Tag: update Posts

I’ve been in Thailand now for about three weeks. So far, it’s pretty much everything I hoped it would be. Food is amazingly cheap, the people are super friendly, and in general Thailand is really laid back and accommodating. While the weather has been mostly cloudy lately, it’s still warm by North American standards, and a daily dip in the pool has become part of my routine. Back home a Pad Thai dish probably runs around $12 or $13 a plate. Some of the best Pad Thai I’ve had here costs around 50 baht ($1.66), so there’s quite a big price difference. At one place, you can pay 80 baht ($2.66) for Pad Thai and a beer, something Scott and I have done quite a few times already. Outside of that, most people here eat a lot of stir fries and coconut-milk based curries, all of which is amazingly tasty. […]

Yes sports fans, it’s time for another update. Today is day 65 in Buenos Aires. About an hour ago I had my last hair-cut in the city, and going forward there are a bunch of “lasts” about to happen. In fact, it seems like most of the expats I’ve met in the city are already gone or on their way out. A guy named Emerick from Montreal left two weeks ago, and another guy from New York is leaving this weekend. I suspect many people came to experience a summer in Buenos Aires, and now that summer is trailing off, it’s time to leave. Everyone I’ve talked to had enjoyed their time here, but like me, are now ready to leave. According to my little widget, I have 18 days left in the city (technically 19 days, but my widget is counting down to the day I leave my apartment). […]

This last week was a weird week. I met up with a few friends and had some great times, but it was also the first real time I’ve been homesick in any capacity. There was nothing really that happened to make me feel that way, I was just sitting around and realized I was a long way from home. So I spent a day or so of being a bit melancholy. Thankfully the feeling has past, and it’s business as usual again. Weekends always get me excited, mostly because I have more opportunities to get out and explore on Saturday and Sunday than during the week. My Mac widget says I have 26 days left in Buenos Aires, so three weeks and a bit. A friend of Rebecca’s, Henry, is flying in from Chile at the end of the month and I’ll do what I can to show him around […]

I’m currently at around 35,000 feet, somewhere between Buenos Aires and Puerto Iguazu. No, I’m not blogging from the plane, but rather I’ve set this post to publish while I’m up in the air. I wasn’t going to do another post before leaving for Iguazu Falls, but then I remembered my weekly Friday updates and wanted to get another in. So I thought that for this week’s Friday update it would be fun to create a few lists about what I enjoy here so far, and what I miss the most. Things I Love About Buenos Aires The People – Everyone I have met here has been super nice, especially when they find out I’m from Canada. Canadians seem to have a universal reputation of being worldly and polite, and that goes a long way with everyone I’ve met. Being a Gringo – Argentine guys are known to be super […]

Here’s a quick video update from Buenos Aires on roughly day 34. And just to clarify – when I was talking about free kisses being awesome, I was referring to the ladies!

So, I’ve been in Buenos Aires a little over three weeks now. This last week was pretty uneventful, as I’ve been working quite a bit and also spending six hours a week in Spanish lessons. Truthfully, I’m probably going to scale the lessons back here shortly, as I’m finding it pretty hard to fit them in and still have time to get out and enjoy the city. So I may scale back to two nights a week, or possibly even one. I also hadn’t explicitly budgeted for Spanish lessons, so I don’t want to use up all my travel money with lessons, especially since I have quite a few books around here as well as events I can attend to get a bit more practice. Without a doubt, learning a new language is challenging. I spent four years learning French in high school, and I still wasn’t conversational in it […]

Things are moving quickly now. My apartment is about 90% packed at this point, and I’m currently cleaning like a mad man so that I can get most of my damage deposit back. I’ve already moved in with my parents for the month of December, after which I’ll be heading to Vancouver Airport and catching a plane to Buenos Aires. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m excited. Truthfully, not yet. I know I will be, but packing and moving are both a bit stressful, and I haven’t had too much time to fantasize about my first beer in Argentina yet. I’m hoping once December rolls around and I no longer have the keys to my apartment that the realization that I’m about to spend a year traveling will finally hit me. I’m going to start keeping a running tally of my traveling expenses on this site so that others can […]

It’s been over a month of me trying to get some resolution to my problems with my Internet at home, and I’m happy to say that I’m a step nearer today. I imagine it’s due to everyone’s help on Twitter to be honest, since a few people made a few calls internally on my behalf. So thanks if you helped out. I got a call a while ago from someone within Shaw who was informed of my problems. Right away, she said she was going to make some price adjustments to reflect the fact that my service has been sub-par. First, she lowered my monthly internet fee from $45/mo down to $10/mo for a full year. Second, she lowered the price on my digital cable box from $12/mo down to $2/mo for a full year as well. So if you do the math, that’s a savings of about $540 for […]

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been down in the Caribbean for 11 days now, but that’s how the math works out. I woke up this morning and spent a few moments trying to figure out what day of the week it was, since it’s pretty easy to lose track. Sara made it home ok, and Dale and I have been working on some BraveNewCode stuff since she left. Yesterday we spent most of the day in the room, Dale designing away and me coding away. We’re keeping the lid on most of the things we’re working on, but lots of cool things should be coming down the pipe. The wireless here has proven to be a pretty large disaster. We managed to hack into the administration page for the WRT router they have supplying the wireless, and we tweaked a few settings which has helped a bit, but in […]

Quick update. Right now Rebecca and John are in the air, or about to land. This is officially day 8 here for me, which means there are fewer days ahead than there are behind. We’re all having a great time here, and have spent most of our days reading and swimming by the pool. The other night I ventured off the resort and ended up at the Hard Rock cafe in Punta Cana. I met up with a few Vancouverites and we all went to a dance club until about 5am or so in the morning. I stumbled back into my room around 6am, and passed out for the better part of the day. That was the first night I hit the sauce, and I definitely paid for it the next day. Other than that, I’ve hardly really touched any alcohol down here, other than one or two by the […]