Awesome Indoor Arcade

This place is named Cartoon Network--yup, just like the TV channel. In fact, it's the same logo and everything. Hmmm...do they own an arcade franchise? Who knows. All I know is that it was a great place to take Connor. It's indoors, has lots of rides for him, and all the video game stuff was upstairs so I didn't have to worry about shoot-em-up games. It was lots of fun!!

Private Tango Lesson at Sol's House

We had our first tango lesson with our teacher, Sol Oroczo last night.

We met her and her husband long-term boyfriend Juan, at the ValenTango in Portland this year. In fact, their wonderful energy and fabulous instruction inspired us to plan our trip so that we could take lessons from them while we were here.

Sol invited all of us to her house for the lesson. Juan was going to be out teaching at their studio, but we were all welcome to come--and Renee and Connor, too. Now, remember, Connor and Renee had just arrived earlier that day. So after a 4 hour nap in the afternoon, we all packed up and took a taxi to Sol y Juan's house.

Sol was incredibly gracious and welcoming. She offered us juice, water, tea, or soda. Connor had brought a bag of LEGOs to play with, and lucky for us, Renee brought her camera to document the moment.

Connor was brilliant, and played well the whole time. Renee was a trooper and managed to stay awake. Sol spent extra time with us talking and being incredibly hospitable. (I was glad to have brought them some Moonstruck truffles and a postcard from Portland. Thank you, Made in Oregon!)

It was particularly fun to be inside a porteña's home. Her and Juan spent two and a half years remodeling their upstairs to be a dance studio. It's gorgeous!!!!

Before we left, Juan arrived back home, and it was good to see him again, too. Hopefully, we will have a few more lessons with them before we leave. If you want to learn more about them, check out their website at www.tangokultural.com.ar. They travel internationally teaching, and are definitely worth taking a class with. :)

Connor and Renee Arrive!!

We were 40 minutes early waiting for Connor and Renee to arrive. And we couldn't rest for a second! (I thought we might get a coffee, or something.) We couldn't be anywhere else, except right in front of the arrivals doorway. So we stood there and counted down the minutes.

We weren't disappointed. Connor saw us and ran straight into Alan's arms! It was the most precious thing!!!! They had endured a 48 hour trip (purchased with air miles--so you can imagine!!!), and came out of it all with smiles on their faces.

What a joyous, joyous moment!!!

More Everyday Images...

The cart is a coffee/tea/mate cart. It's how the porteños get hot drinks to go. (Although now they have Starbucks, and apparently it's quite popular.)

The stairwell is in a subway station near our apartment.

Gourmet Food

One thing we are so totally in love with is how porteños eat. Every eating experience seems to be a gourmet experience. The service is amazing! Just look at our breakfast at a nearby cafe, and the grilled vegetables we had with our lunch. It seems every restaurant has a cloth tablecloth and napkins, wine classes for your water or Coke, and when you order a coffee, it comes with a little cookie and small glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice. Amazing!

Tango at Tacuari

What a fabulous, fabulous tango venue!!!

But first, I must mention our adventure getting to this marvelous place. We looked at the map, got on the subte (subway), and we were off. We've been to this barrio, San Telmo, but never this deep into it, and never to this tango venue. Were we in for a surprise!

In summary, we found ourselves among--let's say--equal-opportunity prostitutes. At one point, while I was hurriedly looking at our map, trying to figure out where we actually were, Alan noticed some curious things around us. There was a transsexual prostitute on one corner talking up a man, a female prostitute talking up another man, your everyday working men coming and going, and a few paces later, a lady in a long cashmere coat walking past us. (!?!?!?)

So--how did we wind up there? After leaving the train station, I guessed we should walk in the wrong direction. We usually make out just fine. We walk a block, read the street signs, learn we're walking in the correct/incorrect direction, fix it if necessary, and proceed to our destination. However, after we walked a block I couldn't for the life of me see where we were on the map. (As it turns out, I'm not so gifted with reading maps. It takes me a little while to orient it correctly, judge it, and move on.) Alan is talented with map-reading, though. All that time in the Irish National Guard, he told me. Only problem: Alan couldn't read the tiny writing on the subte map we had. Hmmm.... Anyhow, we managed to walk to well-lit store fronts and get our bearings. We eventually got to our destination:

Tacuari 1557.

It was SOOO WONDERFUL!

After all that craziness, we were 5 minutes early for our tango lesson. It was a fabulous class that was two hours long, followed by a casual practica/milonga. Around midnight--a full, all-female tango band set up and played for about an hour!!! It was marvelous! There were 2 violin players, a bassist, a cellist, pianist, and bandoleon (Argentine accordian) player. Amazing!!

We met very nice people all night long. I got some good advice on how to improve my dancing, and Alan was asked to dance by several women! Mind you, the way you're asked to dance here is with a glance of the eyes. If your eyes meet each other, followed by a slight smile or nod, then you've been asked, received, and given a "yes" to a dance. Apparently, Alan spent a good amount of time averting his eyes!!! :)) Next time, though, I don't think he'll be as shy. Especially if it's with women he danced with during our lesson.

Enough talking for now. Just know that Tacuari 1557 on Saturday nights is a great place to be!!!

Everyday stuff that's cool

Like Ketchup in a pouch...

Our 8th Anniversary Dinner

Yummy!

Our Apartment

I hope these pictures work out....

