Sunday, June 30, 2013

Weekend wanderings

On Friday night we were invited by our Argentine friends to attend an event at the high school their daughter attends.  She and her two friends, who babysat for us last weekend, were performing a cultural dance as part of it.  We didn't get enough details about it, like what time it started, so I took the older kids and showed up a little after 7.  I should have known nothing would start so early.  The doors didn't open until 8, there was mingling and food, and the event didn't start until 9.  It was still going at 10 when I decided to take the kiddos home.

The lighting was horrid, so this isn't the greatest video.



Yesterday we visited a part of the city called Recoleta.  The main attraction was the Recoleta Cemetery: an enormous above ground cemetery with rows and rows of sepulchers.  We made sure to stay together, because it would have been an easy thing to lose a child in that maze.  There were some pretty elaborate statues and memorials.  Some were ancient and in decay.  Others had recent looking pictures.  The only name we knew of someone buried there, and perhaps the most famous, was Eva Duarte Peron (Evita... a much loved and influential First Lady).  





We also spent some time shopping at the tourist market, looking at all the handmade items for sale.  This is perhaps the most touristy we have felt during our whole month here.  We live in an area where other Argentines live, eat, shop, play, etc.  But when we visited the market we could hear English being spoken all around us.

It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for a 2 hour lunch outside.  Not sure how much of this was due to really slow service, or just the typical pace of life.  We weren't in a rush.
 

Unfortunately, the weekend ended with two sick little boys.  Paul had a fever and nasty head congestion (let's hope it's not an ear infection!!). Wishing I had a washing machine for all my snot covered shirts.  And Dallin caught a stomach bug.  Wishing I had a washing machine for a vomit covered blanket.




Bryan's quote of the week as we're herding kids along the sidewalk:  "I feel like one of those dog walkers, but with kids instead of dogs."

(A fancy Recoleta mall.  We didn't go in.... too fancy for us.  We just rode the escalators.)

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Random recent events

Our apartment has a ping-pong table with no net in our cold sunroom.  It doesn't get used much, but Colby spends a lot of time hitting the ball against our living room wall and tile floor.


 He has a copycat follower.


We visited the Botanical Garden again today with our Texas friends.  The kids were more interested in playing tag than the vegetation.


This is our heater.  Now if you were an 11 month old crawling baby, and your parents were distracted, and you saw a flickering orange and blue light at the end of the hall, what would you do??


Cursed, wretched, evil thing to hurt my little guy.



Sunday, June 23, 2013

Tango, Touring, and Trails

Happy 11th Anniversary to us! (on Friday)  We celebrated by going to a dinner and tango show.  The tango dance style originated in Argentina, so it's a cultural thing.  The food was excellent (Argentine steak, of course!), the band musicians were very talented, as well as the dancers.  Neither of us were that impressed with the singers, but it might have helped if we understood the words.  :)  We had three 15-year old girls babysit for us: one of whom we helped celebrate her 15th birthday earlier, and her two friends from Brazil.  They spoke conversational English and did a great job babysitting.  The kids had fun with them.

We forgot our camera, but got some blurry pictures with our ipod.




Yesterday we visited the downtown area called Puerto Madero, which is newer, modern, fancy, expensive, etc.  We played on some park exercise machines, toured an old ship called the Frigate Sarmiento, walked across the Puente de la Mujer (bridge of the woman, which was supposed to represent legs), and ate lunch at Mostaza (a fancy McDonalds except we had to wait forever for our food).



 We could explore almost everywhere on the ship, it was pretty cool.

 (The Puente de la Mujer is in the background, to the right)

Afterwards we went on a long hike through the Reserva Ecológica, right by downtown.  There were still lots of people around, but it was kind of nice to be away from roads and buildings and back into nature.  It was primarily a birding expedition for Bryan, Sienna, and Colby.

Here you can see the Puerto Madero skyline in the background.






