The City, Thanksgiving, Food, YUM...

Hey Guys,
Happy belated Thanksgiving. I hope that everyone was surrounded by delicious food and wonderful people, because to a certain extent, what else do you need! I have to keep this short, but life continues to be really great here in the city of Tango. I am really loving my job with Interbrand: http://www.interbrand.com/ I am having so much fun helping to create different concepts, cultures, and ideas for clients. It just feels wonderful contributing, not to mention its really interesting stuff.

I have to say one of the things that first struck me as being so great, and in turn has become one of my favorite parts of Buenos Aires are the Parks and the Trees. Their are so many Parks and tree lined streets. They act as mini vacations from the big city every time you step into one.


Entrance to the Botanical Gardens


Tree Lined Street


Part of my favorite museum The MALBA (Museo de Arte Latino Buenos Aires)


Last night of course was Thanksgiving and I invited a few friends over to celebrate with me. I was very ambitious in my goal wanting to cook a Turkey with all the trimmings for my guests of honor. In the end however, their was not enough time so I compromised by making a pumpkin pie! Everything turned out amazing and we really had fun. I did however make the mistake of asking each person to bring a bottle of wine, that in and of itself was not bad, but it wound up being about 95 degrees with 90% humidity. Hahaha needless to say a heavy red with cheese plates, a butchers board (which included the best chorizo sausage I have ever had), and pumpkin pie was kinda HEAVY, haha. Being the troopers we are, we managed to enjoy everything and live to tell about it. I hope you enjoy these pics.

I also want to invite anyone to email me: peterbcsmith@gmail.com if they have any questions or tips about Buenos Aires for me.

I send you my absolute best.


An Argetinean Thanksgiving: 4 Bottles of Argentina's finest Malbec, Cheese, Meat, Guac, etc.




Dessert for 4 people, whoops! Pumpkin Pie, Dulce de Leche Tart,
Fresh Strawberries, Whipped Cream, and Two Bros


Whipping Cream... my arch enemy


Emanuel, Rocio, Bruno, and Me

Rapp is Burning

Hey everyone,
How is everything? I apologize for the lack of posts recently, but Gage and I have been two very busy guys! What fun we had tooling around the city together. It was great because it allowed me to revisit many places I had been only when I first arrived here. I was also able to get a digital camera that works (thanks mom!) so I have tons of photos to share.

On another, more serious note, work had been going great until two days ago when a fire erupted at our offices and caused massive amounts of damage to the building. Fortunately no one was hurt, the fire had started around 6AM on Tuesday when only the cleaning crew was there. My understanding is that a curtain caught fire after being draped over a lamp that had been left on overnight. The fire actually started right near my desk (I do not have a lamp!) so that area of the office was completely destroyed. Our offices are on three floors and the remaining areas did not burn but have extensive smoke damage. Luckily our mainframe was not damaged, but a lot of peoples personal items and computers were lost in the fire. After speaking to my boss on Tuesday, I offered to help yesterday with the moving and cleaning that needed to be done. I had no idea of the damage until I actually saw it, here are few photos.



My desk was under the stairs that you see above.

Superman Survived!



Everyone in the offices has been dispersed throughout other offices in the city and I will now be working for another Omnicom owned company (Rapp Collins parent company) called Interbrand. It is an international branding firm. Its really going to be a great experience, right now I am doing market research for Heineken Caribbean, a new brand from Heineken that will be sold in Central America and the Caribbean. It will be really great to learn about process behind creating and launching a brand.

Gage and I toured the city and had an absolute blast doing so. Here are some photos from the different neighborhoods we visited.

La Boca: The oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Although considered somewhat dangerous, it is well worth the trip to see the beautiful colorful buildings. The reason behind the multi-colored buildings is actually quite practical. Poor dock workers never had enough money to buy full cans of paint so they were given the left-overs from many different colors of paint and used them to paint their respective homes. It is so cool.



I made dinner for my friends Gage and Brunno. I made steak with Parmesan butter, a balsamic glaze, and it was set on a bed of arugula. I learned from the best (mom and dad). If you look closely, you will notice that no dessert is ever complete (no matter what country you are in) with out some good old Two Brothers Chocolate Sauce!!!



Here are some beautiful photos from the Recoleta Cemetery



The newest area of Buenos Aires (The Peal District of BA), Puerto Madero a former ship yard and dock area.

