el 4 de julio

Happy 4th of July!! I think this was my coldest 4th and one of the few that didnt include me in a swimsuit dominating  the apple pie eating contest. Is that gross? No just kidding, the last time I participated in apple pie festivities was in 5th grade I think at Oak Hills Country Club. None the less, I still dominated every time and it was just a piece, not a whole pie. Reigning champ. The thing was, when you won, they gave you an apple pie as your reward... I just stuffed my faceat a rapid pace with apple pie for 2 minutes , now I have it up my nose, in my eyelashes and in my hair.. do I want another whole apple pie? No, not really. I never understood that. 

Our 4th of July consisted of  letting the beast (Winnie) loose at the park which was nice because it was actually warm outside and the sky was bright blue.  Thennn he ran into the lake and came out covered in mud. So park day came to a hault. haha.  Poor little guy. 

 

Bryan started school on Wednesday, but now the government is shutting down everything for 2 weeks because of Swine Flu. So he's on vacation again. Buenos Aires isnt going to be a ghost town if thats what youre thinking, but theyre shutting down places like universities, some night clubs,  museums and stuff like that.. hoping to prevent the spread of it, which seems impossible because everyone takes public transit and that gets pretty pretty snug during rush hour. Someone told me they're only going to fill up places  30%, like movie theatres and restaurants. Theres going to be someone there to tell you where to sit, like you sit here and then the 2 seats next to you will be empty and then another person in the 4th. Crazy right? Its like finals at UT all over again. How much everyone is freaking out about swine flu here is kind of weird to me. I was talking to a cab driver and he told me all he keeps thinking about is swine flu and how hes so worried. haha really.. its just the flu pretty much. Right? Little kids and old people should worry, not regular people. 

Ok so back to the 4th, after the park we went to an asado (an argentine bbq) of one of the girls Bryan goes to school with because she had a friend in town. It was so cool and sooo good. She had a huge rooftop terrace and a big grill where this  guy with a serious mustache pretty much set up shop and cooked for the whole party. The best meat Ive had since Ive been here. Really good. We ate and  drank until 4am which isnt very late compared to argentine going out standards, but I suck and was dragging by 4:30.  Not accustomed yet.

Guatemala, home sweet home.

Apartment #2 is so great.  We live on Guatemala Street, all the streets around us are named after little countries- next door is Paraguay. I'm not used to the metrics system yet, but what this whole moving into a different apartment thing has taught me is that 40 sq.  meters is a HUGE difference from 30 sq. meters... how big is a meter? who knows,  but 10 of them is quite noticeable. I mean, 5 km is about 3 miles-ish but thats as far as my metric knowledge goes. Well and 0˚C is cold. It may not look like a gem from the video, but it really is.  The only thing is, which isn't even really a thing at all but, you know when you go to the bank - the drive through part- and you send your money through that shoot and it makes that "shooop" sound... well we constantly hear that sound all day because the walls are thin and we're kinda near the elevator and the elevator sounds just like that! haha I promise.  Its like living in the money shoot, but you dont even notice it really.  So if you saw the video, Welcome to our Apartment #2! So thats where we live. 

Today I went running in the Palermo Parks, I had never been before- Palermo is the "barrio" we live in and there are a bunch of parks together so they call them the Palermo Parks. Theres a Rose Garden, the Japanese Gardens and a couple others. Anyway its like Townlake in Austin meets that famous park in Amsterdam, ugh whats it called, anyway its so nice.. palm trees, other trees, lakes- well ponds, green area everywhere, swans, ducks, picnics, dirt paths to run on, oh and a little man selling ice cream and choripan:  chorizo + pan (bread) = choripan. simple concept. Plus, I'm sure it didnt hurt that it was 75˚ and beautiful outside. It was so nice! Thats the picture on here, I didnt take it- because... who runs with a camera in their pocket, but its from the internet of where I ran. Oh and on the walk back to the subte (subway) I found a flower stand and bought myself a flower, Ive never seen this type of flower- its called Terciopelo, which means Velvet in spanish- who knew, but the red pedals are so close together, like a cauliflower and they feel and look just like velvet! Im not sure what its called in english.  See the picture of our dinner... well its the flower in the background. Speaking of dinner, so the food is cheaper here and we found a whole chicken at the supermarket for $3 (how cool is that) because Bryan wanted to oven-roast a chicken with rosemary. Well we get the ingredients from the supermarket, and came back to discover that the oven had no temperatures written on the knob. haha what? Maybe its common here, but how are you supposed to know I wonder. What would Bobby Flay do? Anyway,  Bryan seasoned the chicken - you know, some rosemary, garlic, olive oil- threw it in there, put it on high and hoped for the best..  it surprisingly turned out really really good- not too dry, not raw- but really good! "Suprisingly" not because he cant cook , because hes a good little chef,  but because the oven is pretty much a question mark in disguise. So, thats what the picture is. Oh and we didnt eat the whole chicken by the way, like the lentils, we will be having chicken for a while... 

The computer is doing weird things with the font- so, I guess I'm done for tonight, which is probably good. 

P.S.: Happy 5 de Mayo, eat tons of avocados and drink a margarita or 2 for me :)

- Elise