the Oreo of Argentina

Sooo el cachorro (argentine spn. for puppy) made it! Poor little guy.. 20 hours in a box :( But he made it ok, a little grumpy, but in one piece. So thats good. What was it like getting him from Buenos Aires customs you wonder..?  Kind of like having a long confusing nightmare. I thought it was going to be super easy, 15 minutes at the max. Go into the airport, show them my passport and be on my way with Winnie. No way, not at all. We rented a little "mystic blue"  Volkswagen Gol Trend since the airport is in a city right outside of Buenos Aires called Ezeiza and Winnie sheds a lot so I didnt think a cab driver would let him in his car. haha anyway, so we get there and had to talk to about 23 different people like .. "go to terminal A, talk to them, sign this pay that, then come back to me get this form , go to terminal B, go to cargo talk to them, walk across the hall, pay them, show this stuff to them, wheres your passport? why is your dog coming? remember terminal A? go back there then Im not sure what next, ask them..." haha so I wont keep going, but this lasted for literally 3 hours. Then.. bum bum bum.. he was set free! And exhausted for two days... but he's back to normal now... obsessed with Bryan and jolly. 

It seems like Argentina has no shortcuts, besides the airport adventure, I kinda like that about BA. There's a special store for everything:  spices,  a little lady  that makes pastries and chocolates, fruits, lampshades.. I found a button store the other day. When you go eat at a restaurant, everything (for the most part) is made from scratch or maybe from a local bakery. So thats kind of cool. Not too much frozen food. And, the cheap hole in the wall restaurants have been the best so far, by a lot!  The Choripan/entrana (strip of steak) for $1.50, and the empanada for 75 cents turn out much better than the steak at Joe Fancy's restaurant. So much better. 

Theres this little coffee shop a block from our apt, little hole-in-the wall ... of course, place - not too fancy where we always go get coffee and an alfahor. More about the alfahor later, Bryan loves them. Well I do too, but I love all sweets so I dont count. Anyway, this one waiter is always there, I think he's the only waiter actually. Well anyway, he knows us now and knows our order. No idea what his name is, but he looks just like Mr. Bean... you know that comedian that everyone loves, except me I feel. How great is it that he looks like Mr Bean and deals with coffee beans all day! Coincidence? Not at all. I'll find out what his name is and take a picture with him so I can show yall and compare the two. Oh! the alfahor, right.. so they sound super unhealthy, and after writing what they are it sounds actually not healthy at all... but theyre so good. Its like the "Oreo of Argentina" someone told me. Its sort of like an oreo filled with dulce de leche and then covered in chocolate. Sometimes they get a little crazy and make the Alfahor 3x.. so its like 4 cookies filled with dulce de leche.. 3 times.. I havent gotten that daring to try it, seems like a little much. Like what if there was a PB&J 3x .. no way right. peanut butter overload. Anyway, we eat them alot. thats pretty much it. 

Oh and the picture below I stole from Paola, it's us out in Plaza Serrano at Bar Abierto- good title right. Theres a restaurant down the street from us named "The Standard Restaurant", its written in english,  they may have well named it, Just-Alright. haha.  Or theres this Chinese place near us named Yan Kie and a pizza place called Kentucky... whats the story behind that one I wonder.. 

* I wish these pictures were mine, but I dont have an adapter for my camera charger yet and its dead.. so until then, stealing them from the internet and Paola. 

Love you! 

Elise

3 Failed flights and a Shoebox

Finally made it!  So the plan was, yesterday we were supposed to meet each other in Dallas and then fly straight to Buenos Aires together, but that didnt happen at all. I get to the San Antonio airport, check my bags and am waiting for my flight, but there's no plane and were supposed to leave in 20 minutes. Well, turns out our flight is cancelled! Of course it is. haha. So after talking to the lady and crying and telling her I have to have to make it to BA tomorrow, she gets me on a flight out of Houston. 4 hours later , my flight takes off for Houston. 10 minutes in the air, the captain comes on the PA and says that the landing gear is locked and wont go back in so we have to turn around and go back to San Antonio. As we're landing, they have firetrucks everywhere in case our plane crashes. So, an hour later they put us on another plane- which is great, but my connecting flight to BA was taking off at 9pm which only gave me an hour to get there and to my gate or else I'd be spending the night in Houston. Luckily they held the plane for us and I got on the flight to Buenos Aires. Finally! I made it to that flight!  We're taxi-ing on the runway getting ready to leave and the captain comes on and says that the plane's power is low so we're going to have to go back to the gate so maitenance can fix the problem. Haha seriously, I was thinking. 3 for 3. So, an hour and a half later, up up and away!!! 

Finally made it! I met Bryan at the airport and we went back to our studio that we're renting for a week. It's cozy, very cozy and snug.  The size of.. some peoples office's, our bathroom is like an airplane bathroom. haha, its cute though. 

First thoughts on big buenos aires.. completely different than I had expected. I thought it was going to be exactly like the little city in Spain that I lived in, Sevilla. I don't know why I thought that, of course a huge city (bigger than LA Bryan says) is going to be different than a tiny quaint little town. So far it seems nice, a little dirty- people let their dogs sh#t on the ground and dont pick it up. There are dog walkers with literally 15 dogs- I didnt think that really existed. The exchange rate is nice, I turned in $300 and got back 1,102 pesos. So thats a plus. Its fall down here but it was warm today. Andddd thats pretty much it, Bryans sleeping since he didnt sleep on the plane and Im too nervous to venture out too far because Id for sure get super lost and then that would be another long ordeal, like Where's Waldo.. wheres Bryan and my shoebox. haha.  I tried to walk around and came back in 10 minutes.  Oh! and the accent is funnier than I thought it would be, everything is "shh" when they talk. "Me shama Elise" or "Eshtamos aqui" or "She" instead of "Si" like in Winnie the Pooh, when I think rabbit says "Shuffering Suckutash" haha or maybe it wasnt rabbit, but for those of you pooh fans, you know what im talking about. It kinda throws you off a bit, well a lot. 

Anywho, Im going to go. Venture out tomorrow and take some pictures of the shoebox and the town! 

- Elise