On the inconsistency of my posting and the reason for a new blog

Well, since I couldn't seem to actually post to this blog, I started another one (ha!)...

I decided this new one would hold a collection of stuff that catches my eye while surfing the web (because I want all the cool stuff I like in one spot...I share things on facebook or google+...and then I forget about them, until a while later when I want to find something specific and can't remember where I shared it!).

Meanwhile, this old one will still be here to share exciting events in my life (ha! Don't hold your breath!...exciting hasn't been around for a while, as the dates of these posts can attest), outings, pictures and melodramatic rants.

Hi...remember me?

I finally found my blog again!! Lost it there for a while. :)
Well, you know, I've been really busy with, ah.... uhmm...uhmmm...important stuff...

...Like changing the color (just added highlights) of my hair... On a sidenote, getting your hair styled is good for your self-esteem... (well, assuming you go to a hairdresser that speaks the same language you do...literally and metaphorically :) ). I haven't had my hair this long since I was a young college student.

Before the hair thing, I was busy walking around the capital of my country, enjoying the contrasts of culture, architecture and social status. While busy with an internship at the Ministry of Education, I snuck in a few sight-seeing moments (unfortunately didn't have my camera with me, just the feeble cellphone one).

The Colón Opera House/Teatro Colón (mind you this is not colon related, rather Columbus related :) ). We (colleague and I) got there just in time for the last guided tour of the day...in English! (I was pleasantly surprised. It was quite good, actually).

 

We also stopped by the Galerías Pacífico/Shopping mall (window shopping mainly, as the prices are quite high-end). Looking at the beautifully painted ceilings is free, so we did lots of that. :)

Then it was back to work...work...work.

Brainstorming....on every available wall and board!! But hey, the 30 page document is finished! (well, mostly).

And that's a wrap-up, folks! Until next time!

Out and about...

So, since the blogosphere couldn't sleep wondering what I was up to (hehe let the delusions begin!), here are a few pictures to calm the insomnia.

Was in Buenos Aires for two weeks on a professional internship, getting the chance to see the ins & outs of QA at a large private university...'nuff said about that...hehe...I also walked around the place a bit...that's the famous "Obelisco", framed by a street lamp :)

My brother took me to the park...Japanese park, to be specific...

There were these really huge carps in that lovely green water.

Well, back from the city life....here I am in my dear ol' province, with its rolling hills of wheat, soy and corn...wheat pictured here. It's really quite lovely. I wish I were a good photographer (with one of those really prof cameras) to capture all this golden beauty.

Anywho, since a post is always better with food, here's a picture of the fruits I missed when I was living in a tropical fruit paradise :) .
Peaches....sweet cantaloupes...strawberries...mmmm....good...'tis the season!

It's always good to look back and reflect on the beauty and blessings of the day. And so, back to your wondering.

Foodie details...

...the "best of both worlds" cuisine...
Spicy Thai curry (thanks to the spices sent by a good friend!) and tomato, spinach and cheese salad!

[I have no idea why the blogspot picture insert thingy keeps flipping these photos (that are elsewhere ok!) ]

Food items that I missed while I was away ....

"Facturas"...Argentinean pastries...very unhealthy (but great tasting) breakfast items!
This particular batch was brought in to lighten a tough work morning at the office:

(Just in case you wanted to know, that's my boss on the left, our department secretary-with the cup-, my two co-workers-the other two females on the right) and a teacher from the university) :)

So, since this is a foodie post after all...Another thing I missed ...(and they're only in season now!)....artichokes! With a simple dressing of lemon juice, olive oil and salt...

After eating artichokes, I love to get a few gulps of cold water...it's kind of like chewing on a very minty gum and getting a drink of water...there's this natural "fresh" sensation....ahhhh....love it.

The end.

Things I am grateful for...

I'm back, blogoshpere! It's still cold here in my little hometown, but...I thought I would do a gratitude post just so I can feel better after a loooooong week of hard and oftentimes frustrating work.

I'm grateful for the awesome beauty found in nature. 

