Chance encounters and interesting finds...

Like I said below, Buenos Aires is an amazing city, full of surprises. So much happened yesterday that I would need 3 or 4 blogs to tell it all, but I’m going to try and squeeze it into one, otherwise I might bore you all with details relevant only to myself.

I’ve been serenaded a few times in my life, and "La vie en rose" will always bring a specific memory about a rainy night in France to my mind, but yesterday was completely unexpected.

I was walking around as usual, going to the Japanese Gardens to meet some friends, it was a lovely day, and I stopped at a bench to appreciate the day (and write an sms!) when this old man stopped and started to talk to me. Porteno born and bread, he must’ve been at least 70, and he told me that people should do what they like best: “if they like to write, they should write. If they like to dance, they should dance. If they like to paint, they should paint. I like to sing…" and he left the phrase for me to complete, which I obediently did. "...then you should sing." So he said if I'd let him, he'd sing me a song, to which I gladly acquiesced. So right there and then he broke into song, with a full voice, singing a bolero dedicated to me on the spot. He wasn’t a dirty old man at all, he just wanted to share his gift of song, and he said he couldn't stop himself for singing to a "beautiful young lady like you." (His words, not mine...)

Before we parted, he sang me another one, this time by an Uruguayan composer, and had I not been going to meet my friends, I’m sure he would have sang me many more. He walked away happy for having someone to sing to. I walked away happy for having been sang to. It may be that we never meet again, but it was worth it and will be a moment I will always remember.

The day continued with a couple of other chance encounters that put even more smiles upon my face, but I will spare you those and fast forward to the evening…

I went to my friend’s place because we were going to walk to this live tango music place… and a block away from her house, somebody had put a really good (almost new!) bamboo framed couch on the street. There were 3 of us, all girls, all nicely dressed (one even in heels!) and we were 14 blocks away from my house. But we all looked at each other and just knew what we had to do. So I spent the next half hour carrying a couch through the streets of Buenos Aires, having people (even a policeman!) smile and offer to help. I now have a comfy couch in my living room (I’m debating taking it up to my room… we’ll see…)

It's been a while...

...since I wrote here. And as it usually happens in my life, it has turned upside down and inside out in a matter of days. And once again, new beginnings, new terms, new life!

I must admit I was a bit scared about this one. It happened so unexpectedly! But somehow it ended up happening naturally, can't even explain how.

The point is, the last 3 months have been amazing, challenging, hard, wonderful, exciting, and a whole lot of other things. In a sense, I have been pushed to the max, and I'm proud to say I didn't break. I picked myself up, shook the dust, stood on my own two feet and managed to build a pretty good life!

So now that a new adventure has started, and I'm back under the southern skies, with the beautiful south cross to lead the way, I feel like I should start writing here again. :)

For those of you who don't know this yet, I am living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.



This city is so amazing, it's almost impossible to describe how I feel about it. There is SO much to discover, so many things that bring a feeling of awe and excitement, so much life, so much... joy. Yes, I think that's the word. We don't use that word nearly enough, but joy is a wonderful feeling that just invades you and brings a smile to your lips that you just can't control. I have discovered myself smiling happily on the streets while just walking, for no other reason than the fact I'm walking down a street in Buenos Aires, or that I see a building that makes me think of Paris, or that I'm going to my favorite coffee place, or that I'm meeting a friend... And invariably, I take different routes to go places, and discover a new little gem of a place, a little hidden piece of heaven with a delicious ginger lemonade, or a mouth-watering factura de dulce de leche (hmmm... hard to explain... something sweet and delicious!)

I don't know how long I will be here for. I'm planning on staying until December, but the wind might pick up again and take me on a different adventure before then... or I might fall in love even more with this city and decide I can't leave just yet.

To all my dear and old friends... I miss you as always. To all my new friends, I'm thankful you're in my life. You have truly made a difference in these last 3 months, and I can't imagine life here without you. So thank you.

Brazil... home or not home?

These past couple of weeks have been interesting.... to say the least. Brazil is a wonderful country, with lots of sunshine, miles upon miles of beautiful sandy beaches and millions of tropical fruits that cost horrors elsewhere, but here you can literally raise your hand and pick them right off the trees, in the middle of the streets. NO joke!

This is where I’m from… or at least, where I was born. But to quote a friend of mine, I felt like a tomato in a fruit salad. Sure, tomatoes are a fruit… but they have no business being in a fruit salad.

I have few friends left here. I’ve been gone for over 10 years, so the ones that remain are true friends, and there’s only a handful. So every time I come here, I call them up and we have a happy reunion, we spend hours talking about our lives, where we are, what we’re doing, and it’s wonderful to see that time and distance have done nothing to harm our friendship… but I feel like I’m so alien to life here. I feel like if I were to come back to stay, there would be no place for me here… and that’s not a very good feeling.

