Last night I was invited to go to a party with Cecilia and her sister Adriana, who is visiting from Rosario. I didn’t actually understand what it was, thinking from Cecilia’s description that it was some kind of women’s group.

I’m still not exactly sure what the group is about, but they were a fantastic bunch of people — both men and women as it turns out — and this was a full on party! It was on somebody’s rooftop, and we were among the first to arrive. When we climbed up to the roof we found the son of the house busily making pizza — from scratch. And I had an idea how many people might be there from the number of pizzas he was making!

In the end I think there were about thirty people there. The music was loud and upbeat and people were dancing singly, in pairs and in groups! When the pizzas made their appearance, around midnight I think, they were fantastic. Different topping combinations from the ones I know — I never saw a pizza with corn kernels mixed with Roquefort cheese, for example — and all delicious.

Apparently it’s a tradition here to end a party with ice cream, and that happened around 2 am. I finally got home around 3 am, so it was quite a night and I had a great time. They say Buenos Aires is a nighttime city, so I guess this was my introduction!

Yes, today I went grocery shopping. In fact, I can’t shop for much because my kitchen is really just a stove, sink and very little else crammed into a cupboard! I did boil an egg today though, so I figure I could manage pasta too, but I won’t be having any grand dinner parties!

The supermarket was fun, because I was torn between going for things that were partially familiar to me and being more adventurous. Think of the cheese counter back home, with a gazillion types of cheese from many countries. Now think of that all in Spanish! When you start learning another language, names of cheeses are not the first thing you learn! And there’s always a protocol with supermarkets, isn’t there? Here it was discovering I had to get my fruit weighed by the fruit weighing man before checking out.

Anyway, I got enough cold meats etc. to have a lunch at home, and that was the plan. However, as soon as I got it on the plate I realized I hadn’t bought salt! There is also a shortage of cloths in the apartment, so I have to buy some of those tomorrow. I never though grocery shopping could be such an adventure.

This afternoon I planned to do my first sketch. I found this great cafe (one day I’ll tell you about the cafe scene in Buenos Aires), got the perfect seat outdoors facing a fantastic building with an amazing door. I plunged my hand into my sketching bag — and it came out covered in green paint! One of my tubes of paint apparently did not survive the flight from Ecuador— and that reminded me of another item to add to my shopping list for tomorrow — paper towels!

I had planned to go out for a real Argentine steak dinner tonight, but in the end I decided my stomach hadn’t really settled enough yet, so I just had a light dinner again. Tomorrow I’m going to The English Group of Buenos Aires, a Meetup group that focuses on giving locals a chance to practice their English. Apparently it’s the custom to go for pizza afterwards, so that will be tomorrow’s dinner. It won’t be until ten o’clock though, so I’ll be plunging into the Argentine dining schedule! So by the next night I should be good and ready for that steak dinner.

I had two FaceTime conversations today, one to Canada and one to Scotland, and they both worked beautifully, so it seems the Internet is in good shape. If anybody wants to have a FaceTime or Skype call with me, just let me know a time and I’ll be happy to do it.

That’s it for today. I’m now going to end my day with a nice glass of Malbec on my little balcony — cheers!

I’m here! After a very long travel day yesterday — four-hour taxi ride to Guayaquil, two-hour flight to Panama and then overnight to Buenos Aires — I was exhausted by the time I checked in to my apartment.

The apartment is great. It is small, but very cute and it really is in a fantastic location. I’ve been out and about just a bit today, but aim for an early night so I can throw myself into my Argentine adventure tomorrow. I truly am happy just to be back here in my beautiful Buenos Aires again!

I’ll post again soon, and thank you all for following the blog and especially for your comments!

Hasta pronto!