas sabor chip and it blew me away!
Anyhow, we looked at an apartment today. It was very affordable ($700) but no AC. We have three more apartments to see this week. One is in a building with a pool. I have my fingers crossed for that one. They all are in Palermo near the parks and I cannot wait to start running through them!

No more teachers! No more books!

2008-11-27T13:42:00.002-05:00

Brent and I rapped up our final week of school today! I think the American Turkey God was watching over us during our tests because we scored a 97 and a 93! I'll let you decide who got what, but keep in mind Brent eats a lot more turkey than I do. This is the first of several holidays coming up where we will be far from home and our many traditions. Tonight we are going to grill out hamburgers and do a general cookout with the roomies and anyone else who cares to join. Not quite Mom's stuffing and gravy but you do what you gotta do. We are out of this beautiful town on Saturday and I have to admit the quiet and the scenery have grown on me. I am sure I will miss this place especially compared to the heat and noise of BA. Brent may attempt some fishing tomorrow before we head out and I may go climb one more mountain. To everyone- Happy Thanksgiving! Don't forget to truly be thankful for what you have, but don't stop dreaming about what could be!

Off Road Ralley's and Goin' Gaucho Style!

2008-11-24T17:01:00.003-05:00

Are you serious? Really? No, I'm not joking here! All I have to give you is $60 and promise to pay you $2,500 US if I wreck it? Fran and I rented a car in Bariloche this past Saturday to drive around the "seven lakes" area and do a bit of site seeing. The rental car guy showed us the map of the area and suggested our route. " If you take this road, you will spend about two hours on the dirt road through the mountains and lakes." For me, it translates like this - " Give me $60 and you can race our car cross country, in an area with fantastic views, on dirt roads, with no police and no speed limit. If you wreck our car and don't die in the process, you will owe us $2,500." Here is your money, where are the keys!!

The trip was truly breathtaking. The scenery went from jagged mountains and rushing rivers, to rolling hills and green pastures to desert areas with rivers. We saw cows, horses, and sheep just roaming around on the roads and roadsides. Made me thankful we were not traveling at night! In the desert section of the trip we saw pink flamingos and three huge deer. The total trip took us 6 hours and the last section back home there are good roads and no speed limit. I got to race some locals. By the way, we named our little rental car the Chevy "Chipmunk" because of it's size, but it could move buddy!

On Sunday, we went horseback riding on an "estancia" that raised sheep. Fran was in heaven!! We were part of a group of about ten and we rode for about 2.5 hours through some cool terrain. We saw huge rabbits, a fox and two deer that were, no joke, both 10 pointers or more. We had lunch of lamb shank and lamb sausage included with a bottle of wine too. We met some great dutch girls we will likely go out to dinner with this week. All in all, a very good weekend.

Help! I'm trapped in Granola Land!

2008-11-18T11:00:00.002-05:00

We have been in Baraloche for three days and I feel like I must have climbed Mt. Everest about 10 times- and that's just getting to and from school. The brochure says that it is a short walk from your lodging to class they just don't mention that it is all uphill! Although I have to say that most of the students here don't mind the hills at all, in fact after class they generally go in search of even more strenuous hills to climb just for fun. The views here are really stunning and we have been lucky with the weather. This weekend we will try to explore the area by horseback, I say let the horses do the work! We are also looking into renting a motorcycle to tour around the surrounding mountains, and possibly going fly fishing.

The students here are very nice but all seem to have that serious save the planet, I'm going to raft every river in the world, climb every mountain, speak multiple languages, and in my free time teach indigenous people to read kind of vibe. Surprisingly it is a pleasant change from the party every night, see how many clubs and discos I can go to, how late can I get to sleep mentality of Buenas Aires students. I just don't want to drink to cool aide, I like being a city girl!

Class here seems easier and I hope I am learning as much as before. Brent thinks it is easier because he can finally understand the teacher's direction. Tonight we will go with the school to a micro brewery (that's more my type of activity) to sample some local beers. It will involve riding the bus which could be a challenge but since there are only 3 routes (non of which go by our house) it shouldn't be too scary.

Also, sorry about the lack of new photos. We have had a few technical difficulties, in other words, I forgot to recharge the camera so we could get the photos downloaded.

Hasta luego!

We made it to Bariloche!

