One thing about my parents everyone know,s is they don't waste vacation days.  If it's not some trip abroad it's a weekend trip in an attempt to see all of the Presidential Libraries (weird for parents that never talk about politics, no?).  Last year, the teachers at my mom's school played a game amongst themselves were they wrote a clue a teacher's name they drew out of hat.  The other teachers then tried to guess who that clue was about. The clue given for my mom was "She has visited 3 countries in the past year that all started with the letter 'I'".  My dad is retired military so he has access to military supply flights (called a HOP) if they have space available. His recent HOPs have been to Hawaii, Guam, England and Iceland (which is 1 of the I's). 

A recent family tradition of my parents has been for them to invite one of their kids on a trip and let them pick the destination. My dad's one of those guys who like someone else to pick his dinner because he will always pick the safe choice. This started in 2005 after Sheldon found some dirt cheap British Airways tickets to London.  They had so much fun having the company of their son that Sheldon and I got to go with them to Germany in 2006. Then in 2007 it mutated into spouse trips after Sheldon and Khristin went to London. Ceira and Jon went to Italy/Slovenia/Croatia in 2008. Weston and Mandi went to Germany/Czech Rep/Poland in 2009 and  Elizabeth and I went to India in 2010 (it my be a bias vote, the the coolest of them all).

After a number of attempts to get Brian to take off work and go on a trip they finally talked him into it.  My dad, Brian and Brian's girlfriend Malisa arrived in Buenos Aires this past Saturday.  My mom wasn't able to make the trip due to work.

Today we went with our roommates to a barrio called Liniers (which Terry and I nicknamed Little Bolivia).   Its a barrios on the out skirts of the Capital Federal portion of Buenos Aires and the furthest we have ventured out so far.  The population of this neighborhood is largely composed of Bolivians immigrants. It was a 30 minute trip on a direct bus near our apartment (line 34).



Stepping off the bus felt like we had traveled way more then 30 minutes. Everything looked completely different from the Buenos Aires we had come to know.  The buildings were short, the streets were narrow, the people looked different, the smells were stronger and everywhere, and it was much dirtier. More like Matamoros, Mexico (a border town across from Brownsville, TX)

Our first visitors to Buenos Aires will be arriving in 24 hours. Terry's Dad (JIm), his brother (Brian) and his brothers girlfriend (Malisa) are visiting for 10 days.

This is Brian's first non-work related vacation in about 10 years, and Malisa'a first time out of the country.  It's also the longest period of time Malisa has been away from her two boys. 

We're very excited to see them and hope that they have a good time.

A little reminder of Oklahoma today.  104 F.  That's how hot to got today in Buenos Aires according to Weather Underground. After a less then eventful afternoon running errands in the sweltering heat, our block lost power for 2 hours.  Our roommate said this is a somewhat common occurrence in the summer with so many people using their air conditioners.  Terry and I were in the process of studying Spanish, however with only a candle for light, I decided to go downstairs and bake.  What else do you do in a power outage?  You need to keep your blood sugar up.

Yesterday, my roommate Andrea asked if I'd like to go out with her 2 friends for a girls night.  I tried my hardest to ask where we'd go and what we we'd be doing, but all I heard was cerveza y bailando (beer and dancing).  And if you know me, it takes a lot for me to start dancing.  I thought what the hell.  I need to take this opportunity and seize the day. Do something out of my comfort level (not like we aren't already).

What started as excitement, quickly turned into a panic attack.  "tonight is going to be in Espanol SOLO", I was thinking to myself. Ahhhhhh. My Spanish at our apartment has been "so so" because they have been speaking very slow for us and there aren't any distractions (noises, more than one person talking at a time etc.)

In 2006 I moved to Orlando, Florida to participate in Walt Disney World's College Program.  While I was there I became friends with many different people, a few of which were from across the globe.  One of many great individuals that I met was Nacho V. Nacho is from Argentina and has been a big help for Terry and I, even before we arrived. I've sent him numerous emails that one might consider silly and pointless questions.  Nacho has always been able to answer them and made us feel a little bit more comfortable about the move to Argentina.

Last night Terry and I had the pleasure of eating dinner and drinking a few beers with Nacho.  It was so nice to meet up with him again and to talk face to face. We all had a really good time and I'm looking forward to many more nights hanging out with Nacho.

Nacho took us to a place called Acabar located in the Palermo area. I liked this place. It was very cool and had a laid back atmosphere. Terry called it a Restro-Bar.

 We have been in Argentina for 4 days now, as we look for apartments and wander around the city I have compiled a list of things I want to accomplish while we are living in this great country.

1. Learn Spanish
2. Write a Blog post in Spanish (the post probably wont be very long, but I want to try)
3. Run a formal 5k or 10k (Completed 5k March 3rd Cross Urban Nocturno)
4. Visit the Beach for my birthday Feb 9 (Completed Feb 8th - Feb 10 in Pinamar)
5. Rent an Apartment (Completed Jan 19 2011)
6. Get a job
7. Visit other countries (because we are here right now on a tourist visa we have to leave the
country every 3 months and cross another countries border)
-Brasil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru to name a few
8. Go Skiing in the Andes Mountains (This will be in June, July or August.......weird time right)
9. Volunteer while in Argentina
-Here are two that I have found Banco de Alimentos (The Food Bank - Same as OKC Food
Bank) and Proyecto Arte (Art Project - An art school for youth)

I'm sure I will have more things to add to this list but I think this is a good starting place.

What I'm wanting to take to Argentina

The TWO bags I am taking for a Year

Round one of packing

Round 1: Elizabeth 0 Bags 1

I asked Terry if I could take 2.5 bags (the .5 being part of his bag)
He said no, so tomorrow I am getting a bigger suitcase.

Let hope that Round 2 works out in my favor.