Gotta Love Nature

The Thays Home

This morning I arose ready to conquer my very first tour scheduled to be conducted in Spanish. I can't lie, I was a bit nervous, but confident enough to be excited. I rode up to Plaza Italia, I set up the bikes in the Botanical Gardens and as I chatted with the security guard, Guillermo, (a good conversation in castellano to prepare me for the afternoon) I began to suspect that something wasn't right. 11:10, no guests. 11:15, still no sign. 11:30, ok, that's a no show. Such a bummer, but it happens from time to time. Instead of being disappointed all day I took advantage of the incredibly summery weather we are experiencing and took a stroll through the Botanical Gardens Carlos Thays.

Thays was a French architect hired by the city of Buenos Aires in 1889 to help design the public parks and green spaces. He created the Botanical Gardens in 1898 and lived with his family in the house located at the center. He is responsible for making BA the attractive and green city it is today. Thanks to this fine naturist, every Sunday I'm in a beautiful setting, preparing bikes for our graffiti tour, but have never once spent a decent amount of time exploring the park. The security guards are always telling me I should check it out. I've briskly walked past or through on several occasions and once stopped in to take some photos with Kristin, but something was still missing. Today was the day!

My favorite statue
IV tiempo de la VI sinfonía de Beethoven

Impressive to say the least. The memory of Grandma and I enjoying the botanical gardens in Madrid was my first thought. I'll have to review my pictures but it seems that BA beats Madrid in the garden aspect. The sculptures are beautiful. I especially enjoyed those named for Beethoven's symphonies. The temperature could not have been more perfect, there were several people strolling around, a group of volunteers working on a gardening project and I was suddenly thankful to the no show tourists for giving me the chance to see what had always been right in front of me.

The lucky poo shot

I circled back around the Thays home preparing to enter, as they often have art exhibitions inside, when suddenly, I felt a nice squirt of cool, white bird poop drip down my shoulder, onto my top, and all the way down my leg. The stench was tremendous! Who knew such a little thing could be so smelly. A nice bystander from Jujuy was kind enough to inform me that my hair was covered and then preceded to dump half of his bottle of water on my head to clean me off. Then informed me that I shouldn't worry because this brings good luck and giggled as I calmly tried to clean myself off with the half-ply toilet paper I had stuffed in my bag.

My garden tour ended abruptly, but at least I managed to get some pictures. On the way out Guillermo snickered as I told him about the bird and he was kind enough to remind me that the garden has lots of trees that attract birds. I'll be sure to bring my umbrella next time. The return bike ride was very quick as I was stimulated by the intermittent aromatic reminders that between my hair and helmet was a lovely layer of birdy waste. Back home and showered, I am looking forward to experiencing the luck that bird intended to bestow upon me.

Sharing is Caring

Visitors are always welcome here in BA. Yep, I am more than happy to share this wonderful city with anyone wanting to explore the southern hemisphere. In fact, I've decided that showing people all of the many reasons that this city totally has me captured is one of my favorite things to do. I've found the perfect job to capitalize on that goodness I feel when introducing newbies to the vast array of museums,  parks, historical sites, but obviously, and most importantly, restaurants! Each tour reminds me of why I feel completely at home here in Argentina.

 Luckily, outside of all the wonderful travelers I meet on the job, I've been fortunate enough to host some visitors of my own. Grandma kicked off the trend with a Thanksgiving visit last November and a stopover in Uruguay. Dad, Caden, and Silvia shared an awesome week of cycling, exploring, clubbing and a few afternoon cocktails in late February. And my most recent visitor Amanda, my first roommate EVER from my freshman year at AU just left and I already miss her. After two+ years of not seeing each other, it felt like just yesterday we were living together! And we ate at so many amazing restaurants that I can now show to all my future visitors. (Seriously, a lot of food, but A LOT. Our waistlines are grateful we don't live anywhere near eachother!) Each of these trips was a unique combination of emotions: excitement, exhaustion, relaxation and sadness at departure, but I am so happy that I've had the chance to introduce each of them to the awesome Buenos Aires. Please, please, please come see me again!

I would like to say however that none of these compared with the complete joy and content I felt when visiting home in June. Being my favorite month of the year, with Colorado's green mountains, warm days and cool evenings, the fresh summer vibe has the most incredible calming ability. Honestly, I had never before felt the happiness I did when spending those two weeks with those that I love most: my family. This year is the first that I've experienced a very extended period away from home and even so much time out of the US and it's true when they say distance makes the heart grow fonder. I'd never before understood the connection to home. Each morning I woke up early, took a walk with Winston while the sun was just peaking above Raiders Ridge, followed by relaxing mornings waiting to spend the day doing whatever I could to soak up as much Durango time as possible. We were together as a family to bring Grandma Willie home to Colorado one last time. A brief but wonderful road trip to CO Springs to see Breanne and her gorgeous family. Those kids melt me like they'll never understand. Everyone was so generous, breaking away from their busy schedules to spend time with me. Durango never seemed so good! 

Truth is, I should have wrote about the trip while there, but then again, if this blog is for those back home I don't need to add more detail. You were all there sharing in my pure 'being home' bliss! xo

*Please excuse the totally lame photo/text layout. I am fully annoyed and completely over the blogspot tools offered and have given up trying to make MY blog fit MY needs and preferences. :) As you can see I'm trying to be the bigger person, accept what is available, check my high expectations at the door, the list goes on and on. My perfectionist tendencies are getting the best of me at this point so I must now step away from the computer.

