6 months in BA!

It's hard to believe, but yesterday we officially passed our 6 month mark of living in Buenos Aires! It's definitely a significant milestone for both of us as it's the longest we've ever been outside of the states. To mark the day, we traced our steps back to where we spent our first days here. On Saturday, we took the subte back to San Telmo and strolled around the neighborhood. Since it was May 1st, it happened to be Día Internacional de los Trabajadores, or International Workers Day (similar to Labor Day), which commemorates the struggle for an 8-hour workday. So as we walked around, we came across many gatherings in streets and plazas, that were being held by various unions. We walked by the hostel where we had ended up stay at on our first night after the apartment we rented online wasn't what we expected. We walked by the studio apartment that we had rented for our first month. We spent some time in Plaza Dorrego where we had seen street performers and loads of tourists, and where we had bought empanadas, and where had Sara passed clubs with other jugglers on our first night in B.A. We walked by the apartment we had stayed in with Sara's family when they visited.

As we walked, we reflected about how all the things we've done in the last six months and how much we still want to do with the rest of our time here. In some ways it feels like we got here so long ago and in other ways it feels like we're still so new to this place. We feel proud of how much we've managed to do in the time we've been here. We're both employed, and are living well on our budget, we've got a great apartment in a great area, have made some friends, and feel like we really know the city pretty well.

On Saturday, we celebrated the 6 months here by treating our selves to a nice dinner. In B.A., there are many puerta cerradas, or closed-door restaurants, which are essentially meals hosted by various chefs in their homes. We went to Casa Saltshaker, where the chef serves 5-course dinners centered around various themes. The themes are usually based upon a historic event that occurred on or near that day, but that night the theme was Iron Chef. So the first two people to make reservations (not us) had gotten to choose a key ingredient they wanted to eat that night. They chose chocolate and duck, so each of the courses included at least one of those ingredients and a couple of them included both. Since the meal is held inside a home, the number of guests is pretty small at around 10 people. Although they often have visitors from all over the world, we were the only ones there that night who weren't Canadian! We enjoyed both the company and the food and hope to get to check out another puerta cerrada for another special occasion while we're here.