Brisket Hits Buenos Aires

Brisket sandwich Gorilla BBQ (Photo credit: niallkennedy)

If you landed on my blog then today is your lucky day.  Because today happens to be the day where i dish out a delicious dish of one of the greatest secrets to settling down successfully. With the influx of social media, there is no end to the message "follow me" "sign up for me" "listen to me". And to a degree you do need to push people abit to get your name and your brand out there......for a little while.

One of my greatest secrets to success as an expat is adopting the philosophy that "Less is More". The less that I make it about me, the more I end up having.  Each person has their own interest, mine is filming, literature, books, writing, and languages. Although those are areas that I am inflamed with passion, it doesn't mean that I can't let sparks and embers of other interests hit my firewood.

The Dummies Guide to Surviving a 10 Day Subway Strike

Scripture states time and again that the little things that are kept in secret eventually come to light. Much like the racy explicit text in this video of Jane Lynch and Bill Maher mocking Antony Weiner. The same applies to things kept in the dark in the gov't  system here in BsAs. We all know the tragic story of the crash at Estacion Once on Ash Wednesday 2011.  But the truth is that there had been problems brewing for decades that one day manifested in the ugliest form possible.

Beginning and Ending Life in Buenos Aires: Don't stop believing.....

In the same way that it is fascinating to watch the seasons change, it also fascinates me to watch how each expat seems to be in a different season of life.  One expat may be at the prime of life here with business booming and everything anew while another expat is announcing that they are leaving and their relationship with BsAs is taking a final bow. Someone in the city is excitedly announcing a new business venture while another person is ending a business venture that was once flourishing.

A big key to life here is to stay grounded and good at what you do. It's fine to see what others are doing and even feel abit of envy when they are having their day while you are struggling to get established. But keep in mind that things change in an instant here and the same expat that is having a great season of their life may be the same one that is announcing that their departure a few seasons from now.

The Science of Neuroscience: Creating a Sense of Connection While Abroad

Neuroscience fascinates me to no end. It is the study of how the brain creates connections with the world around us. It is a branch of science that is still relatively new and discoveries about the brains capabilities of connecting have only been made within the last 10 yrs.  Themes that you'll find in neuroscience are things like the brains ability to regenerate and make new connections after the loss of a relationship or even the physical bodies ability to heal after an injury and become good as new. Neuroscience helps us answer the question to why we do the things we do. Like why we prefer an old shirt or an old shoe that is falling apart as opposed to a nice new one. This is because we've developed a connection with our favorite object, a relationship of sorts.

Coming into BsAs for the third time, I understood the importance of creating connections while in a foreign country. After you've had your Buenos Aires buzz and visited all the tourist sites and the big attractions, if one intends to last long in another country then establishing connections are vital. In previous blogs I mentioned about how upon landing in the country, I realized that some of my previous connections were now a loss. That person had gone downhill and it would be toxic and unhealthy to maintain close ties with them. The moment I realized that the relationship was a dud, I knew that i had to make new healthy connections and started to make contact and make plans with people who I knew were on a healthy positive path.