Flying to Chile!

Flying to Chile tomorrow for our EBs Regional meeting! Basically planning as a region!

Excited to experience the Pacific side of our Region!!!

Living. Working. Buenos Aires!

Now that I am into a rhythm of a daily lifestyle, I can share a bit of it.

Living:
I am staying in an apartment in a neighbourhood that is close to the National Congress of Argentina. It has a park (mostly for dogs and their owners!) in the square facing the apartment. It's about 40 minutes walk to the office or a 20 minute bus ride (or more in the morning rush hours).

It's a 2-bedroom apartment on the 19th floor with a beautiful view of the city! From our balcony, we can see the Río de la Plata!

The night view outside my bedroom window. Beautiful, eh?

The living room.

It's been quite an intense experience so far living with currently 8 people in a 2 bedroom apartment! 4 people per room, and 1 bathroom! 4 of us are from the MC, and there are 4 more alumni of AIESEC or friends that are sharing the place with us.

For me, it is a drastic change to having had my own room or apartment for the past 6 years! And imagine, during transition month, when I first arrived, we were 15 of us staying in the apartment!!! It was quite crazy, especially the day when we had to meet our supervisory group and leave home at 6am in the morning when we all had to share one bathroom! We somehow managed to be all ontime, and looking sharp!

Working
It's located in a university in which the local committee of Buenos Aires has had a relationship with. It's in a building where there are mostly MBA classes at night, so during the day, we are mostly alone, and are able to use the classrooms and the video projectors as we wish =)

MC Southern Cone Team! Me, Sebastián (MCP), David (MCVPF), Svitlana (MCVPX), Walter (MCVPER)

Some pictures of the office:

It's centrally located right in the center of the Buenos Aires, and in the shopping pedestrian streets. It's also walkable from home, and that's what I have been doing each morning - at least I don't feel so guilty with not having done much excercises apart from dancing reggaeton at home on weekends!

I think what I miss the most was the beautiful view we had in CAS in our old office! Every lunch, I was admiring the view of the volcanic mountains of San José!!! But I can't complain, cos I am falling in love with Buenos Aires!

Buenos Aires
I remember my first days walking around the office area last month. I was just being like a f-ing tourist having my head looking up and not really paying attention to the people I were bumping into. I was, and still am, absolutely taken away from the beauty in the buildings!

On Avenida Corrientes: the Broadway of Buenos Aires

Having been born in Hong Kong, I am naturally a city-boy, and it's been 6 years since I was last living in metropolitan city, in between, having lived in Kingston, Canada and San José, Costa Rica. And I didn't realized how much I missed living and being in the middle of the busy streets. And what a place to re-experience it again in this megapolis of 12,4 million people in the Greater Buenos Aires!

A typical building by the office area.

In a weird way, I missed (not nessarily liked!) the traffic, the crowdedness, the pollution, and the invidualistic city mentality. There are definately much less eye-to-eye contacts with passer-bys on the streets compared to my experience in Panama and Costa Rica.

This is a huge city, with a lot to do. And as they call it, it's the city that never sleeps! Going out at 1am to a club for example is to considered to be early to arrive! Usually 3am is when the club gets busy!

Still even with being a month here, I haven't been able to experience much of the city yet. There is still so much to discover and to do here! Loving it!!!

I have got more pictures online, and here are the links! enjoy!

Transition Month:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2118652&l=41524&id=81003209

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2118657&l=63d29&id=81003209

of Buenos Aires:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120514&l=8a7b8&id=81003209

My first month in Southern Cone

I have been here for just over a month now. And there is just too much to share here! I don't know where to start!

Maybe as a starters, I can post a video of I recently made for the SDL conference in CAS that can summarize a bit of my experience so far.

Enjoy!

From Southern Cone...

Been a long while...but here I am still alive! And so will the blog! A lot has happened since I last wrote here. Lots of farewells, hellos, farewells, and hellos, and farewells, and hellos...

I enjoyed my "last" days in Costa Rica and Panama for now. I know I will return one day for sure to both countries as I have left a dear part of me with my friends I have made throughout my 1.5 years there. Below is a picture of some of us on my last day in Central America. Coincidentially, it was a football game between Canada and Costa Rica for the Gold Cup tournament. Well, I was completely torned apart and was cheering for both teams. And of course, I won and lost at the same time as well...=)

Some of my friends from my last night in Central America! (Top: Julio, me, Zana, Juraj; Bottom: Ricardo, Popita, JuanCa)

Then, I spent a quick 4 days in Canada before heading down to Southern Cone. Why I went back? Firstly, it was because I already had a return ticket...and secondly, tickets were even a bit cheaper flying from Toronto to Buenos Aires than from Central America...so doesn't hurt to be able to leave my beachwear behind, and pack for winter! As well as to spend some time with my cousins, and catch up with one or two friends and eating all the non-westernized Toronto - Chinese food I can stuck in my stomach in 96 hours.

Good ol' Vince!!!
Llorene!!!
Shirley and my first DimSum in 1.5 years!!! Richard was behind the camara!
And of course an Ice Cap from timmy's!

.....

And then the direct one-way 12 hour flight from Toronto to Buenos Aires began...

I will write more about how my one month experience has been so far in the next post...