A Green Barred Woodpecker


We had the missionaries over for lunch today.  One was from El Salvador and the other from Arizona.  They seemed like good missionaries and were nice to visit with.  It was an impromptu invitation at church (a lady in the ward, Relief Society president?, asked if we'd have them over today), and we had done a quick grocery run the night before "just to get us through to Monday."  So we had some homemade empanadas (now a Sunday lunch tradition, made by Bryan and Sienna), supplemented with frozen pizza, apples, and salad.  Delicioso! 

Friday, June 21, 2013

Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, and Dinner

Happy shortest day of the year!  We get to have three shortest-day-of-the-years in a row.  There's a little part of me that is sad to be missing summer.  But on the flip side, I think it's better for us to be here during the winter rather than summer.  A few days ago we were walking and it was actually quite warm and sunny, so by the time we got home we were all a little sweaty and thirsty.  Going on long walks with hot, sweaty, and thirsty kids, always searching for water, makes everyone cranky and worn out.  As it is, it's just chilly enough that our kids love opportunities to run around.  And it's not really that cold.  Most of the time.

Yesterday and today are holidays in Argentina.  Flag day, I think.  Apparently the country has 13 mandatory holidays every year.  We went with our Texas friends to visit a new park which was very nice with a large pond in the middle and several playground areas.  Bryan and the kids were excited to identify three new bird species.  There were lots of people out and about.


One corner of the park has the Museo de Ciencias Naturales... dinosaur bones!  Apparently there were several new dinosaur species discovered in Argentina.  It was neat, but kids can only take so much museuming.  And remember the not-so-cold part I wrote above?  This place was freezing.  If it had central heating it wasn't working or wasn't on.


A couple days ago we were having oatmeal for breakfast, and orange juice to go along with it (and pastries, of course).  Dallin was guzzling his OJ and I told him to save some to have with his oatmeal.  Next thing I know...

Apparently he misinterpreted the phrase "have with his oatmeal."  But he loved his orange-juice-oatmeal-breakfast-soup.

Dessert for breakfast, anyone?


We were also invited to tea and dinner with another of Bryan's colleagues.  In general, we stick to our American 3-meals-a-day eating schedule.  But when we get invited to join others, we have to adjust.  We've been told they eat a small breakfast in the morning, a big lunch around 1:00, small tea around 4:00 or 5:00, and a big dinner around 9:00.  The two times we've been invited to tea it included cake, pastries, and dessert-like snacks.  So when we showed up to tea at 5:30 yesterday, and our bodies were still on an American eating schedule, we were hungry for a big meal.  Our kids went crazy with the sweets.  Okay, I did too.  And a 9:00 dinner time makes for a very late night.

The bus ride home.
We quite commonly have 5 or more of us squished into two seats.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Every day a tourist

We leave the apartment every day to go... somewhere.  Whether it's the park three blocks away or a tourist attraction across town.  And every time we leave the apartment it requires:

1st call of "potty, socks, shoes, jackets!"
Finding and packing diapers, sippy cup, water, snacks, camera, purse, Spanish/English pocket dictionary
2nd call of  "potty, socks, shoes, jackets!"
Checking the map and/or looking up bus or subway routes; gathering enough pesos
Final call of  "potty, socks, shoes, jackets or you're getting left behind!"
Loading kids in the stroller and unlocking three separate doors with clunky keys before we reach the street.

You'd think by now we'd have it down to a science, but it still takes a good half hour every time; and that assumes that everyone is already dressed (reasonably) and fed.  Having hair brushed or fixed is now optional.

On Sunday afternoon, after showering our Papá with dozens of homemade cards and pictures and an Argentine birding book, we decided to head to the San Telmo neighborhood.  We´ve been told there is usually a street market on Sunday afternoons with performers, Tango dancers, etc.  It seemed like a nice thing to do on Día del Padre.  But  after going through the whole routine to get to the street, we realized it was raining.  Would the street performers still be out in the rain?  We didn't want to trek all the way there to find out.  Reverse!  Naps and card games instead.



