There Goes Your Social Life

Hello my little monsters! I want to apologize profusely for neglecting you for a MONTH! I went to Buenos Aires, and while I originally intended to blog about my travels, there was extremely minimal downtime during which I had the mental capacity to write anything vaguely entertaining. I went with my four roommates from law school and one of my best high school buddies, Chelsea, and we stayed in an apartment in the West Village-esque neighborhood of Las Canitas.

The first week or so we did touristy things like visit Evita’s grave and the San Telmo marketplace. We held guidebooks and probably looked lost most of the time. Various Argentine gentlemen attempted to make us feel at home by whistling at us or calling us “Putas,” among other loving nicknames. Chelsea and I received the slow clap (one of my lifelong ambitions, after starting the slow clap, of course) and I’m told that my other roommates created quite a scene in La Boca, when a group of Argentine boys decided to follow them around all day. With the exception of meeting all these new friends, the first week was sort of slow because we realized a little too late that everyone goes to the beach the week of New Years.

We ended up getting in our own beach time the following week when we went to Punta del Este, Uruguay for my birthday. The water felt incredible and my birthday dinner was at a place where you could get sushi and steak in one meal….basically my heaven. We played Kings on our hotel terrace a block up from the beach and walked down to the bars at night. But the final week in BA definitely takes the proverbial lomo. I’ll take you through day by day, you’ll feel like you’re right there with me!

SUNDAY: We went to Casa Felix (above), a "closed door restaurant" (where you eat in the chef’s home). We chatted with the chef, Diego, and his wife and her sister, and got to explore the garden in which Diego grows many of his ingredients. We ended up making friends with Diego’s wife and her sister Steph who are from my hometown, and hung out with Steph a few days later. Anyway, the dinner was delicious and exciting and made even better by our last minute decision to do the wine flight.

MONDAY: The night started off slow because there was a HUGE thunderstorm. When we opened the door to our apartment building just a crack we got soaking wet, so we decided to wait it out a bit and we turned off the lights in our apartment to watch the storm. When it was finally safe to leave, we set off to the Konex Center see the Bomba de Tiempo, a drum show which attracts a huge crowd each week. The venue sells huge beers and everyone dances to the beat!

TUESDAY: Everyone had told us we couldn’t leave BA without experiencing some Tango so we planned to attend a Milonga at this place called Catedral (above). When we got there, the instructors showed everyone some steps, and then forced us to dance with the other tourists as practice. Those lucky enough to dance with me were peppered with comments about how I have the opposite of rhythm and how I’d rather be at the bar. Everyone seemed to have a good time and afterwards we got a table and ordered polenta and empanadas.

WEDNESDAY: Wednesday night began with dinner at Casa Cruz, where I had the best cocktail I’ve ever had in my life and some shrimp ravioli with grapefruit. After dinner, the chef who had prepared our meal came out and Chelsea realized that she knew him from cooking school in Italy a few years back. His name is Austin and he ended up taking us with him to a cool little underground bar/club called Levitar. Afterwards, we went to Isabel, a bar that has its own currency that you have to buy before you enter and bathrooms made entirely of mirrors and candles, which seemed alternately sexy and petrifying. The bar was inhabited by the hipsters of Argentina, and I ended up finding this Argentine poet who liked to talk about the Lost Generation and claimed that Ezra Pound was the best writer of our time. The owner of Casa Cruz, an important looking man in a swanky suit and a grey ponytail, also happened to be there, and when he recognized Austin he came over and chatted with us.

THURSDAY: We started off Thursday night by going to Tegui, a small restaurant in Palermo that Austin had helped open, along with the owner of Casa Cruz. We shared appetizers of Asparagus with tomato ice cream and shrimp cerviche and then I had lemon ravioli with Octopus. After dinner, we went to Club Araoz in Palermo where we had heard there would be a breakdancing show. The dancing was pretty impressive and the DJ was pretty good so we ended up staying there to dance.

FRIDAY: For dinner, we went to Dada with two American girls who live in BA and who are friends with one of Steph’s college friends. After, we went to Acabar, where you can play Jenga and other boardgames. One of our friends from Harvard and her friend from the States met up with us there, and Austin also came with anther chef from Casa Cruz, a Colombian named Emmanuel. Around 3 the whole group went over to Levitar where we stayed until 5 or so. Chelsea, Ashley and I didn’t want to go home so Austin took us to his house in Palermo where we watched the sunrise from his rooftop. The house is actually his parents’, who bought it for the purpose of turning it into a hotel. They are handpicking all the furniture, and Austin helped them put in an amazing kitchen because he’s planning on cooking for the guests. His mom came out around 7 and we talked to her for a few hours over orange and grapefruit juice. She is a brilliant and radical expatriate who told us that after Vietnam she realized she had to choose between joining the Weather Underground and leaving the country. Around 9AM we left and got eggs and medialunas at this café by our apartment and then finally went to bed.

SATURDAY: Ashley, Steph and Rachel left (BOO!) so Chelsea and I had a quiet but romantic dinner at a Peruvian/Japanese fusion restaurant Osaka, where I had one of the top sushi rolls of my life. The next day we shopped and had lunch at Cluny, a cute outdoor patio in Palermo inhabited exclusively by English speakers, and then I had to head for the airport. I was very sad to leave and definitely felt that my enjoyment of the city only increased in relation to the length of time I spent there. Could easily have stayed another month.

P.S. I do not mean to ignore the giant elephant in the room. Yes, I bought a TON of clothes in Argentina...and shoes...and a fedora. The combination of the power of the dollar there with the fact that I was there during their end of summer sales allowed me to do things like buy 3 incredible dresses in one store for under $100. I’m hoping to go buy a digital camera soon so I can show you what I got!

P.P.S. I have a lot of ideas for upcoming blogs so stay tuned. Love you!!!

So today, I was sitting on the couch by the fire next to the Christmas tree, all homey and content and thinking about the important things in life, when my mom came in and informed me that Ashley Tisdale was next door visiting her boyfriend's parents. OMG!! Apparently, all the neighborhood kids were going crazy and ringing the doorbell, but I am obviously way too cool for that. And I definitely don’t get star struck. Which is why I immediately went upstairs to camp out by the window for a glimpse!!

After about fifteen minutes of stakeout, I got bored and decided to head to the bookstore to get some travel books with my mom for my upcoming trip to Argentina. We were just pulling into the lot when I caught a glimpse of Ashley and Scott entering Barnes and Noble too! They were basically following me!

In the store, I had A LOT going on. Did I want Fromer’s or Fodor’s…or even Lonely Planet? The choices were endless! As you can imagine, I barely even noticed Ashley shopping around me, but since I knew you all would be DYING to know what she was wearing, I may have glanced at her a few times. Briefly. And I believe that she was in black sweatpants with silver studs up the sides (but not all the way down the leg), a v-neck tee in a burn-out peach color and black oversized Ray Bans. But like I said, I barely noticed her.

P.S. I thought about saying "Hi", but I happened to be wearing a hat shaped like a bear. Liz Lemon Alert #524 for yours truly.

Even though this hat is awesome, it's not my first pick for first impressions. Especially first impressions with my future BFF. I mean, random celebrity who basically follows me around. Yeah.