2008-11-17T11:57:00.002-05:00

Wow, a lot has happened in the last few days. We had our test last Friday. Guess who received the higher score, Brent or Fran? I'll tell you at the end. Anyway, after our test I hung out with some classmates and had a few beers while Fran went to visit the Eva Parone museum. The museum was closed so Fran, a classmate Jo, and our roomie Penny went to Puerto Madero instead. I think they just had a few drinks too. Fran met me at the bar where we were having happy hour, all the cervesa you want from 6pm to 9pm for 20 pesos, less than $10! Unheard of in the states. Needless to say, I had more than one. We then went back to the apartment for a quick shower and we were off to San Telmo to meet some people from the school for a birthday party. The instructions we got before leaving were to meet at a disco between 11pm and 2:30am. We got there around 11:20 and were then told the party did not START until 2:30am. So Fran and I went to a little club with live music and talked until 2:30 and then went to the disco. We did a little dancing, a little drinking, and ended up getting home around 5:30am. I was in rare form according to Fran. Reference the picture we put up tomorrow.

We happily woke at 9:30am on Saturday to pack our bags for the bus trip to Bariloche. We brought so much CRAP that we had to pack TWO bags to leave with our friend Jo in Buenos Aires. Jo, if you are reading, thank you very much! We will see you in two weeks. So we made it to the bus terminal, 5 bags and a garbage bag full of clothes in tow, in plenty of time. The bus was phenomenal. We each had seats on the top level of the bus, and our seats reclined totally flat and a leg rest came out at your feet, so we could recline with our feet up the whole way. They served snacks, wine, champagne, whiskey, hot meals for dinner all while truckin' it across the Argentine countryside. They showed three movies and had excellent service. I think we could make this business work in the US! A party bus from Atlanta to Vegas, you party when you leave Atlanta, you sleep at night when there is nothing to see, and then you wake up in Vegas. Our tickets cost $100 American.

We got into Bariloche at 10:30am and we got into our house at 4pm. We had to leave all of our bags in the back yard because all the roommates had gone away for the weekend. A father and his two sons had gone to Chile for the weekend, two Swiss guys had gone trekking and camping for the weekend, and I don't know where the girl was. The house is big and nice with a nice back yard, living room, etc. Since the majority of the tenants are young men, the place is not as clean as it could be, but our room is clean, the bed comfortable, and the company is pretty good.

Our Spanish class is Bariloche is small. Fran, and Swiss guy name Beat, and me. Our teacher is very nice, very enthusiastic, and I think we will learn a lot here. The school is much smaller, the classes are all in the morning from 9-1, and it is a lot less hectic in general in Bariloche.

We will describe the town, post some pics, and talk about our way to school tomorrow. Fran got a 79 and I got a 79.5 on the Spanish exam. World scholars we are!

What the hell is a hippodrome?

2008-11-13T19:39:00.003-05:00

If you don't already know what a hippodrome is then I will give you three guesses and tell you the right answer at the end of the post for today. Your guesses are: the area at the Buenos Aires zoo where they bathe the hippos, a horse racing track, or the name of the "all you can eat" buffet also near the zoo?

What ever your guess is, we walked by it today when visiting our favorite neighborhood to date. The barrio is called Palermo Viejo and I will give the three reasons it suits Fran and I best. #1, it is where the polo fields are, #2, it is where the golf course is, #3, they have MASSIVE parks that go on forever there! Oh, and the zoo is close by, the horse racetrack is close by, and there are plenty of restaurants and bars there too! Dios mio, I hope we can find an apartment in our budget. A round of golf on a weekday, after 2pm is twenty pesos, that is less than $7 folks, and the course was beautiful! I cannot wait to play it, take some pics and show you where I will likely spend a good deal of time when I get back here in December. I may even play golf on Christmas if they will let me, ooh, Fran may have to approve that too.

I think I may have come up with the perfect plan. Perhaps I can become a golf instructor here in Buenos Aires from November to May and then back to the states from May through October! Fran could do the same and become a riding instructor! Could we make enough money? Do they need a rep for Mizuno in Bs.As.? Anyway, Fran and I walked through a lot of the parks today and guess what we saw in plain sight? A hooker striking the classic pose where a car drives by and she slides the skirt up her leg! It was perfect until Fran said we may be walking through an area of the park she read about that was populated with transvestites. So, since Fran would not let me get that close, I really don't know if it was a woman or a well dressed tranny. Funny none the less! There were tons of people exercising, running, doing yoga, martial arts, running little training courses set by their personal trainers, using stretchy things to strengthen their muscles, rugby guys giving piggy back rides to each other to work their legs, it was amazing. It must be were everyone that exercises in Bs.As. goes to do it, because I feel like a freak running around the small park close to our apartment. No one else is exercising in our park and here I am trudging around the park 10 times. Anyway, that is probably enough for one day. We have a Spanish exam tomorrow. Fran is studying, I am blogging and drinking beer. Tomorrow will suck for me! I may skip the exam and go bet on the horses at the hippodrome.