Brrrrr!!!

Argentina is cold. Really cold.

We finally checked exactly what the temp. was last night after we walked home after dinner (2am). It was 33 degrees F!!! What did we have to wear? I had a cami, long-sleeved shirt, sweater and WINDBREAKER. Alan fared a little better in his shirt, fleece pullover and Columbia jacket.

At dinner at Acabar--a fabulously funky place that has dinner and board games for everyone (think Rimsky's meets the Alameda Brewhouse-kind of, but not really) we talked to our waiter and found out where to get some space heaters.

Coto was the answer. Coto is a super market, along the lines of Fred Meyer (US) or Dunnes (Ireland), and if you look at the website, they have four different kinds of markets: minimercados, supermercados, hipermercados, and maximercados. So we walked a couple of miles to the hipermercado. But they were sold out of heaters. So we walked another half mile to the maximercado and successfully bought two space heaters. Yay!!!

Along the way, we found a fantastic fish shop where we're sure to go back to get food to make for dinner another night. As it was, we bought a couple of empanadas to tide us over. (Thank goodness, we had no idea how far we were going to be walking!)

This is good practice for me, since I realize I didn't take any pictures of either the fish shop or Coto. I'll make sure not to make the same mistake again.

I did, however take pictures of our fabulous breakfast. Yummy!

Hmmm. the pictures are taking forever to upload. I must do that tomorrow...

Bye for now, hope all is well with you,

Nicole and Alan

Our Flight

Before we get into our arrival into Buenos Aires (BA), there's a couple short things to mention about the flight:

1. We managed to pack our stuff, most of Connor's stuff, and our laptops into two carry-ons. :)
2. LAX has a mini dog park outside the arrivals area!!?!?!
3. Nicole didn't have to pay an entrance fee (like most Americans) because she used her Irish Passport!!! :)))

Why did we give up our summer?

As you may have figured out, we'll be in Buenos Aires during their winter. And apparently, thanks to my grandmother, I now know they are having an usually cold winter. Hmmmm...

So, here's a few things that cross my mind about this:

1. No clothes for Connor= lighter suitcase. We don't have winter clothes in Connor's size. And the stores don't have any to sell. Looks like a light suitcase for him, and he'll come back sporting the latest porteño attire. :)
2. No summer= no urge to buy cute summer dresses. By this time, I'm usually looking for a nice summer dress to buy. But with only 7 days to go--why bother? Ca-ching! Just saved mega moolah. :)
3. Hope I guess right. I mean, I have no idea if I should really pack a heavy coat, or just trust if I really need one, I can get one down there. Should I bring a pair of ankle boots that are really warm and cozy--even if they take up a lot of space?

The real story is that we gave up our summer so that we could take class with two tango instructors we really like. Juan y Sol are fabulous. Fun, sweet, and not at all bothered by Connor running around while we take a lesson. ;) They tour internationally and they start their travels again in September. Thence, our trip in August.

Juan and Sol are such good tango teachers, we planned our travel schedule around their availability. When they told us they were gone in September, we decided to visit B.A. in August.

Check out their website: http://www.tangokultura.com.ar/.

They travel worldwide and any class you take with them is definitely worth the tuition.

:)))

Can Vacation Save You Money?

For sure!

I have been having a great time calling all our "vendors" and putting our services on hold. I've called Comcast, car insurance, Netflix, cell phone, garbage. I think the only thing I'm keeping is electrical and gas services. And even for that, we'll probably turn off our water heater.

And when I add up all the gas we won't be buying, it's so satisfying to see how much we're saving. I think it's almost up to $800!

Once it's all done, I'm going to type up a nice spreadsheet detailing it all. Then I'll show it to Alan. I'm hoping it'll turn on his inner analyst. ;)

Does anyone else have ideas how I can reduce our costs while we're gone?

Packing

Why is it that Alan can pack for a trip so easily and I sit here and make lists for weeks, try on my entire closet (twice), and still be up late packing my suitcase?

Well, if Alan's taught me anything, it's that how you fold your clothes is critical. I've learned the best way to fold my fitted shirts, pants, and where to stuff my shoes.

Speaking of shoes, this trip will have lots of them. There's the gorgeous tango shoes, of course. Then there's the practice tango shoes. And my ballet and jazz shoes (which, if I'm smart, will be the same pair of shoes). Then there's the walk-around-town-all-day shoes. And then, should I bring a nice pair of shoes? And do I bring sneakers? Is my walk-around-town pair of shoes sneakers? Maybe, if I can find black ones... I think a trip to Norstrom is in order to that one figured out.

At least one thing I won't have to pack is a ton of eye stuff. Before my lasik surgery, I'd be carrying the solution, a couple pairs of contacts, the cases, glasses, and the special protein cleaning drops and stuff. Now, all that is unnecessary! Yipee!!

Testing

Hi Everyone,

Here's our first family blog post! I thought I would try this out before we leave so I can learn about how it all works. If you have any tips for me, I would love to hear them!

So, we have only three weeks left before we go, and it seems there's a long to do list, and an even longer list of people I want to see before we're gone. Two months seems like ages to be away from friends.

We hope you follow us on our blog and let us know how you are doing while we are gone.

Best,

N

Here We Go

I'm trying to learn how to do this blogging thing before we all head off for a two month trip to Buenos Aires and Ireland. Hopefully, I can figure it out before then!