Let's just pretend I wrote this a month ago, shall we?

OH, INTERWEBS! HELLO! HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU!

the all caps shouty-fest might seem overenthusiastic and unnecessary, but i have been overwrought - OVERWROUGHT, I TELL YOU - with this unexpected blogging hiatus. especially since it's not like Things Haven't Been Happening. Things! they keep Happening! and i'm not sharing them with the internet, NOR am i reading other blogs, because it turns out that when one starts a new job, and one has a computer screen that faces Everything On Earth, one is not as inclined as one has been in the past to keep a window with blogs open in it all day long so that one can read a blog every few minutes in between tasks.

(i am working in a conference room today, and my screen is facing a wall, and IT IS GLORIOUS.)

(and no, i don't know why i don't/can't blog at home. i just.. don't. computers are for the daytime, apparently.)

i never even finished posting about south america, eesh. so, uh, here are some quick highlights from our last stop, Buenos Aires. we scrapped all our original plans after the gotmyfare disaster, and my lovely friend JM graciously let us stay the whole time at his sweet apartment - plus he picked us up from the airport, took us to nice restaurants, and showed us around the city. not too shabby.

first up: the San Telmo market - a large outdoor antiques/craft fair that springs up in one of the neighborhoods.

i have a strange affinity for cemeteries as it is, and love visiting large / old / interesting ones while travelling, so La Recoleta was really, REALLY up my alley: an entire miniature town made up entirely of mausoleums.

there are a lot of wealthy neighborhoods in BA, and apparently all the wealthy people get dogs, and then hire professional dog walkers to take their pups out during the day. so all around the city, you see these guys (and gals) with an enormous tangle of leashes all around them - we regularly saw walkers with more dogs than this, even.

i feel like my BA pictures are not that great - they definitely don't do the city justice - which i'll blame on the fact that i was fairly unwell while there. i experienced my very first Visit To An ER While On Vacation In Another Country, which was surprisingly pretty great, all things considered. like the fact that the cost of a full round of antiobiotics WITHOUT INSURANCE was a whopping $25. the pharmacist apologized profusely for how expensive it was, and urged me to submit the paperwork to my regular insurance when i got home.... where the copay would likely have been more than $25 anyway. unreal.

uh, but anyway! onwards! the hugely touristy - yet still interesting & worth a visit - La Boca neighborhood:

supposedly this neighborhood was built by Genoese immigrants who were super poor, living in slum housing.. so they painted everything all cheery colors to remind them of home. it's still not located in the best area; JM warned us not to visit and night and/or stray off the tourist-friendly path, since thugs in the area had taken to jumping tourists and cutting off their fingers to steal their rings.

we stayed in the touristy areas.

one of the best parts of BA (for me, anyway) was the super-great food you could get for practically free. we ate at some amazing restaurants, and paid about 1/3 the price we would have paid in the states.

we even hit up a milonga - a tango club where you can come first to learn, then the rest of the night is devoted entirely to dancing the tango.

(things at which i am not naturally gifted: the argentinian tango. eesh.)

so! BA! that was awesome. the entire trip was crazy fabulous (um, once we got the vacation back on track, i still hate you gotmyfare.com) and i thoroughly recommend taking a trip down that way if you should get the opportunity.

so, um, yeah, that was over a month ago. hah. whoops.

since then, i've been settling in at my new job, which is a TON of work, but i'm really enjoying it so far. it's good work - i feel like i'm doing interesting, challenging things, and not just busywork. it's a neat company to work for, too: i'm officially the 200th employee, for example, so they held a small ceremony (with cake!), had me ring a gong, and made me a special "200th employee" tshirt. also they have a keg every friday. :)

i really miss everyone online, though. i'm may just have to relocate to this conference room permanently.