Party hard and…work never!

The party continued ALL week long!

Monday night our little group went to an amazing restaurant in Recoleta called Juana M. Upscale, artistic atmosphere located underground. Wonderful place to spend the cultural 3 -hour dinner from 10pm-1am. It’s also home to the BEST STEAK I have ever had in my life, and the half portion was the size of my hand! It’s officially called “bife de lomo” here in Argentina and it’s a tender, juicy cooked-to-perfection filet mignon. Dinner came with an unlimited salad bar (more healthy and tasty options than in the USA) and I split a bottle of wine and dulce de leche crepe dessert with my partner in crime, Natalia, all for US $13!!! I MUST go back before I leave Argentina!

Tuesday night Natalia hosted Girls’ Night at her modern and perfectly located apartment in Alto Palermo, with a topnotch view of the shopping center and main street. Natalia surprised us with the rum of Argentina called “Fernet” and, with the guys not around, we pigged out on pizza and empanadas starting our own “boliche” (dance club) by dancing to spanish reggaeton music! On a side note, I ran into Megan, high school classmate from 6 years ago, at the apt party….wow, it’s a really small world! (Thanks for bringing Pisco liquor from Chile and sharing travel tips- I move to Santiago in 5 weeks!)

After a few complaints about how awesome our party was going…we decided to venture over to club Kika in Palermo to find us some men to dance with….I didn’t know w-h-a-t I was getting myself into! I now know not to dance like I’m in hot Miami beach….a guy might mistake that for an open invitation to try and take my clothes off and ask for a 3-letter word! On the cultural flip side, I had no idea it was acceptable and normal in Argentina for Alejandro, Roberto and Leandro to just dive in for a Kiss at the club! “Excuse me! I am a lady!”, I told them…to which they responded in a begging, puppy voice a translation of “but, pleaaaase! Just a little, tiny kiss! For me?”

I think we called it quits at 4am…I had to get up at 7am for work and somehow get laundry done and pack for the next weekend trip. I took a 3 hour nap and headed to work…although now that I think about it…I don’t think I actually worked that week. I spent Monday sharing picture and stories of Iguazu Falls Trip with the office staff, Tuesday figuring out how to scam a last minute Argentina resident plane ticket to Mendoza for US $250 instead of American citizen price of US $450, and Wednesday I was frantically searching every source possible for Fuerza Bruta tickets for the night show.

Million thanks to Andres who got us girls tickets! It was the coolest show I have ever been a part of! There was turbo wind, water sprinklers, fire, tons of flying debris, dancing in packs with the actors….a running treadmill platform came out of nowhere pushing the audience (who were on foot, no chairs in this show) around the room and the actors began running in place (hanging by a rope) and bursting through walls that shattered all over us!…an animalistic couple was running sideways on this metallic moving wall….and there was a clear ceiling slip-n-slide that kept falling down to our reach with women swimming around and looking down on us! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc1EN-lo8Vs

The whole show turned into a club at the end….DJ, insane lights, hurricane winds, water sprinklers too! Amazing time!

I had my last dinner with the Stetson Law Group at Liber in Recoleta and then a small group of us decided to go out…the girls had dressed to impress- satin mini-dresses and heels! We went to a bar called Alamo, more of a foreign student hangout. There was a cover charge around US $7, but it included a liter of beer! We met a lot of people from around the world and Natalia shocked us all when she pulled her girl charm… selling cups of beer from our 4-liter pitcher to guys who could not get the bartenders’ attention!!! We might have actually made money that night…we definitely had a free taxi ride home!

Alamo shut us down in the AM and it was sunlight when we returned home. Thus, I didn’t make it to work and instead packed for the weekend ski trip. I met up with the Law Group one last time in Puerto Madera neighborhood on the river near the awesome “Puente de la Mujer” for a delectable buffet lunch at SPETTUS. Natalia and I had our last hugs, Argentine- cheek kisses, and goodbyes with the law group, then we rushed off to fly to Mendoza!