Trials and Tribulations

2008-11-12T17:25:00.002-05:00

The last two days were somewhat mundane except that Fran had a particularly bad day at class. We started a new section of verb conjugation called preterit imperfect and it is a little confusing as to when you use it and when you use preterit idefinito. We also had to go to the travel agency 3 times to get our tickets to Bariloche, all our fault. One day I did not bring the credit card, the next time Fran forgot her passport, and the third time was the charm.

We went to a new section of town for us called San Telmo. It is the heart of tango, has many markets, a nice park, and some really great antique shops. We thought is was a little "close" for us. The sidewalks are very small, the streets were small, and everything just felt a little to close together for us. We prefer a little more space and air. I think we have decided when we return from Bariloche we will try to get a place in the Palermo area of town. It is close to the polo fields and many great parks.

Overall, I think we are becoming a lot more comfortable getting around, grocery shopping, telling cab drivers where we want to go, ordering food and making small talk with the waiters. We still have a long way to go and may try to get a private tutor a couple of days per week when we return to BA. I am missing football a little bit. I have not taken the time to see if the Dawgs are doing ok. We had an opportunity to go to a bar for half price beer and Monday Night Football, but the game would have run from 11pm to 2:30am, and I am not THAT big a fan.

I am looking forward to the trip to Bariloche. It is 20 hours on a bus, but get this, the buses down her have a class called "super cama" because they have full size beds that lay completely flat, serve hot meals, have dividing curtains, etc. I wonder if they serve adult beverages? I may have to pack a cooler!

Later!

Consulea kidnapped!! along with my purse.

2008-11-09T17:04:00.001-05:00

Well as it turns out we had another beautiful day this Saturday with the forecast rains no where in sight. We both began the day with a run and then took the computer down to the coffee shop to start looking up apartments to rent. It looks like there are plenty of nice ones available in either of the two neighborhoods (Recolleta and Palermo) that we are interested in. We found many listings on Craig's List AR. Since it was so nice we decided to do the tourist thing and go to the Recolleta Cemetery. The place is huge and I'm sure our photos do not do the many mausoleums justice. Apparently each family has their own building where they intern the caskets. Then the surviving family members bring flowers and go inside and hang with the dead. I told Brent, "Once you are placed in the coffin you are dead to me. There will be none of this going and spending a perfectly good Saturday sitting next to a dead guy!"

After the cemetery we strolled around the area and looked in some shops. Afterwards, we (imagine this) sit at an outdoor cafe and enjoy the day. One of our classmates stopped by with some of her friends for a snack and beer. She is from Amsterdam so we were interested to talk to her about her home since that is where we would like to live next.

We decided to go get some real dinner so we headed towards home and stopped at a pretty fancy asado (restaurant where they grill meat) and ordered a mixed grill. The restaurant was outside on a patio. Brent and I ate some weird and overall tasty meats last night. The only thing I didn't like was this thing called blood sausage. The texture on the inside was just a bit to creamy for me. Tripe, on the other hand, was really good and crispy.

Anyway, we finish dinner and we get our check and alas! my purse holding Consulea and few other things like my credit cards is nowhere to be found. I am sure the criminals only took the credit cards because they were in the way. I know their true target was Consuela and I am awaiting the ransom note! Brent decided to go ahead and cancel the credit cards anyway just in case. They will be sending new cards to the school Wednesday.

El fin de semanna! (the end of the week)

2008-11-08T08:22:00.002-05:00

Wow, we have made it through our first week of class and we had to celebrate with our first nice dinner since arriving in BA. After class today we headed home to make a call to Fran's parents via Skype. I still think Skype is the coolest thing! We spoke with Fran's parents for a little while describing the tango show and how things have been going and then our internet connection quit. Since we are getting it for free from the business below our apratment, I guess we cannot complain. Anyway, after the call, I slugged out on our very short and uncomfortable couch while Fran went out to shop. I began to get concerned after about an hour, since she only went out for running shoes and she knew exactly where to find them. (By the way, she thought she packed her running shoes, but only found one when she got here, hee, hee). Well when she returned she had running shoes, some fancy brand of flip flops and some note cards(to make flashcards for spanish vocab and verbs). Well, when we went out for dinner, I find out she went into 3/4 of the shops between our apartment and the restaurant too.

