Happy New Year!

I've only been back in NY for less than 24 hours and I've already planned a weekend get-away to celebrate the New Year in Boston. I know it sounds crazy but the last place that I want to be for New Year's is the Big Apple with millions ofmy closest friends. ha ha.

So it didn't take much convincing on my part to get my friend/neighbor Abby to come along for the last road trip of the year, and the first one of the next.

Leaving tomorrow... clam chowder, Boston Common and New Year's Eve in a club my friend is DJ-ing at. Sweet!

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year's and a healthy 2007!! I'll be pahkin my cah in Hahvad Yahd!!

Merry Christmas!!

Holiday greetings from Holland!! I arrived here yesterday from Buenos Aires after 36 hours of travel and have been relaxing at my mom's place.. enjoying home cooked meals and SLEEPING a lot!! haha. Life in Buenos Aires has taken it's toll on me I think.

Today we went for a long walk in the forest here near my mom's place. The woods were quiet and the smell of winter is in the air. It was just cold enough that I kept my fingers balled up in my gloves instead of in their finger holes. Tomorrow I am going to visit some friends in Leiden and then hopefully if my doctor can squeeze me in I'll return to NY on Thursday to get clearance to return to work. Everyone who knows me must realize not working for this long has been hard on this "work horse" although I have to say I'm getting pretty used to the easy life, ha ha. Doing nothing is not as hard as I thought it would be! It gets dark here at around 4pm which is hard to get used to. In Buenos Aires it is still light out at 8pm and in El Calafate the sun sets at 11pm.

My mom gave me lots of art supplies (charcoal, paper, pencils, oil bars....) for Christmas and I think I will take her hint and resume drawing like I used to love so much when I was younger.

Ok, besos to everyone and happy happy holidays!

uuhhh... still in BsAs

...so for all of you who have ever asked me for a buddy pass somewhere during high season and I told you no, this is why. I tried to catch a flight out of Buenos Aires on Wednesday night but couldn't make the flight because of cargo weight and balance. There were people there on buddy passes who had been waiting to get out of there for 6 days, returning every night to the airport at the same time just to be turned away. The life of a commuter can be hard.

Well, I'm not really that heart broken about not leaving as I'm sure you all can imagine... I took the opportuninty to get SICK AS A DOG on Thursday and spent all day in bed with a fever and body aches but I had great people taking care of me...today I'm feeling a lot better and am planning on trying to catch the flight out tonight putting me in ATL at 6am putting me in NY at 10am and giving me just enough time to drive into the city (Manhattan) repack and drive back out to the airport for a flight to Amsterdam at 6pm to go visit my mom.

The weather here is gorgeous...82 degrees (24 celcius) .. and I'm definitely not looking forward to the cold in NY and in Holland. ok... going to go enjoy the sun on the balcony .... chau.. besos

speechless...

...speechless, that is what the glaciers have left me. We arrived back in Buenos Aires yesterday afternoon (about 12 hours late but that´s another story) and the glaciers are still imprinted in my mind. The last four days down there at the bottom of the world have been unbelievable and I can´t even start to describe the majestic beauty of these wonders of nature. As soon as I return to NY I will upload some pictures and then you can see it with your own eyes and understand why I would feel like I was doing an injustice by describing them here.

Since my return to Buenos Aires life is back to it´s hectic pace. I have been running around seeing friends, not sleeping and planning for my return to NY tomorrow night. I have a doctor´s appointment in NY to check on my foot and hopefully I will be able to return to work before the New Year. My foot is feeling a lot better, a little swollen still but I can put weight on it and I´m not limping any more. Yay!! No more boot( I hope).

I´m a little more sad than usual this time to return to the US. I think this city has put it´s claws in me and I am already excited and making plans for my return down here in January. I am hoping to be down here for three weeks in January and all of February if I can get my leave from Delta. Wow, I will be broke but happy. Just the way I like it.. ha ha.

I hope to be spending Christmas with my mom in Holland, that will be the first time in a long time that we get to spend Christmas together, and I can´t wait.

Ok, for all of you who have written in comments, thanks (that would be only Marieke !!!! dank je wel Mariekje) For those of you who haven´t (that would be ALL of you except Marieke) what's the matter with you?... you don´t like my stories?.. seriously though.. would love to get some feed back and know I am not writing just to hear myself type- ha ha. Ok, gotta run... I promise to better about keeping up my blog... besos

baby, it's cold outside

so... we have arrived at the beautiful and freezing south of Argentina. Wow. It's gorgeous here. Our cute hotel, the "Sierra Nevada" is located on the edge of Lago Argentina and in the distance you can see the mountains. Beyond those I can only assume are the majestic glaciers which we will visit tomorrow by bus and then by boat.

