We have now left Buenos Aires and are in Iguazu. Buenos Aires is a pretty cool city but I am glad to have left. By the end I was finding the crowds and the pollution pretty taxing. We spent yesterday doing a whole bunch of touristy things as you do. We visited a pretty amazing cememtry where some presidents and generals and whole bunch of important people were buried, probably the most note worthy was of Eva Peron (the person who the movie Evita is about). Her grave still has the most visitors to it and was overflowing with flowers. We also went to La Boca and visited the stadium and the museum there. For those who don´t know Boca Juniors was Maradonna first team and probably the most popular soccer team here. Martin was in heaven and I found it pretty interesting too. What I found most interesting though was that these two places are the opposite side of town (I have an interesting story of trying to negotiate the bus system), one rich with lots of beautiful parks and statues and the other one very poor. The contrast was startling I have to say and of course quite sad. At the same time Boca is a city of passion (you can feel it) and of community, people gathered around fires together under the bridges whereas on the other side of town people walk along in their trendy clothes and on their phones and try not to look at you. We also visited the big cathedrals and parliament house. It is pink so people called it the pink house. That made me laugh. In one of the catherdrals was the tomb of Jose de San Martin. Again for those who don´t know he is considered the liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru so we were moved to be there especially Martin of course.

In the evening we took an overnight bus to Iguazu which we arrived at, at about 2.30. It a gorgeous little town, has an alomosty coastal feel. It is nice and warm which I am enjoying so we had a pleasnt afternoon sitting in an outdoor cafe, Argentina style eating and drinking beers. After a nap we (I am still struggling with the time differnces) we have come out and are off to try and find somewhere we can dance and then tommorrow we´ll be off to the waterfalls. I´ll let you know soon.

I am sorry that there are no photos. I can´t seem to work out how to do it and the internet here is so slow that it drives me mad trying.

After a very long flight we have made it to Buenos Aires. I was very keen to get off the plane by the end of it but it was a pretty good flight. Was feeling a bit emotional after farewelling my mum in Sydney so it was good to have some time to process it. I was very happy that we had the IPOD so I could listen to some soothing music. Birds eye view of some snow capped mountains was a bit of bonus too. And for Tom and anyone else who is interested I watched one film called Farmer Astronaut. It was not great but it was not offensive or difficult either so that is good.

Anyway I am very tired right now as I did not really sleep at all. It is 7.30pm and I am going to bed but I just wanted to let everyone know that we landed safely despite a few almost anxiety attacks from Martin. I was fine on the plane but I nearly had one too with the taxi driver who nearly killed us coming inot town. I had forgotton how crazy it is driving on South American Roads. I am happy to be here though. We haven´t done much, wandered around town, ate dinner, watched some buskers doing a tango show but I feel very at home on this continent.

Only three more days and I will be on a plane flying to South America. How much I am looking forward to the stillness of sitting on a plane and doing absolutely nothing except reading, listening to music or watching a movie. And the bigger bonus is that no one will expect anything of me.

The BBQ that Martin and I were having is off and we think people would probably prefer just to stay home but if you do still feel like coming out we will be eating some hot soup at around 7pm and you’d all be welcome to join us. I can’t guarantee a warm house but I will do my best about the soup.

Life at the moment feels a little out of control. Everything is so busy I can hardly think. I was swimming along a few weeks ago and the water was calm but then this massive wave totally knocked me around and since then each time I have managed to come up for breath there’s another wave (thankfully not as big) but it forces me to go under again.

Then today, in the midst of all this I read Jo’s blog who linked to this site. An author (Yann Martel who wrote life of Pi) has decided to send a book to the prime minister of Canada every week. He says:

“No doubt he is busy. No doubt he is deluded by that busyness. No doubt being Prime Minister fills his entire consideration and froths his sense of busied importance to the very brim. And no doubt he sounds and governs like one who cares little for the arts. But he must have moments of stillness. And so this is what I propose to do: not to educate—that would be arrogant, less than that—to make suggestions to his stillness. For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness.

I loved reading all the letters he sent to the prime minister and I am inspired to read all the books he sends but more importantly I am inspired to be still. In one letter he writes:

I know you’re very busy, Mr. Harper. We’re all busy. Meditating monks in their cells are busy. That’s adult life, filled to the ceiling with things that need doing. (It seems only children and the elderly aren’t plagued by lack of time—and notice how they enjoy their books, how their lives fill their eyes.) But every person has a space next to where they sleep, whether a patch of pavement or a fine bedside table. In that space, at night, a book can glow. And in those moments of docile wakefulness, when we begin to let go of the day, then is the perfect time to pick up a book and be someone else, somewhere else, for a few minutes, a few pages, before we fall asleep. And there are other possibilities, too. Sherwood Anderson, the American writer best known for his collection of stories Winesburg, Ohio, wrote his first stories while commuting by train to work. Stephen King apparently never goes to his beloved baseball games without a book that he reads during breaks. So it’s a question of choice.

