Adventures in South America

This Week

This week has been pretty busy doing different things with friends. On Monday evening we went to see the movie Hitch with my friends Jenn and Carlos (visiting from Boston). The movie was pretty cute, definitely unrealistic, but aren't most movies? Afterwards we enjoyed a late night meal at Eliot in Palermo Viejo.

Tuesday evening was spent hanging out with a few friends from the gym (Megatlon). Seth and I have been enjoying the 'red carpet' treatment at Megatlon in Las Cañitas. The gym is great! There is plenty of equipment, plenty of classes, a spinning area, an olympic sized swimming pool and a pilates area (I have been doing mostly pilates in the last couple of weeks). All this for about $30 a month! Not only is the space itself great, so are the people that work there. In the weight area there are always at least two trainers whose job is to make everyone working out feel comfortable, answer any questions, spot clients and help them create workout plans. This is all included in the monthly fee. In the gyms that I have been to in NY, this is unheard of. There are trainers there who troll the floor looking for new clients. In general you want to avoid eye contact with them at all cost because as soon as they notice you struggling they come over, help you out and then try to make the HARD SELL about how beneficial they would be personally training you at a cost of about $100 an HOUR!! The only fault that I can find about Megatlon is that they dont have a very big area to stretch in (at Crunch gym in NY, they have areas that are specifically for stretching).

The main friends that Seth and I have made at the gym are Claudio (he works the front desk and Seth has been playing tennis with him), Liliana and Lukas (they are both Pilates instructors) and Martin (he is one of the trainers that works on the floor every weekday afternoon). They are all really great people, very nice. We made plans on Tuesday to hang out with this crew. Unfortunately Lukas could not make it. He sings Choral music in a Sextet and his group's CD was up for a Premio Gardel (Argentina's version of the Grammys). He has rehearsel on Tuesday night. Martin invited his girlfriend Silvina who is pregnant with TWIN BOYS!! She is in her 6th month and is a great person - very spunky. Everyone was rubbing her big belly so that we could feel the babies kicking. It was a great evening filled with good food and good conversation. I will definitely miss them all when we return to the states.

On Wed night Seth, Jenn, Carlos and I attended a Wine Tasting event at the Claridge Hotel (near the microcenter). As I am taking a Wine Tasting course through Cuisine Vins Magazine, they invited me to attend. It was a cool experience. We tasted 4 different types of Merlots - the bottles ranged from $30 pesos to $75 pesos. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't that crazy about the wines we tasted. Maybe I am just not a fan of Merlot, but I found some of them to be a little astrigent for my tastes. But there was a lot of great finger food accompanying the wine - cheese, bread, nuts, more cheese and other random little finger foods. The best part about the experience is that it was free and we learned a thing or two about how to smell, agitate, study for color and taste the wine.

Afterwards we caught up with Roberto, Alejo and his friend Cecilia at La Parolaccia in Belgrano. Dinner with Roberto and friends is always entertaining and we had a great time, getting home around 1am.

posted by Kathy T @ 11:27 AM