It looks like maybe the (excellent) beef and the (excellent) wine has gotten to our heads, because we aren´t ready to leave!
Last Wednesday John and I celebrated one year living in Buenos Aires by going out to one of our favorite pizza places nearby. The crust is thin and almost crispy, the toppings are always fresh and hearty and the service is outstanding. Anyone who´s spent any amount of time in Argentina knows that service is not part of the culture. Coming from a customer service driven society this makes it rather trying at times...
We had a great meal and we talked about our time here, what we had learned, and our life here. From what I can remember from our conversation (and a lot of personal input) these are our top things in no particular order:
1. We´ve learned patience. Learning a new language is difficult, living in a new culture is different, and living with people of different cultures and backgrounds is different. Wandering the aisles of the grocery store trying to read labels and closely looking at spices-is this thyme, rosemary, dill, or maybe something I´ve never heard of-it takes time.
2. We´ve learned to be social. Making friends is never easy-making friends in another language is also never easy...We´ve learned that making friends here has been trying and very rewarding. The more you see people, the more you go out, the more social you are-the better friends you make.
3. We´ve grown up some. We both feel like this experience has kind of cut the proverbial umbilical cord. When the lights went out it was an expensive call to dad...we had to figure it out on our own. (I still call both mom and dad for stuff all the time, however)
4. We have learned patience- Did i already say this? We´ve learned to be patient with travel and travel times. We´ve learned in a big city you can’t get anywhere in under half an hour…and that´s pushing it. We´ve learned that taking the bus and then taking the subway and then walking 10 blocks is the way it is and to just enjoy it.
5. We have learned what it means to have a good work ethic. I won’t go too much into this. Let’s just say that we´ve learned that in the US the work ethic is probably much more rigorous than in a lot of places in the world.
6. Conversely, we´ve learned to take it slow. Life goes by fast-it´s not all about work, it´s not all about money and it´s not about having a list of a million things to cross off every day. It's also definitely not being connected all the time.
7. We´ve learned to be night owls. Dinner at 10:00, bar at 1:00, night club at 3:00 to bed at 7:00...7:00am that is!
8. We are learning about food. We have learned that natural, organic-like, grass fed, etc really does taste better-it also makes you feel better. This wasn’t noted until returning to the states to really see the difference in the way we eat.
9. We have learned about health and exercise. This may be me more than John, but we have learned that walking to and from work is a blessing. It´s a 30 minute walk and so wonderful. In the states I would have NEVER dreamed of walking 4 miles a day to get to and from work.
10. We have learned some Spanish? I felt like I had to come up with a 10th. To be honest though, our Spanish has drastically improved. We both feel comfortable in just about any situation-often times we don’t even realize how many sayings and words and things we say to each other in Spanish while having a conversation in English.
11. PS: We've learned to be accepting of others. We have both said that when we get back to the states one day we will be just as patient with foreigners as they have been with us. We both have learned that empathy goes a long way.
The pictures of our night didnt turn out too well due to a dying battery, however, here's a few:
