Bah bah badadada, ba dadada, da da da da dahhh… I’ve Landed!!!!!

On my way to Buenos Aires for the adventure of a lifetime, I was think about this blog and what it was going to look like and how I was going to write it. Should I write a blog and keep a physical travel journal? Do one over the other? And while these thoughts were routinely circling my brain (as thoughts tend to do with me; rarely is my head empty), I was simultaneously watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, staring Ben Stiller.

To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.

Ah, the novelties of in-flight entertainment. But in all seriousness, this quote (which serves as the motto for Life Magazine in the movie) struck me as a sort of mantra for the next 8 weeks of adventure. Not sure what it’ll exactly look like but I’m ok with it. Hopefully, I learn to push the comfort zone a little bit and really invest in the lives of those around me.

      

Any who! So far, I have breezed through 12-13 hours of flight time, 5 hours spent in airports, 5 hours of sitting on a bus from Buenos Aires, and 45 minutes of shuttle time; and, I can proudly say I have made it all the way to my quaint room on the fourth floor of an apartment building in modest Rosario, Argentina, where my adorable host mom, Nani, has agreed to put up with me for the next five weeks (yes, I know that was a run-on sentence; I hope you can get over it).

From the balcony. You can see the river in the distance.

The apartment is small, but honestly, it’s the perfect size. I am not really one for needing or wanting a ton of space, and if I were to live in an apartment on my own, I would want one just like this. My room is about the size of a modestly sized walk-in closet if you were to remove the clothes racks, shelves, and drawers. I have a little table with a chair and a sliding glass door with a retractable shade that moves by turning a crank so that it resembles a garage door more than anything. This leads to a small balcony, which overlooks Pasaje Cajaraville – the street the building is on.

Balcony (with random pine tree across the street)

Living room

My room! To give you an idea of size, I pushed myself into the very corner of the room to take this picture in panorama mode.

Corn tart thingy. Basically, it was a delicious corn casserole or quiche.

Flan!!! With dulce de leche, or course.

Earlier today, as we drove away from the airport, I noticed orange leaves on some of the trees. BAM! Southern Hemisphere! Seasons are switched! It’s fall all over again! I feel like we went back in time. It’ll be interesting to have two winters (three since I have to go back to Colorado for winter, too…) in one calendar year. Despite this, the weather is actually quite nice. It’s humid, but bearable. I expected it to be a lot colder than it is, but I guess that’s because it’s not quite winter here yet; technically it’s still autumn. Picture a cool, rainy day. That’s what it feels like today. However, Nani seems perplexed by my ability to be fine wearing Chacos and a light sweater. She keeps asking me if I’m cold. When we went out to the store, she made me put on two jackets. Better to be prepared I guess, but I think those Ice Age-like weeks we had earlier this year prepared me well enough :).

See these? These are Alfajores de Maizena. And that brown filling? The gooey goodness of dulce de leche.

¡Mate! Highly caffeinated tea. More on this another time.

Side note! I’ve been in this country for less than 24 hours now and have already had dulce de leche three different times. People. If you haven’t tried real dulce de leche before, whatcha-doin’-wid-yo-life?! Hop in your zippy little car and get your butt to Rincon Argentino in Boulder (they sell the authentic stuff) if you’re in the area. Or better yet, scoot on down to South America and join me for an alfajores de maizena and a cup of mate in the mañana (for you gringos out there, that means morning 🙂 )!

¡Hasta luego!

K. Lu

P.S. In case you didn’t get the reference in the title, it’s a Ben Folds song called Landed, however the title really makes best sense if you listen to the CU Buffoon‘s version of it.