I guess this is a result of change. I have changed enormously in the last 10 years (for better or for worse), and when I get here, even though I’m sure everything has changed as well, everything feels the same as it was 10 years ago. It feels like I’m going back in time, it feels like I’m regressing instead of progressing… I’m not talking about the country… I’m talking about me... don't really know how to explain it...

All that aside, this trip has been wonderful! Sunshine everyday, in temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius (which is like 100 F), amazing food and fruits and juices and everything a tropical paradise should have, friends and family, beach and pool outings, and generally a great time! I will soon be uploading some pictures to Facebook, so you can all go check it out, though I must admit I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I should have… it’s home! It’s weird to take pictures when you’re at home…

Maybe I should just stop philosophizing and accept that things change and we have no control over them. That sometimes things change for the better, and sometimes for the worse… and our job is not to control the world, but to make ourselves better people, to react in better ways when things change.

Small world, lonely heart

I have travelled many places... and to be honest, I haven't made many friends. I am a very friendly person, but I have mostly made acquaintances, people I met, hang out with for a time, but that didn't get close enough to become true Friends. I say didn't get close enough, but the truth is, I probably didn't let them. I seem to have a bad habit of keeping people at bay, in order to protect myself from the pain that letting them in and losing them would cause.

The result is, I have very few really close friends... and they happen to be scattered around this big globe we call Earth. The world seems so small when I think of my good friends in Australia, Pacific Islands, Brazil, US, Argentina, Costa Rica, Holland, France... but it seems soooo big when I realize that none of them are here, close to me, and that I just can't pick up the phone and invite them to come over to hang out, talk, share our hearts.

I'm feeling lonely... not of people in general... but of my good, heart friends... so this is a message to all of you out there: I love you! Yes, you! You know who you are...

Cornwall, England

CORNWALL. Has anyone ever heard of that place? The people who live there call themselves Cornish. They have their own language, and they're quite proud of using their name, so you end up seeing "Cornish Ice Cream", and "Cornish Fudge", and "Original Cornish Paintings" and things like that all over the place.

It's the land of King Arthur: that's where his castle was, where legend says he was born.

It's beautiful. Breathtaking. Wild. Calm.




It helped that we had great weather... Beautiful sunshine from morning to evening... amazing sunsets... (and yes, it was England!!!)

But once again, I thought I should look for the beauty in people. There's the one who's always helping, ready to give a hand with whatever is needed... There are the others who can make you laugh, no matter what. There are some who always have a camera at the ready, to record the moment, make it last forever. And there's the innocent beauty of a child, playing at sea with her mommy running after her.

Beauty is everywhere. You just have to know how to look...



It's amazing what you see when you take the time to open your eyes and really see...

Inspiration

That's it. I'm inspired. Just finished looking at some pictures from a friend who went to Colombia (and she's probably reading this... :) )and realized something: Traveling highlights the best parts of anywhere... including ourselves. You know that phrase that goes "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" that was eventually paraphrased into "Beauty is in the eyes of the beer-holder"? I'm going to paraphrase it again and say that "Beauty is in the eyes of the camera-holder."

As Christians, or actually, as normal people, members of the human race, shouldn't we aspire to see the best in people? Shouldn't we aspire to innocence and trust? Maybe I'm being naïve, and as a frequent traveler, I know we have to keep our eyes open and our purses close at hand, but how many people have I met on the road that actually had bad intentions? Not very many!! And how many TONS of people have I met who were helpful and gentle, smiling and trying to help the best they could?

Why is it that we only put the bad stuff on the news, and make it look like it's the rule, when actually, the large majority of the world is honest and caring?

Pictures have the ability to bring the best out of a scene, a country, an event. I want to travel and take pictures of people, to bring out the best in them. To open my eyes and see the beauty, not only of the world, but of the people in the world.



In the jungle, in northern Thailand... this lady was mute, but not deaf, and she was ALWAYS trying to help us weird silly foreigners who invaded her home... I was fascinated by her...

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone!

So I've finally decided to create a "travel blog" of sorts. I'm not really traveling a whole lot right now, since I'm just starting my Master's degree and all, but I'm hoping to do a lot of traveling next year, and I can use this blog to talk about my plans, my life, my thoughts, and the little trips that I'm sure to take, even though it's the middle of the school year... (like Brazil in October! :) )

I hope you'll enjoy hearing about my adventures, and comment back, so we can share stories and life experiences... after all, that's what traveling is all about: Sharing! :)

Patty