A Football Match With Carlos

As surprising as it may seem, I’m not a huge football fan, even though I’m from Argentina. I have always been more into basketball, and that has always set me apart from a lot of my friends. Still, I am an Argentine at heart, and I do enjoy watching football matches from time to time. This is especially true because Carlos is a huge fan of the sport.

The other day we decided to go to see Tigre play against Estudiantes. Before the match, Carlos was reading football sites that he enjoys, such as news sites and a blog called Football By Drake, and he gave me the background on the teams that I needed to enjoy the match. It was an exciting one!

Estudiantes took the lead early on with a goal in just the first few minutes, and it looked like they might run away with it, but Tigre scored two times in the first half and another time later in the match to complete the comeback. I hadn’t seen a live football match in months and I am always happy to see the creativity and teamwork on the field. It’s what I love about basketball, too. I still think that basketball is an even more interesting display of athleticism, but I understand why football is such a beloved game.

Carlos was such a sweetheart, as usual. He really does take great care of me, but most of all I love to watch him interact with others. He playfully joked with other fans, helped an older couple to their seats, and was kind to everyone that he spoke with. It is things like that that show me that he is a good man and one that I can be proud to be with.

Fun With My Co-Workers

I want to stay more on a happy note this time. I did have a very good day a couple of days ago, partially because I had a lot of fun with my favorite co-workers after work ended. It started out being a pretty average day; I was waiting for a document to come in on the fax machine and had nothing else to do (it was already after the time when I would usually go home), so I was just playing a simple and fun game on my phone called Tap Fish.

Anyway, a really nice woman I work with named Rosa walked by and we started chatting, and she invited me out with some of the girls who work in the billing department. I thought that was a very nice gesture! There aren’t a lot of people my age who work in my area of the office, so it’s always fun to get a chance to hang out with ladies who are younger, like I am.

Carlos was busy that night anyway meeting with out of town clients, so the whole thing worked perfectly. We went out to eat at a delicious restaurant near some great stores and did some shoe shopping. Then afterward, we had some margaritas at a salsa dancing bar. I’m not much of a salsa dancer myself, but myself and Rosa watched the rest of the girls dance while we talked. It was a lot of fun!

Work has actually been very busy lately, so it was a nice way to get my mind off of everything and relieve some stress. I think I’ve really made some new friends, and next week we’re all going to have lunch together. It feels good to have more girls to spend time with and interact with. It all goes to show that you never know what can happen if you’re friendly with others.

Catching Up on My Blog

Hello, everybody! It has been quite awhile since my last entry. I feel kind of bad for not having written lately, as I think that practicing my English here in my blog was really helping me. Sometimes I begin to worry that I have lost some of my ability from not practicing, so I will have to make writing in this blog more of a priority.

I think it would be good to update you on what has happened lately. Really, it has not been anything terribly exciting, but it seems like the thing to do, anyway. You remember that in my last entry, my friend Belinda (who is also my boyfriend Carlos’s cousin) had gotten married to her new husband, Pedro. Well, they have been doing great and Carlos and I have been spending a lot of time with them lately, which is nice.

Carlos and I are doing well, too. The only bad news that I have to report is that Carlos’s grandmother passed away recently. As I mentioned before, she was on a breathing machine to help with some respiratory problems, and when she got sick it was sadly just the beginning of a really tough winter for her. She eventually ended up with pneumonia and could not get through it with her respiratory problems making things worse.

The only good thing there is that she had lived a long and full life and passed away quite content with what she had done with her time here. I have not experienced a lot of tragedy in my own family, so it was hard to understand Carlos’s feelings, but I felt very bad for him and tried to be there for him as best as I could. He’s doing much better now, thankfully.

Belinda and Pedro’s Wedding Weekend!

This weekend was a very spectacular weekend. Last weekend after visiting my boyfriend Carlos’s grandmother, we were fitted for our dresses at a Cecilia’s Boutique on the outskirts of town. The bridesmaids’ dresses that Belinda chose for her wedding are very beautiful. They are strapless yellow dresses. After the fitting, Belinda and her bridesmaids (including me) went to the Galería Pacifico in Microcentro to pick out shoes. The shoes were black high heels and were identical.

