Our First Days as Tourists

Casa Rosada (Pink House) Our First Tango Show

Woong: hehehe, that street is called Mai-pu (pronounced My Poo)

Me: seriously?? :)

Woong's best dancer pose

A rainy day from our balcony

Our first days in BsAs

We've been in Buenos Aires for two nights now. And I 've caught Woong's cold. We haven't been able to switch to BsAs time so we're going to sleep at 4 and waking up at 16. (I'm switching to the Argentine way of doing time). I don't have many adventures to share since I've been dying the past day but we did try to make the most of our first night.

Some observations: Buenos Aires is a big, dirty city. It's a cross between Mexico City and New York City, with a drop of European. It took me forever to realize why Buenos Aires has pizzeria's on every corner and is renowned for their ice cream. I kept wondering what their fascination with American pizzas is until it dawned on me that Buenos Aires has heavy Italian roots. It was my AHA moment. Duh- that explains the pizzerias and plentiful ice cream.

Buenos Aires is also very polluted. Lonely Planet says the city is "lax on pollution controls." It's not as bad as China but it's not very refreshing either. Want to know something else they're lax on? CLEANING UP THEIR DOG POO. Again- Euro influence? Woong and I couldn't help but think how glad we are to live in America, a country that cleans up their poo.

Our first meal was at 20hrs on a Friday night. We hadn't had anything to eat since 8 and were famished. The restaurant didn't open til 20hrs. Argentines don't eat dinner til about 22hrs so we were the very first ones in the restaurant. But let me tell you, they don't f*** around with their beef. It was delicious.

Our first dinner in BsAs

We also tried grocery shopping which was an adventure in itself. And I DO speak Spanish. I mean, I got that "leche entera" is whole milk, but the rest of the milks were so hard to understand. And there were so many options for salt I had to ask someone which one was table salt.

The rest of the time I've spent lying on our couch and watching our 100+ cable channels. About half of the channels are in English w/ Spanish subtitles and the other half are American programs dubbed in Spanish. As we speak, Woong is watching The Simpsons in Spanish. Good to know we won't be behind on our pop culture.

My Best Madonna impersonation

Woong at our front door, which we can watch on Channel 98.

And the adventure begins!!

By going nowhere. As you may or may not know, I'm going to be living in Buenos Aires with my wonderful boyfriend until at least January. Our graceful exit was scheduled for today- United to Dulles (DC), Dulles to Buenos Aires. We said our good-byes over a handful of dinners [and a cake aptly saying "Hasta la Vista" courtesy of Carolyn and Satura Cakes (yes, I do free marketing if you're interested)].

After staying up past two trying to get ourselves ready and waking up at 8:30, we miss our flight. Technically we didn't miss it and I blame United for us not being on our way to BsAs right now, but that's another story. So after some frustration and a rescheduled flight, we gathered our 4 check-in bags and two carry-on bags and head to Angel's place in the Marina for yet another final night in the bay/California/United States. We go back and forth for a second as to whether or not we should have a quiet night in or call up our friends.

We chose the latter. Not for anything fancy but for a FEAST of Korean bbq at the Brothers in the Inner Richmond. We text our friends and had a last minute dinner with seven great friends.

And now I'm ready to go. Again. I'm determined to make my flight and by Friday at 9:30 am- local time- I will be in Buenos Aires. As excited as I am, I was sad when I realized what I was leaving behind. It dawned on me just how lucky I am, to miss my flight, have great friends to stay with, drive me to the airport, and have a huge dinner with- all so last minute. I won't have that in Buenos Aires and I'll miss it plenty.

Thanks to all those friends that had pounds of Korean meat with us today. I'll miss all of you. Hopefully- if I ever make it to Argentina. :P

Mean Girls

My friends say that I'm "too nice." I used to think this was a compliment until I realized their version of "too nice" translated into "you let people walk all over you." I've worked on this a little bit and now I feel that when they tell me I'm nice, it no longer means "you're a fool, grow a backbone."

But I got to thinking on the way to work about what it means to be nice. There's a gentleman, presumably homeless, that gets on my bus every morning with a bag of food and eats all his food. Nothing fancy- today he had a slice of plain white bread and some juice. But I couldn't help to think when he got on "on here comes the smelly man." And then I thought to myself, Betty, that's just mean. Clearly the man is having rough times and he seems nice enough.

