Rags to Riches

A little while ago a PR rep contacted me saying that she understood that I was a freelance travel writer living in Buenos Aires. She offered me a free night at the CasaSur Art Hotel (one of her clients) so that I could do a review, if I was interested.

Of course, I was. On Tuesday I stayed in a 5 star hotel right here in Buenos Aires. I already finished my glowing review for Travelated, it will be up on the 27th and I will post a link here. However, I thought I'd post some of my non-travel writer thoughts as well as photos. I made an album on facebook with all the photos I took, feel free to check it out.

Let's just start off with saying I have stayed in a hotel room maybe 3 times in my adult life. I am frugal. A stay at this hotel was exciting enough, but seeing as I am a travel writer, I was treated to the absolute best. The hotel has 4 levels of rooms, the best being the Executive Suite which takes up the entire 12th floor and is over 700 square feet. Guess which room I got?

I could tell when I showed up at the desk that the employees were surprised to see me. Of course, they had been told a travel writer would be staying that night and checking in 3 hours early so she would have plenty of time to explore the premises. They had not, however, been told that writer was 23 and covered in tattoos. And hey, let's be real, I don't even look 23. To their credit, they hardly skipped a beat and they made absolutely no cracks about my last name which is, unfortunately, the same as the hated president.

When the bellboy, Gastón, took me to my room I did not immediately realize my room was the entire floor. When I entered, there was a huge bedroom suite. It had an LCD TV mounted on the wall, a desk by the window, a mini bar, and a massive king sized bed with endless pillows. There was also a pretty sizable bathroom with a sweet rain shower and mildly confusing bathroom fixtures. The decor was so modern that it took me a minute to figure out how to turn the faucet on.

Once I had seen the bedroom, he showed me the really awesome part of the suite, which was the lounge/business area. This side had another TV, bathroom and mini bar. Instead of a desk and bed there was a couch and a little table. Next to the couch was my own personal espresso machine with 4 different types of coffee. There were not one, but two balconies. The smaller of the two faced the main street, Callao Ave. It was a really cool view from 12 stories up, I spent some time sitting out there soaking up some sun. Of course, the back balcony was what truly amazed me. It was enormous, it had to be, it held a personal jacuzzi and 2 spa lounge chairs.

Once Gastón left I was able to drop my professional travel writer face and just show my pure, amazed joy. I walked through the suite with a huge smile on my face, already knowing I would have a very hard time leaving it the next morning. On the table in the business suite I found a plate of fresh fruit waiting for me. Second breakfast with some espresso you say? Don't mind if I do! It took me a while to figure out the machine, turns out I don't make coffee all that often either. Right as my first cup was brewing, I heard some weird musical tune. After a couple seconds I realized it was the phone. The manager, Mariano, was calling to welcome me. While I believed the welcome letters and even the free welcome drink at the bar were something all the guests received, I got the feeling only the 12^th floor guests got special phone calls.

After I enjoyed my fruit and espresso I changed to go to the Relax Room, which is a spa area in the basement of the hotel. I had my own private Jacuzzi but I wanted to check it out so I could review it for the readers. I also saw the pseudo gym, just a treadmill, bike and some free weights. Oh well, I got the feeling no one staying at that hotel had any intention of working out.

The spa room had the same spa lounge chairs I had upstairs, but also had a giant shelf of towels, robes and water bottles. Being a budgeter at heart, I made sure to grab several bottles of water for later. I saw two buttons by the Jacuzzi, I pushed one and the jets started. I chilled out in the water for about an hour, reading on my Kindle. (I had it wrapped in a little hand purse which I had looped around my wrist, my pseudo-protection from dropping it and destroying the latest love of my life). When I had had enough, I went to push the other button, which I assumed turned the jets off. Wrong. There was a giant shower head thing above me that I had not noticed. The button I pushed sent a powerful waterfall out of it. Luckily, I was not hit, but it certainly caught me off guard.

Pretty Liz on the balcony!

After the Relax Room I went and tested out my shower. Please keep in mind that at home I have a sad little shower with mediocre pressure and water that only gets to slightly above lukewarm. The shower was glorious and so was my discovery of the slippers and robe which I put on, for no reason other than I felt like I should.

