Jennifer Long 
"It's all part of the adventure"
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Day 1 - Buenos Aires

12/19/2014

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So you know how I said yesterday that I loved airports.  That wasn’t smart.  That was sort of tempting fate, and of course as fate would have it they couldn’t find a cleaning crew for our plane.  So a 7 hour layover turned into an almost 9 hour layover.  I think around hour 8 I stopped loving airports.  

The flight itself was easy.  Just over 10 hours and I watched a couple of movies and dozed for about 5 hours.  Pretty non-descript aside from being quite tired at the end.   Which made the fact that there was a person from Lindblad waiting with a sign and a bus.  I’m so used to getting off of planes in foreign counties and having to fend for myself that it was a huge treat to not have to think or translate using a half functioning brain.  So I just sat back and enjoyed the heat, all 30degrees of it!   

Once we arrived at the hotel I had all of 30 minutes to make myself presentable before boarding our bus for the afternoon tour.   The 4 hour bus/walking tour took us to three main areas around Buenos Aires.  

First stop was the Casa Rosada, current home of the prime minister when she’s in town, but better known for Eva Peron and her famous balcony speech.  For those of you that don’t remember Andrew Lloyd Webber’s play Evita, or Madonna's movie version of it, Eva Peron was an Argentinian women who came from a lower socio-economic background and married a man who became the president allowing her to become a voice for the people… however politically complicated that became.   Oh and the building is not painted pink because a women is currently the president… I actually found out that it’s because houses in the country are painted with animal blood and then white washed, which ultimately gives it that pink color.  I didn’t find out the why to the animal blood, just that it was animal’s blood. 
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May Square in the foreground and Casa Rosada in the background
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Eva Peron on the side of a building
Stop two wasn’t nearly long enough!  La Boca district was this quirky, colorful, energetic area with a definite Bohemian flair.  I could have spent a full afternoon sitting at one of the sidewalk cafes watching the tango dancers and the tourist wandering their way down the carless streets.  

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La Boca District
Our final stop of the day was at a cemetery, which was actually quite fascinating.  Without being creepy, the architecture in the old crypts was actually quite impressive and again I found myself wanting more time to explore.  

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After a reception hosted by Lindblad and announcements about our plans for tomorrow, Nichole, Miriam, Nina and I had just enough energy to go out for the first of many spectacular meals that are going to be my reality for the next couple of weeks.  I’m not sure if my eyelids are heavy right now because I’m in a food coma or because I haven’t had a solid nights sleep in a couple of days.  Regardless…it’s time for me to go to bed… I have a 4:30am alarm tomorrow (and it’s 10:45pm right now). 

Random fact for the day: Buenos Ares has the second largest Jewish population after NYC and thus has a Kosher McDonald’s!    

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Day 0 - Houston

12/18/2014

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Just under a year ago I sat in this very same airport with a group of students en route to volunteering in Costa Rica and one of them asked me if I’d been on a trip of lifetime yet.  Despite the fact that I’ve been fortunate to have done some pretty great traveling, I replied no, but that Antarctica would be it.  A week after we got home I received the phone call to tell me that I’d been selected as a National Geographic Grosvenor Fellow and that they were sending me to that very place!  I am always amazed at how much life can change in a year and I am extraordinarily grateful for this opportunity that I’ve been given.

It’s hard to believe that after all of the preparation and anticipation, this “trip of a lifetime” is actually here!  Even sitting here in Houston, it still doesn’t quite seem real.  Although it’s been a couple of years since I’ve lived in Costa Rica, commuting through this airport on a fairly regular basis, there’s still a part of me that expects to step off the plane at the end of this next flight onto Costa Rican soil.   Instead it will be the 33 degree Argentinian heat!  After all of the reading, the documentaries, the YouTube videos of penguins I’ve watched in the last few months, my mind still can’t wrap itself around what I’m about to experience and I can’t wait to soak in every minute of it!  

I have decided that starting a trip with a night at the Fairmont is kind of the way to go! Except… you should always make sure they give you the right room number.  The bellman gave me my key and room number, but he wrote 1216 instead of 1126.  Big difference.  As I stood there trying a key that wouldn’t work, another bellman came along and said that he could open it for me.  That sure surprised the guy who’s room it actually was.  Good thing he was dressed.  Upside was that they gave me a credit at the lounge and free parking for Lindsay who came to visit me for dinner.  The hotel was a good choice though because it was an easy walk downstairs for a 4:30am security check. 

The flight from Vancouver was easy and I enjoyed my first NEXUS experience.  Nothing like walking to the front of the line!  Paul, I now understand what you’ve been going on about all of these years.  Now it’s time for a 7-hour layover that I’m kind of looking forward to.  It may be weird but I love airports!  There’s so much energy and it’s great to just sit back and watch everyone coming and going, excited about their trips... except for the dude who just missed his flight to Amsterdam, he wasn’t too happy… that’s a whole other type of show to sit back and watch. 

Well I best get working on the TEDx talk I’ll be giving when I get back. I’ll be flying overnight and then hitting the ground running on Friday, so I’ll try to get an update of some sort on here Friday night.  Thank you everyone for the well wishes over the past couple of days!  I didn’t have time to respond to all of them but I read and appreciated each one! 

~Jenn~ 

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    Jenn Long 

    In December of 2014, Jenn will be travelling to Antarctica as a National Geographic Grosvenor Fellow.  Follow along on her adventures. 

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