Yesterday the kids and I explored the Botanical Garden.  It was very nice, with a wide variety of well kept plants, bushes, trees, cacti, etc., well maintained walkways, and a handful of statues.  I can imagine in the summer it is quite colorful as well, but for now it was just green.  Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures.  At one point a blur of kids ran past, and Colby recognized our American friends that we meet at our nearby park.  So they had a nice game of tag.  At one point Sienna commented that this was a nice, quiet, peaceful park.  I replied, "Yes, except for when we're in it."


Some recent comments or conversations with Colby....

"Mom, they do not have their statues dressed very modestly!" (as in, not dressed at all)

"We've been here all this time and haven't seen any houses.  Where are the houses?"
(Me) "These are houses (pointing at high-rise apartments)."
"No, not just places where people stay for a little while, but where they live."
"That is where they live.  All the time.  It's city life."

"Do people in Argentina, or people who speak Spanish, know how to spell their names?"
"Of course."
"But what if their name has the aaaa sound (like in apple)?  They don't have a letter for it, so how would they spell it?"
"None of their names have the aaaa sound.  It's just not in their language."
(He's having a hard time with this concept.)






Most of the playgrounds we've been to have pretty much the same equipment: swings, a slide, teeter-totters, and a climbing apparatus.  And sand, of course.  It seems like it would be boring after a while.  And yet, the kids still have a great time.  It has been a wonderful experience for them to use their imagination and creativity, and to really be each other's best friends.  They were giggling so much today, as they climbed on the swings, balanced in the middle of the teeter-totter, did trains down the slide, and of course, played in the sand.


And last but not least...
What a cutie.




Saturday, June 15, 2013

Amusement Park Fun

Bryan took the day off on Friday so we could go to Parque de la Costa, an amusement park in the nearby suburb of Tigre.  It's not a particularly "cultural" thing to do, but so affordable we couldn't pass it up.  Since it's wintertime here they were running a special, so we got in for the equivalent of $4.25 per person!  And since it was on a school day in the off-season, there wasn't any wait time for rides.  One of the best experiences ever at an amusement park.  Especially since the kids haven't really been to one (that they can remember), so they were just delighted and thrilled with the whole thing.

See... pretty deserted, eh?




We took Sienna and Colby on their first big roller coaster: loop-de-loop, upside down, super fast drop, backwards and forwards, etc.  When I was on it with Colby and we were half way through the ride, going slowly up to the top for a big drop, I asked him if he was having fun.  With a death grip on the handles, eyes as wide as saucers, and fear in his voice he replied, "Yes..........  kind of."


After going on a much tamer roller coaster Ashley commented, "This is the best day ever in Argentina!"
It was an hour and half each way by bus and train.  So we had some sleepy, but very happy, kids at the end of the day.

Today we were invited to the home of one of Bryan's colleagues for an authentic Argentine Barbeque.  This IS a cultural thing.  They served us three different cuts of meat, grilled to tender perfection.  We ate around 1 or 1:30, and the fire for the grill was started at 10.  These people take their barbeque seriously.  It was delicious.  Dessert was flan with dulce de leche, another traditional food.  And I can see why they don't eat dinner until 9 at night... we were stuffed! 

So how do we repay our hosts for their kindness?

Why, by leaving our baby unattended by the container of dulce de leche, of course.




Thursday, June 13, 2013

El Ateneo

Yesterday the kids and I went to a bookstore called El Ateneo.  It used to be an old theater, so it was very elegant, with a cafe on the stage part and bookshelves in the box seats.  Very fancy and fun to see, although not much to do there with the kids.  We shopped a little and left.  Still, I'm glad we went. 





 On the way home... yet another city park.

Paul recognizes the camera now and sticks his chin out with a cute "cheese" face.



 I told Sienna we should try and do her hair like in the picture behind Colby.



Colby got in some more pick-up soccer today.  He doesn't seem to have any fear of playing with strangers.  And he doesn't need to speak the same language, so that's a bonus.  He'll be playing like an Argentine in the fall!