We´re here!

Trip Start Oct 16, 2008
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Trip End Apr 16, 2009


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Where I stayed
Our place in Barrio Norte
(Buenos Aires hotels)

Flag of Argentina  ,
Sunday, October 19, 2008

After years of planning and a stressful last few weeks, we are finally here.  A pretty painless journey, lots of movies and predictable Air Canada-ness.  We realise now that long flights are more difficult for Patrick as he gets older and more aware of whatīs going on.  Are we there yet kind of stuff.  Our apartment in BA is exactly what we expected, a little haven in the chaos of a city of 13 million people.  Ah!  First stop, grocery store, find out what this place is all about.  Beer is CHEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAP.  Thank goodness.  We were all in bed by 8.30pm and thanks to the blackout blinds on the windows, we all slept for 11 hours.

Saturday, our first full day in the country, our friend Andy showed up at our apartment with a selection of pastries (facturas and medialunas) for late breakfast and gave us the lowdown on the doīs and donītīs, practical stuff like how much do you tip and can you flush the toilet paper down the loo or does it have to go in the bin.  We took Andy out for lunch and he gave us a quick tour of our barrio (neighbourhood).  That night, we were over at his for a whole host of Argentinian delicacies: first empanadas (delivered of course - everything is deliverable) which are kind of like little mini calzones stuffed with anything you can imagine; then magnificent helado (icecream) with the ubiquitous dulce de leche, which quite frankly is just caramel; and lastly mate (pronounced MAH-tay), a bitter-tasting tea made from the mate herb and drunk out of a guord.  None of this happened anywhere close to dinner time, in fact we ate at about 10pm, much to Patrickīs chagrin.  Something to get used to.

Sunday we were left to our own devices and we made our way downtown to find our school, but it was just a door and a number on the building, we were unimpressed, even went into a swish hotel and got them to check the address was right - the guy on reception told us itīs not uncommon to have no signage whatsoever.  Saw the famous obelisk, the ridiculously wide (Iīm talking about 20 lanes) Avenida 9 de Julio, and a nice plaza with some massive figs and jacarandas.  Ready to start school tomorrow.
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