From Canada to USA to Argentina- my next big move

It’s pretty clear that running my business blog means I pay little attention to my personal blog. Yet since leaving Vancouver on 2 October I’ve been travelling around the US for various conferences and to stay with overly generous friends and had some fun adventures.

In short I did the border run crossing to get my Permanent Residency from Canada, literally around the flagpole as they call it. Then continued on into the US where my good friend Justin drove me all the way to Seattle so I wouldn’t miss my flight.

I forget that many US airlines charge you extra for baggage, turns out when your life is one suitcase, and a tennis racquet bag plus laptop bag, your luggage is kind of heavy. And it cost me more than my flight!

But I figured it was a small price to pay for hauling my life around in bags that make me look like a travelling Xmas elf.

I headed to LA to stay in the lovely mansion of Rebecca and Scott and hang out with Kernby and Tucker – my two best friends who’ve made me remember why I love dogs so much.

For two weeks I basically kept working on my business, putting big plans into place for some key projects next year, preparing for upcoming conferences and continuing to learn more about the online marketing world.

Then I was off to Las Vegas for close to 3 weeks – don’t worry I didn’t stay on the strip that whole time – that would drive a girl crazy. But I did see a really different side to Vegas including staying out in suburbia thanks to family friend Tina Gent and family, and staying behind the strip in a residential apartment thanks to a friend of a friend and talented poker player Dan.

I also got to attend BlogWorld – yes a conference for bloggers and probably one of the best and most useful events I’ve ever attended that sparked my desire to really make my blog remarkable. I wrote about it in this article: How to become a Problogger in 3 days or less – even the probloggers liked it.

I worked on producing social media bootcamp videos, posts, guest posts, setting up affiliate product recommendations and some other projects in between this conference and Shine – `Discover your true wealth’. A conference put on by the pretty amazing Ali Brown who earns $5 million a year and started out writing e-newsletters.

Luckily I got to interview her before the conference too.

During my time in Vegas I got to play some ultimate Frisbee, see`Peepshow’ for free with Tina and the dragcar races too.

A real highlight was visiting the incredible Hoover Dam plus getting lost in the desert for real. A 6 hour epic ordeal with little water or food, an iPhone as torch light and attempting to read the stars while tripping over rocks.

Luckily we made it out (that 2 hour round hike to some hot springs really was quite the adventure).

Then I was off to San Francisco – a city that also delivers and gets better. I had two solid weeks of amazing sunshine and beautiful days – very rare. My friend Jeff kindly lent me his apartment by the marina – an awesome area by the water to be in with tonnes of great cafes and restaurants.

He was never there so I felt very lucky indeed to be left alone with this great apartment in a neat location. My friend Mo who’s recently moved to SFO kept me entertained with a few nights out and we went to Alcatraz which was so worth it.

I even met a fellow traveller on my first day and his last in the city and we cycled across the Golden Gate bridge, to lovely Sausalito and Tibador and came back on the ferry, just  fantastic day. Even paid $7 to watch a bit of a college football game. So doesn’t compare to rugby!

The whole reason for being there was to speak at Incubate 2.0 conference, part of Global Entrepreneurship week, I got sick however for the first time in two years with some stupid flu that meant I couldn’t even attend let alone get out of bed.

I did however still manage to host my first ever webinar with a husky voice and sore throat and then almost manage to fly out on the wrong day – i.e I read my itinerary wrong and luckily others picking me up from LAX read it right!

Now I’m back in LA, where it’s still sunny and listening to my Vancouver friends regaling me of stories of snow and the worst winter anticipated ever.

I’m just so glad I made the choice to guy and test out living in Buenos Aires. I fly out next Sunday for 6 months and it’s an open invitation to all you to come stay before I leave in May!

And for those of you who wonder why Buenos Aires, here’s my reasons:

1. Heading to a summer and avoiding another Vancouver winter
2. Improve my Spanish which currently sucks in a country that won’t break into English each time I falter
3. To learn to tango
4. Cheaper cost of living and since I can run my biz from anywhere why not
5. Sophistication of Europe combined with the passion of South America

So come join me!