Our dinner. It was the first nice dinner we have had since arriving in BA. All the other nights we have had a sandwich, pizza, or an empanada while we drank beer and people watched. So to celebrate making through the first week of class we decided to splurge a little. We found a well lit place that was well decorated, had many tables with comfortable looking chairs and was fairly well packed. The menu was huge, but we both knew pretty much what we wanted. I wanted one of the famous Argentine steaks and Fran wanted something close to weinersnitzel. I had what they call the bife de chorizo Buenos Aires and Fran's was called Milanesa Italiano. The service was slow to start. We ordered draft beer, called Chop in BA. It took a while to come out so, as expected, we went through them pretty fast. We quickly order a litre of Stella asap and they bring out special glasses and put this huge bottle of Stella in a bucket of ice to keep it cold. Nice. So my steak comes out with two pieces of bacon and a fried egg on top with a grilled half onion and tomato along with sauted onions, small boiled potatoes and a delicious banana pepper on the side. Fran did not have as many side items, but the portion was more than she could finish. We made bets on the total bill while enjoying dinner and each other's conversation, asking the words for knife, fork and spoon and were surprised when the bill came. Fran bet $240 pesos, I bet $160 pesos and the bill was $124 pesos. So with tip we spent about $40 American(what we usually spend just on drinks in Atlanta). It was a nice dinner and a good night.

So today, Saturday, we don't have class and Fran has already gone for a run. I am next. We then plan to make our flashcards and maybe see a movie as it is supposed to rain later today.

Hasta manana!

I am now a genius.

2008-11-07T17:28:00.002-05:00

Brent and I have completed our first and hopefully hardest week of school ever! I have learned so much it is ridiculous and I still can't speak. I don't know how my brain will be able to continue absorbing so much without molting and getting a bigger shell!

Last night we went with our classmate Jo (an unfortunate name for a proper twenty something girl in a land where they pronounce their J's like an H) and our roommate Joespf to Cafe Tortino. This place was amazing! The building was about 100 years old, all marble and very French looking, or very much in the Vienna Style if you believe Josepf - who is from Switzerland, is older, and definitely knows more about these things. The show itself was more like a play, or a variety show with a theme running through it. There were dancers and singers. There was a 5 piece orchestra. There were even 2 guys who had long strings with golf ball sized balls at the end who stomped while they swung them! Overall a riproaring time and I am thrilled I went!

I knew I was gaining confidence today after class when I told Brent I was going shopping for replacement running shoes, and when he said he didn't want to go I was relieved. It was a very successful solo outing. New running shoes! In the right size! Surprisingly, the sales girl was much less intimidating than the sales people in Buckhead. Since Brent was not with me I also popped in to a few other stores and came away with some new Havaianas flip flops for around $10. I have mastered "Por favor, puedo uso una tarjeta de credito?"!

small victories

2008-11-05T21:36:00.002-05:00

The first thing I have discovered since moving to another country is that you have to celebrate the muy pequeno victories during the day. My first may seem like a walk in the park, but for me big deal. Brent stayed at the apartment while I did indeed take a walk in the park, and then.... ta da!... I went and bought a hair dryer and some diet coke! I know it seems small, but trying to understand that I had to buy the diet coke first (this was in a grocery store/electronics store- I know, go figure) and then the hair dryer took a little doing.

Our second small victory happened in class today. We broke into groups of two and had to pretend we were interviewer/interviewee for a magazine. Brent was George Bush and we actually made it through the exercise sounding somewhat proficient! I can only guess at what great accomplishments we will have in the future.

Before class we took a long walk through the city and ended up in a section called Puerto Madero. It is beautiful, with tons of restaurants and kicking condos right on the water. It was probably 4 miles from our pad. During the walk I saw nothing scary or even unpleasant. We passed by about 5 parks which were all great and way cleaner than ours in the Atl.

I will rap this up with a random aside. Brent and I are both having strange dreams. I mark it up to stress but let me know your interpretation. Brent was part of a think tank for the world economy (remember this was a dream) and he would have heated discussions and then fall asleep, only to wake up in the middle of a conversation. He then looked at his arm and found evidence of being given a shot. I don't have a clue. Mine was a little more realistic. I dreamed that me and a bunch of my friends were at a bar and Chad (not his real name...oh who am I kidding) walks in wearing nothing but silk boxer shorts. What does it all mean?

Later!

