¡Uy!

Or "Ay!" or "Oy!" or "Uff da!"

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day, a todos! Hope everybody had a good time. Buenos Aires actually has a pretty big group of people with Irish heritage, and in the Irish section of downtown (it should be "Little Dublin" or something, like Little Italy) there are a whole bunch of Irish pubs and they have a big street celebration on St. Patty's. Also, there are communities in Argentina that are mostly or all Welsh, and some of them speak only Welsh. As I've found out, people in Argentina and/or Buenos Aires are pretty mixed, culturally/ethnically speaking. I've seen a lot of blue and green-eyed people, people with skin pastier than mine, a bunch of blondes and even one redhead - like Red red!

I did not enjoy the St. Patrick's Day fest here because I'm sick. What is the deal with that? I had a low-grade fever most of the day yesterday and a terrible cough. It was raining all day Thursday and yesterday, so that may have had something to do with it, but yeah. My dad and I managed to make it outside when it cleared up yesterday to see an amazing sunset.

Today I felt better (though I'm still coughing like a 73-year old with emphysema) and the weather was perfect, so we went to this huge park near my dad's place and had a picnic with a bunch of his friends. It was right on the Rio de la Plata, which reminded me vaguely of Lake Superior, despite its obvious rivery-ness. The city is right along the banks of the river, but just before the point where the river meets up with the Atlantic, so it's really wide and you can't see to the other side, which is Uruguay. We had a good time playing frisbee and eating and flying my dad's kite, and two of my dad's friends have a 7 week old baby who is so sweet. I like babies.

Man, this city is crazy big, like 16 million people big, and that's half the country's population here in one gigantical metro area. Which means there are vast tracts of empty land lying around, because this is like the seventh biggest country in the world. It's a cool city, too, with tons of stuff going on all the time. It's hard to compare to my time in Venezuela because there I wasn't in a big city and I was on my own in a lot of ways, but as that was my other Latin American experience, it's hard not to. I've been trying not to think of all the ways they're different everywhere I go, like, "Oh, in Venezuela they did this..." There's good stuff and bad stuff about both places, and I'm sure if I spent more time here I'd come to find more negative aspects, but so far I like Buenos Aires a whole lot.

Well, I just checked my temp. and it's back up again. I should get some rest. More later.

I really like Buenos Aires! It's been a busy couple of days since I arrived (after recovering from my adventure)... unfortunately it's late here and there's a lot for me to talk about. But I've been on my dad's radio program here and if you're feeling especially bored or just want to hear my voice, you can listen tomorrow at 8 am or 9 pm CST at BA Today Radio. Chau!

I may have thought I was leaving for Buenos Aires on Sunday night, but it didn't really work out that way... it turned out to be an ordeal just getting to Chicago! I was supposed to be on a 6:50 pm flight out of Minneapolis to Chicago to catch a 9:27 flight to Buenos Aires. Well, Sunday night was when the crazy snowstorm started, so take-off was delayed by about three hours. They kept having to de-ice the plane and the runways weren't clear, etc. etc. During this period, my dad called to tell me first that the plane going to Buenos Aires was delayed coming from L.A., then was diverted to Des Moines because of bad weather in Chicago. Then, after I got back on the plane to Chicago for the last time, he called to tell me that the Buenos Aires flight had left, so have fun staying in Chicago. Greeaaat. But the flight to Chicago finally left around 10, flew almost all the way there, and then, because of the bad weather in Chicago, we were diverted to Indianapolis. Where we sat on the ramp for another two hours, before getting to a gate to refuel, where we sat for another hour, before taking off for Chicago. Again.

I FINALLY arrived in Chicago around 4 am and called the airline's customer service to see about getting on the day's flight to Buenos Aires. Turns out, my dad was wrong and the flight I was supposed to be on never even left Chicago! So, I was rebooked for Monday's flight and I got to hang out around the Chicago airport alllllll day loooong, til 10:45 pm, when my plane left. And then I got to sit on a plane for another 11 hours! Yay!

Despite all the delays, it was totally worth it to walk out of the airport yesterday and see my dad standing there, waiting for me with a big smile on his face. I don't see the man nearly enough. We didn't really do much yesterday (I was really tired and dirty and hungry.) I took a shower which was pretty much the most wonderful thing ever, and then we went for a walk, had dinner, watched some tv with some of my dad's friends who absolutely had to come over and meet me, and then I fell asleep sitting upright with a bowl in my hand around 9:30... which is 6:30 in Minnesota. What a hellraiser.

Hey there

Yeah, posting once every three months or so really isn't a very good track record, nor is it a good use of my blog. I've never been an especially prolific blogger, but wow, this is terrible. I've meant to write, really I have, but it's just, well... my life has been so boring lately. Not that I haven't been enjoying myself or doing things that I like to do, but there really hasn't been much to tell: blah blah job hunt, yadda babysitting yadda, um... doing laundry... uh... oh, turning 23... being sick... an interview or two... hm... more babysitting... sick again... yeah, see? There's not a whole lot going on.

I used to have no problem writing about the mundane little stuff of my everyday life but lately it's been the same thing every day, pretty much. Who wants to hear endless stories about the kids I take care of - since I spend a lot of time with the little people. Or endless griping about the whole job search process, that's no fun. I could write about the books I've been reading. Which reminds me - Annie, I read Moby Dick! And I enjoyed it, too.

Anyway, after not blogging for a while, it's kind of hard to get back into it all of a sudden. But I'm a-gonna try! Now is as good a time as any, as I'm leaving for Buenos Aires, Argentina tonight for 10 days. I'll try to post while I'm there. Until then...