And on the 5th Day, We Rest

Actually, we'll generally be resting on the 7th day (just like the God) but as this is the first week of Emily and I's Fitness Challenge and Friday is the agreed upon rest day, we shall rest today. I actually started doing the Shred last Saturday so it has been 6 days for me on that, 4 for the yoga.

The challenge is going great. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday I even managed to go to Boot Camp and do my challenge stuff. My sheet is full of stickers. I'll save the details for my Sunday update.

I've had a pretty excellent couple of days. Here's some highlights/small victories:

• I was interviewed for Cheap Talk Radio. (I start at 31m)
• I finally got my Christmas present package from Abby. She included some squeak toys for Padfoot (one of which he immediately destroyed) and this amazing book called How to Be an Explorer of the World. It has all kinds of adventures and exploration challenges. It's so much fun and totally me, a combo of art, scrap booking, collecting and general child like joy.  
• I always seem to get double Hendren love. When I came home from picking up Abby's package I had one waiting from Mama H. She sent me Monster Cookies and (of course) treats for Padfoot too.

•  I went to the Cosa Rosada, which is like the White House (Cosa Rosada means Pink House). The president doesn't live there anymore but they used to. Magu's mom, Mirta, works there and she was helping me out with some paperwork. She took me and Magu to some restricted areas, we got to stand on Peron's balcony, ride in Evita Peron's personal elevator and sit at Evita's desk. Mirta also made me a beautiful necklace with bird charms all over it, just because she is nice. Magu and her mom might be the two cutest and sweetest people alive. 
• I managed to get ALL my paperwork in order and Fed Exed to my mom and the FBI (my mom has to get an Apostille, I need a background check from the FBI).
• I'm about to have wine and chat time with Liz who is finally back in BA. 

•  After wine, Liz and I are meeting up with Sara to try the new pizza place by my apartment and going to the movies. I even made it to the movie theater earlier to buy our tickets in advance.

•  I got my Kindle! I am so amazed by it, I feel like a grandmother who is constantly talking about the magic of technology. I bought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. When I finished my first week of the challenge I can buy myself another book. Yes! 

•  Fed Ex just happens to be next to this amazing ice cream place that makes legit sundaes, a rare find here. The guy recognized me from my visit to Fed Ex/the ice cream shop last week (mildly embarrassing?) so he challenged another employee to make a better sundae for me. This resulted in the guy going totally over the top with the portions and extra fruits and cone cookie things. Kindle and ice cream = Heaven.

Fun Analysis

"I did some analysis and realized I hadn't enjoyed life enough"

My friend Shobie just said this to me and it seemed like something I would say. "I did some analysis". Who else needs to analyze fun? I think that fits right in with my 40 year old logic/7 year old interests theory.

However, I am also in complete agreement with Shobie about remedying the results of this analysis. My life in Buenos Aires is not about work. Yes, work will always be necessary, this is a resume building experience and of course, I will never escape my true workaholic nature, but I am here to have an adventure and allow myself to have the fun I always should have been having. I didn't do any extracurricular activities in high school because I was working. I didn't get very involved in university because I was working so much I could hardly sleep. I wasted part of my youth. I don't have regrets, but I'm shutting down that pattern here and now.

• I completely refuse to schedule any work on Saturdays.
• I also refuse to schedule any morning work on Wednesdays. 9am-2pm is completely reserved for playing Squash, going out for lunch and relaxing before working with the family.
• I only have 30 hours of scheduled work then just 4-12 flexible hours through my newest job (see below for description).

This brings me to the Buenas Noticias part of my post!

• Got a new job today as a "Personal Assistant" for the Choi family (a Korean-American family living in BsAs who I occasionally babysit for). The hours are super flexible and the tasks are varied but easy. I will be helping Janet organize her life/schedule as well as taking some work off her hands such as making phone calls in Spanish, running errands, organizing their home. I also get to work on creating developmentally appropriate games for their two children, Soren (7) and Alyosha (3) . I love that I get to use my Spanish and kid skills! This job also plays into my more relaxed schedule very nicely.
• Shobie is coming for Christmas! This is old news but we've been planning out some activities and plans. So far Tango dancing, beaches and parillas have all made the list. I'm so excited and grateful his visit.
• Erin is coming in March! Yes, that is right, two scheduled visits. I cannot wait!

Small Victories

• Jenny and I spent a signficant amount of time searching for a giant bar of chocolate and stumbled upon this delight:
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• Cooked this vegetably delicious meal of asparagus, onions and red peppers and breaded eggplant for myself after a terrible and slightly frightening student sexual harassment episode:
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• Spent 45 minutes with my Ipod, a book and a Fanta Zero laying on a park bench in the sun. One of my arms now has a more pronounced farmer's tan.
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Delicious Fanta, sun, and totally bitchy sunglasses.

Crazy Nights and Lazy Days

Small Victories:

• Found Quaker square cereal. Finding any cereal that isn't frosted flakes or some random sugary version of kids cereals is quite a task here. Also, it reminds me of Rachel because this is her favorite cereal. Yeah, I know my ex-roommates that well. In fact, I am well aware that Abby would not have a problem with Frosted Flakes being everywhere, because she loves them. Roxy, on the other hand, would be more enthused about the fresh fruit and veggies stands here because she is not a huge cereal eater. --end of roommate tangent.
  
• Tested out several food delivery places- sushi, Chinese, pizza, empanadas and ice cream. All of them were a huge success.
• Went dancing at an all you can drink club.
  
• Took part in the "Buy 1 kilo get a 1/2 kilo free" ice cream awesomeness again. I got the old favourites- Banana Split and Dulce de leche as well as some new flavours to try- Mint Chip and Almond Cream.
• I have a pile of monedas (coins) saved up. This sounds odd but there is a freaking coin shortage here and you can only use coins on the buses so it can be a total pain in the ass to get places. Luckily, since I haven't been spending coins to get to San Isidro and back every day I have been using all my tricks to get coins as change and hoarding them like a granny.

So last week was fairly eventful. I have been adding new students at Profesores Nativos. I have started with 2 of them and I have 2 more that I should be starting with soon. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to quit American Forum as I had planned. I sent my resignation email, I told them I couldn't afford the taxes but would be willing to finish out 2 weeks and pay them once. They approached me and said they like me and want me to stay so they are willing to pay me under the table as long as I stay with the 2 students I am with through December. F. I have always sucked at quitting jobs.

I like my students at American Forum, more or less. The 30 year old is a pretty bad student, but he is nice enough. I have been doing an intensive immersion program with a couple who are in town for a week and take classes 8 hours a day. I'm one of 5 teachers working the program. I like the couple and they are easy to work with. One of my Profesores Nativos students is a total creepster, though. I tutor at his apartment, which is a 38 story complex for ridiculously rich people. It has a pool, gym, several lounges, a tennis court and even a mini cinema that seats 20 people. (See photo for the view of the pool). I know all these things because the guy, Carlos, really feels the need to not only tell me about them, but take me on a tour of the facilities so I can be oh-so-impressed. Last night he not only tried to get me to stay for tea but also insisted we must play tennis at the tennis court because I mentioned I played tennis as a child. He also drives me home and felt the need to tell me he has the SUV and also a Mercedes Benz from the States. Ugh.

My Friday night sounds pretty uneventful but I actually thought it was pretty enjoyable. I was going to see a movie with Jenny but nothing good is out here and she was too tired to venture into the city. I took my laptop to a cafe nearby and got some "apple pie" (their version is not nearly as tasty) and a cafe con leche (basically a latte). It also came with some adorable little heart shaped cookies. I really enjoy that when you order a coffee or tea here, it often comes with some sort of unexpected surprise. Sometimes it is cookies, or an incredibly tiny glass of water (which is actually really nice since they charge for water here), a tiny glass of orange juice, mini toast, etc. It's adorable and I just love the surprise. I got a ton of work done on the site I am working on with Alex. I'm not really going to say much about that project, but I do really love working with Alex again (we worked together at Announce Media) and I am pretty excited about the work we are doing.