Day 3 in BA

2008-11-04T19:01:00.003-05:00

What a day! Fran and I went out for dinner last night at a little cafe close to our apartment. We brought our spanish homework and did it over beers. Our dinner came, a mozzarella, olive, and onion pizza and we just chatted about how hard the classes are, the numerous people walking their dogs along the park across the street, and various passers-by. Today we woke up a little late and just did things around the house until it was time to walk the 20 minutes to school. Class today was tough! It is a "sink or swim" system and they do not speak ANY english during class or after. We are a little overwhelmed and had homework again tonight. So, as I think will be our pattern, we went directly from class to an outdoor cafe for happy hour, 2 beers for $11 pesos(<$4 american) and did a little homework and relieved the stress of class. Then to the supermarcado on the way home for a bottle of wine and a variety of six beers to put in the fridge. We freshened up and actually turned RIGHT out of our building(every other day we went left) and walked to one of the major boulevards (12 lanes of traffic) and sat at another cafe to finish our homework, eat baked chicken and potatoes, and two more tall Heiniken. It was very pleasant outside, we have a great view of the boulevard and a nice walk home. We are 3 hours ahead of the states, so the results are not in for the election. We have been discussing politics with our 2 roomates who are from Switzerland and Germany. We get american CNN on the tv, so we are watching the results and discussing the repercussions with our roomies.

We also got our AC fixed today, so I expect to sleep well tonight and go for a short run tomorrow. It is getting humid here, so the AC is welcome. Talk to you soon!

We made it!

2008-11-02T17:25:00.002-05:00

After a 12 hour flight that was only slightly dampened by the knowledge of UGA's performance and the intermittent snoring of the balding man sitting behind us, we are finally here! We were picked up at the airport and whisked to our new digs. The drive into town took about 20 minutes and the views outside were nice. Lots of horses! I don't know if we drove through the bad part of town or not, but it was nowhere as bad as Atlanta's bad parts. Mexico this is not! After meeting with our school rep to learn the rules (apparently they expect a much younger crowd as rule #1 was no alcohol abuse ie. drinking games, and rule #4 was no spend the night parties) we took a nap.

Fully refreshed we went out to get some grub (fabulous pizza with olive and egg) and do some exploring. We ended up at this huge park where they were having a spring festival with an artist market, puppets, a band and all kinds of food. Brent and I sat on the hill listening to the music. As a guy came around selling icy cold beer by the bottle, I looked at Brent and said, "We are 5000 mile from home and I couldn't be happier!"

Later!

Later Gator!

2008-11-01T12:11:00.002-04:00

Today is the day! Brent and I spent yesterday running last minute errands and packing. We spent probably an hour out on the porch smoking cigarettes last night going over worst case scenarios. I know that sounds dreadful but it actually was nice to hear that Brent does freak out sometimes. While it is nice to have a partner who appears unflappable, it kind of sucks to be on the side of the equation that is always flapping! As far as our doomsday predictions went I think the winner was that we would spend so much time together that we would realize we can't stand each other and then would get mugged on the way to the lawyer for a divorce. Then because of lack of money we would be forced to stay together camping in the wilderness and both be bit by rabid bats since that is the only disease we did not get shots for. Anything short of that scenario will taste like victory!!

Well, wish us and the Georgia Bulldogs good luck. Hopefully we will be boarding our plane as UGA is running in the final touchdown to win the game!
Later!

Final WeeK!!

2008-10-27T11:41:00.002-04:00

I finished the three day walk yesterday! That was my final commitment before getting on the plane. I have some truly disgusting blisters and my knee feels like crap, but I don't think I did any permenant damage. As hard as it was I really enjoyed walking with three super girls; Lisa G., Lisa R., and Donna! It was great to spend that last weekend really getting back in touch with the women who helped to form my adult personality in college. At least I blame them! Also before I move on, I have to say Brent and Jason (Lisa G.'s man) were amazing this weekend! Camp got rained out Friday night so Brent drove out to suburbia in rush hour traffic to pick up us 4 drowned rats. Jason stayed home and got the place ready for us. Then they fed us and put us to bed only to have to load us up again Sat morning and drop us off. To top it off they gathered friends together on Sunday and ran a cheering station on the walk route and cheered for all 4800 of us for about 4 hours! We are lucky girls! I'll try to get Brent to post some of the photos from the walk.

The final countdown and all I have left is to pack what I'm bringing, store the rest, pick up my prescriptions, and somehow say goodbye to all my friends, family, and most of all my dog Ramona. (She's the only one who is always glad to see me and likes it when I sing!) Then we are off!
Later!
Fran

8 days until departure

2008-10-24T08:32:00.002-04:00

The bon voyage party went very well. We had nice weather, a lot of sun but still a little chilly, maybe 60 in the shade and 70 in the sun. It was held at Candler park in Atlanta, we reserved a little pavillion, brought ten pounds of pork barbeque, soft drinks, and some beer and the guests brought side items, desserts, and some games like croquet.

