As I said in my very first entry, I am a very lucky girl. For ten days, my boyfriend, Mel, visited me here in Buenos Aires - a major trip that took miraculously little prodding and nagging on my part.
***
He arrived early on Sunday, which meant that I had a handful of hours to drag him around before we had to watch the Colts v Patriots football game that evening. "This game is bigger than the Superbowl," he said, and I sighed. Okay, okay, whatever you want, dear.
That first day sort of set the tone for a lot of our time together. After checking into the apartment he'd rented for his stay,
we went right out to the flea market in San Telmo. That extreme Argentine experience was then balanced out by a packed Shoeless Joe's, one of the city's most popular ex-pat destinations, thanks to a subscription to Sunday Ticket and a football-loving American population in BA. Though I groaned when the game (not to mention the other two that week) was originally added to the itinerary, it turned out to be a welcome flash of home. Here I was, eating nachos, surrounded by my own language, sitting next to my boyfriend, who was shockingly good at splitting his attention between me and the television (well done, Mel, well done.)
The time we spent in Buenos Aires wasn't spent hiking miles and miles into every neighborhood, but rather strolling this way and that, as he was more content to relax than be hauled around to see the sights. He's not much of a city person, anyway. So we did fun little things with our days.
That first Monday, we met Liz to go to the zoo. Finding that it was closed, we headed over to my favorite park and decided to go paddle-boating, which was a wonderful way to spend an hour, if incredibly exhausting. I'd never paddle-boated before, but according to the other two, ours was the hardest in all of paddle-boating history to...well...paddle. Afterward we stopped for popsicles, which really do make any sunny day a million times more awesome, by the way. That night was Monday Night Football, at which point we put Mel's cheffyness (I made that one up, do you like it?) to use with a pile of steaks, burgers and chorizo on the parilla. Another pleasant departure from the norm, even if the Ravens did end up losing... oh well.
Another day we went to the zoo,
where I morphed into a 5 year old, complete with bucket of generic animal food, running from cage to cage and squealing when I got to pet the camels and goats. And don't get me started on feeding the tiny little monkey. Oh man, that was the best! At night we'd flip through our stack of guide books for restaurant suggestions, trying our best (and often succeeding, which was a miracle) to wait until the requisite absurd hour to eat. We tried everything from the take-out pizza from down the street to Casa Cruz, often referred to as the best restaurant in Buenos Aires (it was definitely my favorite so far.) Between all the dinner feasts and breakfast pastries, his visit wasn't kind to my waist, but you'll hear no complaints from my happily fed tummy.
Tucked between these laid-back days and nights were bigger adventures, including jaunts to the falls in Iguazú and a day trip to Uruguay, trips that I will detail in separate entries.
***
Being an only child, I'm not a fan of sharing. But when it comes to experiences, the more people I can share them with the better. And when those people happen to be among the most important in my life, it all circles back around to luck.
It's difficult to sum up the whole visit without venturing into cheeseball territory. It was about as perfect as it could get. Such separations can often bring changes to a relationship that deteriorate their strength, but we have managed to slip by unscathed.
Sure, his departure ushered in another two weeks of intense homesickness, but that's a small price to pay for being lucky enough to have the opportunity to just unwind, show off my life abroad, and forget for just a moment that we were ever apart in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment