We're moving!

Dearest friends and family,


After much internal debate, I've decided to move my blogging to tumblr.  While blogspot has been very kind to me this past year, I find that it's time to move on.  I won't have time to write long sweeping posts anymore so will try to keep you all posted on day-to-day activities in photos with shorter but hopefully still very informative descriptions of my life here.  In this way, my tumblr would probably more accurately be called "el cotidiano" as my updates will be more frequent, even daily when possible.  Thanks for understanding!

BsAs, Capital Federal

It's been three weeks since I first arrived in Buenos Aires and it's only now that I feel like I'm getting into the rhythm of things.  I've had the longest orientation of my life and have been adjusting with as much ease as I possibly can/could after having had one of the most incredible and inspiring experiences of my life in Costa Rica.  I'll get to that.

After Costa Rica, I was in Miami about 5 days hanging out with my parents and eating my weight in kimchi and ramyun.  Nothing makes me hungrier than hanging out with my Mom and when she brings out second lunch and second dinner, you don't say no.  Well, at least I don't say no..ever.

And then I arrived here, in the "Paris of South America" on the other side of the equator.  I left behind sunny Miami and my parents but what I missed most of all upon my arrival wasn't home but Costa Rica.  I missed the sun, the stars, the moon, the sand, the hammocks, and most of all, the people I met.  It was my first time traveling alone and instead of feeling lonely, I could not have felt more perfectly in balance.  I'm still in touch with the friends I made out there and I fully intend to reunite with them, but now I find myself in an entirely different universe where I'm no longer listening to this but rather, this.  Ok, to be honest the latter was something I listened to today while running the fastest mile I've ever run (I was on a caffeine high) but it's within the same vein of music I have been listening to.  In short, I've gone from feeling mellow to feeling like I have paintballs exploding in, on, and around my face all the time.  I mean, David Bowie is re-entering my life.

Pura Vida/Back from Sabbatical

Just to warn you before you commit to reading this, this will probably be the longest post I have ever or will have ever written.  But Costa Rica deserves it…nowhere else have I felt such an overwhelming sense of calm and part of it was my minimal access to technology.  Yeah, I had my iPhone and was Kakaotalking and Skyping you people every day but to be fair, that is basically quitting cold turkey for a girl who’s on food blogs and watching “Archer” and “30 Rock” alternately for at least 1.5 hours a day.  I even lost WiFi for 24+ hours.

I was in a funk last semester.  Everything started off just fine but as weeks turned into months, I only did the bare minimum to get by and ended up missing more readings than I had ever missed before.  I wasn’t friendly anymore and the few times I went out, I was a drunk and happy mess.  Whoops, you mean to tell me this ISN'T an online diary?  

So let's cut to the chase.  I was accepted into the CIEE FLACSO study abroad program in Buenos Aires Fall 2011 and immediately I hopped on the Máximo Nivel website and planned my 3-week stay in Costa Rica.  (PLUG: If you want online Spanish classes or to work with Máximo Nivel, drop my full name and something good will happen to me...and to you)

In spite of having spent my last few weeks at home with some of my closest friends and my family, there was no bittersweet farewell.  My last meal at the Original Pancake House was concluded with the same big smile I had when I walked into JFK (smiling into JFK is a very rare occurrence) a couple hours later.  And then it was onto the plane and off to Central America.

AA business class discounted upgrade
Thanks to the people up there (2nd floor 1411 BWay)

London Calling

We were originally scheduled to meet up with some of my sister's Yale SOM classmates at some bar but after lugging my giant suitcase up two flights of subway stairs and considering Cathy's general state of exhaustion, we cancelled.


The Hoxton is a chic, modern hotel just north of London's financial district.  Having travelled to London about four times in the last five years, I've seen the major tourist destinations and didn't feel at a loss to take it easy this time around.  Cathy obviously agreed and when we began our trip by canceling the first of our engagements, it was a no-brainer as to what came next: room service.

Midnight in Paris

…is supposed to be magical.  For those of you who’ve watched the film, you’d agree with me that Woody Allen makes it out to be this mysteriously beautiful time and place.  I was 16 the last time I went to Paris, at the height of any average person’s hyper-dramatic stage.  For many of us (and don’t deny it) it’s a back-and-forth dance between desperately hopeful romanticism and bleak fatalism, bossa nova in the sun and Elliott Smith in the dark.  So yeah, being 16 in Paris (Paris in the spring no less) is nothing less than magical.

What was Paris really?  We were tired, it was raining, our joints were aching, my sister’s feet were on fire, and there were throngs of tourists everywhere, just lines and crowds everywhere.  Our schedules were packed starting from 7 AM to beat the lines as best we could and we powered through sites and museums like fruit flies with only 24 hours to live.  Nevertheless, the charm of the city of love did creep in at unexpected moments and then I could really imagine saying, oui, Paris je t'aime.

La Despedida

And so the bittersweet farewell begins.  It's a long process and with my sister Cathy coming in this week, I started with the little things, like my favorite 1 euro snack at Picadero, patatas bombas, deep fried potato stuffed with meet served with garlic alioli and brava sauce.  

Patatas bombas

I also said goodbye to La Oveja Negra, a bar a lot of my fellow students frequented where they serve sangria and beer in "towers" with its own tap.  This farewell was not so sad.

La Oveja Negra

With my sister's arrival came the opportunity for me to experience a lot of Barcelona for the first and last time.  This was indeed bittersweet.

1 more week

My immune system decided to take some time off this past week and I've been sick since.  Really some great timing.  Nonetheless, I packed a little packet of tissues in my purse and was on my way.  The rest of my floor was off to Paris for the weekend come Thursday so I made other plans.  Like the Joan Miró Foundation.