Interesting Statement

So I've been talking to a lot of people about my time in Buenos Aires lately. The usual questions, but it's still nice to talk someone's ear off about a city that means so much to me, and why I enjoyed myself there so much.

However, I've gotten similar responses from a couple people when talking about my plans for moving back down there after graduation. As most of you know, I hope to graduate in May 2010 and get back down to BsAs by Christmas 2010. On more than one occasion, people have asked/told me, "So, you think you really want to live down there? How do you know that's the right city? Where else have you been to know that's the right place to go?" To which I think, "Hmm...I did spend 13 months in Buenos Aires. This isn't some irrational tourist saying they want to move there after spending two weeks in the city."

I must say, this was not the response that I was looking for. Hearing it from these people, it almost came off as an insult, something along the lines of, "So what makes you so special that you can just up and leave the US and move back to Argentina?!?"

I just found it really interesting that these people would somewhat verbally attack me for saying that I planned to spend another year or so in Argentina. Maybe it should be chalked up to jealously, but I'm really not sure.

Thoughts?

-Patrick

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

In La Crosse

So I've had a great weekend so far. Ian, Holly's old bf and family friend, graduated today. I had originally planned on taking the Amtrak on Friday morning to La Crosse. However, at the last minute, the price went up from $31 to $52 dollars for the one-way trip. Seeing as I'm a penny pincher, I decided to just take the Megabus to Chicago, which costs $25. I got out of work at 11pm on Thursday night, packed my bag, and jumped on the bus for Chicago at 11:45. At 8am I arrived in Chicago and Lindsay came to pick me up. We had some food, hung out for a bit, and then went to pick Adrian from work. We left directly from his work and drove up to La Crosse for the weekend. So, instead of a 3 hour train ride, I spent about 12 hours driving, but it was worth the drive up to hang out with Lindsay and Adrian on the ride up.

We had a fun night last night hanging out with Vicky, Bob, Jen, Kim, and Todd, and then we went out to the bars for the night. Today we went to graduation...at 9am!, and then Adrian and I hung out with Bob and Vicky for awhile. Currently, I'm hanging out in Ian's house with everyone, getting ready to hit up the town.

Don't worry, those important posts will soon be posted.

Patrick

All Well

Life is going great right now in Minneapolis. I just finished up my training shifts at the Loring and tonight was my first night serving. Had a good time and got to see a lot of old familiar faces. I've got some posts I've been thinking about that I'll put up sometime this week. Also, I'm planning on writing the post on Argentine poverty that I was going to write a while back.

Patrick


ps- if you have any ideas that you want me to write about, let me know by leaving a comment.