I read and watched some TV, testing out all the soft surfaces and taking in the delicious smells of all the fresh flowers spread about the room. Eventually I ventured out of the hotel to check out the area. I already had a vague idea of where I was, near the famous Recoleta Cemetery. I noticed lots of other hotels, all with huge entrances and scary guards. I was happy to get back to CasaSur, which looked more like an apartment building and the only men around were the familiar bell boys. I picked up some medialunas while I was out and also stopped by the convenience store to pick up things that were in my mini bar. I knew I’d want them later, so I saved myself the money by buying the at a normal store.

The cheese spread management sent me.

I informed the desk that my friend Liz would be visiting. When I opened the door to her a little bit later, she exclaimed, "Oh my God you have the whole floor!". I had so much fun showing her around. We had some espressos and ate a few of the medialunas I bought while we got some sun on my balcony. After that we hung out on the comfy couch in the AC, another luxury I do not have in my apartment. It was lovely to have a visitor and pretend like I lived there.

After Liz left I watched some TV and started convincing myself to go back to my apartment for a bit to take care of my dog, Padfoot. While I was watching TV the turn down service came. A guy swooped in, put all kinds of new fluffly towels in the bathrooms, replaced the dirty coffee cups with new ones and handed me a fancy white chocolate. Less than 10 minutes later, there was another knock at the door. A woman stood outside with a huge platter of cheese, dried tomatoes and nuts with the biggest glass of red wine I had ever seen. She told me it was compliments of the management. This was a clear attempt to win me over and let me tell you, it was working. I sat down and gorged myself on fancy cheeses and some delicious Malbec. Cheese is outrageously expensive here, so I savoured every bite. 

After tending to Padfoot I returned to the hotel to relax in my giant bed and read a bit before heading down to dinner. I was given a free dinner as part of this deal, so I was planning on making the most of it. The cheese plate had served as my appetizer, which is good since all the appetizers on the menu had meat. I immediately ordered another glass of red wine and a bottle of water. I hate paying for water here, but during my meal I ordered 4 different drinks (wine, 2 bottles of water and an iced coffee) just because I could. For my main course I ordered Lobster Risotto. It was creamy, delicious and not at all lacking in lobster. For dessert I ordered -- you guessed it -- ice cream. The Crema Americana and Dulce de Leche were rich and creamy. I especially enjoyed discovering that the cone bowl was able to balance on the plate due to the layer of dulce de leche beneath it. Genius.  

I was absolutely stuffed after dinner so I didn't even want the snacks I had bought earlier. Instead I decided to enjoy the cool night outside in my jacuzzi. I spent the next hour and a half reading and relaxing, playing around with the water settings and looking at the night sky. It was amazing. 

My favourite photo of the night, playing in the jacuzzi.

When it got too dark to read, I went inside to do some yoga and get ready for bed. Of course, I never wanted to sleep because my room was too awesome. I ended up jumping on the bed, watching TV and reading some more. I fell asleep around 3am, though my alarm was set for 9am. You'll hear more about my 9am hotel room workout when you read my Sunday Fitness Challenge Update. Let's just say that when my alarm went off it was pouring rain and my bed had quite a firm grasp on me, but I still stuck to the rules of the challenge and did the work out. After working out and showering I hit up the free breakfast, where I had fresh fruit, medialunas, toast, coffee, orange juice and cocoa puffs. 

I had to check out at noon, which was so incredibly sad. However, the front desk held my bags and let me go down to the Relax Room to read in the jacuzzi for about another hour. Awesome. When I was leaving, Gastón made another appearance. He was in a rush to ask me some last minute questions, about where I went to school and how I ended up being a travel writer here. He said he had looked at my check in card and saw I was only 23 and didn't understand how that was possible. I am pretty sure he is in no way allowed to be looking up my info like that, but I was flattered that he was interested enough to look. 

It was definitely an excellent 24 hours. My full review will be up on the 27th, but I think it's clear the hotel will be a good review from me! I'll sign off with a few photos of me jumping on the bed. Sorry about the quality, keep in mind I had to set a timer to take these!

