Over the past month, Elizabeth and I have been seeking out a 10k run. So far we have averaged 4.3 miles per day since we left, both running and walking the city.  We might as well spend our time getting into better shape while we have so much free time on our hands.

While Elizabeth was moseying through the forum on BAexpats.org, she rolled across a hashing club that was hosting a 10k run just outside of the city limits. In short, the Hash House Harriers is a worldwide fraternity of expats who schedule runs for the secondary purpose of running. Most major world cities have at least one hash group. It's often jokingly referred to as "a drinking club with a running problem".

The Buenos Aires Zoo was established in 1888 and in 1991 was turned over to a private company.  The zoo's located in the hear of Palermo near Plaza Italia.  Along one side are high rise apartment building with perfect overview of the park.  Not sure if that's considered a good view or a smelly view.  When the zoo was constructed back in the late 1800s, they constructed each animal's shelter to mimic the architecture from the animals homeland.  For example the elephant lives in an Indian Temple with goddesses adorning the walls.

Over the past 6 weeks, the goverment of Buenos Aires has been hosting 100 outdoor events in celebration of summer called La Ciudad al Aire Libre.  February 19th was the final event, a program of tango and singers.  They constructed the stage in the street directly in front of Buenos Aires' primary landmark, the Obelisk.  The Obelisk is located in the middle of what some argue is widest street in the world, Avenida 9 de Julio (14 lanes with 4 lanes of access roads on each side).  Their website says that 12,000 came out to watch the free concert. Here is a link to their Facebook Page for some more professional pictures.

Maybe it was a half-hearted attempt, but I was waiting to cut my hair so I could possibly get an Argentinian style haircut (in a land where mullets and rat-tails reign supreme).  It's been over two months since my last haircut and I couldn't take the mess that's been growing on my head since. With now way to style it, I was forced to wear a hat all day every day.


So yesterday I stormed out of the apartment in search of a barber, but it was a miserable attempt. The first stylist I came upon had a poster in the window that made him look like a gay mass murderer.  As I stared at his less then fabulous promotion photo, I slowly realized that I didn't even know how to say "I need a haircut" in Spanish.  So with my tail between my legs, I returned home in defeat much to Elizabeth's amusement about to the whole situation.  After she finished laughing at my raising anxiety, we convinced our roommate to role play with us to bring us up to speed and prevent a botched haircut.

A fellow expat posted this video on her blog, I thought you might enjoy.

It's now been a little over a month since we arrived in Argentina and so far it's lived up to our hopes.  Although we haven't yet nailed down a job, we've been successful in our other goals.

Elizabeth's birthday is this Wednesday and she's been dying to spend her birthday at the beach.  So today we are catching a 5 hour bus ride down to the coast for what is considered one of the area's top 5 beaches.  So for the next 2 days we will be working on our newly developed tan.

With some Forest Gump style luck, two weeks before my dads trip he ran into a Cameron University tennis player who is from Argentina.  As luck would have it, this guy had a 20 year old brother living in Buenos Aires who was currently out of school for summer break.  After a phone call and some emails, my dad had a personal family tour guide for this past week. 

As I told in a previous post, my family traveled up to Iquazu Falls for a quick 2 day trip out of town.

They returned on Wednesday and we resumed our Buenos Aires tour.  First we visited the famous Recoleta Cemetery. It is very small compared to others in the city but a tourist attraction because it contains the tombs of some of Argentina's most important people such as Evita and several past presidents. We then took a public bus over to Puerto Madero and saw the iconic Puente de la Mujer bridge (shown below). Afterward we stopped by the courtyard directly in front of their main government office (the Casa Rosada - literally "Pink House"), called Plaza de Mayo, which is famous for a weekly protest that's been going on for over 33 years. Every Thursday, the mothers and grandmothers of those that disappeared during the "Dirty War" walked originally to push the government to investigate the crimes of the past and now as a reminder of the atrocities of a former time.  News articles are still written about DNA tests of people in their 30's that were "adopted/given" secretly to family's with money and power