Then we went to the jewelry store (Claire’s) to pick out pearl necklaces. The pearl necklaces are very pretty and were very reasonable to buy. On Tuesday after work, Carlos was fitted for his suit at the mall. He also bought new black shoes for the occasion. Before we went to the rehearsal, Carlos and I watched Argentina compete at the London Olympics. We both love watching basketball and soccer, and always root for Argentina to win. However, the Americans have a great basketball team with LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

After watching television, we went to the rehearsal at the church downtown, near Microcentro. We arrived there a few minutes before seven o’clock, after the traffic was settled down. I wore a conservative gray dress and Carlos wore a white dress shirt with black slacks. We received our bouquets at the rehearsal. The bouquets are very lovely. They consist of yellow and white roses and are made of silk. Carlos’s grandmother sat in the front row in a wheelchair with her breathing machine. She was happy that her granddaughter was getting married to a very suitable and handsome man.

The priest of Pedro’s and Belinda’s church was there and told the couple what to expect on Saturday. Pedro and Belinda’s church is large. Belinda told me that she was expecting a huge wedding, since Pedro was very involved with politics, campaigning in Buenos Aires and the rest of Argentina. For the rehersal dinner, we all ate at the Four Seasons Hotel nearby. We had Argentinean beef medallion and fresh shrimp. On the day of the wedding, Carlos was very nervous. I told him that he should not be nervous, because it was not his wedding day. Carlos said that he would marry me someday, and this reminded him of what our wedding day would be like.

At the church, there was lots of security. The reason for the security was that the President of Argentina came to Belinda and Pedro’s wedding. I thought that was very sweet of her to take time out of her busy schedule to watch one of her important advisors getting married. Belinda looked very beautiful in her wedding dress which was a white, strapless gown. We all celebrated Belinda and Pedro’s wedding at the Four Seasons Hotel. Their wedding cake was a white and yellow cake and was three tiered. Belinda and Pedro’s wedding was a very important and spectacular wedding to remember.

Spending Time with My Boyfriend

My boyfriend Carlos and I had fun this weekend. On Friday night, we went to the theater to see the American movie The Dark Knight Rises. The movie was in Spanish subtitles, but my boyfriend loves comics ever since he was a little kid. He loves Batman and Superman, and sometimes wears a Batman tie to work. The movie was very good and adventurous. We watched it at the Monumental on Lavalle 780. Carlos bought the tickets, popcorn, and drinks. He is really a sweetheart.

On Saturday, we spent time with Carlos’s grandmother. Carlos’s grandmother has been sick for a month. She has respiratory problems and is on a breathing machine. I helped her take a bath and dress for the day, while Carlos helped clean up her house. I also made her some sandwiches for lunch and mixed a quart of lemonade for her to drink. We were not the only one at Carlos’s grandmother’s house in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. His cousins were also there: Alejandra, Tomas, Belinda, and Javier. Belinda is engaged and supposed to get married next weekend to Pedro Romero. Pedro is a top advisor for the President of Argentina. He works at the Casa de Rosada (“The Pink Palace”) downtown.

Last year was a very close election year. Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner won in 2011 with 45% of the vote. Over ten candidates ran last year to be the President of Argentina. Pedro was very busy last year, trying to get people registered to vote and advocating for people to vote for her to be elected to a second term. Cristina is the first female President of Argentina.

My Life in Buenos Aires

I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was born and raised here. And, I have been living here all of my life. Buenos Aires is a fun city to live. The temperatures in the city are very warm, since Buenos Aires is located near the Atlantic Ocean by the Rio de la Plata (“the Silver River”). I see foreigners all of the time walking on the city streets and eating in restaurants. When I go to tango lessons or dance in a club, I see a diverse amount of people either watching or participating in tango and dance.

Typically my week is busy. I work as a legal secretary for a lawyer at a bank downtown in Microcentro. The building that I work in is very nice and is very tall. The skyscraper has almost fifty floors. I answer calls from lawyers and legal secretaries from all across Argentina for documents. Some lawyers and clients visit our office each day, and I lead them to the conference room to meet with my boss. My boss explains documents for them to sign and legal information that he will present to the court.

After I finish at work, I sometimes go out to eat, if I do not feel like cooking at my house. Some of the places that I visit during the week are the market, restaurants, and the theater (at the end of the week). The place where I get my food is the Mercado Central, just outside of the city. The market is a wonderful place to get fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, drinks, and other items. At the end of the week, my boyfriend Carlos and I go to the theater to watch movies. Some of the movies we watch are action related movies and romantic movies. The movies that we watch have Spanish subtitles or have Spanish actors. I love living in Buenos Aires with my boyfriend!