Tuesday, October 12, 2010

They say 'ciao' in Argentina!

So, we are finally in Buenos Aires after a hectic (and slightly traumatic) month of ‘leaving-do’s’ with wonderful friends in Beijing, a week in Canada visiting Damien’s younger brother Richard (who is a dogsledder in Whistler by the way. How totally cool is that?!?!?), followed by a night in South Beach, Miami (yeah baby) where I didn’t diet.
In a nutshell: Buenos Aires is fab.
And yes, they say ‘Ciao’, well actually it’s ‘Chau’ which is even more laid-back, sexy and cool than just plain, old Italian Ciao. They also call everyone Chico or Chica. Also very cool. Sigh. I'll explain more about the language in later posts.
They Porteños (the name for local BA’ers) have got it right in every way! They live in a city that looks like Paris, they dress like they’re from Milan and live the laid-back lifestyle of coastal Spaniards. To top-it-all-off the food is a combination of all three of those amazing places: fantastic red wines for just a few dollars a bottle, the most tender, tastiest, melt-in-your-mouth steaks I have ever eaten, decadently creamy, stinky cheeses (just how I like them), beautiful bread, wonderful italian-style ice-cream, totally naughty but gorgeously yummy pastries – both sweet and savoury (I will be blogging in a later post about the challenges of doing weightwatchers whilst living surrounded by all these calories) and much more.
Oh, and for those of you in Europe and the US reading this thinking ‘yeah, and?’, please remember that we have just spent the last two years living in Beijing where the western supermarkets are the size of a dry-cleaners and a packet of cornflakes costs US$20!
So, anyway…there you go…our first impressions of Buenos Aires and my first blog post ever. It’s not great but I have been wracking my brains for the past week trying to think of what to write about. (My friend Dalton has been nagging me a bit to post also so the pressure was definitely on). Hope you enjoyed it.
Chau for now Chicos!

The pic is of a street in the 'barrio' of San Telmo where we are living

8 comments:

  1. Love the photo, great to hear what you are up to and for your very first post- you did great! Keep em coming.

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  2. Great first post Chantal! :) Live in BA sounds great. I can't wait to read more.

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  3. Thanks ladies! Seems that a few other people read it too which is very exciting.

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  4. Fab Chantal ;-)) I love it, what a lovely place to live. You could probably write a whole blog just on the challenges of weight watchers in BA. Keep it going.

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  5. nice looking blog. enjoyed very much, but have to argue that there is nothing sexier than the Italian language;)

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  6. hmmm...the mysterious shantimamma, who is she? need some hints?

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  7. Thanks Sheri & Vicki (Vicki - that is you right?)
    Shantimamma - is that you Tanya? Or Janice?

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