Philly 10-Miler

My second order of business was to participate in the 2010 Blue Cross Broad Street Run, a 10-mile run down Philadelphia's Broad Street. You may remember from my Training Day post, this is the second year in a row that I have participated with our friends from Virginia Tech. Since Jon wasn't with me this year, I drove up to Philly with our friend Rick and stayed with our gracious hosts, the Mayes's. It was a really nice time, I got to see two of our friend's little rascals, like Harper Mayes (pictured to the right with her beautiful mom Kelli), who was just a peanut the last time I saw her and Leighton Hill (pictured to the left, with her georgous glowing mom Kelly - who is now expecting another little girl!) who is a mini grown up now. We had a great carbo-load dinner on Saturday night and then went to bed pretty early to prepare for the 8:30am race time.

The race took place Sunday morning, and due to the crazy last-minute-madness of last year we left at 6:30am to get to the starting line in time which translated to a 5:30am wake-up call. We were all hoping for a nice day after last year's rainy race day, but we got a little more than we asked for when the Weather Channel called for record heat in Philly. We got to the race with a few minutes to spare, even after we fared the insane port-o-potty lines. There were 30,000 people registered for the race, so it takes a while to get to the starting line. The nice thing is that your race time is recorded based off of a chip in the race bib provided in the race packets, so there is no huge rush to cross the starting line. At the time that we crossed the starting line, it felt like it was about 80 degrees with 75% humidity, it was miserable. Philly did a great job of accommodating the heat by setting up extra drink stands and opening many of the fire hydrants along the race so that we could run through the mist, which was nothing short of a godsend. Everyone finished the race, even though it was much more difficult than last year, and I am proud to say that I ran the entire race. I didn't beat my time from last year, but I came respectably close (somewhere around 6,040-something's place). It was so hot that we didn't take the time to pose for a group photo, but I got a few shots with Chip and Rick and a few more at our tailgate. We had a great time hanging out, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that cold drizzle beats 90 degree heat. I'm happy to say that I finished the race, and I am proud of all of our friends that trained, ran and finished too. It's a real feel good weekend - although I'm still having trouble walking because my legs are so sore. Until next year's ten-miler...

Adieu, Mme Verret!

My first order of business when I arrived back in the US, was to head back to my previous place of employment, Patton Boggs LLP. I worked in the Human Resources Department of Patton Boggs for just under 3 years before we relocated to Buenos Aires and as much as I love having time to explore our new city and write this blog, I definitely miss my job. It was great to see everyone, but my main reason for heading to the city was to bid farewell to my previous boss, Louise Verret. Louise has a special place in my heart for several reasons, the most obvious of which is because she gave me a chance in the world of HR when I was interesting to leave the restaurant business. She went on a hunch and my word that I would work well in HR, and gave me an opportunity to prove this. What I didn't expect was to become such great friends with my new boss, although this was a great perk for me. The picture to the left is Louise and I at our wedding back in 2008, she and her husband John were real troopers through the 100+ degree heat.

Louise started with Patton Boggs as a secretary and worked her way up through the years to end up as a Personnel Director at the Firm. After almost 40 years, she retired on Friday, to spend time with her husband traveling and gardening. My hope is that her travels will lead her to South America, namely, Buenos Aires at some point soon.

My Mom and I met Louise and Joann (one of my more recent bosses) in Georgetown at a new restaurant called Ris. This is a new addition since I have left DC, and I think it's a great new place. The menu is small, but there are some interesting dishes and everything that we ordered was delicious. We sat outside on a beautiful Friday afternoon with the only disturbances being the multiple ambulances headed to George Washington Hospital during our meal. Here is my tiny French-Canadian boss with her farewell lunch, a "Fred Flintstone" lamb shank that was about the size of her head. Our lunch was great, filled with reminiscing and stories of Louise's future travels. It was wonderful to see Louise, and all of my other ex-coworkers at the Firm. I owe a lot to Louise and was glad that I could make it in time to see her off on her last day. Good luck Louise! You will certainly be missed!