The town itself is rather small (population 8,000) and consists of one main street of about six blocks long. It is very Colorado-esque with lots of little cafes, bars and restaurants and I had the best empanada here I've had yet filled with the local lamb. Even though this pueblo is teeny-tiny we have been informed by the local wait staff that the bar "the living" is the happening place to be until 5 am. True to Argentinian style.

Our flight down was very uneventful, the way I like all my flights to be and it was nice to be a complete passenger and non-employee on the flight. We have spent the day walking around town, reading and the big decision of the day-to decide if I should buy a fleece or not. What a diffference to the busy life in Buenos Aires. I am sure these next 4 days of complete relaxation will do me well... but I am always glad to see the city.

Did I mention it's cold here? And this is summer. Tonight we will go try some local specialties (think lamb or trout-both local) and will probably end up at "the living", living it up. Tomorrow it's rise and shine early early early in the morning for a day of breathtaking experiences. I was told that some people cry. hmmm... don't know about that but I'll let you know if I shed a tear.

Ok.... El Calafate is waiting....

totally chill day

So in 24 hours from now I will be at the bottom of the world, El Calafate.. a little town on the edge of the ice cold glaciers. That´s tomorrow. Today I am bloody hot!!The humidity here is crazy(about 80%) but I have to say- I love it. I don´t miss the cold at all. It´s supposed to be 92 degrees Fahrenheit tomorrow, too bad I´ll miss it although I´m sure there is more of that to come.

Dinner last night was fabulous. Went to a great little restaurant called Social Club in the suburbs of Buenos Aires and spent the rest of the night on a friend´s boat. Of course as the life style here predicts I didn´t return home this morning until the sun had awoken for the day and since I had been awake all night I went to bed.

This afternoon my friend Gianna and I went to the supermercado to buy some snacks and groceries for our trip and then got a fabulous pedicure. I think I lost about 2 inches off each foot because of all the calouses that were scalpled off. Gross. Had a mate (for those of you who care mate is a traditional drink here in Arg. made from the holly bush and steeped like tea but in a gourd that you pass around).

And now I am around the corner from my apartment, at the internet cafe with the sticky keyboard ( sorry for any typing issues) and am going home to pack for my trip.

Sorry, not too much exciting news to report today but I can only imagine what the next few days will bring. The glaciers.....

Wow! It´s really hot here

I´m a little overwhelmed with this blog because I have so much to catch up on in terms of what I´ve beendoing.....

This past week I ...

-went to the Polo Championship Final match (WOW!)
-checked out the samba dancing at a local samba club
-had dinner at several fabulous restaurants with great friends
-went to Tigre, a town on the delta about an hour train ride away
-planned my trip to the Glaciers at the bottom of the world for this Thursday
-skipped class (I´ve been taking spanish here at a school M-F 9am-2pm)
-caught up on some sleep... because I got NONE last week

...and that´s just been the last 4 days.....

of course I have been wearing my boot for my metatarsal stress fracture so I didn´t actually partake in any dancing or crazy happenings... but Samba is next on my list of things I want to learn and I´ve already found someone willing to be my dance partner...fabulous.

Today is an easy day... woke up around 10. Had some coffee... took the subway downtown (the subway near my house is the only old antique line still running in the city. All the others are modernized and it is so cool. The windows are open, everything is wood, leather straps, park benches inside, it´s like riding in a museum)..so ... took the subway downtown... had some whole wheat empanadas and now I´m here at this great little internet cafe/ pharmacy/ cafe. This afternoon Gianna ( a friend from NY who is stopping through here on a world trip) will go and meet a friend of ours (rutger- afriend of mine who is stopping through here on a South American trip) for some traditional mate at a local cafe and tonight plans for dinner of course.

ok... my hands are tired... this keyboard sucks. love you all... besos

My first blog entry

So I decided that it would be a much more efficient use of my time to write a blog than to e-mail everyone individually. Wow, am I behind the times or what. Apparantly people have been doing this for years, ha ha.

So for those of you who haven´t been caught up to the latest happenings in my life here´s the scoop...

I moved down to Buenos Aires, Argentina in September for at least the folowing eight months. I had come down to visit with (my friend/ NYC room mate/ now BS room mate) Anna who was down here taking Spanish classes and fell in love with this city immediately. I thought "wow, I could definitely see myself here". Of course Anna had had that thought in her mind for a while and was only waiting to introduce me to this city and the city would take care of the rest. And it did.

to be continued...