1 bottle, 2 bottle, 3 bottle, 4

Buenos Aires is the first place since Montevideo where I`ve stopped for one second to take a breath. It`s been a week and we have a life here. An apartment. Friends. We are staying with a big Mexican who cooks for us and pretty much integrated us into his life (thank you so much Shaun and Victoria). We have now extended our stay in this city twice and I know finally leaving tomorrow is going to present a huge challenge and not only because we will probably be up until 8am. It`s great to know that I can come back here, as I`m really only a 3 hour boat-bus combo away, but I try not brag about it to Tori because she is leaving me in 4 days to go home to a foot of snow.

Compared to the site-seeing for we did for 2 months straight, we really don`t do anything here. For instance, yesterday we slept until noon, got up, went for coffee and waffles, took a walk, got juice, saw some art, went to the grocery store where we bought a bottle of champagne and drank it. Then Marcelo took us to a party. His friend has this party every year at his parent`s house to celebrate the end of the year which is funny because everyone wears shorts. It`s also funny because their high school principal opened the door, which isn`t weird because he comes to every party and drinks and smokes cigarettes like he`s 25. And I know what all you educators who are reading this are thinking, but here it`s not considered taboo at all. He put his arm around somebody`s mom, he poured me wine - he is literally part of their social circle and also seemingly a part of their family.

It`s kind of hard to explain, but the parties are just different down here. And, this may seem obvious, but life is different down here. At one point last night, everyone stood around in a circle and said what they are thankful for in this past year. I didn`t understand everything, but I`m pretty sure no one said their i-phone. Life down here is simply more celebratory. This trip has definitely taught me to slow down, relax and be more in the moment which I find really difficult to do at home. Yes, you can say that that can be attributed to the fact that I don`t have bills, I`m not working, I don`t even have a cell phone, but I think that it`s more. South America, like Europe and probably everywhere else in the world except America, is a place where you sit and have your coffee (evident by the fact that the one time that Tori and I did get coffee to go, it came in a bag). Everybody seems kind of ageless because life is lived always the same way no matter how old you are. In Buenos Aires, specifically, we were welcomed into a group of life-long friends without even speaking the same language. In a week, we were at birthday parties and family parties and dinners. This is a life that is going to be very difficult to leave and $10 bottles of Chandon rose isn`t making it any easier.