Day 1 - First Impressions Nov 14

Nov 14, 2017 - Buenos Aires Argentina

My decade-old running watch just beeped indicating the hour.  I have to think for a minute what hour it could be.  The sun is still pretty high in the sky, and yet it is 7 PM.  When we left Seattle a long week ago, it was pitch black by now.  Oh how I love chasing the longest day of the year.  I wonder if anyone has ever done that – just continuously flip flopped between the northern and southern hemisphere to avoid the dark days.   We ate dinner at 4 PM.  Or maybe it was lunch.  I read that in Argentina, they consider dinner before 10 PM odd.  So let’s call it lunch.  In which case, I will be sleeping before dinner tonight.  Sorry, Argentina!

The walls in the apartment complex that we are staying (airbnb) are paper thin; I continue to be startled by the whale-like moan of water heaters at the neighbors.  First of all, you always need to let your first impression include more than just the airport ride.  There aren't many cities showing their best side on the way from the airport.  My first impressions of Buenos Aires are "wow, there's a lot of traffic" and "where's all the Argentinian food?".  It's like going to New York and looking for American food.  The city is a melting pot.   

Quick recap.  In the last ten days, Evan and I: 
 - quit our (very stable and good paying) jobs,
 - hosted a friendsgiving / "see you later" party with 20+ friends, 
 - packed up all of our possessions into a rickety U-haul plywood box with the door falling off, 
 - drove a low-riding 2007 Honda Fit 20 hours from Seattle to Bozeman, to South Dakota, to Minnesota, with pit stops in the  Big Horns and Badlands,
 - visited our niece and Evan's family, 
 - were picked up at the Dairy Queen on highway 90 by my mom’s minivan to drive another 11 hours, to Brownsburg, Indiana 
 - stayed with twenty members of my family in a giant timber frame house next to a pond. Who knew, Indiana?
And then, we drove back to Chicago, hopped on a plane proudly purchased with frequent flyer miles, and arrived in Buenos Aires this morning.  We found our airbnb and explored the only way we know how - running shoes on.  

Is this a break, or a breakdown?  I'll let you know when I know.