the schlep is on

Buenos Aires de mi corazón. It's been a few weeks on the road with surprisingly little looking back. I am missing my neighbor Margarita's empanadas. I am missing a place that feels like home and a bed that feels like mine. I miss my girls that made me feel I had a family wherever I landed. I am happy to be on the road again and feeling that every day is a new adventure. I am wondering when I will see the streets of Buenos Aires again and whether I'll see them again. I am reeling that my last sights of the city were from the back of a cab, lights on Corrientes ablaze, muddied with tears.

We are blogging over at the thebigschlep about some of the adventures of our overland journey from Buenos Aires to Santa Barbara so please go and read it. In the meantime this page will be mildly out of commission save for future reflections. Thanks one and all for visiting.

chacarita

Interesting sights and sounds can still be found in unexplored corners of the city. This weekend we went on a search for tickets for the El Litoral train that will take us on Friday first to the middle of the campo, then to the swamps, then to the border - but most definitively out of Buenos Aires. After our big purchase, we finally visited Buenos Aires' other cemetery.

I am trying to enjoy even the most particular of tramites that keeps us tied to the city: waiting for medicinal laundry detergent to combat malaria, buying bus tickets, exploring the new Bolivian visa laws, and allowing dear friends to cook us asado and share laughs. Some things, more than others, will be missed.

vistas últimas

and now, which one is different and does not belong?

¡Ay, amiguito... cómo te extraño! Sad but true as can be. Which one doesn't belong? I know it's tough...

rincones

pompeya mía

A quiet Sunday morning, cups of tea and yogurt. A phone call, a helping hand needed, a welcome distraction. A taxi to a new corner of town, a bird market, a man with papered fingers handling pigeons, tropical fish, a sad, poor neighborhood and people. A garbage heap, the stench of the Riachuelo, villa as far as the eye can see. A few photos mark the last corners of town left to map before the expedition moves forward.

empty nest

Parents have a way about them. Instead of just deplaning like regular folks, they seem to descend from heaven like angels of mercy wielding credit cards, good times, hot food, cashola, and priceless, kind words of advice.

There last few days with us here in Buenos Aires were spent in proper Nisbet style: nice leisurely walks along the banks of the Delta in neighboring Tigre, enjoying the sunset over the river from a boat-bus, gorging ourselves silly in our favorite Peruvian restaurant, Carlitos, during Peru's football games and cramming in as many last-minute empanadas as our poor bodies would hold.

Late last week I awoke cold and hungry, wondering if my mom and dad might be interested in a coffee and forgetting that I had put them on an airplane the night before back to California. Our house is empty again and visitors have temporarily stopped until later this month when we greet an old friend who returns to Argentina, little Laura Rivas, and Doctor Jenny Yusin who's visit might actually mark the final installment of the Buenos Aires adventure.

I am hungry. Hungry to finish my last Spanish class and have exams be behind me for once instead of looming ahead. I am hungry to be better: a better writer, editor, English teacher, helper, cook, wife and life partner. I am hungry to improve myself in every way and hungry to be on the road feeling I know every nook of every cobblestone of this city. I am hungry to visit Paraguay, revisit Bolivia, and step into Peru, Colombia, and strange coners of Central America. Most of all, I think I am hungry to go home. Though my family is continually littered in all corners of the globe from Michigan to Greece to the South Pacific back to the homestead in a little corner of Goleta, I am hungry to be home again though home may mean poor, jobless, homeless, and a whirling dirivsh of directionless.

As I write, dear friends, snow is falling in big, fluffy chunks onto our terrace in Almagro. My neighbors have taken to the streets with their digital cameras in vain attempts to record this historic day. The-little-heater-that-could is trying its very best to keep the living room above freezing and studying is, once again, being put off in favor of the Gilmore Girls.

patagonian prices

- Flight to Bariloche to Bariloche, Argentina - $300US
- Proper waterproof gloves for scraping ice chunks from mud flap of rental car - $8US
- Hot chocolate and churros in 2 degrees C - $2US
- One night in the finest, homiest hotel in Argentina where you know the owner's son from Santa Barbara and stumbled into completely by accident - $50US
- Pair of boots when you realize that Converse just don't cut it in 8 feet of snow - $100US
- Bottle of the finest Argentine Malbec for end of the day chat - $4US
- Buy into the Nisbet Texas Hold 'Em Poker Game - $3US
- Wool and needles to appease Mary's knitting addiction - $8US
- Digital Camera for proper capturing of the little Mexican's first snow fall, snowball fight, snow meal, and blizzard - $200US
- Getting your rental car dug out of a snow drift by kind Argentine rescue workers after careening, slow-speed accident - Free!
- Post melt down dinner of fine Patagonian Lamb, Trout, pastas and other comfort foods - Who cares? We were post-meltdown at this point.
- View from the top of the Aerosilla at kilometer 17 of the Circuito Chico - Abso-fuckin-lutely Priceless

More photos and adventure stories coming soon. Back to harsh Buenos Aires reality on Wednesday. In the meantime I will be enjoying all the gorgeous ups and downs of our amazing Winter Wonderland adventure with Mary and Roger.

la tontita

So after a brief hiatus, here is all the news fit to print here from Buenos Aires.