We entertained from about noon until 6pm. We had parents, sister, cousins of all kinds, work associates, and many friends. Many of our guests brought their children and Fran and I had a blast watching them play, run around, climb trees, throw balls, etc. It really was a great time for us and we are glad we did it.

So far we have sold our tractor and my car and a bunch of junk in a yard sale. I do not think we will be selling anything else. We raised about $10k towards our trip from things we no longer wanted or needed. Nice! We have also rented our home, and we now have a renter for the loft! Just as expected, 8 days from departure and people are fighting over it. I was emailed a contract yesterday and they were upset because they did not get it first. They wanted to make a better offer, but I told them I had already signed the new lease. The new tenant signed a year lease and moves in mid-November. He is also a friend of a friend, so hopefully things will go smoothly.

Fran began the 3 day breast cancer walk today. They walk 20 miles per day for three days and camp in between days. I dropped her off this morning at 7 am and it was cold and raining. It is supposed to rain all day. I felt so bad for her and her friends. What a sucky day to start, cold and rainy. They raised a ton of money for breast cancer research and they all get my respect for that, but if they can maintain a positive attitude through this walk, well then Argentina will be a breeze.

I need to visit the Argentine consolate here in Atlanta to make sure there are no surprises when we get off the plane in Buenos Aires. The consolate is in a building with tough parking so I want to ride my scooter, but it is poring rain today. It may have to wait until next week.

I automated our bill paying and transferring of funds last night. I was a little complicated and may still need some tweeking once in Argentina, but overall I feel pretty good about how we will be able to still earn some interest on the money, be able to pay bills, and invest in the market in the U.S. during this unprecedented opportunity to buy low. If you are not buying stock every month right now in the U.S., you will kick yourself in a few years. I also look forward to learning more about the opportunities in the Argentine stock market, as it has taken a beating as of late too. Good thing the dollar just keeps getting stronger!

The hardest part of pre-departure is left to do. Fran and I still have to pare down again and pack for the next 6 months. How will we ever be able to carry all we want to bring? I expect tension. Leaving our dog, Ramona, will be tough too.

Our departure date falls on dia de los muertos, all saints and all souls day. It is a celebration of your old life dying and the new one being born. How appropriate. I guess we are now in the final throws of our old life and looking towards the new one!

ouch!

2008-10-18T00:14:00.002-04:00

Well, we finally got the shots. It required a hour in the Fulton county health clinic for 3 of the 4 shots and then a drive to Roswell for the remaining one. Poor Brent was a nervous wreck. He held my hand in the waiting room and I had to go first to show him it would be ok. Alright, I'll come clean. I went first to get it over with and Brent laughed in the face of pain. The shots themselves were not too bad, but the medicine is making both of my shoulders kill. Brent also got his driver's license renewed. Considering we woke up late this morning slightly hung over, went and worked out, got stabbed 4 times in 2 different doctor's offices, and it was raining, his photo only made him look a little bit, well, um, special. Enjoy that photo for the next 10 years!

Brent sold the continental on craig's list yesterday but we managed to pack the title somewhere in the attic and couldn't find it. I guess the guy who bought it will have to figure it out. We also may have our loft rented. That would be so awesome but I don't want to jinx it. Our party is this Sunday, hopefully we will have some fun pictures to post.

Later!

party plans

2008-10-12T13:58:00.002-04:00

It is the week before the big bon voyage party and I haven't done a dang thing aside from invite people. There is really not a whole lot to do since we are on such a budget that we are requiring all our guests to supply their own food, drink, and entertainment. Basically all we are in charge of is showing up with bbq , and supplying a porta potty. So this week I'm in charge of finding the bbq supplier. I predict heartburn on the horizon! Well its turned into a pretty day so I'm off to the park to try to hawk my really expensive handcrafted dogcollars to unsuspecting frisbee dogs! later!

malaise

2008-10-10T12:54:00.003-04:00

With our time here in the good ole USA coming quickly to a close, both Brent and I are running out of things we have to do and are reluctant to start anything new. We are handling this newfound boredom in our own ways. Brent has decided to go into training for Argentina's late nights by going to our local bar till all hours of the night and sleeping all day. I have never spent more than an hour on a computer at one time in my life up till last week. Now I find myself looking up old friends on facebook , checking out "More Cowbell" on utube or looking up how to make a diet coke bomb with mentos candy. Pure escapism, all so I won't have to contemplate the serious questions on the horizon, such as- "Does Buenos Aires carry Diet Coke or Coke Light?",( I know it is supposed to be the same but as any true dc in a can fan can tell you not even close!) or" Can I make my own peanut butter with some salt and a food processor?" Or how about where am I gonna live and how am I gonna make money for the next 6 months!?! So- have you seen that new video of the dog escaping out of the dog pen?