Last Tuesday I returned from a staff retreat to Iguazu Falls. I really enjoyed getting out into the great outdoors and socializing a bit en route (14 hours on a bus one-way!!). Incidentally, the way they arranged the 4 bus groups was quite unique. Bus 1 was the "mature age" group, bus 2 was the "families with small children" group, bus 3 was the "young married couples" group, and bus 4 was.....you guessed it! The "singles" group (no hints intended).

Tangent:
According to the Iguazu falls entry in Wikipedia, "Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.^[2] The first European to find the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541, after whom one of the falls in the Argentine side is named.^[1] The falls were rediscovered by Boselli^[2] at the end of the nineteenth century..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguazu_Falls

 Which makes me wonder, were the falls "lost" between 1541 and the end of the nineteenth century? Did the Europeans forget how to get there?

Anyway...The waterfalls are quite spectacular, especially on the Argentinean side, where you can get really close to them.

I'm grateful for Thai agar-agar desserts,  spices and curries sent by a good friend (thank you JC!).

I am, however, not feeling grateful towards the Argentine postal system.
Like I messaged my friend: "...it was quite an adventure getting the package...had to catch a ride to a nearby city to pick it up...got to pay customs tax and a stern warning from the guy saying "well, if the food items weren't vacuum sealed, we would confiscate them, you know...") I'm relishing the thought of scaring the tastebuds off the tongues of some people I know, hehe!"

 

I am grateful for the new year God has given me.

And also grateful for the people who have invited me to lunch, tea and supper tomorrow to celebrate!

Pequeñas alegrías...

It's cold.

Minus three degrees Celsius cold.

Those of you from colder climates are probably laughing and thinking "she's got no idea what cold is!" Well, you might be right. I just spent five years in a tropical climate and developed a "thicker skin" for melting temperatures than for freezing ones!

I wake up before the sun is out, shiver to the shower, wallow in the piping-hot water (oh yeah, quick update about the gas cylinder crisis-I moved to another apartment with natural gas piped in...Hallelujah!)...well, not really wallowing...more like "hugging" the streams of steamy water appreciatively, then dress in layers (hello stockings!), put on my big, fluffy jacket, walk out the door and hear the "crunch, crunch, crunch" of the frozen grass under my boots.

The other day, as I was sitting on a wonderfully icy toilet seat, I recalled thinking, much in the same position but, in that tropical climate, on a warm toilet seat (it was 40 degrees Celsius, and the bathroom was located on the second floor, which was always very hot), "man, I wish I could sit on a cool seat". Well, wishes do come true. Icily true. Too much information? Moving on then. :)

This post was really supposed to be, like the title says, about small "happinesses" that happened to me this past week (the toilet seat just kind of crept in) and for which I am grateful:

1. Happiness is...a hot water shower! heating! cooking! (see this post to understand).

2. Happiness is...receiving a book about God's will, and sour candies (that sounds like a strange combination, come to think of it! But I love them both! :) ) from a very thoughtful far-away-friend.

3. Happiness is...walking down the street smiling to myself (alright, I'll admit to outright laughing out loud)  as I browse  a photobook sent by a collection of wonderful far-away-friends.

So, to all in heaven and on earth, a big thank you for helping make this cold week surprisingly warm.

Melodramatic gas problems and other musings...

A couple of weeks ago, I was struck suddenly with a 2 minute crying spell along the lines of "everything is so difficult here"... fortunately my brother (who was recovering from a foot operation) limped over and gave me a hug. We also had the following profound dialog:

Bro: This is Argentina...we're a third world country, you know!

Me: I lived in a third world country for five years and things weren't THIS hard!

Bro: Well, but at least you're not in the middle of an uprising...

Me: I am, however, unable to buy a dumb gas cylinder to cook food and heat my water with!!!

Waaaahh....

(A little background information: the idiotic Argentinian government has fixed the price of all smallish gas cylinders at a ridiculously low price-which you would think is good, right? Wrong. The gas companies are refusing to sell at that price because it doesn't even cover their taxes, transportation, etc...so guess what? There are NO smallish gas cylinders  to be had!...They do, however, have a vast stock of humongous gas cylinders which they are more than willing to sell you at outrageous prices!...and it's winter, so you can't really take cold showers...).

