A Little Background

Sonia and I are best friends. I’ve known her since junior high. We’ve always always always talked about going abroad together for an extended period of time but you know how life is… it just never really happened.

One day, a few weeks ago, we were on a hike in our hometown of Echo Park, Los Angeles. I had just broken up with my live-in love and Sonia was feeling a bit stagnant in life. Once again we started fantasizing about our international travel plans, but this time something was different. “Life just keeps on going by,” I said, “and I’m 31 and it’s fucking time to get this shit started!” Both of us just decided, right on the spot, that we were going to go to Buenos Aires for a month, a city I’d heard many good things about. We were going to rent an apartment, take intensive Spanish language classes, and just be glamorous in general.

The next morning I requested time off from work and Sonia figured out her work situation (she’s a graphic designer and is actually going to work remotely from Argentina… lucky bitch!) We bought tickets that afternoon for three weeks later, and that was that. Now, here we are!!!

Our language school is about two miles away from the apartment we rented, a two bedroom apartment in San Telmo, the historic part of town. It's on the third floor of a beautiful little building with a pet store on the street level. We love it.

-Erica (and Sonia!)

(our living room and looking into my room)

(our kitchen and looking into sonia's room )

(my room)

(sonia's room)

*a note about our blog*
Sonia is the visual girl – the graphics lady – the one who arranges it all and makes it happen. I’m the writer, so although this is in my voice, we want you to know it’s coming from both of us. And sonia just may be chiming in here and there to contribute! You'll have to guess when! We’re just doing what comes naturally to both of us.

Our first day in Argentina

(us in front of our apartment building)

Sonia and I got up, and we went on a walk. Got some produce from a little fruit stand. I asked the guy if he could wash our fruit, and he handed the bag back to me filled with water. Hilarious.

(a bag full of plums and water...)


(fruit stands are everywhere. all the fruit and vegetables are in little wooden crates. you tell them what you want and they pick it out for you.)

We walked around San Telmo, saw nice places and took pictures.

(there's really cool graffiti all over buenos aires)

Then we went and got food at this Urugayan restaurant. We tried to make sure the waiter understood that Sonia was a vegetarian and didn’t eat meat. She ended up ordering a sandwich with “crudo y queso.” I knew that crudités was vegetables in French, so I assumed that crudo meant something similar in Spanish. We tried to verify this with the waiter – “Este no carne, si?” he was like, yeah, yeah…. Then he brought back a sandwich filled with ham and cheese. Sonia had to leave hungry.

Later that night we went and got food at this super cute little diner place. A parilla (grill) restaurant. I developed a crush on our middle-aged Argentinian waiter. I’m expanding my tastes.

(our hot waiter)

Sonia had ordered an empanada de atun (tuna empanada) and when he brought it to us, he painstakingly cut it in half, and then served each one of us a portion. Nevermind the fact that I didn’t want any of it!

(instead of butter for your bread, they served this delicious tomato/onion/vinegar stuff)

He was very concerned about us – cuz again, as usual, we tried to make sure he knew Sonia didn’t eat meat. She ordered pasta with cream sauce, mushrooms and peppers…. It came back as spaghetti with lots and lots of ham. “Todo bien,” he asked? “Si… si, todo bien,” she said as she tried to feign delight at her plate of pasta and ham.

(love me some ham on my spaghetti)

Remembering my time in Portugal, I was trying to convince Sonia that sardines aren’t always the canned version we know in the US. I was telling her how good they are grilled and fresh, so I ordered some “Sardines con cebolla.” I got back a massive plate of raw sliced onions and three canned sardines on top of it. It was SO gross. What was worse was that our waiter was so sweet and worried about us, that I felt like he would be hurt if we both didn’t eat our food. I totally had to force it down… but in the end, I kinda got used to it.

(um...)

If you can’t tell from this, we had a GREAT time. Such a cute waiter, and such a cute little restaurant.

Then we went to Plaza Dorrego, the heart and soul of San Telmo. The square was bustling with vendors, tango dancers and musicians. We sat at a table and ordered two cupas de vino tinto (cups of red wine). Two Argentinian boys tried to convince us to go salsa dancing with them. It was already 1am in the morning…. We politely declined cuz it was late, and um… yeah…, but I kinda thought one was cute, so I gave him my email address… I have no idea what my phone number is here.

Now we’re home. Tomorrow is a new day!