I made up for my tranquil Friday night with a crazy Saturday. Jorge came over for lunch and brought 2 random Germans I will never see again. One of them somehow knew Jorge's ex from the States and the other was just a friend. Anyways, we ordered Sushi and it was delicious. Jenny showed up later and we decided to get coffee and maybe a snack. We came upon this waffle and crepes place right by my apartment. Waffles basically don't exist here so I have been meaning to try this place. We both indulged in some insanely sweet treats. I got a waffle with bananas, dulce de leche, chocolate and a scoop of ice cream. Jenny got a crepe with tons of chocolate and dulce de leche, also with ice cream. We both got a Baileys Irish Cream frozen coffee. Super delicious.

Saturday night Jenny, Rosie and I ordered Chinese food and it wasn't bad. However, Chinese food doesn't automatically come with rice here - a fact we sadly forgot - so we ended up with several boxes of chicken in various sauces. It was still tasty. After dinner we met up with Jorge to see a local band he knows, Lenny's Wife and the Boys. They are all expats from different countries and they were pretty good. After 6 liters of beer between the 5 of us, Rosie, Jenny and I headed to a party. The party got canceled/moved so I called Joan and asked him where he was and we ended up meeting him at this club called Amerika. Once you paid to get in it was open bar and lots of dancing. It is a gay club so there were a lot of ridiculous, interesting and fun people. I only had to tell off a few gross dudes. It was a blast.

Jenny and Rosie crashed at my place because we got in around 6am. I made about 10 pieces of toast with various toppings before we fell asleep because all of us really wanted bread for some reason. Jenny and Rosie slept til 3. Our outdoor plans were ruined by rain so we proceeded to have the laziest day ever. We ordered pizza and empanadas and watched Mean Girls in my bed while we ate. After that, we popped in Aladdin. After Aladdin, we ordered ice cream and watched UP. They went home around 10 and we ended our super lazy day of food and movies. Excellent way to end a weekend.

Okay, wow, that was a lot. Life is good here. I promise, I'm happy!

El Dia del Amigo

Tuesday, July 20th was El Dia del Amigo (Friend's Day) in Argentina. Jenny and I unintentionally scheduled our wine and cheese night on that day and it worked out very nicely. After my Saturday of goodbyes I was really looking forward to a night in with a friend. Rosie joined us as well and our night changed from a wine & cheese movie night to a night of wine, cheese, fruit, chocolate and ignoring the movie entirely. We killed two bottles of wine and consumed a lot of cheese, chocolate and fruit. At 2am we said goodnight and made several weekend plans.

This weekend should be pretty awesome. My weekend starts today because I don't teach any classes on Friday morning and my family is out of town til the 2nd so I don't even work Sunday. Tonight I will hopefully be hanging out with Joan. We haven't finalized plans yet but I'm sure we'll get dinner or some drinks.

Jenny and I are once again going to attempt to play squash on Friday, we just keep failing. She lives kind of far out so it can be hard to schedule things just right.

Saturday Jorge is coming over with some random visitors who are in town. We are ordering sushi for lunch. There is this place called Sushi Pop that Jorge says is delicious and cheap. I love sushi and I am pumped about it coming right to my door. Saturday night Jenny, Rosie and I are going to a local band that Jorge knows. After that we might go to a party some of Rosie's friends are having. It should be an eventful night. Jenny and I might try this empanada place that is 2 doors away from my apartment before we go to the show. It looks cheap, I hope it is both cheap and delicious.

Sunday Jenny, Rosie and I are going to the San Telmo market. It is supposed to be huge and amazing, I cannot wait. I will be looking around for gifts for all my favourite people in the States! I definitely already have a Christmas list going and that is no joke. I have all of you in mind every time I'm walking past merchants on the streets.
Now for some more small victories:

• Got another job! I just got hired yesterday at Profesores Nativos. I plan to quit American Forum at the end of July. PN is way better organized and better paying. Plus, there was this huge issue with taxes from AF, the way it worked out I would have to pay so much is taxes that it wouldn't even be worth the money I earned. PN is in cash, no taxes and she only schedules me with students close to my home or they come straight to my apartment. Awesome.
  
• Found another deli that sells turkey. The other day the super market near me failed me and didn't have turkey at all. On the way home from landing my new job, I found a little place and bought some lunch meat for cheap.
• Had a Lion King viewing via Skype. Cole and I really missed our Disney Sundays we shared in the Media Center. Yesterday, at 10am my time and 10pm his time in Korea we both logged onto Skype, counted down and pushed play at the same time. We watched the whole movie as if we were sittng next to each other like old times. It was awesome.
• My mom got a Webcam/Mic. It took about 20 minutes of getting skype calls, hanging up, typing, yelling, etc, but we figured it out. My mom didn't really understand the difference between a camera and a microphone. She also typed a message to my skype account saying "I can't call you I don't have your number!". Sigh. Moms. Regardless, she more or less understands and I can contact her for free.

