Chilly day in BA - a first!

We attended the finals of the Nations Cup. This was a tournament for 28 handicap teams. The final had Argentina playing Brazil. It was quite a good match with some long runs and good 'stickhandling'. Argentina prevailed (10-6). There was a bit of a breeze and we have gotten spoiled with the months of warm days and nights here. It actually got cold.We usually dont leave the apartment with an extra jacket (like we would do in Calgary) but it did give me an opportunity to wear a 2010 Dale sweater (complete with Vanoc Olympic logo). Every year, I have been getting a Dale sweater for volunteering at Lake Louise. This time (another first), I bought one. Mimi brought it back with her on her last trip home.






After the match, we met friends at Kansas, a restaurant across the road from the polo fields and had dinner......under deck heaters! After that, yes, we did end up at the Alvear Palace for a cleansing ale! Actually, a cleansing malbec but you get my point.

B.

Noventa pesos!

We went out for dinner last night to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We chose La Bourgogne, a French restaurant in the Alvear Palace Hotel. We started with a drink in the hotel lobby lounge and watched a bit of the world go by.

Afterwards, we went downstairs to the restaurant. We had a 9 o'clock reservation - which was on the early side for La Bourgogne. It is a grand restaurant. All the staff wear white tuxedo-like uniforms. Mimi's menu did not have the prices in it. We have not been to a restaurant like that in a long time.

They wheeled a cart up to the table that had a large silver bowl on it. The bowl was full of different kinds of champagne. They offered us a glass. Sounds great. Hmmm..... French restaurant, French champagne.

Long story short. The meal was awesome, the service perfect. Flambe steak - fired up at our table. Crepes Suzette - fired up at the table. There was also a special anniversary treat (more dessert) - which they fired up at the table. It had a large rocket sparkler on it.

To finish the evening, we had another glass of champagne.

We got the bill....did you know that French champagne in a French restaurant in Argentina is quite expensive? Four glasses of champagne, at $90 pesos each, cost more than our entire dinner!!

It was a memorable evening, we will return.......but we will drink Argentine bubbles next time!

B.

Quick currency converter ($1 CDN = $3.058 pesos).

One glass of imported French champagne was $29.43 CDN.

Meet the 45 Minute plums

Grocery shopping here is never boring. It is never exciting either.

There is the lottery of whether they actually have the items you are looking for. The lottery as to whether they will have change for you at the check out. The opportunity to have one too many items and get tossed out of the line.

• Meet the '45 Minute' plums.

That's how long it took from the time you enter the grocery store, to find them, to get in line to get them weighed, to get in line to buy them, to wait for change.

I have given up on fruit as a result.

We are not in Kansas anymore...

Or Michigan.

I went for a traditional North American breakfast on the weekend. Eggs Benedict. There is a place 10 minutes from the apartment called Amaranta. It serves a great Eggs Benny. You will also find a number of ex-pats have breakfast there as well. Breakfast is not a big meal for Argentines. In fact, it doesnt really exist. Just coffee.

Anyways, to make the restaurant even more realistic...even more North American, they put American cars on the street in front of the restaurant. What's more American than a Jeep? And what's more American than that?...a Jeep from Michigan!Either that or it was a very long way to travel for Eggs Benedict!

B.

Facturas, fruit and Friday's

In a small company, nice gestures become traditions and as you grow in size - they become expectations.

Here in our office, when an employee returns from vacation, it is now the expectation to bring in chocolates, cake or pastries (or facturas as they are called here) on the day you come back to the office.

Traditionally in Argentina, summer holidays are taken in 2 week windows. They also line up as the first two weeks and the second two weeks of the months of January and February. We would have several staff off during the same 2 week window.


We are now over 60 staff in the BA office, so on the Monday that the vacationers return to the office, the facturas supply is overwhelming. There is always an email that is sent out to everyone to let everyone know who brought in facturas (and why).
This is what the kitchen looked like on a recent Monday morning!




But we also provide some healthier options in our kitchen - little of which I recognize.



Although, I can detect a dulce de leche filled medialuna from 70 meters!

Friday afternoons provide an opportunity for teambuilding in the office. My language skills are improving but the following note from our receptionist got everyone into the kitchen.

De: Paula

Enviado el: Viernes, 27 de Marzo de 2009 04:54 p.m.

Para: BA

Asunto: Brian nos invita a festejar el viernes con helado...

It is amazing how ordering in 5 kilograms of ice cream can help the staff 'celebrate Friday'. Even on Friday's, most staff are there until after 6 pm.

B.

Dia del Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia

Today, the Day of Memory for Truth and Justice is a public holiday.
The city is very quiet. The holiday commemorates the victims of the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganization Process. March 24th is the anniversary of the 1976 coup that brought the military junta to power.

It is estimated that 30,000 people were killed in what was known as the Dirty War. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo can be seen every Thursday walking in the plaza (wearing their distinctive white scarves) as they have been for the last 30 years to demand justice for their children (and now grandchildren).

Several months after we arrived here, a friend lent us a copy of the movie, Imagining Argentina. It was a story set in that time in 1976 when the Ford Falcon's would arrive at someone's home or office and just whisk someone way, never to be heard from again. Those taken are referred to as The Disappeared Ones. the movie was quite disturbing.

Today is a reminder of what was lost here and that it should never happen again.

B.

Another first!

We got in our first (and hopefully only) car accident last night.

Mimi had finished a meeting with her volunteer group, SACS (Send a Child to School).

I met her on the walk back to the apartment from my office. We grabbed a taxi to go for dinner. It was rush hour. We thought it would be a slow drive as a result. No, we happened to get the Mario Andretti of BA for a taxi driver.
I had just commented how fast he was driving when he slammed on the brakes.....but not fast enough. The VW in front of us had stopped for traffic. We tapped his bumper.

The driver of the VW hopped out, took a look at his bumper and 'then the fight started'. He and the taxi driver start yelling at each other. The taxi driver never got out of the car. They just kept yelling at each other.
The taxi driver thought for a bit to drive away but he was boxed in by traffic and then the VW driver pulled out his camera phone and started taking pictures. Finally, our taxi driver provided his licence details and we finished the drive to the restaurant. The rest of the drive was a rant (in spanish) how he never touched him!

The whole time they were yelling at each other, the meter was running.

Our first car accident experience in Argentina cost us an extra 2 pesos - less than a buck.

Lately, we have been reading about some big vehicle wrecks here in Argentina, mostly on the highways.

I would say we were lucky.

Footnote: After we had finished dinner, two friends walked into the restaurant - we asked them to join us. They sat down and proudly showed us their new ARG driver's licences. After this ride, we wont be getting our licences any time soon!
B.