Buenos Aires - Day 2

Day two is officially in the books. Today was mostly a workday. I met my teammate who is auditing with me for the first time face-to-face this morning. It was cool to see him somewhere other than a videoconference screen. We walked to the office, which is literally down the hill from the hotel (about 1/4 mile). Nice and short commute. I love that you can walk everywhere here. In fact, that's my favorite thing about auditing in any large city - no car. You either take public transportation or walk. I prefer the ones where walking is possible.

It's technically winter here. Except winter looks a lot like 55-60 degrees during the day. You would think those are arctic temperatures - most Argentinian people are wearing coats, hats, scarves, and boots. And the heat inside the buildings must be set at 80. I seriously have been practically melting any time I'm indoors. The office today was no exception. I know I look strange to the natives, but I was so happy to go outside and cool off after work I didn't bother to put on my jacket.

I've encountered the same heat in my hotel room. In an effort to try not to melt while sleeping, I set the thermostat to cool. Instead it got hotter. I thought I must be crazy. So I tried to set it as cold as it would go. And still, it was like a furnace. Finally, I decided to call the front desk and ask for help. As it turns out, that is the heating system and although it says "cool" it is actually a cooler version of heat. So now it's just off and it's magically cooler (though still not comfortable). I'm sure I'll survive, but I am so glad I get to walk outside where it is nice and cool.

After work my colleague walked around and I hung out in the hotel and called my kiddo. Then I went to the bar and hung out and had a Diet Coke, or Coca Light. I don't like soda for the most part, though I will down a Diet Cherry Limeade from Sonic at any chance I get. Here, though, there is something different about the Coca Light compared to the US. It's fizzier, less sweet, and just good. I can't drink many of them (because of the caffeine), particularly if I've spent the day drinking coffee (and I have - cafe con leche is a gift from Jesus, in my opinion), but I had to have one today.  Oh, it was so good.

It is so hard to wait til 9PM for dinner. At 9PM all I wanted to do was sleep, but instead my colleague and I went out in search of food. Since he speaks Spanish, French, and English and likes good food and good wine, he found a great little restaurant for us. We split empanadas (one beef, one cheese, and one corn - cheese was my favorite) with a spicy sauce. I had a filet with grilled veggies. It was so good. I almost never eat beef in the US, but the beef here is so good I can't help but eat it. And they really know how to cook it. I got a perfectly cooked medium rare steak atop a mountain of veggies. Yum! For dessert we split some chocolate cake that was good, not too sweet but all chocolatey.

And of course, there was wine for dinner. A lovely Malbec. As is normal, two people split a bottle. I have no clue how much I drank, to be honest, but I think it was probably two full glasses (you pour half a glass to start, then just pour more periodically).  My colleague was in charge of the wine pouring and he topped me off at least three times. I finally just stopped drinking so he'd stop topping me off!

We had great conversation over dinner and I got to know him better. He's really nice and we had great, spirited conversation on lots of things.  I got to learn more about French and Spanish (like from Spain) culture since he is French and lives in Spain.  It was loads of fun and, as is typical in Latin America, dinner lasted two full hours. I've also noticed (and something I forget when in the States), when you take dinner slow and it's more of a social event you eat far less. And you enjoy it far more. I need to remember that I know that when I come home and adjust my life a bit in that department.

It was a hard workday (as they all are when you audit), but it was good. I look forward to meeting more of my company's people tomorrow and continuing to work with my coworker. We've decided that we're going to look for a coffee shop in the morning to have good coffee and fruit. He's my kind of guy! For now, the wine is counteracting the caffeine and I'm headed to bed.