The bridge you see is El Puente de la Mujer. Designed by famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatreva, it is intended to represent a couple dancing the tango.

It is a great area to walk in on a sunny day, but personally I think it lacks the character and feels too sterile in comparison to Buenos Aires' older neighborhoods.


Here is a great shot of Gage and I going for drinks in Plaza Dorrego in the neighborhood of San Telmo. On the far left is a great friend named Rocio from work. The rest are her friends and after meeting them all that night, now our friends!!!




Considering the state of the office where I work, I wound up having some extra free days to hang with Gage. He and I decided to take it easy and take in some sun at El Bosque de Palermo (The Forest of Palermo). Its this great, huge park in the middle of my neighborhood. As you can tell the trees and the setting were perfect for an afternoon of R&R.



Last but not least, a photo from last night, more or less Gage's last one in BA.




I hope you all enjoy the photos and I look forward to staying in touch and send you my best.

Buenos Aires Loves Obama

Hey guys,
I will keep this short, but as I am sure all of you are, I could not be more thrilled with the results of election last night. Gage and I had the opportunity to attend an election party here in Buenos Aires. I will let the video speak for itself as a defining moment in history is announced! I hope all is well.



Gage and I at a very HOT and incredibly exciting election party

La Casa Rosada

Here is just a quick post with some new photos for your viewing pleasure. The house pictured behind me is La Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo. It is basically the equivalent to the White House, with the one exception being that the President does not reside there. She lives outside of the city and fly's in via helicopter every morning. That must beat the morning subway commute!

This is a huge day for everyone, a monumental day in American history of which we have all been waiting for for years! I know Gage and I will be honoring our American roots by drinking a Bud (ironically now owned by a foreign company) and watching the elections tonight from Buenos Aires! I miss you all and I hope all is well.

All Hallows Eve

Hello to all,
It has been a bit since I last wrote, but things are really going great. I have started working half days and am taking Spanish in the mornings which is really going to be great in helping my Spanish progress faster.

I have to admit that I miss autumn in Oregon. I miss seeing the leaves and colors change, but that said... Its 70 and sunny down here, I don't have a complaint in the world. I had the opportunity last weekend to go to my friend Pato's weekend home in Pilar, a town about 40 minutes outside of the city. It was an unbelievable getaway if even for a a weekend. Saturday night he invited some of his friends from the city to have an asado (BBQ). We had about 5 passings of different cuts of meat, and rounds of Argentinian Malbec, it was really wonderful. Everyone was so fun and easygoing. I was the 9th wheel among four other couples, but I could have cared less. One funny observation is that the English taught in schools here is British English so when someone would speak to me in English to practice, they had a very distict English accent, very proper, and very formal, I loved it.

This week, my friend Bruno (he is the one dressed in red in the photos and looks more like a real-life pirate than a musketeer) and I decided that Halloween was worth celebrating more than once after finding out that the only rental option for our Musketeer costumes was for a week at a time. Wednesday we went to a party at Asia de Cuba, a restuarant which turns into a club at 1AM. It was so classic. He and I, both dressed as Musketeers, and his friend Mercedes, dressed as a Geisha, took the public bus from Palermo (my neighborhood) to Puerto Madero (where the club is). We got rounds of applaus as people got on and off the bus for our costumes. The funny part was that we wound up getting off the bus at the wrong stop, getting off in a very unsavory part of town. Bruno and I offered some protection with our plastic swords, but soon decided taking a taxi the rest of the way was a wise decision after seeing a masked man of whom I do not believe was on his way to the same party.

We arrived and were escorted to our table by Frankenstein. It was fantastic, everyone was dressed to the nines. I have to admit that we in the states might be more creative with our costumes, but it isn't exactly a nationally celebrated holiday here so slack must be given. There were smurfs, cheerleaders, an old time tennis player (Renee Lacoste) a modern one (Rafael Nadal), Madonna, the Joker, and Louis XIII. We ate and then danced till the wee hours of the morning. The best October 29th Halloween I have every had.

Tonight we embark on one last adventure as Musketeers. We are going to another Halloween party and hopefully will find our third Musketeer in the crowd. I hope everyone is doing well and this time of year makes me recall all the great memories celebrating this wonderful holiday with friends and family. Have a great night and I want to see photos of peoples costumes! Until then here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure.



On Guard! Sword fighting with Bruno in my apartment


What a motley crew!