Homeward Bound

As Simon & Garfunkel famously sang - I'm homeward bound. I'm headed to the US for a few weeks and, I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited! I imagine myself now, only hours away from wandering the aisles of Target and Wegmans, overwhelmed by the selection of cereals that come without a sugar-coating. I was out to lunch yesterday with another expat friend and we talked wistfully about the beauty of Target - and how we are quite certain Target would thrive in Bs.As. Honestly, I don't know why this international branch hasn't happened yet. But, I digress....

So the original reason that I planned this trip to the US was because Jon had a 3-week business trip to Houston and Thailand. This all went to the wayside when Thailand, one of the most peaceful countries around, decided to go off the deep end in a wave of political strife, thus canceling Jon's trip to that part of the world. If not that, also the fact that he was going to fly through a volcano's wake to get there. Needless to say, I'm relieved that he's not going. It doesn't change the fact that I am still headed to the US today, our carefully orchestrated trip has gone array.

Speaking of well orchestrated trips, I should shed light to the easiest way we've found to travel between the US and Argentina. United Airlines has an amazing non-stop flight to Washington Dulles Airport that takes off at 9:00pm and goes through the night. This is amazing for a few reasons:

1. The time zones are only 1 hour apart, so no jet lag.
2. If you can sleep on the flight (I do with help from wine and Simply Sleep) it's like a regular night's sleep.
3. It's direct so no layover, no taking your bags through customs in the US and if you buy something from Duty Free, you don't have to stuff it in your luggage for the next flight!

Personally, I think it's easier than a red-eye to California. The flight isn't that much more expensive than a connection flight either. All around, the best way to go.

So that's what's going on in the Gill abode. I'm feeling a little torn on what to actually call home, so for now, it's still the US and coincidentally, still my parent's house. And lucky for me, they're willing to pick me up at 6am.

Bien vuelo!

Buenos Aires Bus Tour

From the day Jon's parents arrived, they were up for any site seeing we had planned. The only thing that they had on their agenda and wanted to do was tour the city on an open air bus. I've seen the bus drive by our apartment for a few months now and was waiting for some riding companions, so this was a perfect opportunity for me. We waited for three long days of rain before we found a day that was suitable for an open air tour, and on that first nice day we consulted the website for ways to buy tickets for the tour. According to the Buenos Aires Bus site, tickets come in one ($70 pesos) or two ($90 pesos) day passes with multiple ways to purchase tickets:

1) On the bus at any of the stops (Bust!)
2) At the main bus terminal
3) At the FlechaBus window at the Retiro Bus Terminal (Didn't attempt)
4) Online, printing the tickets out at home (Bust! It turns out that this is a "coming soon" feature on their website)

During the "high season" the bus starts at 9:00am during the "low season" they start at 9:30am and ends at 5:30pm throughout the year. It is unclear as to what constitutes that high or low season - but we weren't planning on taking the tour that early anyways. So we waited next to the Buenos Aires Bus sign for the 12:30pm scheduled stop across from the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Recoleta. This stop actually happened at 12:45pm. We boarded the bus only to find an unapologetic on-board tour guide that was fresh out of tickets. She recommended that we either go home and print out tickets, wait for the next bus (which, she mentioned, may also be out of tickets) or go to the main bus terminal at the corner of Av. Roque Saenz Peña & Florida Ave. - this sounded like the best option. The main bus terminal is located in Microcentro near the President's House (Casa Rosa or the Pink House) in an area known for it's frequent protests. We were in luck, we had to exit our taxi and walk to the bus terminal because the streets were closed for a protest (seen here on the left). The protest was complete with a riot line of police and loud fireworks making this trip to the bus terminal much more eventful than we had anticipated.
We were able to work our way through the protest to purchase tickets for the tour around 1:15pm, but as we purchased our tickets, the clerk said that the 1:30pm bus was full and we needed to wait for the 2:00pm bus - and our tickets reflected this change. Along came the 1:30 bus, half-empty, so we boarded with our 2:00pm tickets. No sooner did we think that we were actually going to take the tour when the guide came and kicked us off of the bus, we had been ratted out by one of the other patrons for boarding the earlier bus. So we diligently waited for the 2:00pm bus, completing close to 2 hours since we originally left my house for the tour.