All right, I'm off to a meeting at American Forum. There is a big immersion course being taught by 5 different teachers next week. I plan to go to this meeting and teach my hours, but after that I'm done. I'm going to send my resignation email after the meeting because I don't want to deal with them trying to convince me to stay. I feel kind of bad but I'm not going to work just to give all my money away to taxes.

Here's some more photos of the wine and cheese night!

Running, working, exploring

Sadly, I don't have any new photos to post but I do have some things to share. My friend Jorge and I like to use the term "Small Victories" for little things I figure out here. It is kind of cool being new to everything and be able to be excited over little things. So, here's some small victories:

• Found a park that takes less than 10 minutes to run to so I can run somewhere, ran there the last 2 days. It seems to be an unofficial dog park, which means it is small, smelly and full of a loud chorus of very excited dogs. Also, small ones without leashes tend to follow me.
  
• Found a better park that does not smell, slightly farther away but worth it, I'll try it out this weekend
• Discovered there is a bread store right on my block- the bread is delicious, in case you were wondering
  
• Successfully dropped off and picked up laundry- this auto service laundry thing is weird
• Mastered the subway and train transfers
• Got a certficado de domicilio- which is the first step in getting a residency permit, which would save me from having to visit Uruguay every 3 months- which is the weird loophole everyone uses to avoid having an expired visa
• Bought turkey- this sounds odd but finding any lunch meat other than ham or salami is ridiculously hard here. I discovered that if I go to the deli and ask them specifically for it they will slice it for me.
• Bought tape that actually works so all my photos stay on the wall
• Finally bought some of the delicious candied nuts they make on the streets. Sounds dirty- in a couple of ways- but they are really good and cheap
  
• Cooked a meal with 4 different foods involved in my tiny, ill-equipped kitchen
• Walked all over the city and found all kinds of stuff I want to visit like the zoo, the Japanese garden, little benches perfect for reading and several ice cream places

I also had a BIG victory! I got a second job! Well, I guess technically it's my first job since I haven't starting my Au Pair work yet. I applied to American Forum, which is a company that holds private classes for businessmen/women who want to learn English. I applied on Monday, interviewed and got hired on Tuesday! I start next week on Tuesday, I'll have 2 students, I meet with them each separately twice a week. The pay isn't too much but it is something and it is great experience. I go in on Monday to pick up some teaching materials. I am nervous about teaching English, I have so much knowledge of Spanish, how can I explain our backwards language to someone who speaks one that makes sense?

News on my Au Pair work- I'm still waiting. I met the dad of the potential family today. I went to his office which is is downtown, but I was almost late because of course downtown is huge and I underestimated the walk from the closest subway station. I still avoid buses because they seem unreliable and confusing. Anyway, I wasn't late and he was much more relaxed than his wife. He liked me, he was especially excited when I mentioned I had an Audio Engineering degree and could download free programs to teach his oldest son. That audio degree comes in useful in the oddest situations. He told Juli (the family coordinator) and I that they would make a decision tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. Juli is pretty sure they love me, the only issue was that I won't live with them but she thinks the dad will convince his wife I'm worth it. I really hope so! If they say yes then I think I'd start early next week. Yay for working and yay for earning money!

I'm also in a selection process for an online writing tutor thing. Hopefully I'll get that too. I'm signed up on a couple article writing places too, like odesk.com. Oh money, how I miss you. Soon, we shall have a steady relationship again.

My mom sent me 2 big packages and I am impatiently awaiting them. I really hope they arrive okay. One of my old coworkers, Melanie, made these awesome address stickers for me to give to her so she would be able to send me stuff. Hopefully, that saved her some trouble and will enhance my chances of actually receiving them. There will be peanut butter! Yes!

Keep me updated on your lives too, guys, because I miss your faces, Skype me so I can see them again! Also, I am a big fan of long emails- keep them coming.