an ache for wake

i'm sick. literally and figuratively. i can't breathe, my throat hurts and my head feels like it weighs 30 pounds. i'm also sick of winter. sick of cold and the need for a jacket. don't get me wrong - i absolutely LOVE buenos aires and south america - i have just reached the point beyond tolerance for temperatures below 75. and it's also sort of torture knowing that in a matter of days i'll be on the beach soaking up sun (and let me tell you I need it cause i'm practically glowing-in-the-dark white) with my family! that said, between Spanish winter and Argentine winter, I was granted a few weeks in Cali and spent a few lovely days near the sea in Ocean Beach and Santa Monica. in order to remind myself of this fact, i looked through some of the pictures i have to prove it, and i realized i never posted any of them.

disclaimer: i should say that i'm by no means literally miserable and don't take for granted the fact that i have been traveling the world the past 7 months - it's just that cynical writing is way more fun, and when i sneeze every other sentence it fuels my fire. :)

tick tock tick tock tick tock

TIME IS RUNNING OUT! it's occurring to me that my chances to make Buenos Aires a good photo-op are not gonna last much longer. and buddy i need to get on it. goal for the next 8 days: take 8 MILLION photos. here are just a few of the ones i like so far...

mi pais querido

today someone told me that they had really enjoyed looking at my blog and that they only wished there were more entries! aww! it meant so much to me! so Ellie, this one is for you. i would like to thank those of you who have been looking at these photos...it's something that I so enjoy doing and sharing, and it would mean a whole lot to me if you became a follower or commented, just so i know that you're out there! i don't post so that people will look at my photos, but it is encouraging to keep going when i know there are other people enjoying it, too. :)

that said, i wanted to post some more pictures of my beloved country - Uruguay! while I was there, their national soccer team came home after placing 4th in the world cup, and i went to Montevideo with some friends to welcome them! Uruguayans, like the Argentine people, are not generally super patriotic, but bring soccer into it and a pretty good finish in the world cup and people start painting themselves blue, white and gold. i got some cool shots of the displays of patriotism on my last day there.

viva eshpaña

spain has been on my mind a good bit lately. you see, they won the world cup, which at the end of the day i had mixed feelings about, but it still made me a little nostalgic for my study abroad days. the feelings were mixed because my heart is in uruguay and the rest of me is currently in South America, where soccer is super important to just about everybody. i'm talking "as long as i have bread, water and soccer i'll be fine" kind of important. so naturally i would have loved to see a Latin American team in the final, especially uruguay...they almost made it. anyways...i about died when the Spanish soccer team made their big speech upon their return to Spain because the guy had a weird accent/speech impediment of some kind, and combined with his over-the-top-enthusiasm (which was merited as they had just won the world cup), it all just came out sounding a little ridiculous. "VIVA ESHPAÑA! VIVA EL FUTBOL!! Y SHOMOS LOSH MEJORESH!!" then, i went to see the new Tom Cruise movie Explosive Encounter and the bad guys were Spanish! They shot the end scenes of the movie in Sevilla, Spain and I felt like I recognized a few of the buildings in the shots. All of that to say, I felt like Spain was deserving of a blog entry!

pretty in pigtails

it's amazing to me how much Naomi has grown and changed just over the past couple of months that I have been with her! she is beautiful regardless, but she actually conceded to letting me put some pigtails in her hair and it was ADORABLE. i seriously just couldn't stop going on about how cute she looked so, of course, i had to break out the camera. we got some really really REALLY cute shots! i can't believe my time with her is running out, nor that she is going to turn 2 so soon! i had fun working on her 2nd birthday invites this week...before ya know it she'll be off to kindergarten and then she'll be driving and graduating!!! ahh. all the more important to document the sweet little things along the way. plus is was fun for me to play with light and colors to give the pictures different feels.

¿amargo o dulce?

in the south-eastern zone of South America, primarily Argentina and Uruguay, there is a tea-like hot drink shared among friends by the name of mate. it's pronounced "mah-tay" and in actuality, it's more than a drink. it's the embodiment of a culture. a culture that values relationships and people over time and money...something most American's can't even wrap their minds around. in the same way that a boiling hot cup of mate warms your body (and considering it's currently a frigid winter down here that's a really good thing), the passing of a mate gourd and a common "bombilla" (metal collinder straw thingy) warms the heart. uruguayans in particular don't go anywhere without their mate..."matero" slung over the shoulder with all the necessary equipment (thermos, gourd, bombilla, extra yerba...) and the typical uruguayan is prepared for cualquier (whatever) situation. most mate-drinkers would argue that a true yerba fan takes their mate "amargo" - bitter - without any sugar, but I much prefer it "dulce" - sweet. while in Uruguay this past weekend I couldn't resist but to take some shots of a few calabasas between sips!