Nine days and eight cows later...

There's something surreal about hosting company when you live overseas.  Think about two television shows that have completely different plot lines until a crossover episode tosses story arcs, characters and setting into a giant salad bowl.  While the episode might be chaotic with no clear direction, it's a guilty pleasure to watch two worlds collide.  In a nutshell, that's what it's like to have family visit you in a foreign country.

As I was getting back into the swing of things with my own Argentine dramedy (or is this a sitcom?), students would ask about my recent sabbatical.  To keep it short and sweet: We ate; we went on day trips; we took a bus tour around the city; we ate; we went shopping at the outdoor ferias; and then we ate some more.  Seriously, we must have eaten a small herd before the trip was over.

Although my uncle called me "comandante" a few times (type-A tour guide), all three of my visitors enjoyed their time in Buenos Aires and our day trips to Uruguay and San Antonio de Areco.  My uncle even said I might have a future in the tourism industry... yeah, no!

Here's a little recap of our adventure:

Day 1: Of course my mom makes a beeline for the Recoleta Cemetery

Day 2: Visiting Jorge Luis Borges and Carlos Gardel in Cafe Tortoni

Day 2: Shouting "GOOOAL" in El Caminto

Day 3: Enjoying a long lunch in Colonia, Uruguay— just mind the bird bombs

Day 4: Posing with the Terminator Flower

Day 6: Forty years later and they can still find their house in Vicente Lopez

Day 7: In the quintessential gaucho town of San Antonio (this ones's for you Aunt Nati)

Day 8: Shopping in Palermo Soho was, of course, mandatory