Quick Re-cap

I apologize for not updating this recently. I have been incredibly busy and at this point a detailed update just seems exhausting. Instead I will give you a quick re-cap and give you some photos and if you want details, you can just ask for them.

• Travelated launch went well and we are still working hard. This is part of why I have been so incredibly busy. Keep spreading the word. This project makes me very happy.
• Spent a weekened in Colonia, Uruguay. Details to come in the form of an article for Travelated.
  
• Created a scavenger hunt and painted nails at a 11 year old's sleepover birthday party
• Saw a local indie rock band called Adicta and really enjoyed it
• Enjoying weekly outdoor Boot Camp exercise classes
• Came closer to beating Jenny at Squash than ever before (15-13!)
• Recorded a video to be played at an assembly at St. Cecilia School to say hello to all my old students.
• Discovered a coffee shop nearby that gives free coffee refills during certain hours. Refills are unheard of here, so this is more exciting than it sounds.

Wow, I really wish I could think of more highlights but that's really all that is coming to mind right now. Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure:

Colonia, Uruguay

Splitting a bottle of wine at lunch? Don't mind if I do.

The girls with whom I spent my last Friday night.

Ana got an ice cream maker for her birthday and we made mint chocolate chip. She and I were destined to get along.


Juan and Jose went to the US for 12 days. Jose literally threw these at my face when he came back. I savored the first one by making it last for 4 bites. Oh Reese's, why haven't you made it to Argentina? It would make explaining my name easier and also make life tastier.

Happy Travelated Launch Day!

The day has come! Travelated is going at full speed and I would absolutely love if you would check it out and share the link. We also have a photo contest going on that you should definitely enter. I took my own photo and, if I were eligible to win, I think I'd have a pretty good shot.

Try and top this. I dare you.

Long Days and Pillow Fight Failures

It's been a little while. Sorry about that. I've been kind of stalling on writing an entry because I had a series of pretty shitty days. It seemed odd to put up a downer post right after "Freedom". Alas, such is life and I should be real.

My series of shitty days began 2 weekends ago, which was a pretty big social failure. I should note that people in Argentina, even expats who have now assimilated, are not known for their punctuality nor reliability. I had a weekend packed with plans involving 5 different people and only one plan/person didn't fail me. Thanks, Jorge! I had a lovely dinner at Sarki's (an excellent Armenian restaurant) with Jorge and his parents. They were both awesome and it was a fun time. After that, the weekend went downhill.

The week that followed was not any better. I was very stressed and after coming off a weekend of being bailed on, I really missed my dependable friends back home. In no way did it make me homesick, just friendsick. Keep the emails and Skype dates coming guys, because you are dearly missed.

I guess I cannot truly pinpoint why the past week was such an overall failure. I guess it was a combination of being stressed about budgets, receiving an email with unwanted information, being told I looked fat in a very matter of fact way right after an intensive workout, being bailed on multiple times, and plans just not working out as I had hoped. This weekend was supposed to make up for last weekend, I'll give it a B- for effort.

Friday night I went out with a new friend, Gaston. We went to a nice Mexican restaurant and I had delicious enchiladas for the first time since my arrival. I'll be honest and say these enchiladas were nowhere near as tasty as the Enchiladas Yolandas from Chimichangas, which I enjoyed with Ellen and Ben on my last night in STL. However, it was certainly the best Mexican I've had here. Gaston is one of my students so we started in English but thankfully we quickly switched to Spanish. Speaking English to my students actually is very tiring and literally hurts my face. You all know how fast I talk and how big my chipmunk cheeks are. I really have to force myself to concentrate on talking slowly and exaggerating my facial expressions. My cheeks are a lot of weight to move around and I generally end the day with face aches. Anyway, end of face ache tangent. The food was good, conversation was also fun. The night ended early, around 12:30 (that's really early here). I could have gone to a friend's house who was having a get together but I wasn't feeling up to a social disappointment so I worked on Travelated and chatted with Adam and Cole online. I enjoyed Friday night.

