Two Weeks Later

And I've finally arrived at the honeymoon stage!

I know that usually this phase happens from the very first day in a foreign place. For me, it was different this time, though. I've enjoyed my first two weeks in BA, but ther've been some frustrations and rough times. It all came together, though, today.

Por la mañana - Morning
I got up early to move into my new apartment! Thanks to all of you who offered words of encouragement on my last blog post. Seriously, it really was helpful to have some sort of affirmation about my crazy considerations regarding which apartment to choose. As much fun as it sounded to dabble in an ascetic life for two months with nothing but a mattress and the big city as my living room, I decided that I'm here to work. Without a couch, I would have been much more motivated to spend my days meditating rather than completing an IPSP project. So I decided to save that adventure for another trip, and I waited a few days to see if anything else came up. With a turn of luck, it did! Here's my new little casita:

The living room

The kitchen (fully stocked :)

My new room...spacious and equipped with a fancy persian rug for my tired dogs

The view

Por la tarde - Afternoon
Put in a productive half-day of work today. Well, semi-productive because the internet at the office was going slow. I left a little early to run an errand before meeting up with another of Sr. L's friends, Gaby. (Details about work to come later).

My afternoon tea time with Gaby was great! She is my Mom's age and helps run the incredibly successful family business, which is a chain of high-end leather shops (one of the commodities Argentina is most known for). Going into her shop was like going into a leather version of Coach...it was beautiful! Sr. L put me in touch with Gaby so that I would have some semblance of a family when I was here. She and I talked about all sorts of things, exchanged book titles, and she promised I could invite myself over anytime I wanted or needed to. She speaks English wonderfully and compliments my Spanish, so we get along quite well!

Por la noche - Tonight
I'm celebrating my honeymoon phase with a platillo de fiambre for dinner - basically an assortment of meats and cheeses, usually paired with olives and red wine. I'm not quite ready to cook yet (still getting used to my new kitchen), and I've been craving this all week. I couldn't eat it because I had nowhere to store leftover food.

This, for me, is Spanish comfort food. I needed a little something familiar and foreign, and this was just what the doctor ordered!
Spanish chorizo (just like from the home country!), queso sardo (medium-level stinky cheese of some variety), classic Spanish olives with the pepper piece in the center, pate de Jerez (as in sherry, or the city I lived in while in Spain), and whole grain crackers. YUM!

Oh yeah, my dinner was accompanied by a bottom shelf bottle of Argentine Malbec, straight from Mendoza - the wine region. It cost me 10 pesos, which is about US $2.50. Don't let the price fool you...it isn't table wine. It's actually very good!

All in all, not a bad day. I got a lot accomplished and will sleep well tonight! Tomorrow - a full day of work to make up for missed time today. And catch-up blog posts because I still have some fun pictures and videos from the last week to show.

Buenas noches a todos!