I have to pay for shots?

2008-10-07T14:04:00.002-04:00

Hey this is Fran, Brent's faithful wife. I have taken over his blog because he doesn't write enough! We are getting down to the last few weeks before we are out of here. Today we found out just how expensive good health and peace of mind are. To get the recommended vaccinations we are looking at about $500 each! Are you kidding me? 4 pills for typhoid for $115. Just how bad is Yellow Fever? I mean, is it like a bad hangover, or more like burning up in hell fire? As you can see, we have a bit to contemplate. On a happier note we think we have the tractor sold which will bring in some unexpected spending money. I find I have a lot of free time in this final countdown till departure. Occasionally, I break up the day with either very short and intense, or long and drawn out panic attacks. Nice to get that adrenilline pumping. Only 24 more days!!

Out of the house, yard sale done!

2008-09-30T13:09:00.002-04:00

We have now moved out of the house and are staying with friends in Buckhead for our remaining 30 days in the states. We were able to get around $400 for various pieces of junk, clothes, computer parts and accessories, and a few books. The rest is being picked up by the Salvation Army tomorrow. I met a Congolese ecomomist at the yard sale. He was our best customer. I very nice man, woman and three childred. He told us interesting stories of how things were just as normal as they were that day of the yard sale and then people knocked on their door and asked if they were born in the particular area of the Congo where they were living. If you did not, you were asked to leave immediately. If you did not, then you were beaten, and they killed the family dog. So he taught economics at Columbia and lived in New York for the past 6 years. he now teaches at Emory. He and I have an appointment tomorrow at 9am, and he may buy my car. That means I need to clean it up today.

So we have transferred what we think we need for the remaining 30 days of fall in the states and what we think we will bring to Argentina to our friend's apartment in Buckhead. We may have gotten a little over zealous. We barely have room to sleep in the room now. We packed too much. I brought over about 50 pairs of socks for some reason and Fran brought about 35 sweaters. IT IS GOING TO BE SUMMER IN ARGENTINA FOR CHRIST SAKE. And I will bring my sock total down to about 10 pair, as I am sure they are not too expensive in Argentina.

It is nice at the apratment. There is a nice courtyard that has huge oak trees that have spread their great arms wide to catch the sunlight. Makes for great shade, and the morning sun in the east makes it pleasant for coffee in the mornings. The surrounding neighborhood is very affluent and there are nice manicured lawns to go along with the beautiful homes along my jogging route. I plan to be in top shape for my arrival in Buenos Aires. Eat well and exercise is all I know to do.

We still have quite a list of things to do before we leave: shots, supplemental insurance, RENT THE LOFT, find travel accomodations to Monzonia Mexico to see friends, learn more Spanish, finish the transfer of business to associates, have our Bon Voyage party on the 19th of October, etc.

Anyway, must get busy getting our house renter settled and my car cleaned for tomorrow.

Packing and yard sale prep

2008-09-23T17:35:00.002-04:00

Man, we almost have the whole house packed up! I have been putting boxes and furniture in the attic for a week. I think I am actually shorter now. On the positive, we have had good, cool weather so it is not so hot in the attic while moving stuff.

I am having our yard sale of all the non essential stuff we own at a client's house to try to help them de-clutter their home too because it is for sale. We are having a combo yard sale/ open house. We hope someone shows up to buy a baby crib and walks away with a contract on the house, or they show up to see the house and walk away with a ping pong table.

It should be big fun. It is from 8am to 2 pm this Saturday and Sunday, the 27th and 28th.

What? You want an example of the things for sale? Sure, check it out:

Home For Sale:

4 bedroom, 2 ½ baths, four sides brick with granite foundation and full basement, huge, fenced back yard, deck off the basement, two fireplaces, great location, quiet street.

Yard sale items:

ping pong table, oak chest of drawers and black chest of drawers, large canopy tent, chests, chairs and folding chairs, home theater system, games and videos, lamps, nic naks, coffee makers, computer and flat screen monitor, scanner, laptop, books, planters, 6 disc cd player, vcr, wicker baskets, microwave and much more…rain or shine!

baby items: clothes, pack and play, highchair, stroller, car seat, toys, dining chair, baby crib with mattress and sheets, changing table, toddler gym, “never used” baby toilet.

