According to Tim, I have $2000 worth of frequent flier/hotel points between the 3 main accounts that I have. Ship that. Is that enough for a nice honeymoon? Truthfully, probably not.

Also, if you have any frequent flier accounts, you should really follow that link and sign up.

Restless in 5th gear

Something you'd probably never guess about me is that I was fascinated by...trains, planes and automobiles as a kid. Apparently (I have only foggy memories of this), I was obsessed with a certain kids book I had that was called...wait for it, "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles." Apparently I used to insist that they read this to me alot. As they say in Argentina, literally translated, I am hard head. In fact, I remember at least one or two birthdays at the Strausburg railroad in Pennsylvania.

Somehow along the line I lost the fascination. As anyone who has ever seen my rides knows, cars are not the most important thing in my life (I still like to drive fast, but acceleration is less important). I fall asleep on airplanes before takeoff, and I think trains are useful only for getting me from point A to point B. Preferably without a wait, although after a year in Argentina I may be learning patience....maybe.

Anyway, the point of this post was to say that all Portenos used to tell me how dangerous the trains were at night. I now take the last train to Capital several times a week. So far, I don't really see the danger, but we'll see...

Meet Ceci

Well, the blog is called (tongue in cheek, of course) Why You Want To Live In Buenos Aires, and right now she is my reason to live here. Meet Cecilia.




She looks cute. I look like me. This was our first date, the day before Valentine's Day.





This was our third date. Here we are in the Rose Garden of the Palermo park. She's pretty, kind, fun, mature, and endlessly fascinating.



Now you know why I had her hold the camera.

Best part about going out with an Argentine...

...would have to be that I can count spending time with her as productive time, as she doesn't speak any English.*

*Well, that's not quite true. Sometimes she says a two or three words in English, and it's really really cute. I don't want to say anymore in case she reads this and decides to stick it into google translator.

If you ever want to know why the dating culture here is so ridiculous...

...just talk to old ladies on the subway.

Seriously, random old ladies started talking to me on the subway today about how beautiful girls in Buenos Aires were...for minutes. and minutes.

I get tilted when...

Portenos stop me on the street to ask me directions, I tell them where to go, and then they clearly disregard my directions when they hear my accent.

Don't get me wrong, I understand why you wouldn't trust someone who doesn't speak your language, but it annoys the heck out of me anyway.

Cristina isn't a 100% failure?

I've written a few times about how it is impossible to get coins here. Not such a big deal, except that they are necessary to use the bus. Well President Cristina has finally announced that they will put electronic card capability in buses and trains as they already are in the subway.

Bout time. When this eventually happens -- supposedly it will start in 90 days and have a transition "as brief as possible"...I'm guessing this means the transition will take years -- I assume the black market in coins will die. Of course this happens when I have stockpiled like 15 pesos in coins.