Friday, November 25, 2011

Miracle in Argentina!!!

My luggage was found and arrived in one piece, there is a God:-) I felt bad for my friend, Chris to have to spend one more miserable day with me sans clothes, it was beyond challenging. I started the day early, a car picked me up to go to Vistage Argentina and train 20 Chairs, that is not furniture, they are group leaders as I am in Chicago with two executive advisory boards.

I need to say this...Buenos Aires is a dirty city with more graffiti then NY ever had BUT the people are extraordinary, kind, fun loving and warm. Our neighborhood Palermo Soho is very hip and chic as is Recoletta and I'm sure others we haven't seen yet but overall..., dirty. When I got to the meeting, they all welcomed me joyously and so appreciative in having me there. I remembered how much I loved my first three years which was all international speaking. I worked with two wonderful simultaneous interpreters today, Juan and Drizella and they were just fabulous. It took awhile for me to get back in the groove of knowing when to slow down, when to put on the headset, when to hand the mike to someone. I guess those are the pieces that made me nostalgic about all my past international speaking engagements, their challenges and the fun of it all.

Most of my audience were 60 year old men, one woman, they soaked up everything I taught, participated fully in my games and asked a myriad of questions. It was a perfect event. The car took me back and Chris and I walked to a bank or so we thought. We walked miles, way beyond the directions, we are finding out they are not very good at giving them. The language is a huge barrier with hardly anyone speaking English. By the time we found a bank, we were told they only work with customers. We bagged the bank idea for now and headed for lunch at Cluny's, an absolutely fabulous restaurant, named after a convent in the South of France.

We were on Armenia Street, a mecca of shopping especially for these two shopaholics. Yes, we enhanced the Argentinian economy:-) It is a beautiful cobblestone street and the weather is picture perfect day and night. Back to the hotel in time to change for tango and off to our classes at La Viruta where they are starting to know us. We tango for a few hours then head off to a late dinner at Nectarine and a must stop for the famous dulce de leche ice cream on the way home.

Chris is exhausted, I wear her out with my turbo walking and distances and she is already sound asleep and I could go clubbing. As I sit here writing this blog, I am facing my suitcase and a little smile has crossed my face. Buenos Noches!

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