It's time to get down to serious blogging business after a long hiatus. I now have the task of synthesizing approximately a month's worth of activity which included leaving, arriving, and adjusting in a small blog entry. Well, let's discuss briefly my departure, and then jump to Argentina, where I'll limit the discussion to a couple of topics:

I am so lucky to have had a great sendoff from my large Rotary Family (see video  from previous entry), my sponsor club in Kingwood, and good friends.  It was an honor to be named a Paul Harris Fellow through the generosity of the Kingwood Rotary Club.  My farewell party thrown for me by my good friends was also great, with one minor downside.  Due to food poisoning, I spent a fair portion of the evening either lying down or with my head in the toilet.  HOWEVER, I did enjoy seeing so many of my friends, in between bouts of nausea, before I left town.

As I am sitting here, and trying to figure out what I should share about my short time here, its a little overwhelming.  I'm definitely going to be blogging more frequently to avoid this problem in the future.  I decided to simply provide some highlights and interesting observations and comments about Buenos Aires and the culture:

1) Transportation - Buenos Aires has an extensive public transportation system that includes several subway lines, even more trains, and extensive and confusing bus routes.  And for this I am so thankful, because I don't believe I could ever drive here.  Driving in BA is much like driving in the rest of Latin America...crazy.  I'm still amazed I haven't seen an accident yet.  I'll have to make a video and post it soon. I have to confess that I look forward to having my mom come visit, who grabs the "oh sh*t" handle occasionally when I'm driving with her in the passenger seat.  A blindfold will most likely be the only remedy when we take a taxi.

2) Food - Delicious.  I'll probably have to do a whole other blog entry on some of the food, but its GREAT.  Even the mistakes taste good.  One afternoon I sat down to eat lunch with my host counselor here (who is awesome by the way), and I ordered a hamburger (which tastes different than a US burger) with fries.  Well I have to say, I was getting really excited about this burger, so I had to quickly conceal the disappointment that must have been apparent in my face when the waitress brought me out two hamburger patties (no bun and toppings) with fries.  My disappointment vanished though after I tried the patties and they were delicious.  I later figured out, after discussing it with an Argentine friend of mine, that I thought the waitress offered me "el plato," which I interpreted as the plate of the day.  She actually said "al plato," which refers to how the hamburger is prepared (without buns).  I didn't even know that was an option.  Anyway, the mistake was still delicious.

3) Time - I have traveled in Latin America before.  Even taken classes about intercultural issues and even specifically on Latin American cultures.  One of the important aspects of culture to understand is how time is seen and interpreted differently.  For example, the US culture adheres to time constraints and being on time much more that Latin America as a whole.  I knew and have known for some time that Latin America moves at a different pace.  That said, I find it hilarious how I am still having trouble adjusting.  With my friends back home, I consider myself the flexible one, who doesn't like to schedule things and sort of goes with the flow.  I'm not sure how to describe it, but appointments are kind of general, and they may or may not happen.  I suddenly feel like I'm now on the other end of the spectrum.

Things that are planned may or may not happen, and things that are not planned suddenly do happen.  Its spontaneous, great, enjoyable, frustrating, puzzling, and more.  I feel like I'm looking at one of those abstract paintings where I should just see whats there, but I haven't seen it yet, and I squint and look closer, then take a couple of steps back, and I still don't see it!  Anyway, I'm working on it and trying to not just understand it but figure out how to operate in it.

I'll go ahead and wrap it up here as I got to be up at a decent hour to do some homework for the spanish classes I've enrolled in and started this week.  It's an intense 4 hours a day class learning all these things I'm a little rusty on (or just didn't know).

 There are so many things to talk about! I'll be blogging more frequently though, so stay tuned!