- It's cold here! Damn cold. It was 2 degrees here in the Capital on Monday and Tuesday last week and Argentines are dropping like flies. Every day the papers report people all over the country dying of cold for various reasons: lack of housing, carbon monoxide poisoning, heart failure, etc. The French woman who keeps coming to my Spanish class at the UBA contagious with fever and flu has made me sick for the second time this season so I am making a point of eating lots of soup and keeping our heaters rocking until this too passes.

- Today is election day here in Buenos Aires and around 2.5 million porteños will vote today to elect a new mayor. All pre-election polls are showing incumbent Telerman with his unfortunate bald head being ousted in favor of Macri, but only the next few days will tell as the quilombo which is the Argentine electoral process unfolds. In the meantime the election has provided political posters like the one pictured here with counter-political messages like topu, garca, and pontete pelo puto. Poor, bald Telerman seems to be taking the biggest swings.

- Last night the lovely Ana Paula, Paul's "work wife" threw a lovely party in honor of Paul leaving his job (take that however you wish). We spent a lovely evening in a beautiful area of Belgrano complete with designer stores, modern apartments, clean streets, wide green spaces, and general loveliness. Despite having no business in such a classy part of town, we had a great time nibbling cheese, empanadas, and cake washing it down with a selection of fine Argentine wines. Good times and giggles were shared by all and I think it's fair to say that part of Paul misses the 'Office Space' world. So far he's a total failure as a house-husband but hopefully even the monkey can learn eventually.

- I had a brand new 'Lost In Translation' moment that brought me to new heights of tonta last night. I was having a hard time keeping up, totally congested with a head full of snot and rapid fire Spanish conversation. Usually it's not a problem but combine fatigue, decongestants, and crankiness and you end up where I was - thoroughly lost. I finally tried to jump into the conversation with an easy topic: an Argentine friend inquired as to what, exactly, was a twinkie. I explained that they are sponge cake, cream filled, but totally disgusting because of the preservativos that they contain. Total silence. It was about 5 seconds before I realized I had committed a rookie mistake in a public setting. DOH! In Spanish preservatives are conservantes while preservativo is the Spanish word for condom. Lots of laughter (mostly from Paul) and one Scottish-level red face later, I tried to change the subject. Serious ego damage alert. Chalk it up to swollen glands.

- The longer I stay, the more homesick I get. I just heard that my dad had a nasty tumble down a flight of stairs. When I called home my sister, mum, and dad were hanging out together trying to make the best of it. I thought about Santa Barbara, how the summer must be closing in, about surfing, about going for walks with my sisters. The cold, dark, gray city makes me miss home. I think it might almost be time.

- A dear friend of mine is pregnant! Congratulations to Carla, her entire family, and her brand new bean! I need to start knitting again.

- That's all for now. I have sickness ADD and can't finish sentences, am way behind on my emails, and have procrastinated all weekend a simple work assignment. I can't wait until I can smell and taste again. Gagh! I am considering taking out a hit on the French woman in my class...

one shameless plug

For those of you that just feel they are too darned busy and important to check out One Sorry Blog - get over it! Now is the time. Somehow my evil-genius Pablito has created a monster over at WordPress that just won't quit. It's really pretty incredible and I encourage those of you who haven't peeped, to check it out immediately. After a short couple of months at the helm, Paul has bribed, brow-beaten, cajoled, begged, borrowed, scammed, sweet-talked, and otherwise miraculously herded a team of super talented writers into creating a sort of online magazine that is ACTUALLY worth reading. Along with the New York Times Daily Headlines and Lost, it's about all that drives me to tune in these days with my rapidly increasing work and kitchen duties.

Paul has amazing rounded up an incredible cast of non-writers that are incredible writers (note to self: remove title of 'writer' from my resume) and experts one and all in their given fields. One Sorry Blog is a maze of cool, funny, insightful, silly, and interesting contributions about all your favorite subjects: movies, television, gambling, etc. Paul Carnivale has joined the cast as a music writer (and so far, a darn good one) and ideas are being developed in Paul's evil genius mind as we speak. 17 minutes ago, Paul officially finished his duties as a full time translator for Trusted Translations. While I'm excited that he will now be my full time house-husband instead, I am a little concerned that his duties will be neglected in lieu of pimping his blog day in and day out. The point is, the site is pretty great and getting greater by the minute...

tune in...and stay tuned.

