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Our 5 Best Moments of 2011

31 Dec

Tonight for New Year’s Eve we’ll be heading out to celebrate with our friends, so last night we went out on our last date night of 2011.

We splurged and took a taxi from our place to Las Cholas in the foodie neighborhood of Las Cañitas ($8.84, but worth it over the 58-cents-for-two-people, 1-hour bus ride). We arrived early at 8:30pm and placed our order for a bottle of malbec wine, a grilled sausage link for an appetizer, a salmon and spinach casserole, and the classic Andean stew, locro.

The locro was originally my dinner, but Maggie kept reaching over for more as she was profoundly amazed by the texture of the hominy and the overall flavor. By the end of the dinner, I was eating the casserole and she was savoring the locro.

In between switching dishes, we reflected on the year and just how crazy it was that we actually made it to Buenos Aires. With the crayons on the table, I wrote down each of our 5 best moments of 2011, in no particular order.

Stephen’s 5 Best Moments

  1. My farewell from South Pasadena Christian Church. Not many people leave a job with the gift I was given that day. To not only have people like me even though I was leaving them, but to have them express their appreciation one-by-one over a home-made Argentinean lunch still brings tears of gratitude to my eyes.
  2. Arriving in Buenos Aires. It really happened!
  3. Getting The Culinary Institute of America website gig. This project stands as the marker for when I realized that I’ll be able to earn enough money for us to keep this dream alive for a while.
  4. The garden at SPCC. I loved that garden and was thoroughly impressed that we were able to grow some good stuff back there after that area had served as a junk yard for decades.
  5. My family’s recent visit to Buenos Aires. As I wrote about, it was perfectly timed and simply refreshing to have us all together again.
  6. Runner-up: Justo and Marie’s wedding. I got to be with the boys again and get the last of us married off. What relief I felt afterward!
Maggie’s 5 Best Moments

  1. Overall decision to come to Buenos Aires. The exact moment the decision was sealed is elusive, but the feeling of no turning back now and repeated confirmation that it would all work out stands out.
  2. Christmas Day. This was her first Christmas not to wake up in her mom’s place, so she was missing it. The day turned out to be amazing as we celebrated together in the morning and later with friends.
  3. Crab in San Francisco. Her favorite meal in San Francisco, which is saying a lot because we ate amazing food the whole time.
  4. New Year’s Eve 2010. This hits her list because it marked a time when I was introduced to the Ohio family traditions and was the last significant time she was able to spend with her late grandmother.
  5. Studying Spanish at Verbum. Being a student again and having the perspective to truly appreciate and enjoy it after 5 years as a teacher.
  6. Runner-up: Emily and Ryan’s Wedding. Little Emilita all grown up now and got herself a good man.

We’d love to hear about some of your best moments of 2011.

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Our Christmas Story

26 Dec

‘Twas Christmas day, and all through our home

candles were burning of cinnamon and plum.

The stockings were hung over the bed-couch with care.

While a fire roared for that holiday flare.

Stephen in his new slippers prepped dinner to keep pace.

Maggie decorated using her new vintage vase.

The table was set

with tastes from back home.

Merry Christmas to all and God bless us everyone!

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Christmas Eve Porteño-style

25 Dec

We got a taste of how they do things in Buenos Aires for Christmas Eve. It sounded like a war zone outside so we had to check it out. The height of the “show” lasted for over two solid hours starting at 11:30pm, and even at 3:00am, we could still hear them.

This is a far cry from the usually mellow, indoors Christmas Eves we celebrate in the United States. Seasons probably have a lot to do with that. Because when summer hits in the U.S., we also hit up the firework stands.

UPDATED:

Local news reported an increase in injuries from the fireworks this year, including one death. Spanish article. English article.

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Playing Tourist with the Family

22 Dec

Just as we began to get a little homesick with Christmas approaching, my mother, father, and brother paid us a visit from the U.S. The timing was perfect. The company was great. And playing tourist was a welcome change of pace from playing local.

Arriving at the airport in Buenos Aires.

Christmas tree at the Hilton, Buenos Aires.

View of the city from the Hilton in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires.

Whatever immediate culture shock they might have felt from the airport and ride into town surely dissipated once we walked in the doors of the Hilton in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, where we were greeted by a large Christmas tree, reindeer on the elevators, and boughs of holly throughout the halls.

With the storm clouds zooming by and rains pounding down at random throughout the whole first day, we decided to lay low, rest, and take pictures of the rain and rainbow outside.

The rest was a good idea, because the next few days we conquered Buenos Aires with the help of an open roof tour bus we spotted from the hotel window.

Ready, aim, click!

The Buenos Aires Bus takes tourists like us around the city with the option of getting off and on at 21 different destinations. The buses come by every 20-30 minutes and have headphones with piped in guides in several different languages.

Here are few things we saw along the way.

Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires

"Don't you remember these?"

Rose Garden, Palermo, Buenos Aires

Rose Garden, Palermo, Buenos Aires

Marcus and Mom in Buenos Aires

Mom soaking it all in on the tour bus.

After a full day of roaming the city as tourists, we decided to give them a taste of our local life. That, of course, meant eating amazing empanadas, holding on for dear life on a bus, and traveling by subway.

Our local empanada restaurant. 3 empanadas for AR$ 13.50 or US$3.14.

The Buenos Aires colectivo (bus) -- a daily amusement park ride.

Safely on the subte (subway) in Buenos Aires.

On the Subte (subway) in Buenos Aires.

In just a few short days we were able to see so much of the city. We saw how tourists live and how the locals live. We capped it all off with a blending of the two worlds on a stroll down Defensa Street in San Telmo for the weekly Sunday street fair.

We celebrated a mini Christmas together. They had brought so much from the U.S., half of their luggage was for us. We took a picture of some of the gifts we’ve already opened. Notice a theme? (Not included are a new comforter, new towels, and a large air purifier, plus more still to be opened.)

After playing tourist with the family all week, we weren’t quite ready to go back to local life. Because they had a red-eye flight, their hotel room was booked for another night. We happily made sure it didn’t stay dormant. Call it an act of selflessness. We were very kind to attend to the rooftop pool on Monday morning.

Ah, but it did all come to an end. Local life is back. Work is calling. And the taxis are replaced with buses and subways. It’s always hard to return from a vacation, especially when the vacation was spent with family, had a rooftop pool, and had water pressure in the shower. I can’t wait to play tourist again.

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