Once we actually got on the bus, with correct tickets, and a tour guide that let us stay, the tour was a nice way to see the entire city. Each seat came with a set of headphones for an audio tour that you can plug into any one of 10 available languages. The audio tour offered some information, but to me it stopped just short of being truly informative. For example, this beautiful statue to the right was described as a monument to a shipwreck off the coast of Argentina. While the ship was sinking, a man gave his lifejacket to a pregnant woman, a gesture that lead to his death. Although a beautiful story, the audio tour stopped short of any details of the wreck, the ship, the passengers or why this statue was erected in Puerto Madero.

The bus had 12 scheduled stops, so you can exit the bus and walk any one area then pick up the next bus to stop by, generally 30 minutes later. We did not exercise this option, and coincidentally, we watched as the driver passed a group of riders that had gotten off in the colorful, and mildly shifty neighborhood of Boca. The tour lasted a total of 2 hours 45 minutes, although we got off one stop early to avoid the protest on our trip home. This tour was a good way of seeing areas of Bs.As. that I would otherwise not have visited, and places that you may only want to spend 5 or 10 minutes driving by. It also helps to give a good layout of the city for anyone who takes the tour during one of their first few days here. All in all, I recommend the walking tour for some better information and history about the city. For as difficult as the bus tour company made it to take their tour, I would not recommend this tour to visitors.

Anuva Wine Tasting

We've been looking for interesting things to do with people while they visit, preferably involving food and wine. I've heard about a few people that run services out of their homes, cooking classes, dinners, but we had never booked anything until I heard of a local wine tasting put on by Anuva Wines. Anuva is an interesting concept, Daniel Karlin started a company that finds great wines on their own and then sells them to private buyers through a wine club, private tastings and home shipping. The US$40.00 tasting included all things that I find interesting, 5 wines, 5 food pairings and a chance to meet some new people in Bs.As., so I signed the four of us (Jon's parents, me and Jon) up for a Wednesday evening tasting.

Anuva Wines is located near/in the Las Canitas neighborhood of Palermo, so we immediately decided to go to Morelia afterward. We were at least 20 minutes late to our tasting reservation due to the crazy rush hour traffic when we arrived at a nondescript apartment building and pushed the appropriate buzzer. This was my moment of panic - Did I really just bring my in-laws to a stranger's apartment in a foreign country? I sure did. So I started the "If-it's-not-good-at-least-it-was-an-adventure" excuses. Luckily, we were greeted by a nice young lady that escorted us to the tasting apartment and she quickly put my mind at ease. When we arrived at the apartment, the table was set with 5 food bites that paired with our wines and 3 other people that had arrived on time to the tasting. We dove right in to the first tasting, a unique sparkling white called Hom (pictured), paired with 2 fresh sorbets served in adorable little shot glasses. I was loving the Hom, enough to buy a bottle at the end of the tasting. The wines were quite good (with the exception of one Malbec that I personally didn't like) and the food pairings were spot on to the point of impressive. We left with 4 bottles of take home wine and a case ordered for delivery to Jon's parents when they arrived back in Virginia (that's right, they ship to the States!). Daniel is extremely knowledgeable about wines and does a good job of explaining the wines as you're tasting them. It was a unique and fun night - and I recommend booking your own wine tasting or placing an order. We enjoyed our evening and are still contemplating joining the Anuva Wine Club where you can opt to receive up to 48 bottles per year.

Now for my two cents. Not that I'm any expert, but my years in the restaurant industry have made me cynical of these types of events. I have two recommendations for improvement:
1) Slow it down. It was a relatively rushed presentation that could have allowed for more conversation about the wines and between the customers that didn't. If we diverted from discussion about the wine, Daniel quickly brought us back to the task at hand. I think that slowing down the presentation would help the patrons feel more comfortable and help with the wine sales.
2) Keep everyone on the same level. As wine tasters we were all sitting around a table, tasting the food and wine while our presenter stood above us walking around the table. This gave the tasting a teacher/student feel, which would be better off played as a peer/peer feel. Sit down. Have a glass of wine. It would create a more comfortable and relaxing environment, holding true to the company's theme.

All in all, a great night with delicious food and wine. We enjoyed meeting the other people at the tasting, Daniel was a gracious host and we have a fun, unique evening under our belts. We found out that Daniel will do in-home events, so we're thinking that this may be our next party to host.