Taking it all in...

I am going to try this again, but I just wrote out a huge post that somehow got deleted. Blarghhhh!

After dowloading and archiving all of the SEC filings between 1998-2010 for numerous companies, I am taking a much-needed coffee break.



Since I last wrote, I enjoyed a wonderful long weekend in Buenos Aires. Last Friday was Independence Day in Argentina, which I celebrated by going on a Pub Crawl with Kelly on Thursday. We enjoyed the shots of Fernet and Coke that greeted us at each bar we visited before ending the night at a boliche (nightclub) in Palermo called Kika. What a cool place! It reminded me of many of the places I used to frequent when I lived in Madrid. Kika was divided into two rooms - one for Rock and the other for Reggaeton. Kelly and I rocked out in the Reggaeton room, enjoying ourselves save for the sketchy Argentines who kept grabbing us. After dancing with a select few, we were joined by my friend Facundo and his lawyer friend Tomas. Around 5am, we went for some pizza bajon - the technical name for eating pizza after you have spent all night and the early hours of the morning at a boliche. Because of the Thursday night festivities, I spent some much-needed hours catching up on sleep before meeting up with my friend Alex, a lawyer and professor of law in Colombia. We went walking around Puerto Madero, an area that originally served as a way to unload cargo to be distributed in and around the Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires. Nowadays, it is an area full of beautiful vistas, including the Puente de las Mujeres, and wonderful restaurants and cafes as well as some American imports (namely, Cinemark, Hooters, and TGI Fridays). After walking around for some time, Alex and I stumbled upon an artesan market where I ended up buying an antique perle broche. We also decided to share a piece of cake that I´m told is typical for Argentine Independence Day. The cake had two layers of filling, one with yogurt and clementines and the other with something akin to dulce de leche and nuts, surrounded by cake and topped with merengue instead of icing. As is the case with most food in this country, I´m sure that it had very few calories. Then, Alex and I decided to go off in search of a movie, but, alas, he wanted to practice his English by seeing a movie that wasn´t dubbed in Spanish, and we couldn´t find one that fit our schedule. Instead, we shared a meal and another paseo in a mall in Palermo, a cool neighborhood in Buenos Aires, before calling it a night. On Saturday, I relaxed and rested up for a night of festivities with Kelly and the group of Colombians (and one Italian). We met up at an apartment, hung out for a while, and then went to another Boliche. Fun was definitely had by all! Around 4am, I headed home. The following morning, I went walking from Retiro (where I live) to the furthest point of Palermo in order to meet up with Rene and her friends to watch the World Cup final between Spain and Holland. Unfortunately, I momentarily forgot the address, walked 15 blocks in the wrong direction and ended up in a part of town where I did not want to be. Luckily, I found a cab and all was right again. As it turned out, I hadn´t even really missed anything - the game was still scoreless and would eventually end up going into overtime before Spain finally scored the game-winning goal against Holland. PUDIMOS! Afterwards, I returned to my apartment to rest up for another week in the life of a summer associate in Buenos Aires.

For now, I am off to a party, celebrating my soccer team and the rest of our league - if I haven´t mentioned it yet, WE WON THIRD PLACE!!! (AND I PLAYED). I am sure that tonight will be warrant another post later this week. Until then, un besito.