Preparing for Buenos Aires

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.

- Zora Neale Hurston, There Eyes Were Watching God

And so it begins...again. This is not my first time living abroad.  Depending on how you count, it is my fourth or fifth overseas tour with the Foreign Service.  I previously served in Bolivia, India, Georgia, and Afghanistan.
 
And this is not my first blog - you can see that at http://weebleskabulbuttheydontfalldown.blogspot.com. 

But what this blog will be is my way of staying connected - sharing my life and experiences with my friends far and close.  It will not be my first attempt to organize my life in a way that helps me truly appreciate the richness of my community - one I have worked to sustain and grow during ten years in this career. There have been lists made, classes taken, long conversations had, and a few too many sleepless nights or anxious mornings.  But is has all been in preparation to allow me to go on this latest adventure to Argentina.

I will be living in Buenos Aires and working as the Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in one of the world's greatest cultural capitals.  Great gig, right?  I will also be far from home in a totally new environment where I will be challenged in a million ways.  This is alternately exhilarating and terrifying.  While it seems like a dream life to some, there are many questions we face along the way, and this is only amplified more when you are doing it in a foreign language with all new people.   

I want this blog to be a place to share my experiences in Buenos Aires and to show what I see and discover through my travels, conversations, mistakes and more. Over time, I hope it will help me see where I want to go and enable me to stay close to those who put up with me while I try and grow in that general direction.    

So to kick off the latest phase of my journey, below is the simplest, briefest guide to life I found when I googled "Guide to Life." I hope it will serve as a touchstone and reminder when I lose sight of what is important to me. It comes from http://zenhabits.net/start/.  The comments are my own take on how difficult this may be.

The Brief Guide to Life

Less TV, more reading  (blogs don't count) 
Less shopping, more outdoors (reading blogs on my deck doesn't count)
Less clutter, more space (space = place for more stuff)
Less rush, more slowness
Less consuming, more creating (and not just creating space for more clutter) 
Less junk, more real food (I really wish Coke was real) 
Less busywork, more impact (though I enjoy a little busywork from time to time)
Less driving, more walking  (unless driving is quicker) 
Less noise, more solitude
Less focus on the future, more on the present (enjoying the present is hard when the future is so uncertain)
Less work, more play
Less worry, more smiles
B-R-E-A-T-H-E.