I shared this little melodrama with a friend, via email. The following comments (copyright JC! used without permission :) ) hit the nail straight on the head: 

"Back to the gas cylinder..is it harder to deal with problems at home? I mean in [another country] you expect a certain level of discomfort, but at home things should be better. And plus when you're in [another country] you can enjoy all the adventure that comes along with the discomforts. It's a lot more enjoyable to say, suffer a couple of days without water when you have [wonderful beaches, getaways] as an option." 

Sometimes it's hard being a local! When you're in a foreign country, certain difficulties can be written off with an "oh yeah, everything is so hard because I'm a foreigner here and don't know how things are done".

Well, I am no longer a foreigner....darn!

Salwar Kameez and a Happy Sabbath

I have to confess, I'm sort of an eclectic dresser. I like to collect and wear outfits from other countries I've been to (insert my my brother's exasperated rolling of eyes here, as he comments "How are you ever going to attract a guy dressed like that?!").

Today I went to my university church (where everybody obviously never deviates from a "western style" of dress) wearing a salwar kameez and sat near the back, waiting for the Sabbath School to finish. As soon as it was over, a lady makes a beeline for me...a lady from India*!

Now for those of you that might not be aware of it, there aren't many Indians in Argentina-in fact I had never met any in Argentina before-so finding one in a small, in-the-middle-of-nowhere hometown like mine is quite a feat. She greeted me in almost flawless castillian (yes, we Argentinians speak Castillian spanish, in case you were wondering...not that we're snobs or anything lol!) with a very Argentinian kiss on the cheek, and asked me if I had come from India. I told her I had visited a little bit and enjoyed it. She was sweet, charming, and very friendly. She also told me that she never wears her Indian outfits  "as people don't really do that here". I told her that I didn't mind that much as I love my Indian outfits (they're very comfortable!) and enjoy wearing them. Now, the Adventist world (and the "Indian network" in particular) is quite "small". It turns out her sister was my parents' neighbor in the Philippines, and another relative of hers was my coworker in Thailand.

See what wearing a salwar kameez does? How else would I have found all that out and met such a sweet lady?

Namaste.

(*) Edit: I later found out she's from Sri Lanka.

All work and ....some play

What do you mean "What is THAT?"

That's the longest blue road-trade route in Seafarers of Catan I've seen!

When I'm not sticking post-its to non-existent whiteboards, I'm initiating new players to the Settlers of Catan mania. It seems, as can be seen by the fate of the orange settlements, that I'm a better teacher of the game than a player, hehehe.

Thank you, Laura & family for introducing me to it, Marlise & Daniel, (and sporadically Marvin & Dorothy :) ) for hours of fun on sweltering Saturday evenings in Thailand.

(I'm kind of missing the sweltering at the moment...it's back to the freezing Saturday evenings now!)

Post it!

So, what do you do if you don't have a whiteboard and you need to brainstorm a workflow process? Thank goodness for post-its and tape! :) (the model in the picture is one of my co-workers).
What? Do I hear you say it looks complicated? Pshaw....

Time for thought

Interesting perspective on time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3oIiH7BLmg

What my blog will no longer contain

Ok. So, this is what I'm doing in my spare time: knitting...you might not see the connection, but this triggered the need to create a new blog. 

My previous blog said I was "here and there and in Thailand too". Well, I'm not in Thailand anymore, nor am I "here and there"...just mostly here. My previous blog featured exotic places, far-away people and outlandish bugs, but it's really hard to come up with those in an out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere small town, Argentina (not that we're boring, mind you). 

So, I decided I needed a blank slate. My blog will no longer feature snakes on my office floor, walks with tigers, escapades to Phuket, mushrooms that grew in my bathroom, and other such topics....Nope, nada. Señores y señoras, this blog will just be a loose collection of my ramblings as I reenter my country after being away for 5 years.

There, consider yourself duly warned. :) [knitting needles clicking in the background]