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.