Puente de la Mujer

In the flashy marina area of Buenos Aires, Puerto Modero, lies the majestic Puente de la Mujer, "Woman's Bridge."

This bridge, created to look like a couple dancing Tango (yeah, I don't see it either), is named for the streets around it, which are all named after powerful women in Argentina's history. A country that, in fact, has a female president.

I can't help but wonder, however, whether this bridge was built before or after the Hooters that sits directly next to it (this picture was taken from the bridge).

Ah, America. We bring such great things to the world.

Iguazu Falls

We returned from a three-day trip to Iguazu falls on Tuesday, and since then, I’ve been trying to figure out exactly how to put the experience into words. It was really beyond description. Waterfalls, butterflies and rainbows. It was like Carebear land. If Carebear land was full of Argentine tourists.

It was Disneyland meets California Academy of Sciences meets Niagra Falls. Despite it being in the mid-90’s and thickly humid, we had an amazing time.

I couldn’t narrow my 300 photos down to just a couple, so here i a totally manageable 48:

Weekend in Igazu.

Now I've seen it all

It's Alf. In Spanish!

Two-wheeled and shiny

What has two wheels, a shiny fusia finish and can get me around Buenos Aires?

Give up? It’s my nueva bicicletta.

Perhaps an odd purchase in a city where red lights are seen as merely a suggestion and lane markers, simply guidelines. But luckily there are enough of these:

(Designated bike lanes) to make navigating the city by bike feasible, almost pleasant.

Today, Penelope Cruiser (that’s my name for her) and I, rode all over town.

To parks,

museums,

And random statues.

Me gusta!

Chef Berkeley

Our Taxi driver last night was thrilled to learn we were from California. He regaled us in Spanish with stories about how he loved California because it was the home of his favorite singer: Chef Berkeley.

Wes and I nodded politely, though we both had the same thought: “Who the hell is Chef Berkeley?” You would think that if some random Argentine cab driver knew every song by this Californian Cantandor, we should at least have heard his name before.

The driver told us stories of how Chef’s tunes transcended the lyrics and the listener could feel the meaning of the song. How his son loved all his CD's, even though he was 11 and spoke no English.

He talked and talked, and finally, when he started naming some song titles and even hummed a few songs, we realize that his favorite singer was not Chef Berkeley, but Jeff Buckley!

Argentinians can't pronounce the English J. It's very cute. Just ask my U.S. pal here, Jack, who's been going by "Shack" since arriving in BA.

Entiendo, pero no peudo hablar bien

In other words, I can understand, but I still can't speak, at least, not well.

This afternoon, the doorman explained to me that Patricia was trying to get ahold of us.

Doorman (in Spanish): "You're in apartment 11b? Hold on one moment, I have a message from Patricia.."

Me (in Spanish): "Ah, yes. Uh, we talk to her. Speak to her. We speak with Patricia... but um... in the past. I'm learning Spanish. It's very hard."

Everyone has been very patient and helpful though. Go Argentina!

Archeirises

This city sure loves it's rainbows. In the two weeks I've been here, I've seen three.

Nuestro departamento

More about the most exciting part of Buenos Aires - our apartment!

Here is the view from our 11th floor "Departamento" at sunset.

And the cute little mini-office Wes has created for himself in our spare bedroom.

We also have a really nice gym on the 18th floor, but I have not taken a picture of that.

Argentina Resto Bar

Tango is hard.

Wes and I went to our first tango “lesson” today.

I’ve been Swing dancing. I’ve been to Salsa. I’ve taken jazz and tap and Bhangra. I know how this dance class thing works. I assumed the teacher would show us a few basic steps. Or at least explain the rhythm. But apparently that is not how tango is done.

Instead, the teacher just talked about the feeling of Tango. About the connection between the dancers. At least, this is what I think he talked about. But since it was all in Spanish, I’m just guessing (see earlier post about Spanish being hard).

So, Wes and I were left knowing no Tango at all. But we know the idea of Tango. As far as I can tell, it's kind of a free-for-all. But much harder.

Tango is hard. Spanish is hard. However, life in Buenos Aires is surprisingly easy. The clean and frequently-running subway cost 30 cents. Need I say more?

4 a.m.

And I'm just getting home from the bars, after muchos steak, Malbec and Tango dancing.

I've been here almost a week and I FINALLY feel like I'm in Argentina.

Bueno.

Day four

And I'm finally starting to feel settled.

Also, I'm finally starting to speak Spanish. In class, we're learning eight gazillion tenses, like how to say what might have happened in the near present past perfect future.

In real life, I took a cab home all by myself tonight and told the cabbie where to turn right. I call that progress.

In other leaps and bounds, Wes found Argentina on a map (of Argentina)

Our Spanish school is located next to the Casa Rosada, from which Eva Peron spoke to the masses. More importantly, it's also where they filmed Madonna singing "Don't cry for me Argentina" in the musical film Evita

Now I've really made it.

while I'm extremely excited to be in Argentina, my brain has been in the States for the last two days, where my little company is blowing up (in a good way).

I'm proud to say that the Hot Guys and Baby Animals was featured on the one and only Ellen DeGeneres show. I'm a big fan of hers. And now, I like to think, she's a big fan of me :)

This is the one-minute highlight reel from the show (yes, we made it into the one-minute highlight - almost more impressive that being on the show!)

Next - Hot Guys in Bubble Wrap.

Spanish is hard

I’m taking four hours a day, five days a week of Spanish while in Buenos Aires. I’m inappropriately placed in level 2, which is my own fault. I didn’t want to suffer though “Hola como estas” over and over with a bunch of people who’d never taken Spanish before.

I took Spanish for three years in elementary school.

After floundering through four different tenses and countless irregular verbs, I’m starting to think that my elementary-level Spanish did not perhaps qualify me for this. Now that I think about it, we mostly just sang songs about chocolate and learned the bunny hop in Spanish.

What I realized today is that I don’t actually want to learn Spanish. I want to just know it.

New Year's Resolutions

While I don’t completely believe in New Year’s resolutions (I find them generally ineffective), I have decided to make one this year:

Write more.

This includes, among other media, my blog. Yes, I have all but abandoned it for the last year while my mind was monopolized other personal endeavors (namely, Hot Guys and Baby Animals). Running a small business is no small feat, as it turns out. But after a year, we’ve wrangled the business to a more manageable place, i.e., hired a college kids to do all our shipping and sold the rights to 2012 calendar to SourceBooks.

So now, I am free to do more personal growth, starting with a six-week trip to Argentina with my boyfriend. Not a bad start to 2011.

I will update You Nork as frequently as I can so those of you who want to can stay abreast of my Argentinean adventures.

Happy new year.