Ch-Ch-Changes in Buenos Aires

Things are changing, it seems. A new mayor has been elected, sure, and things are interesting politically, but there are plenty of other bloggers talking about that.

No, I'm talking about some personal changes in terms of relationships here in Buenos Aires.

The biggest change--at least, it FEELS like the biggest--is the fact that my friend Malaya and her 15-year-old daughter (a great friend of our daughters) have decided to leave BA after four months. You just never know what it's going to be like to try living in a new place, let alone a whole new country, culture and language. And it's tough for anyone, but it's especially difficult for anyone raising a teenager and dealing with trying to find your own footing in a new city as a professional and single mom.

So, we certainly wish the best for them and will miss them terribly. It also means that the Creativity Lab, which Malaya and I started a few months ago, will undergo yet another change in venues. It was fabulous having it in Francis Ford Coppola's place, then we switched it to Malaya's, and now we've got to find a new place to gather on Tuesday nights. If we find something big enough, we can expand the group. With over 60 people on the list, there is plenty of interest...just missing the perfect place to get together and, well, some cooperative leadership I suppose.

We'll see what happens with that.

My good friend, Christine, is also leaving this month. She has been here a year or so and is going back with her 15-year-old daughter. I already miss KNOWING that Christine is here with her wonderful laugh and warmth and wisdom.

This is a standard part of the expat experience--seeing people come and go. Making friends and watching them leave. Of course, sometimes WE have been the ones leaving, so I totally understand what it's like on all sides. It just seems to happen much more frequently when you're, well, traveling light and ready to move on to new horizons.

In other news, I've launched my new website at www.Real-WorldMindfulness.com I'm pretty pleased with it, and it was done days before my self-imposed deadline of July 4th, which is our one-year anniversary of arriving here in BA. It's our Independence Day.

Anyway, so that has been a huge project and now it's all under control--still plenty of new content to create, but far less than I was facing three weeks ago.

We've got two daughters living in Portland right now. One loves it. One is not so sure. The one who loves it is coming back down here in August. The one who isn't so sure has to stay for at least a year. It figures.

And there are all kinds of cool convergences going on--meeting people here who can help us with our business projects, making new friends, etc. If you believe in horoscopes, you'd be tempted to say that this was a whiz-bang time for us in terms of the planets being all lined up or whatever.

And so why do I feel a little---blue?
Well, it could be because I missed Frank's fabulous blogger party at his Sugar and Spice cookie store in Palermo.
Frank--I will definitely be there for the next one!

I usually embrace change. I LOVE change. But I'm looking at what it might mean to focus on relationships with those who are living here on a more long-term basis. Or maybe that is just being ridiculous. Who knows how long any of us will stay anywhere?

This is just me feeling sorry for myself. I'll snap out of it soon, I promise. ;-)