Feliz Ano!

Buenos dias amigos from Buenos Aires!!!

After a long flight Brianna (my bro) and I spent the first couple of days getting situated in our apartment (awesome location) and catching up on some zs. No matter how hard you try, when you are 6'5" and sitting in peasant class, it is impossible to sleep. Brianna and I each watched 3 movies and played poker /trivia for most of the flight against the rest of the plane.

Buenos Aires is AMAZING so far. A couple of initial observations:
1) VERY European - tree lined streets, piazzas like Italy, lots of McDonald's everywhere
2) People always say it's the Paris of South America and I have to agree..... no one speaks English (or if they do, they pretend like they don't). And their accents make it extremely difficult to understand even basic Spanish words. Brianna and I have been STRUGGLING. Here was our first meal experience:
Miguel: "Uno burrito y uno pizza, por favor" (translation: I would like a burrito and a pizza, please)
Waiter: "Mumblio Mumblio Mumblio (I don't understand what you are saying, you stupid gringo.... or something like that)
Miguel: (Points at menu): "Uno burrito y uno pizza, por favor"
Waiter: (Said EXACTLY as I said it): "Ah, si, uno burrito y uno pizza. Mumblio mumblio mumblio mumblio."
Miguel: Si
45 minutes later, we got the pizza. After about an hour and a half, the burrito still hadn't arrived. Awesome - we had to ask for it again. This time they brought us a live donkey (ok, maybe not).

Spent New Year's with my friend Miriam and her friends Marcel and Lindsey. They are staying in this phat apartment in the Congressi district that makes our place look like a rescue shelter. We had a meal at their house - arrived an hour and a half late.... apparently BA had a daylight savings time change for like the first time ever the night we arrived. Luckily, no one told us. So, we ended up counting down the New Year's at the house. We had some drinks at a bar in Palermo Soho (the neighborhood we are staying in....it's named after NYC's Soho... no Houston street here though) and ended up at a Tango club. It was a trip! These old dudes (one guy looked like Dean Martin, another like the fat version of Marlon Brando, and, to top it off, Phil Donahue was in attendance) were totally picking up young, hot ladies. Needless to say, Brianna and I spent our time on the sidelines, but it was a crazy experience nonetheless.

They say this is the city that never sleeps. At 6am, we were walking home and stumbled across a street party. It was amazing and more representative of a traditional NYE celebration.

Ok, time to wake up my brother, it's 5:17pm. Hope everyone had a great new year! Check back periodically for updates. I'll post pics when we get them loaded. Stay golden.