OUR FIRST DAY - FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 2006

We arrived at about 7:15 in the morning. The flight from LA to Lima was about 8 hours and the flight from Lima to BA was a bit less than 4 hours. Each leg uses a 767, and thus it was quite nice - good food also! Alejandro Bialy and a driver met us at the airport, and the drive to the casa took longer than usual because of morning rush hour. Alejandro told us that the asado would be at 1:30, so Rhonda caught a nap and I unpacked and tried to get my laptop hooked up - no success, so I am using the Pepp computers in the student computer room. The asado was great - Dago Ayunes cooked, and we were joined by Alberto Curutchet, the architect for the casa, and Maria Susana Battisti, one of the local staff. We had some sliced meats, cheese and olives as the prelude to the meat and salad. There were at least four different types of grilled meat - chicken, pork, and a couple of types of beef and sausages. We ate outside on the back deck [I will post some pictures sometime] and after the main meal, Alejandro went across the street and brought back 5 types of desserts :-) We finished up around 3; Rhonda went to Coto, a large store that sells most everything from food to housewares, and I caught a few winks, because we were scheduled to be picked up at 7:30 for the opera and dinner afterward. The opera was at the Teatro Colon - spectacular builing in el centro - and the performance was interesting; Jonny Spielt Auf, a not so well known German opera from the time of WW2 centerd on Jonny, a negrito who caused all kinds of rukus. The opera started at about 8:30, had one intermission, and ended at about 11:30. It was interesting hearing the opera in German, and seeing the Spanish translation above the stage!! We hit Clo Clo, a very-nice Italian restaurant around midnight, had a wonderful dinner, and got to bed at about 2:00am, which is rather typical for Argentinos :-) We were with Alejandro, the program accountant, and his wife Alicia, Alberto, and another Alejandro, Barandella, an accountant who consults with Pepperdine on tax matters, etc. As you can imagine, we slept very well :-) Saturday morning we got up, had some coffee as we lounged around on the back deck, and then we worked a bit on the two balconies that are off of our living area.