Adventures in South America: April 2005

A Duet with the extremely talented Marga

Me playing the piano at Marga's apartment

Kathy, Marga and Seth

Tea at Roberto's Mom - Roberto, me and Marga!

Alejandro, one of my driver instructors

The car that Seth and I learned how to drive STANDARD tranmission on!

Seth and Gloria, the woman who helped us pick out and purchase two lovely suits from her company Vitturi

Ana and Jorge, the lovely couple who altered our clothes over the last couple of months

Starting to say Goodbyes

We are approaching the last days of our trip here in South America. Seth and I have both really enjoyed being down here immensely. We have made so many good friends down here and enjoyed so many once in a lifetime experiences; we definitely feel extremely lucky to have had this opportunity. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and that end is definitely impending for us. For me it is very bittersweet... it takes time to adjust to a new place and we finally feel like 'natives' here in Buenos Aires. But at the same time I do miss my family and friends back home. It will be weird being back in NY after so much time.

Yesterday was the official start of our goodbyes. Seth and I stopped by the office of Endeavor in the afternoon. This is the organization that I have been volunteering for over the last couple of months that I have been here. Endeavor's purpose is to provide support to a selective group of entrepreneurs that are chosen through their rigorous multiple step selection panels. They are headquartered in NYC (a few blocks away from the apt in Manhattan) with offices in Brasil, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, South Africa and of course here in Buenos Aires. The organization identifies entrepreneurs in emerging economies and pairs them with investors and mentors. By creating a successful business, they in turn support the local community (creation of new jobs, stimulation of the economy on a small scale). I said goodbye to Julia, Hernan and Nancy, 3 of the 6 staff members in the Buenos Aires office. I hope to have a few minutes to run back to say goodbye to Alejandro Mashad who runs the organization here.

Seth and I also met up with Silvina, his wonderful Spanish teacher. She is an amazingly nice person and we ended up spending the whole afternoon and evening together. We started off by walking around a bit for some shopping. We continued to a very cute tea shop in Recoleta called Sentirte on Riobamba. We spent a couple of hours there talking and enjoying tea, scones, muffins and other snacks. Silvina presented Seth and I with very thoughtful gifts -a leather holder and coaster for the glass coffee cups that people here typically drink their cafe cortados in. Very cool! Afterwards, Seth had a hankering from some ice cream so we headed over to Freddo around the corner and spent some time shooting the breeze and talking there. It was about 20:00 by the time we left and headed to the apartment for a bit. Silvina agreed to join us for dinner with Fernando so she hung out with us looking at pictures and listening to music. Around 22:30 we headed over to Al Andalus for dinner and had a great time talking with Silvina and Fernando until after midnight. Unfortunately we also had to say our goodbyes as we are not sure we will have a chance to see them before we have to return.

In a way I am happy that we decided to not have a going away party; I think it would have been to emotionally overwhelming to say goodbye to everyone at once. Its a little easier a few friends at a time.

Dinner at Al Andalus in Palermo Viejo with Silvina and Fernando

Dinner at Al Andalus with Silvina and Fernando

Nancy, me, Julia and Hernan at the Endeavor Office

At the Endeavor office with Julia and Nancy

Some of the staff members at Endeavor - Nancy and Julia

Seth doing arm pull ups

Seth on one of the Pilates machines. Lukas and Lili were impressed, he was doing advanced stuff during his first class!!

pilates

kathy has been doing pilates for about 2 months or so (pretty regularly) in an attempt to achieve one of her long-term goals, the full leg split. there are 2 great teachers, lily and lucas, who have become friends as well. the studio is in the gym we go to and is priced at a point where it is affordable (although kind of expensive for here). well lily said they offer 1 free class so i thought why not give it a try. it was actually better than i thought. i had always wondered what those machines do (they look strange to say the least).

our instructor was lucas, the music was real cool (los cafres a great reggae band from bs. as.) and we began doing some basic leg squats (all exercises we performed on the pilates machines with varying degrees of tension). basically you can change the tension and lucas, or whoever your instructor is, can play around with the positions of your feet, legs, etc... to change what area you are targeting. we did some legs for awhile, with stretching always, then i isolated abs, eventually doing some upper body as well. it was a cool experience, i did like it because you are basically working against your own body weight creating a very natural feel. most of these exercises you can simulate by yourself, obviously without the machines, but the machines and your instructor add a different twist. also, there is lower tension on your joints and i think it is a good addition to anyone's training routine.

muchas gracias a lily y lucas!

dentist fun!

well as many of you know the cost of things down here is much less than at home, so i thought i would take the time to go to the dentist (i dont have dental insurance at home and its quite expensive) here its about $60 pesos ($20u.s.) to get your teeth cleaned at a very nice office - i believe it would cost well over $100 in the u.s. - so i got my teeth checked out and cleaned. end of story right? nope, the dentist told me i had a cavity - and did i want it filled? thats where the fun starts, see my spanish is pretty good now, but still, medical terms not to mention when you are a little nervous it gets tougher to understand. so, i called kathy who tried to understand but also wasnt 100% sure, so we then called our best bilingual friends desiree and sergio (sergio didnt answer his phone) and desiree helped to translate that i had a small cavity and its no big deal - i decided to think about it for a day. i returned had it filled and so for a nominal fee i had a cleaning and cavity filled. another nice experience here in buenos aires

Last Minute Errands

We have been running around like crazy trying to finish our last minute errands; getting our clothes washed and dry cleaned, buying last minute presents and Argentine items that are hard to find in the states, developing some of the many pictures I have taken for friends here and the best thing of all - getting our clothes altered!

Getting our clothes altered has been one of the biggest perks since we have been down here. We have been taking our clothes to this wonderful woman named Ana who lives around the corner from us. Alterations are expensive in NY and Seth and I never bothered to get them done before. Ana has literally created a "new" wardrobe for us. She has shortened pants that are too long for us, mended holes, taken in jackets and pants, and even created linings for me for jackets that did not have them before. Not only does she do a great job, her prices are very reasonable - about $.75 - $1.00 US to shorten pants, $5 US to add a lining to a jacket and $4 US to take in the waist of a pair of pants. Seth and I have gone a little crazy and have been taking her everything that we can, cause the cost of these services in NY are way higher. She works out of a store that was formerly a kiosko (like a bodega in NY - a mom and pop shop that sells candy and convenience foods) with her husband. I think they may live in the space connected to the storefront.