Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Saying goodbye to Palermo

I have a huge (seriously, huge) apartment in Palermo, about 2 minutes walking from the Embassy where I work. I live across the street from five or six embassy employees, and downstairs from a lovely couple. I don't always measure distances in number of cartwheels possible, but it is appropriate here. I have enough space to do six cartwheels from my fireplace to the dining room and could bowl in the hallway to my bedroom.

However, after seven weeks here, it still doesn't feel like home. This may be mostly due to the fact that I fall asleep on the sofa each night, and then have to do that painful half-asleep drag down my bowling alley hallway to my bedroom. At that point, I am awake and have lost any of the sleepiness I earned on the sofa. It annoys me. So I am moving to a smaller apartment in Belgrano, twenty minutes from the embassy, with old dumpy furniture. And I couldn't be happier. It finally feels like home.


Wednesday, January 11, 2012

El Caminante - Tango Singer in the Street

 

El Caminante is famous throughout Buenos Aires.  I took a tour of the city on bike (7 hours and I am still sore 24 hours later) and saw all the great sites.  A highlight of the tour was meeting El Caminante.  He is a tango singer, and has an incredibly rich voice.  He sang for our group as we rested underneath the largest rubber tree I have ever seen in the Plaza Francia in Recoleta.  It is across from La Biela, 
a cafe famous with race car enthusiasts.
Just another weekend in Buenos Aires.  I am ever the tourist.  I can't wait to show the city off.



Sunday, January 8, 2012

New Years 2012 - The Fireworks Show

 

Argentines celebrate Christmas and New Years with a late dinner and then fireworks at midnight.  Then the kids in the family will go out all night.  Apparently it gets very rowdy-  I was even carefully advised by an Argentine friend not to go out as Christmas is one of the most "dangerous" nights to be on the town.  Too bad, I love my 3 am martini to celebrate Christmas tradition I had planned to start.  
I think it can also be dangerous because a few people fire guns into the air to celebrate, but I am hoping that doesn't happen in downtown Palermo where I currently live (sort of the Le Marais of Paris or Central Park in New York).  

So for New Years, since it is the bigger show, my friend Jason had a party and we went to the top of his building (only open on New Years and Christmas to the residents) and watched the show from the 36th floor or so.  It really isn't a place to hang out - we were walking around vents and broken tiles, and of course, no real fence around the roof - but whatever.  The view was INCREDIBLE.  I even set it to one of my favorite songs.  Enjoy the show!


Monday, January 2, 2012

President's Guard at the Gran Pellegrini
The Gran Pellegrini is the biggest horse race in South America.  To cut to the chase, Expressive Halo won

How did I end up there?  Well, I attended a reception at the Ambassador's Residence (actually had to fill in as the host temporarily) for the Harvard Club in honor of the 375th anniversary of Harvard University.  One of the guests, Alberto Stein, owns a farm called La Leyenda, and he invited me and a friend to lunch at the Jockey Club at the San Isidro Race Track (about 30 minutes outside of the city of Buenos Aires).  The Hippodromo San Isidro hosts the Gran Pellegrini every year.  We were there by 1:30, had a nice lunch and then watched 15 races throughout the afternoon, building to the Pellegrini.  It was very exciting  - you can see the race if you watch this.

The best part was all of the people that were there, and getting to go out on the track to the winner's circle.  We even saw the gold colored chair where they weigh the jockeys before the race. I was surrounded by people who LIVE and breathe horses, so I had the chance to learn from insiders about the sport. It was one of those "the Foreign Service isn't so bad moments."  Definitely perks in my job.