The Last Empanada
By: boderik |
Get right outta town! Indeed that’s what we’re about to do. With one final empanada we close the oven door on a very interesting and eventful 2 months in Buenos Aires.
To recap, we’ve had some excellent estadounidense visitors:
Photo courtesy of Lia Andrews
We learned the word ”estadounidense” among other essential but very difficult-to-pronounce words. Thankfully Spanish started to feel less booby-trapped over time and we were able to participate in conversations that would get a smart three year-old a nice pat on the head. To certify our excellence (Smith’s anyway), the country of Argentina conspired to present us with this official endorsement:
We thank the president and the mayor and everyone else who set aside their differences to help us roll our R’s.
But language and location-specifics aside, this period has been an interesting proof-of-concept for our new endeavor and we’ve grown a lot in the process. A few lessons we’ve learned:
* Working in this fashion is quite doable. We’ve stayed in touch and connected pretty seamlessly.
* In fact, even beyond work we’ve been surprisingly industrious with our time thanks to the next point:
* Two months is a bit long for quick social connections and a bit short for the real deal. We met many great people that we hope to see again. On the other hand we also spent a decent amount of quiet time at home chomping empanadas and working. We’re enjoying our various projects so it’s been a good thing but in the future we’ll know that dropping ourselves in a foreign land for 2 months will tip the scales towards work rather than play.
All in all we’re ready to move on from Buenos Aires, bittersweet as it is. The city often surprised, occasionally disappointed (overcooked eggs and raw onion ain’t a green salad mis amigos), but mostly served as a picturesque backdrop against which we came to understand the benefits and drawbacks of our new lifestyle. We’re feeling pretty energized/focused after our time here and look forward to taking on new challenges and seeing some familiar faces soon. See you in Panama!