Here Begins the Winter Series

My first winter in Buenos Aires is almost over and until last week I was completely skeptical of anyone who had experienced a BA winter's capability to make an accurate description of the weather. I heard numerous stories of awful, wet, windy, overcast and stingingly cold days. Instead, winter arrived mildly. In fact, so mildly that I was not intimidated to take a trip to the mountains. A quick trip to Bariloche (Actually not quick at all. Twenty hours on a bus!) which is located in the south, in Patagonia and even though the mountains were covered in snow, I had nothing but an entire week of gorgeously sunny and cloudless days. A lot like Colorado winter days actually. The perfect cure for a homesick mountain girl yearning for some nature. Yep, I said it: homesick. With the quickly approaching mid June trip home, I could barely contain my excitement and simply couldn't wait to get out into the woods. Once again, my instincts served me well and I spent a week sucking in that pure bliss that comes with fresh mountain air, sunshine, and a good trail trek.

Turns out my first Couchsurfing selection wasn't too bad either. After arriving earlier than planned, I boarded a local bus to seek out my temporary home and met a friendly lady who happened to be a neighbor. She invited me over for mate and I shared with her the day old banana bread I'd lugged across the countryside. I knew I'd find someone to share it with! After hearing all about her family, politics, her limited cooking skills, and of course a firm lecture on being a young woman traveling alone, she accompanied me the few blocks to find my host. Greeted by Mario and two lovely girls from California who were also visiting, I immediately felt welcome. They   were more than happy to show me around town, hitchhike to the trailheads and enjoy an afternoon picnic on the bare ski slopes. Mario introduced me to several friends and I went with he and his toddler to the National Celebration of Patriot Day which happened to be in Bariloche this year. What are the odds that I'd have the chance to see Christina - La Presidenta - from arms length! *See video of poor quality below for the evidence. Pleas don't judge. It was a mad house! And it took forever to load, so watch it :)

 Parades, traditional pastries, hot chocolate made by the army and served out of old military tanks (I guess it's a tradition that the army makes chocolate...), performances by famous artists, flags, fireworks, the whole shabang and I was right in the middle of it! But no, this isn't even the best part. It gets better.

Upon the suggestion of more than a couple people I decided to load up the day pack and my sleeping bag and spend a night in the Refugio Frey. After a moderate four hour hike through the most incredible snow and ice covered terrain with breathtaking views of the various lakes in the area, I was completely awestruck at the sight of the mountain refuge to which I'd arrived. Overlooking a frozen lagoon and surrounded by jagged, rocky peaks I was speechless. The entire scene was the exact description of my ideal mountain hideaway. The refuge keeper Nahuel, a friend of his, and four other visitors were the only inhabitants for miles. We strapped on pairs of old rental ice skates and zipped around the lagoon... Indescribable. Nahuel made us a fire, he taught me how to play truco - the national card game of lying, cheating, and trickery - and let me win... Priceless. After a few games of dice and a couple bottles of wine we al bundled up in our sleeping bags and drifted off... Unmatched.

I woke up to a nice hot breakfast, drank coffee wrapped in a blanket while perusing the old photo albums and snuggling the Refuge kitty Emilio. All I could think about was how badly I wanted to stay. But needing to return to BsAs to diligently fulfill my duties as grad student extraordinaire, that is after all what I'm here for, right? I packed up my things, took a few last minute shots promising myself soon and many returns, and I headed back down the snowy path to civilization.

Easing Back Into It

It ebbs and flows this blog writing thing. Almost like a journal, which I've managed to maintain, complete with long occasional periods of neglect followed by months of daily consecutive entries, throughout the majority of my young adult life. Usually my journal reflects my mood. Change inspires me to write. A new experience, a traumatic event, or maybe a sudden realization that no one else is going to document my life.

Blogging of course is a bit different. It's forever accessible to millions, no billions of people... forever. The internet is ink, not pencil. Just because you've cut, deleted, erased, or de-tagged doesn't mean it's been removed from the digital network. And I find something intriguing about altering the entries on my blog to make posts appropriate for the potential billions of readers for years to come. Not to say of course that there will be billions of readers, no, I don't think I'm that interesting, but it's the possibility. The possibility that future acquaintances, bosses, employees, or my children one day will have access to whatever I publish on the internet.

More than anything, especially because this is my way to transmit information to my family and friends, to say things, describe my life in a way that maybe I wouldn't normally do over Skype, either because I forget during our brief chats or because some things are easier written than spoken, this blog is the "user friendly" version of Brett's insights on life. So no, this is not a journal; that's reserved for my more intimate and personal thoughts. The thoughts that I hope to share someday with those that maybe never had the chance to meet me or those that need to know just exactly what I've been thinking all these years. (I promise, it's not TOO outrageous!) The blog instead is my way to stay connected with those that I love who I can't be with every day. For those who read each new post, I just want to say that when I write it's because I want you to be a part of my life. No matter the distance or the long intervals between phone calls, it's special to me that you've taken an interest in what I have to say. So... thank you!

Now that I've exhausted my spurt of sentimental commentary, we can jump back into this regular blogging to which I was once so dedicated. I've been feeling the urge to get back into 'blog mode' lately and with all this rain and thunder we've been having I figure now's the time! After a crazy, beautiful week of constant tours and endless activities, being stuck inside for the last couple days hasn't been so bad. Forced to face the daunting task of dual papers due at the end of the month (eek!), that technically need to be done within the week (I have a visitor coming!), this much needed outlet from the academic gauntlet is just the medicine to reactivate my creative writing juices.

Stay tuned! We are expecting rain for the rest of the week and glued to my Mac I will surely be craving frequent breaks to fill you in on the winter months of my first year in Argentina. xo