If you look closely you may be able to see the piece de resistance of my costume...My Mustache!

I look forward to being in touch soon.

Madame Cartel

Hey everyone, post 2 is pretty great!!!
First of all there will be more pictures to come but I had to take my digital camera in to the shop after two weeks of blurry pics:(

The following is why you travel, to meet interesting (crazy people). I may ramble a bit, but this is so great.

Saturday morning I awoke and was eating breakfast in my hostel when a woman with a very bizarre middle eastern by way of Boston accent checked in. Short, frazzled hair and loud, she distraught over having missed a phone call from a friend to the hostel.
I then took a closer look at her and thought that she had been in a car accident with the way her nose was bandaged. I left to run an errand and upon my return I was met by her and her pleading for the help of an "American." Happy to help for what was supposed to be five minutes I sat down with her at her computer to help her write and correct an email.

We sat together and soon she looked at me straight in the face and asked, "How old do I look?" I realized that her stitches and nose bandage were not from a car accident but from having had a face lift the day before. Taken aback a bit, I collected myself and said 38 or 40 (obviously closer to 55-60). She then spent about 5 minutes telling me about her "little procedure" and how she was able to pay for it in cash and it was performed by Argentina's finest.

Five minutes had quickly come and gone. I then started in correcting her email. Poor grammar and miss spelling was everywhere, but the manner in which she wrote was very dramatic and descriptive. I started correcting it and at first thought I was correcting part of a romance novel.

It then switched to being about the Russian Mob in Buenos Aires and how she has to find out who is controlling the drug trade and medical rackets here in Buenos Aires. She had traveled to the Four Towers, basically a place no one goes due to the drugs and violence. She was convinced that although the Bolivian, Columbian, and Mexican cartels were involved, it was all being controlled in NY City (Personally I thought she has to be way off base)

It then became aparant that this was actually her life that she was talking about because she mentioned Palermo (my neighborhood) and Hostel Borges (where I was staying). It then concluded with with her apologizing that she had missed "his" phone call and that he could call anytime. She knew the situation was difficult right now, but that she had to hear his voice. I then had to write out for her that his voice was like "warm coffee in the morning, sweet, hot, and sensual." I had to stop myself from chuckling. In the end it had been an hour of helping and before I sent the email, she told me oh no, don't send it from this email, send it from my Harvard account. Turns out she has been been a professor at Harvard for 20 years. I was stunned one because, she is slightly crazy, but many successful people are, but also because she couldn't spell if her life depended on it.

I know that this is a long post but hang in there, it gets worse (or better depending on how you look at it)

Later that night, I was met with pleas of help one more time. I was slightly put off only because the 5 minutes of before turned into an hour, but this time I was promissed it wouldn't be long. I then went to help here and the whole time she kept asking me if I really thought she looked 40 and if the swelling had gone down. Looking like a character from Nip Tuck, I of course said yes, that at the oldest she looked 40.

This time I wound up typing a love letter for her to her "lover" in England of whom she had met two weeks before when he gave a conference at Harvard and the two had fallen in love within a minute. She then went on to say that she couldn't live without him and that if she was sure that she would soon make contact with the Russian mafia down here. The difficult part was that he was married. I did not find this out until I had finished the email and felt a bit guilty for being an accompliss. I then found out that she is somehow working for the NY times as an invesitgative reporter and that they were annoyed because she had taken a few days off due to "sickness" really time to recover from her face lift.

Today I am leaving the hostel to finally move into an apartment, but I have been extended an invitation to stay in her "huge" house any time I am in Boston. There are some more details, but I hope I effectively conveyed the lunacy of this story, what an experience.

More to come, but I hope all is well.

Ciao

Bien Venidos

The Japanese Gardens My First Day!

SAN TELMO

Hey guys. I just wanted to say hi, this is obviously my first post. Things in BA are great. I am moving into an apartment on Monday and not one day too soon!!! I will be living in Palermo Soho with Gabriel, a 32 year old Maitre'D from Buenos Aires!
Work is going great, the people here are so incredibly nice. I am off until I have a bit more thought to put into my post, but here are a few photos to enjoy. I hope all is well with everyone!!!

Sra. Eva Peron's Burial Plaque at el Cementerio de Recoleta


Portland's Finest!!! Pink Martini album collection at a friends house here in BA




The Door to work