That's when I started breaking apart what it means to be nice. I have nice friends that no one would catagorize as mean, but they are quick to be snide or annoyed when they feel the urge. Then I have friends that are nice to me but can say really mean things. I recently told one of my gfs after she told me how nice I am that the only difference between her and I is that she is unabashed about saying her mean thoughts outloud to whomever will listen. Whereas I keep my mean thoughts inside, because I think they are mean and saying them outloud will make me a mean person.

Aren't I already a mean person by having said thoughts? Oh, she should not be wearing that. Woah, her kids are not attractive, and recently, wow, thank goodness for him he looks like his father. Or, by checking my thoughts, and recognzing that they are less than friendly, am I seperating myself from the Mean Girls? Are mean thoughts a part of human nature and how we express them is the determining factor of what makes us nice or mean? Or is that all BS and I'm really not as nice of a person as I thought?

I'm not sure, but I'll keep debating this in my head. In the meantime, I 'll just follow Thumpers mom's advice (which I think is actually one of the golden rules of life, but Thumper says it so well): If you can't say nothing nice, don't say nothing at all.

I can't believe my eyes

I'm the first one to say how little I actually like/respect Paris Hilton. In fact, she might be why I stopped following celebrity gossip. Her and Britney. And Lindsay. Regardless, this is just plain funny. McCain's poke at Obama, using a comparison to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, has completely backfired. I had no idea Paris could be funny. I'm sure most of this was scripted for her- but she pulled it off well I just had to share.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

The original video:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d

"I am living my life's mission."

That's a statement we ask our clients to answer on the scale from 1-5, 5 being that they most 'strongly agree' with the statement at hand. I read it over and over again this week as I spoke with our clients. Some of them would answer without pause and shout out 4 or 5. Some of them would hesitate and speak out loud to themselves, "well, that's where I'd like to be" or "ooo... that's a good question, am I?" And as I waited patiently for them to ponder over the topic, I realized that is a good question. "Am I (pause). Living my life's mission??"

I quickly came to the conclusion that I first have to know what my life's mission is. And as I covered the topic with our clients I thought to myself that of course I'm living my life's mission. That's when I paused to think that over. Not just conceptualize but verbalize what that really means. Does my life even have a mission? I'm not actually sure. I know I want to help people. But is that a mission? Is a mission the same as a purpose? Does my life have a purpose? Is it supposed to?

I have no clue. But yet, we expect all of our clients to be able to answer this, and quickly. I'll continue to ponder my life's mission... so that I can determine whether or not I'm living it. In the meantime, I suppose the best approach is to live it the way I think it should be lived: by making myself happy. Whatever that may be.

What a great day for Californians

Today, gay couples in California began to get married with the same pride, dignity, and love, that straight couples head to the alter with everyday. One friend of mine said that I was so excited about this and wasn't sure why b/c I'm not even gay myself. I understand what she was trying to say- I took no offense to this. But my question to those that wonder why I'm so excited is simple: why aren't you? I think that one day, hopefully in my lifetime, children will be learning about the next civil rights movement that gave gay and straight couples the same rights and they're going to sit back and wonder why they didn't have those same rights to begin with, the way today, it's unbelievable that black people once had their own schools and couldn't drink from the same fountain or sit on the same bus bench. They are going to look up at their gay parents or their best friends amazing gay grandmother and ask them if that really happened and how people could be so cruel.

One man criticized California, saying that“marriage has traditionally been known, across continents and all geographical regions, as between a man and a woman." If we followed tradition, you might be a slave owner- unless of course, you were a minority and then you'd be nowhere. This has been a year of breaking tradition and recognizing wrong from right. Everyone lauded Hillary Clinton for being the first women to make it so far but I was appauled that it took so long for a woman to break tradition and get to where Hillary did.

I am always eager to let everyone know that I'm from California, but today, I am especially proud to be a part of a few states to recognize that marriage and love know no boundaries. Let everyone have their equal chance at a happily ever after (or even a divorce). I encourage everyone to vote against a CA constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in our state come November- we've all learned by now how much one vote matters.

Congratulations to all the happy couples!

100 things

I read about some guy named Dave who is trying to make some sort of statement about consumerism and is reducing his personal belongs to 100 items. I wondered how far I could get myself in doing such a thing... so here's my best attempt to reduce my personal things to 100 things, and my reasoning behind them.

http://www.guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge.html

1. Shoes-my 13 pairs I brought with me for my 8 months all count as ONE thing, simply because I say so.

2. Teddy Bear

3. Make-up- so I don't wear a lot of it, in fact, daily I only wear eye liner and brow pencil, but I reserve the right to pick up my teal eye shadow, mascara, or foundation if the occasion calls for it, so make up will also only count as one thing.