Saturday was supposed to be pretty awesome. It started great, with a delicious delivered sushi lunch with Jorge. After that, there was an event, LUCHA DE ALMOHADAS (PILLOW FIGHT) that involved thousands of people gathering in Bosques de Palermo (a big outdoor green area) and having a giant pillow fight. Obviously, this sounds amazing. The event has happened twice before and had great turnouts. This was not the case this year. Jorge and I walked through the streets, carrying our pillows and became more and more aware of the fact that no one else was carrying pillows. We arrived and found a group of maybe 40 people. It was so awkward we decided to turn around and leave. Disappointment.

However, Jorge and I did manage to salvage the day a bit. We walked though the Bosques de Palermo, enjoyed the scenery and Jorge snapped some nice shots of our pillow adventures.
As we walked home we had several of our own spontaneous pillow fights, most of which Jorge won. He's very tall, serious height advantage. We decided to get ice cream (I swear it was Jorge's idea first!) and we went to one of my favourite places, Crepes and Waffles where Jorge and I ordered the same waffle which included chocolate sauce, dulce de leche, bananas and a scoop of vanilla.

After that, we both felt happier and sleepier.


I spent a large part of my Saturday evening watching bad television and working on Travelated. Jenny and Jorge came over for dinner and drinks but after dinner I was so tired and spaced out/upset I just wanted to go to bed, which I did.

Sunday was hectic. Gracia was supposed to call me on Friday or Saturday to let me know what time she needed me. I generally work 4-9 but this Sunday was the party for Coca, the grandma. Yes, her name is Coca. Gracia forgot to do this so I got a text at 11:00, which was 10 minutes after I woke up, telling me to be there at 12 or 12:30. San Isidro is far away, especially when taking into account the slower schedule of Sunday buses. I would have needed to leave at that moment to be sure I'd arrive on time. I quickly showered and had to kick Jenny out (she was crashing on my couch) and headed to work. I spent most of the day being sassed by the 13 year old and scrubbing outdoor chairs. I didn't mind so much, I was kind of looking forward to the family party. This was a mistake. I was thinking, families tend to like me and include me. I speak great Spanish so no one will be afraid to speak to me. Wrong. I sat awkwardly at a table of food that I mostly couldn't eat due to the meat content and tried to work my way into family conversations. Once I realized I couldn't make that happen I ate a lot of cake and cookies to occupy my time and hands. I hovered between the small children who were too young for me and the adults who were too old for me. My best social interaction of the night was with the 1 1/2 year old who took quite a liking to me and pulled me around the house in circles. I continuously cleared dishes and tidied up, feeling more like a maid than anything else. It made me miss the Mortons terribly and saddened me to know that I really have no family celebrations to look forward to at all.

That made my outlook for the week look bleak, but today did not turn out so bad at all. I tutored early as usual but did not have to work after 11am due to a lot of student cancellations. I actually hate cancellations because they affect my salary, but today I just went with it. I had lunch plans with another potential new friend, Andres. I had a nice lunch then worked out a lot. I also love Mondays because it is Travelated meeting day. I had an excellent meeting with Alex and Emily and we are all very confident the site will be in excellent shape for the big push on Monday, October 4th. I am so passionate about this site and my partners, I know it's going to be a success. There will be a blog about the push, don't you worry. I feel as if I have a weekend love affair with Travelated; I await the extra time all week then cram in as much work as I can during all hours of the night. I think it's a great relationship.

Things to look forward to:

• Several new friend hang outs
• Weekend in Colonia, Uruguay with Jenny this weekend
• Getting off the boat at 3am in Colonia and immediately going out drinking
  
• Bike rides in Colonia in 70 degree weather
• Another Sunday off work
• Travelated launch!

So, in conclusion, I think the rough waters are clearing up. Here's to what I hope is an awesome week and weekend.

For more photos and overall awesomeness check out Jorge's blog.

Coffee Shop Nights and Days Full of Running

I've been busy in the best of ways. I've got a pretty decent amount of students now, though I could definitely take on a few more, especially after dropping one especially creepy student. I vaguely mentioned that episode in the last post, let's just say it was really unfortunate and I might start carrying mace.

