Argentina dia Cuatro

Day 4, and what can be said of Buenos Aries that I have not already said. This place and it’s people are amazing!

I visited a future warehouse site today. It is a space rented within another business. The site in incredible. We had to go down 9 (Nuevo) de Julio to get to this site. Nuevo de Julio is the widest street in the world. It is like 12 lanes wide in the midst of Buenos Aires. Nuevo Julio stands for July 9. This is the day that Argentina won it’s independence from Spain in 1885, if I remember what I was told. In the midst of this massive roadway stands an obelisk and a flag pole flying the Argentine flag. The flag and obelisk are in the middle of a massive traffic circle. It is neat to see.

Today is my mother’s birthday, so I called her to wish her feliz compleanos, (happy birthday). She answered the phone, and I said my birthday tidings to her, and she replied “wrong numero”, I said no, feliz compleanos, she said that I had the wrong number again. At this point, I gave up on trying to surprise her, and said “No mom, I have the right number, you don’t recognize your own son’s voice?” We both had a good laugh and had a nice chat. She said she never thought that she would get a call on her birthday from Argentina.

After completing my work in Argentina today, I had to check on a project in Arizona that I have been tracking while down here. Worked through its issues with the surreal experience that I was in South America working in North America. I have worked in other countries on other continents while in North America, but never the reverse. This proves how small a world it is.

When I finished with my work, I followed through on one promise to myself that I made before coming to the southern hemisphere for the second time. I would see the coriolis effect for myself. For those that don’t know what this is, when you are in the northern hemispehere water drains from a tub in a right rotational pattern. The little water tornado you see in a draining bath tub. In the southern hemisphere, the spin drains to the left. If I can figure out how to post the video on this site so you can see it. I filled the tub with a couple inches of water and floated a bottle cap on the surface of the water and pulled the drain plug. Sure enough the water spiraled to the left. You can see the bottle cap circle the drain to the left before it is pulled under by the vortex. The other promise I made was to see the southern cross, (navigational star like the North star in the big dipper) but the buildings are too tall, and the lights of the city far to bright to see it. I will have to make another trip to the southern hemisphere to see it.

I had dinner with royalty tonight. The Boca soccer club is staying at my hotel. I was able to speak shortly with them, and met number 9, 10, and 1. Here is one of them that I could find on the web. He is number 9: http://es.footbo.com/Players/Martin_Palermo.
The people kept streaming by my table to have photos taken with these guys. The neat thing is that one of the people I have been working with is a huge Boca fan. I will enjoy telling him about this experience. The players were very gracious to their fans. When there was a lull in the attention, I got up and asked if they were part of the Boca club, and asked for there numbers. There were interested in an American that knew anything about football. I wished them luck, and let them enjoy the rest of their evening.

A part of me is sad to go home tomorrow, but the rest of me is ready to see my family again. I need to get back into the flow of training. I have averaged about ten hours a day in work down here off the top of my head. I am due for some sleep and need to get back on track with my training. I have managed to get in some walks, but nothing near the schedule I keep at home. I was sent down here to work, so that needed to be my focus. I feel that I have covered that responsibility, but have had to sacrifice my training to do that. I guess that was the necessary priority this week, but I have a feeling, I am going to suffer on Saturday’s brick workout.

I hope you have enjoyed these Argentina updates as much as I have enjoyed living the experience. Three continents down, four to go. I need to get to Asia, Africa, Antarctica (my current southern neighbor), and Europe. On the topic of Antarctica, it is really odd to see it on the map when you fly down to Argentina it suddenly pops up on the map and you realize how far south you have come.

Viva la Argentina!