And it is a question of choice so I am choosing to be less busy. Because again and I am sorry for all the quotes he says:

On March 28th, 2007, at 3 pm, I was sitting in the Visitors’ Gallery of the House of Commons, I and forty-nine other artists from across Canada, fifty in all, and I got to thinking about stillness. To read a book, one must be still. To watch a concert, a play, a movie, to look at a painting, one must be still. Religion, too, makes use of stillness, notably with prayer and meditation. Just gazing upon a still lake, upon a quiet winter scene—doesn’t that lull us into contemplation? Life, it seems, favours moments of stillness to appear on the edges of our perception and whisper to us, “Here I am. What do you think?” Then we become busy and the stillness vanishes, yet we hardly notice because we fall so easily for the delusion of busyness, whereby what keeps us busy must be important, and the busier we are with it, the more important it must be. And so we work, work, work, rush, rush, rush. On occasion we say to ourselves, panting, “Gosh, life is racing by.” But that’s not it at all, it’s the contrary: life is still. It is we who are racing by.

Well I finally managed to finish U2 on U2. I bought it back on Nov 12th (it is good having a blog so i can look those things up) so it has taken just over six months. Not sure why it took so long. I am usually a pretty fast reader and I enjoyed it very much. maybe it was just the bigness of it that overwhelmed me.

Now I can finally start Mandela, which Tom gave us for Christmas. I have been wanting to start it for ages but thought that two huge books going at once would be impossible. I hope it doesn’t take as long to read.

Well I am home on a Saturday night studying. It is not a lot of fun and I am a little over but it will all be over soon which is good. I can’t complain too much though. I did take a bit of a break at around five and Martin and I went to the beach for a run. It was dark but it was still really beautiful there and the sound of the waves was awesome. I really needed the fresh air and to be active as I have been sitting most of the day. Then we went out to the Peruvian restaurant for dinner. I had a really nice Sudado and it made me feel excited about the trip. Although it has reched the satge where everything is doing that.

But now I am back. Martin has gone to meet his friend Milad and I am here. I have Emmy Lou Harris playing. My father always called her his queen of pain and I have to say her music is pretty depressing but I really like it. It does remind me of my dad actually which is kind of nice.

Well thought I should do a bit of a catch up on how life is going. So it’s going pretty well.

House as always is easy, I mean apart from the fact that we are not able to get an effective system for paying and doing the shopping. I don’t quite understand how five relatively smart people (one of whom is an economist and another who claims to be a genius) can not get something so simple together but we can’t.

Work is busy. I have ten people going through at the moment so that is a lot of work for me but I won’t complain about that. It makes me happy when new friendships start. We had a friendship lunch on the weekend which was fun. I have to say I was somewhat cynical about the whole thing at first, it felt a bit forced but some people do really become very genuine friends. We had two pairs there that had been going for ten years.

Church is very fulfilling. Geoff does such good sermons and the liturgy is really nice. I am also part of small group with people I really like and we have some very stimulating discussions. They have put me one the prayer roster too which I enjoy. Nice to feel like I have something to give and I get some good feedback. That’s good if I ever do want to write this prayer book.

I am excited by the Labor Party’s continuing popularity. Despite coming to the realisation that Kevin may not be the answer to all or problems I am excited about a change and continue to hope in the possibiltiy of a more compassionate Australia.

Marriage is pretty cruisy too at the moment. Martin has particularly impressed me lately with his patientence and kindness and I feel very blessed. We start dance classes tommorrow which I am really looking forward to.

Uni is a bit hectic. I have three things due before the 9th of June so I feeling a little pushed but I should be okay. Then off to Peru on the 21st. We are very excited, was looking through the Lonely Planet the other day which also fueled my excitement.

I haven’t been to Rough Edges for awhile but will be going on Sunday so maybe I will give an update on that sometime soon.

God continues to be very present to me in all these aspects of my life which makes me feel very grateful. It sure makes things more peaceful, more real and more exciting to know that He is always there.

I went to see a Chinese Herbalist on Wednesday. He was reccommended to me by a volunteer of mine to help me with my skin problems. Anyway I ended up having acupuncture. I am not entirly sure why but it was an experience and he has given me some crazy herbal pills and creams but he has also got me on a pretty full on diet. He wants me to halve my dairy intake, only drink 1 or 2 cups of coffee a week, only drink alcohol once or twice a week, drink lemon juice every morning and I can’t eat oranges, bananas or mangoes.

Part of me was thinking that I might just prefer the skin problems but I’m giving it a go.

Yay, Portuguese Tart for sweetness after lunch. That makes me very happy.