You Must Be This Tall To Ride This Ride

For the record: I love being tall. "Some people" say that I am height-ist, but then I have to remind them that I have a lot of shorter friends. In fact, I'd say that most of my female friends are under 6'. See, if I really was a height-snob, I wouldn't have any short friends. Take that!

Also for the record: I am not complaining about my height. I'm constantly helping people put their luggage in the overhead bins on the airplane or reaching canned goods from the top shelf for little old ladies in the supermarket ... and I am happy doing it. I see it as my civil duty. Kind of like an ambassador of tall people (if Angelina Jolie can be the UN Goodwill Ambassador, then I can be an ambassador for tall people.)

Where am I going with this nonsense???

Oh yes. Now I remember.

Here in Argentina, I am unusually taller than most people. I am constantly the tallest guy at the bars and dance clubs (not to mention that there are pretty much no Asians or hapa people in this city). I constantly have to watch my head when I enter older buildings and a lot of things are built for shorter people. I have to bend my head a lot to fit under the shower and I'm always hunched over the kitchen sink since the counter tops are a bit shorter than what I'm used to. Just tonight, Gavin said that I need to stand on an "Un-box" or even better .. he was going to dig a little whole for me to stand in as I do the dishes.

Oh the price I pay for being tall.

Congratulations Julia!

Congratulations to my little sister who is graduated with a BS in Nursing from the University of Hawaii-Hilo next month. I'm extremely proud of her and I can't wait until she is making more money than our parents! (Making more money than her older brother is easy since he doesn't have a job now! Get a job you lazy bum!)

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend her commencement ceremony in Hilo since I'll still be in Buenos Aires. Now the pressure falls on our brother to finish his studies (hint, hint).

Way to go!


Kailee & Julia. Easter 2007. Hilo, HI

todavía estamos aca en buenos aires

Hola Chicos! Como estan?

It has been brought to my attention that I haven't updated my blog is almost 3 months (thank you JeffH, KathyK and JoeD), so I figured that it was about time that I got off of my lazy butt and did something. (In my defense, I've been busy going to spanish classes and other things that I'll tell you about later.)

We're are entering month 6 here in South America and we are still going strong. We have plans to be here until the end of May and then we're going to Peru to visit Cuzco and Machu Picchu. After that, the plan is to return to the US (via Washington DC and with a trip to visit Gav's fam in Norfolk) and then we're going to head west. (GO WEST! We saw the Pet Shop Boys live in concert here last month. So camp!)

I have so many things to blog about, so you'll have to excuse the mess if I start jumping around from date to date.

More to come.

The Boys of Summer

A few weeks ago, while Rich S was visiting Buenos Aires, he commented on the fact that the three of us have had three summers in 2006. We started off the year down in Syndey for Mardi Gras and then Gav and I spent summer vacation with JL and Rich in NYC and then here we are in Buenos Aires as the rest of the northern hemisphere is freezing.

We're such brats.


El Obelisco

Jeff H visits Buenos Aires!

One of the best parts of our trip, and I always talk about this, is when we meet up with friends from other cities in new (or "third party") cities. Good ole Jeff from Honolulu has been one of those friends. We've met up with him in NYC and Washington DC and it was our pleasure to host him here in Buenos Aires back in November. He brought his friend Keven from LA and the four of us had a grand ole time living it up in Buenos Aires. Gav and I got to play tour guide and show the boys around and also pick out the city's best restaurants since Jeff and Keven are really serious when it comes to food and drink! We had a great time with them and we're looking forward to their return to Buenos Aires in a few weeks. YAY! Check out the pictures in the album. :)


Me, Gav and Jeff in San Telmo.


Gav, Jeff and Keven enjoying 1kg of the world's finest ice cream from Persicco!


More views from our apartment.

Jeff visits BA

Feliz Navidad

Christmas 2006 was spent in the beautiful suburb of Buenos Aires called San Isidro. Our friend Ezequiel invited us over to his sister's house (which he was house-sitting) to lounge around the pool and to have Christmas dinner with. It was great to get out of the city and to learn how Christmas is celebrate in Argentina. Here's a quick rundown of the holiday:

1) The whole family gets together and tons of food is eaten.

2) At midnight, there's a champagne toast and the kids open their presents.

3) After midnight, it's party time! The celebration lasts until dawn.

4) Fireworks, Fireworks, Fireworks. The city turns into a War Zone!

For dinner, we fired up the parilla, the Argentinean bbq, and grilled a few beautiful steaks. We drank copious amounts of fantastic red wine and enjoyed a mid-summer meal in the backyard. Not a bad way to celebrate Christmas!


"Ever-lasting" Christmas Trees are so much better for the environment than real ones.


Zeque firing up the parilla.


Gavin with a bottle of bubbly and the pan dulce.

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Gav and I rung in the New Year with the help of 40 of our new friends that we met here in Buenos Aires. The crowd was made up by people from the Spanish Language School that we've been attending plus a few other friends. We had no idea how many people were going to come, but let's just say that the First Annual Gavin & Keau New Year's Toast and Pre-Funk Extravaganza was a huge success!

All of the guests had a great time and even I managed to enjoy myself until I gave the green light for the confetti to come out. What a mistake! It took us 3 hours of cleaning the next day to get the apartment back into shape. Next year, we're either going to hire someone to clean or someone else is hosting the party. :)


Americans, Aussies, Germans, Hungarians, Brazilians, Argentineans and more!


F@ck! What a mess!

New Years BsAs

Buenos Aires ... Six Weeks Later

I can't believe that it was more than 6 weeks ago when Gavin and I boarded our United Airline's flight from Washington DC to Buenos Aires. The time sure has flown by! Three visitors and a month and a half later, I find myself wondering where the time went.

I will attempt to blog and bring you up to date on all of the adventures that we have had in this great city.


The view from our fabulous apartment.


One of the city's many dog walkers (this city is filled with dog poo! who has time to pick up after 8 dogs?) 

Pyromaniacs!

In between Europe and South America, we sandwiched a trip back to Virginia to regroup (that's what Gavin calls it) and to visit the family.

On one chilly Fall evening in Norfolk, Gavin's dad fired up the bbq pit affectionaly named "The Log Waster."

Why do boys love fire so much?


Don't get too close Gav. The fire might singe your manicured eyebrows!


Beer and fire. Grunt Grunt!


Hot Stuff! 

Fall in Washington DC with Rich and Leaf Peeping in Shenandoah National Park

Back in October, Gavin and I spent the Halloween weekend in Washington DC with our good friend Rich who braved a bus ride down from New York City.

We had a great time exploring the city and although we didn't dress up in costume, this was definitely a Halloween to remember.


Rich S and I sitting pretty in our Nation's Capital.


Democracy in action!

Before leaving for Buenos Aires, we took a drive to Shenandoah National Park to check out the fall foliage. I've never done "Leaf Peeping" before, and I was very excited!


My hands are in my pockets because it was freezing cold!

Leaf Peeping