¡Que coman!

Maybe it's the chilly winter weather, maybe it's the fact that I am working out regularly again, maybe it's the fact that my panza has grown to a panzota over the last year, maybe it's the blurbs I am writing about food over at One Sorry Blog, who knows what it is exactly? But I have food on the brain. Good, fresh, wholesome, nourishing, home cooked food on the brain. I sit here now with Mexican rice and Chipotle chicken (thanks, Bubba Ray) and love life, love winter, love delicious plates of hot food. So without further ado, here are some of my favorite people doing some of my favorite things. I wish you all good soups and stews this winter or good salads and smoothies if the sun is shining where you are. I have to remind myself to be thankful for one of life's most essential luxuries.

dando vueltas

After two cups of tea and an embarrassing attempt at Scrabble on my part, my boss called me yesterday morning. A serious no-no for a Saturday. The pobrecito recently rolled back into town (literally - wheeled off the plane) with a seriously messed up knee from an egregious kareoke incident in San Francisco. This crazy guy agreed to complete a whirlwind assignment for Rough Guides with a bum leg, 3 days to do it, and rainstorms on the forecast. Naturally, I obliged, using the excuse to catch up with the boss, get a load of his mojo with the ladies in Recoleta, spend a day as a professional photographer's assistant, and get serious advice on what to do with my new digital camera.

It was a seriously fun day schlepping from Las Violetas, one of my favorite hundred year old cafes in Almagro (with not a tourist in sight), to the El Ateneo Gran Splendid bookstore (which we agreed may be the most beautiful bookstore in the world), down to La Boca to check out kids playing soccor and check prices on galpón rentals. The nice thing about traveling around with a boss with a bum leg is that you travel in style, taxiing everywhere and cruising around at a pleasant pace. Even the heavy cloud cover didn't manage to stop Greg from getting some beautiful shots. I am pretty impressed at what a pro can come up with with just a camera, a few days, and a shoestring budget. Hopefully the rest of the world can check out the results in the new Rough Guide to Argentina. I love my new baby digital camera that fits in my pocket and rocks like a pro. This will keep me in photos until I wake up one morning with money for my digital SLR under my pillow. Happy Sunday, one and all.

todo mocoso

There's nothing like fresh air and a gorgeous baby to lift up your spirits. Paul and I jumped on the overnight bus to Córdoba on Friday evening after work. We took the Tuesday holiday as an excuse for Paul to get Monday off and spend the weekend with our friends Conrado and Analía in the suburbs of the city. Conrado and Analía, two tried and true cordobeses, lived in Buenos Aires and were Paul's English students until the end of Analia's pregnancy last year when they decided that they could not raise a baby in the city of bronca and packed up and went back to Córdoba where they own a home, the weather is fine, and there is not a snooty porteño in sight. Fair enough. They now seem to be thriving in the domestic lifestyle by enjoying time with the gorgeous and happy Marco, playing with the cutest puppy in the world, Lola, and ridding the house of invading tarantulas. Though everything else was practically perfect in every way, the quick jaunt to the country provided me with a close encounter of the spider kind that I never, ever want to repeat and provided Conrado with the rare opportunity to comment, "¡Qué lindo bicho, che!" a phrase you just don't hear every day.

What a gorgeous weekend. Conrado and Analía were smashing hosts, whipping us through the towns in the Sierras, cooking us riverside asado to die for, allowing us to enjoy their amazing company, and sharing the cutest baby in the world. When Conrado finally broke down and asked Paul if his weekend with the baby had changed his (forcefully negative) mind about having kids of his own one day, Paul stopped, paused, considered the incredible feats of Conrado and Analía (themselves just a few years older than Paul and I, and finally explained his new, softened opinion on children and plan to adopt babies from around the world, raise them as bilingual, and sell them on the child slave market for generous profit. It's nice to know that the sun in Córdoba and the radiant smile of Marco didn't entirely melt Paul's stone-cold heart...

We are celebrating a lovely labor day in Buenos Aires. We have already been swept with rain, ate some tasty grilled cheese sandwiches, caught up on all the goings-on in our email and One Sorry Blog, and planning for the rest of what promises to be a busy week. I think part of our restless souls is really ready to leave Buenos Aires behind. I already can't wait until my parents come and we can get out of town together. Lucky for me I have fun work, classes, lunch dates, students, correspondence, and a house with a dismantled revolving door to look forward to for the first time in months. In the meantime, those of you with a serious penchant for cute babies can click here for more photos of the mocoso hermoso.