I've also been working really hard to get Travelated ready. One night last week I had a coffee shop night in my house. How do you like my set up of a laptop, instant cappuccino and medialunas bought from the bakery on the way home? I realize I have never fully explained Travelated so I shall do so now. Obviously, it's a website focused on travel. Alex is the founder and does the web design as well as the advertiser relationships. Emily is the Editor, she writes original articles and also hunts out/edits traveler submissions. I am a Staff Writer and the Travel Advisor, which means I get to write a lot of articles and also serve as the the expert on traveling and living abroad. I also help out with advertiser stuff and will be getting into that more as the site grows. The hope is to get users to regularly visit the site and also sign up for our monthly newsletter, which will consist of travel deals (like coupon codes and discounts), travel blogs, helpful travel tips, etc. We also allow comments on all posts and traveler article submissions- so if you would like to write something for us please let me know!

I'm really proud of this site and excited about it. I know I always take on too much but this is something I really love doing. I hated working in Search Engine Marketing before because I hated how the company I worked for managed it and I also hated the company. However, I was always pretty good at my job. I'm pumped to be working with Alex again, who was always my best coworker at Announce Media and Emily is a really talented writer and knows how to get the site attention. The articles are fun to write, this part of my working life hardly feels like work. We're hoping to do a big push for publicity next month so I will be bothering all of you to help me out.

I also started working as a Personal Assistant. I actually enjoy it. I work for a woman named Janet, or really the entire Choi family, Janet, Doug and their 2 children Alyosha (3) and Soren (7). They're a Korean-American family living here, they speak Spanish but not completely fluently and they are also just busy, admittedly unorganized people. This week my tasks included researching deep freezers, portable air conditioners, Argentina business health insurance plans and Argentina vaccination abbreviations. This requires a lot of phone calls in Spanish and writing up reports that summarize everything I have found. I know that sounds really boring but it really forces me to use my Spanish in interesting ways. Did I know how to properly say "coverage for pre-existing conditions" before this week? I cannot say that I did. I also get to use my experience with kids because I write up detailed activities and make little educational play kits for Alyosha. I created a template that Janet loved, a completely bilingual set up, with materials needed, instructions and also a section explaining what educational or physical developmental benefit each activity has, so that both Janet and the day maid/nanny can understand the instructions and purpose. This job was made for me.

This weekend will be a pretty relaxed one and I am not the least bit upset about that. Last night I cooked myself a delicious meal, even after failing twice at the grocery store looking for ingredients. It was a rainy night so it felt perfect to stay in, watch a movie and work on new Travelated articles. I also had ice cream delivered. I love that I can order ice cream at midnight and it is at my door in 15 minutes. I also like that I caught the delivery guy practicing his dance moves outside my building. Today has been pretty active, but not in a stressful way. I slept for 9 hours, which is always glorious. I woke up, did 40 minutes of yoga then went for a 90 minute run. After showering and eating lunch I packed some lemonade and fruit and ventured back out with Padfoot. This might have been the most stressful part of my day thus far, as Padfoot has completely snapped since his arrival. He is no longer the trembling, nervous little puppy that hides from passing dogs. He is now in complete survival, aggressive mode. Any dog of any size is viewed as a deathly threat and must be barked and growled at incessantly. I can just imagine him thinking, surely the choking sensation of the collar means nothing, my master most certainly would want me to make a fool out of myself and embarrass her in the streets!
I managed to drag him to a bench a little off the main trail and he stayed calm for about 30 minutes, allowing me to get some reading done. Once he started barking at leaves blowing in the wind, I decided if was time to go home.


I had to trick him into looking at me to snap this photo. Don't let that face fool you, he is no innocent puppy. He is a barking, growling, self-choking mess.

I am now exhausted, so I will have a little coffee and snack break before going back to the grocery store so I can cook the dinner I had intended to cook yesterday. I'm also meeting up with Jorge and his dad tonight to go to a German Pub for a variety of beers and cheeses. Jorge's dad just popped in from Colombia today for a surprise visit so now I get to meet him. Should be fun!