Check out my helpers in the photo. That is Fran and her mom. They have done a fantastic job pricing things low and packing them up to take to 714 Willivee Drive for the sale. That is in Decatur if you would like to stop by and pick something up on the cheap.

We have to be out of our house on Sunday so the cleaners can do their job on Monday and get our renters moved in ASAP!! Only 5 weeks until we get on that plane for Buenos Aires!!

We will be homeless for a month. But thanks to Jason and Lisa, we won't have to sleep under a bridge. They are welcoming us into their home in Buckhead until we leave.

I still have to go through my clothes and decide what to pack away in the attic, what will go to Lisa and Jason's for the next 30 days, and what will go to Argentina. Should be interesting. I bet Salvation Army gets a big stack too.

I also need to line up some work in Argentina too so we can stay there. We have rented our home for the next year, so why not stay there until we have a place to live upon our return?

Send me a note if you have any job openings in Argentina or want to go to the yard sale!!

Gotta get our loft in Atlanta Rented!!

2008-09-16T20:10:00.004-04:00

OK, we are getting down to the wire and need to rent our loft before we leave the country!! It really is a very cool loft in a very artsy area of Atlanta called Castelberry Hill. Way back when it was called "Snake nation" because it was essentially the red light district. Today it has a ton of galleries, restaurants, bars, etc. and is walking distance to great music venues like The Tabernacle and Centennial Park. It is also a short walk to CNN Center, the Georgia Dome for football and Philips arena for Basketball and Hockey. It is ready to move into and goes for $1,400 per month with garage parking and extra parking in a gated area for guests. Check the pics!! 2 beds, 2 baths, 20 foot ceilings and walls of windows, hardwoods, 1600 square feet of living space!

LINK to all the info and pics!!

Freaking out a bit

2008-09-12T17:00:00.002-04:00

I booked my flight to Buenos Aires today and paid for the first months lodging and classes today. I have to move out of my house in 17 days. It is now real.

Banking and Cash Flow

2008-08-18T13:10:00.002-04:00

My bank actully told me it takes the postal service in Atlanta between one and three weeks to get them their mail. Something is wrong with the postal service and something is wrong with my bank for allowing their mail to take so long!!

Why does it matter? Because we have three rental properties and our tenants were going to mail their rent checks to the bank for deposit each month. Well if the rent is mailed on the 1st but does not get to the bank for deposit until the 21st, then I have a cash flow issue!!!

One of the problems with moving out of the country.

Fran comes home today. We will begin hard core packing of the household items this week. We will also be getting the house in tip top shape, including the yard, gutters, bushes, etc. We will also begin hard core get-in-shape diet and exercise plans. Gotta look and feel good when you are starting over in a new country.

We will be making plans for the yard sale too. I think we will try to coordinate with one of my real estate clients so we can drive some traffic to the house for sale, have an open house, and get it sold at the same time.

We will also have to discuss plans for the Bon Voyage party. Yeah!!

Dealing with cars

2008-08-16T14:36:00.002-04:00

Today my friend Jeromy Johnson is coming over to help me get the Lincoln in good shape so we can sell it before we leave. He is doing me such a favor!! He bought a new grill for my car with his own funds and is coming to my house to install it. You simply don't find friends like that very often. After today the Lincoln will be in good shape to sell come mid to late October. I don't expect much from the sale, but it may buy us a month or two rent when we hit Argentina.

Next on the list is packing up most of the dishes and getting them up and in the attic. It is so fun getting the house ready to lease it to complete strangers!!

Getting Started

2008-08-15T14:04:00.002-04:00

My first blog as you will see. I am determined to learn how to work and develope this blog so my friends and family can have an idea what Fran and I are doing in Argentina and any other country we visit in South America.

We are flying to Buenos Aires on November 1, 2008. That means we are smack in the middle of preparations to leave our home, friends, family and business in Atlanta. We have to vacate our home on Oct. 1 so our renters can move in. They are renting our home for 1 year, we have a family renting our farm in Dawsonville for 3 years, and I need to get a renter for my loft close to CNN center.

I have been cleaning out the attic so we can store our persononal items, pictures, dishes, and some furniture inside while we are gone. I have a lot of stuff that needs to go in a yard sale. Anyone in Atlanta want to have a yard sale with me?

We have to also find something to do with our cars. Do we sell them or store them for some unknown period? We plan to be gone a minimum of 6 months, but if we find gainful employment or begin a profitable business while out of the country, what do we do then?