4. Laptop and it's accessories- which I need as a student and to watch online tv now that I live in a Flintstone house with no cable (who does that??). Plus, my laptop can double as a tv/dvd player so that takes out a few things I don't need.

5. Blow-dryer and 6. Straightener- I have short hair at the mo' and it needs to be straightened frankly.

7. Do tampons count as a personal belonging? I'm open for debate, but just in case they do, I'm adding them to my list out of necessity.

8. Toothbrush, floss, and mouthwash- to borrow from an old friend, clean teeth are happy teeth and my ortho work cost too much for me not to keep up with this.

Wait, I think I'm going about this the wrong way. I'm keeping 1-3 and re-doing 4-8 as follows.

4. Communicaton devices- including but not limited to my laptop, cell phone, phone book, and ipod.

5. Hair products- including but not limited to: bobby pins, hair clips, wax, blow dryer, straightener, headbands, and hair brush.

6. Toiletries- including but not limited to: tampons, shampoo, toothpaste, floss, lotion, hand sanitizer, perfume and deodorant.

7. Clothes- winter, summer, spring, and fall weather, includes hats, scarfs, purses, and accessories and my wallet along with all of its contents (id, cc's, grocery discount cards, business cards).

8. Books-I know there's a library but I don't like used books or library smells so I'm keeping my books and yes, all 50+ of them count as ONE item. You can go to a grocery store in to the 15 item or less line and buy 15 oranges and 1 box of cereal and still go in the 15 and under line, so why can't it?

9. Luggage- I like to travel, I need this. And my set of 3 all counts as 1.

Wow, who needs a list of 100, I can do it in under 10. Oh. Wait...

10. Jewelry. No, I'm adding this to clothes (under accessories!). So I'm still at 9.

Who is this man Dave that thinks the world is full of consumerism?? I'd be interested in hearing what others would keep if they had to limit themseslves to 100 items or less. I think it's easy, if you take my approach. :)

Here I come!

"Tengo el agrado de informarte que has sido aceptado para realizar el Programa de Intercambio con la Universidad Torcuato Di Tella durante el Fall Semester 2008. Felicitaciones!"

i.e. Argentina here I come...

My First Winter in DC

Technically, I've lived through 25 winters, but this particular winter was very special for me. Now, I realize there are a few of you out there from the mid-west or New York, who have lived through sub-zero winters but you can write about that in your blog. This is my blog and so we're going to talk about my first east-coast winter.

I realized it was over earlier this week when the low for the day was 46 degrees and I remembered how desperate I was for the weather to hit 30 degrees during winter. I somehow learned that 28 degrees for me was nearly insufferable, but 30 was something I could tolerate.

Winter was especially hard with the loss of all my winter clothes (see UPS blog). I decided to spend my first snow day inside- not just because it was snowing but because I think I was hungover. :) I finally chose to meet some friends at a Dupont bar for drinks and put on my boots, gloves, and scarf. The snow was cold, the breeze felt like pin pricks across my bare face, and my head was cold and naked. But I also remember being in awe over how beautiful the snow-covered nights were in DC. The moon was somehow brighter and the snow lying on the sidewalks and houses appeared to glow under the street lights. Nonetheless, I was miserable and ran out the next day to buy four hats and ear muffs (quite possibly my favorite possession, next to my teddy bear and chapstick).

I also used to be close to tears over the 'long' walk from Farragut North (18th and I) to Sign of the Whale (M between 18th and 19th). Every uncovered part of my body was in pain, my body was tense, my breadth became this enormous cloud of fog in front of me. Now, I walk from G and 23rd to Sign of the Whale and marvel over how close the distance is. But somehow, when the whether hit 15 degrees, sub zero with the windchill, that seemed like a lifetime away.

But winter is gone and already, it's a distant memory in my mind. I spent the weekend enjoying 80 degrees in my sun dress and short, summer hair, enjoying the purple, yellow, the white flowers I see everywhere, the white and red daffodils that seem to have been planted over night, and the trees that though bare still, are now dotted with little green buds.

I survived my first winter living on the east coast and I have at least one more to go. Though Spring and Fall are still my favorite seasons, I realize now that there's something to be said about snowy winter nights. Not a lot, but something... :)