But fortunately, I am back in South America...back in Buenos Aires!!!! FINALLY! To make a really long story short, stuff in Chile didn't work out, job-wise. My boss in Puerto Varas quit, so the Santiago office opted to close down the office in Puerto Varas...meaning I had no job. I returned to Chile on February 21st to Santiago and spent the day at my friend Julia's (a PiLA at Fundacion Chile) apartment (she's married to Kris). I really just relaxed and recovered from the long flight. In the evening Julia came back home. Laura (another PiLA living in the same apt building) Julia, and I went to a pancake dinner at their non-denominational, inter-faith church to celebrate Fat Tuesday. It was really nice, and the church is international so there are people from all over the world. After dinner I took a taxi to the terminal to take the bus down to Puerto Varas.
I got in Wednesday morning (Feb 22nd) and went to Jess and Mai Ann's house. I re-organized the stuff that Janine and Mai Ann had moved to the house and fit it into my suitcases. I met up with Barbara, who was shutting down the office, moving all the things out etc. Mujeres Empresarias is keeping her on to work from home for the time being. I had lunch with Jess at Cafe Mawen (where we went my very first day in Puerto Varas) and did more rearranging back at Mai Ann and Jess's. That night, with Jess and Jason (Mai Ann and Jess's house mate) we made stir-fry. It was yummy! The next day I walked around town, red along the water...and it was surprisingly nice weather...like in the 70s and sunny. Barbs bought me lunch, which was very sweet, and then I picked up some things for the Asado...that we were having that night...it was sort of a goodbye thing for me. A bunch of people came..a lot of the rugby boys, etc. and it was really just lovely. I crashed at like 4am, only to wake up at 6am to go to the bus terminal.
My bus left Puerto Montt at 8:15 (i magically managed to get all my bags on the bus) and I was exhausted. I dozed basically until we crossed the border into Argentina. It was wild crossing over because there was all this volcanic ash up in the mountains. Everything had like a coating of this dull grey powder. Kind of depressing. We made it to Bariloche by 4pm and had a 1 hour break...then the long leg of the journey began....the bus was kind of narstyyy and I was in a window seat that had water leaking out of it all over me. Lovely. NOT.
At like midnight or so, they woke us up to switch buses (I think we were in Neuquén). In the morning we made it to Bahía Blanca and had a little break in the terminal there. We finally made it to Buenos Aires at like 7:30pm on Saturday...35 hours on the bus. I can honestly say I don't want to be on a bus again. ever.
Mati picked me up and we went to two birthday parties...first Mati's old coworker Gaby...who's married to Yanil. When I was here in August/September, I got to know her. Very nice family. After that we drove to La Plata to celebrate Catalina's Bday (Mati's niece) We stayed in La Plata until Sunday evening and then headed back to Capital. I had my interview with TXT International (the headhunting firm) on Monday. It went really well and they asked me back that Thursday to meet with one of the directors...who offered me a job. That was last week. This week I am meeting with the other director to figure out the details of my start date, etc. I also had interviews with a consulting firm all last week. But I am for sure going with TXT :)
I met up with Clara last Friday to have dinner...at La Cholita!!! She's a friend from Georgetown who moved to Argentina in December. It was really great to see her and it's great that she's here in Buenos Aires!
Saturday, Mati and I went to La Plata to hang with the family, and then we came back to Capital because we had to get up early in the morning to go to the wedding of one of Mati's teammates. The church ceremony was a noonish out in provincia, and then the wedding was in like an outdoor garden that was gorgeous. It was hot as ballllss so we were all sweating a bunch. We left around 10pm...so it was like a 9 hour wedding...but totally awesome. Highlights include: one of the clementes doing an improv skit which ended in him taking off his pants...and pretending to be a rabbit...OH, and how I somehow got tricked into a 6 couple dance off....Mati and I magically weren't the 1st eliminated. 2 other couples got eliminated before us! Not because we are particularly skilled, but because we hid ourselves strategically where we'd less likely be seen. When a Tango song came on...we were both screwed. Yes, I studied tango for 1 semester...but that was 2 years ago. I forgot everything. And what I did remember, was the male part, so I started dragging Mati around the dance floor (he had no idea what to do)...Yeah..that got us eliminated.
Anywho...Today I am going back to rugby at DAOM! I am pumped to get back to playing!
More updates to come....
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