Last week in B.A. It goes so fast. Last minute visiting has taking all week. On Monday, nothing happened. I still had some people I wanted to see but were supposed to call me, so I was in the waiting game. Monday afternoon, a friend of my mother, a muslim lady called Fatima, came over for tea. She is a nice lady, just can't agree with her beliefs. Can't understand why my mother has to hang out with her. At least she is not trying to convert anybody.
Tuesday morning I met Marcelo at a confiteria (cafe/lunch place)a few blocks from my mom's house. Marcelo used to live across the street from my mother's, but we actually met at college. It was one of those funny things. You live next door but you have to go someplace else to meet. We were friends all through college, used to hunt used books together -we were studying spanish grammar and literature, and latin and greek. We watched so many strange cult movies together. We had a great time. He is now married and has three children, and continues teaching. We haven't seen each other in 15 years.
I passed by my grandmother's apartment while my mother took the kids to play soccer at the park. My grandmother and I had some time alone for a change. She is very forgetful and is wondering how much longer she has to live, but other than that she is in pretty good shape.
After that my mom took us to Martinez to a huge McDonalds with an enormous playground. The kids loved it. I met again my ex boss, this time with his wife, little daughter and his grown up son Guido. We talked about all kinds of things and enjoyed each other's company.
Wednesday we had lunch at Eneida's house, a friend of my mom. We had empanadas and ice cream. It was a beautiful day, very sunny.
I've been trying to figure out what to bring back as a souvenir. I really didn't want to go downtown by myself to shop, so I had to make do with what was available around my mom's neighborhood. Prices are crazy, and there is no buying in bulk, so I tried to be conservative.
Some neighbor friends Juan and Nico came to play with Blake and Brett. They had fun but they were acting up some. After a while they all went to their house to eat dinner. A few minutes of peace!
Thursday my friend Laura that lives around the corner came over, and we walked around the neighborhood - we actually have sidewalks - talking for over an hour. Then my kids went to her house to play the playstation with her kids and have lunch while I had lunch with my mom, grandmother and a friend of my mother Eduardo. Eduardo is a great storyteller and we had a lively lunch.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Day 26
Gloomy, rainy day. We were supposed to go with my uncle Jorge, aunt Carmen Luz and cousins to the Lujan Zoo where you enter in your car and drive around and the animals are loose. But it was a horrible day for that, so the zoo was closed. Instead we went to a restaurant called Plumas Verdes that belongs to a popular folkloric singer called Horacio Guarani. It was a nice place, except that the service was awful. The food was okay. The kids ate pasta, I ate some salad and several different pieces of argentinian barbecue(asado). Then we came back to my uncle's house. We had coffee and watched on YouTube a conference by a chilenean (my aunt is from Chile) Psychologist named Pilar Sordo. If you understand Spanish I highly recommend her talks. The one we listened to was in Valdivia. She talked about the differences between man and woman but from a different angle than women are from venus and all that. Very, very enlightening. We had tea at 7:30pm and they brought us home around 9pm. We are going to be a mess when we come back... it will take a few days to get back to a normal eating/sleeping schedule.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Day 24 and 25
Friday July 23
My sister came today with her family to visit and spend the night. She brought some gifts for the kids and they played with their new toys for a while. In fact, her son Tobias and Brett seem to be in the same selfish period and can't share or let the other play with any toy whatsoever. It's frustrating. To that add the language difference and they are a mess! But a funny one.
Tomy is such a big boy at 14. He arrives and confiscates the computer and IM's all his friends for hours. Blake tries to make him play and he does for a little bit, but Tomy is in his own world.
Nicolas, my sister's second son, has a genetic disorder and mostly sits and observes. He is 12.
Later, Tomy and his Dad Maxi went to watch a soccer game. They came back after dinner.
Today, Saturday, the kids went with Maxi to wash his car. They had a ball. Uncle Maxi likes to spoil kids. We ate lunch and then Mom, Jessica and I went to the closest shopping center that is about 5 blocks and had a coffee. A new to me mix of condensed milk and coffee. Interesting. After we spent an hour watching people up and down the escalators we came back home where uncle Maxi was still spoiling his kids and nephews.
At dinner time (9pm!!!) we went to my high school friend Laura's house to have dinner. She lives around the corner from my mother's house. She had invited some friends that live in Puerto Rico and were in for a visit with family. There were also two other couples, and another high school friend and a prospective boyfriend for her. It was sort of an undercover blind date if something like that is possible. Laura was trying to introduce these two friends, and both were shy about meeting in a smaller setting. There were several kids and my kids and them played video games for a while, watched TV, ate pizza and had fun. The adults sat at the table and ate pizza too. We talked about life in the States, capitalism, same sex marriage, adoption, Argentina's landmarks, and many more things. It was a very lively evening, that ended for me after browsing my friend's wedding album. It was beautiful. I was the first one to leave with reluctant kids at 2 am....Buenos Aires has a night life even for families with young kids.
My sister came today with her family to visit and spend the night. She brought some gifts for the kids and they played with their new toys for a while. In fact, her son Tobias and Brett seem to be in the same selfish period and can't share or let the other play with any toy whatsoever. It's frustrating. To that add the language difference and they are a mess! But a funny one.
Tomy is such a big boy at 14. He arrives and confiscates the computer and IM's all his friends for hours. Blake tries to make him play and he does for a little bit, but Tomy is in his own world.
Nicolas, my sister's second son, has a genetic disorder and mostly sits and observes. He is 12.
Later, Tomy and his Dad Maxi went to watch a soccer game. They came back after dinner.
Today, Saturday, the kids went with Maxi to wash his car. They had a ball. Uncle Maxi likes to spoil kids. We ate lunch and then Mom, Jessica and I went to the closest shopping center that is about 5 blocks and had a coffee. A new to me mix of condensed milk and coffee. Interesting. After we spent an hour watching people up and down the escalators we came back home where uncle Maxi was still spoiling his kids and nephews.
At dinner time (9pm!!!) we went to my high school friend Laura's house to have dinner. She lives around the corner from my mother's house. She had invited some friends that live in Puerto Rico and were in for a visit with family. There were also two other couples, and another high school friend and a prospective boyfriend for her. It was sort of an undercover blind date if something like that is possible. Laura was trying to introduce these two friends, and both were shy about meeting in a smaller setting. There were several kids and my kids and them played video games for a while, watched TV, ate pizza and had fun. The adults sat at the table and ate pizza too. We talked about life in the States, capitalism, same sex marriage, adoption, Argentina's landmarks, and many more things. It was a very lively evening, that ended for me after browsing my friend's wedding album. It was beautiful. I was the first one to leave with reluctant kids at 2 am....Buenos Aires has a night life even for families with young kids.
Day 22 and 23
Remind me next time not to let so much time pass without posting. I am glad I took some notes to remember what I did each day, otherwise they all melt in my mind like one big blob.
On Wednesday we went again to visit with my grandmmother. She is feeling better, thank goodness. No hospital in the horizon. In the afternoon we went to another restaurant with playground, called Madrilia, that is relatively close to my mom's house. By now we know every single restaurant with a kids' zone. My friend Mercedes came over with her two kids, and while the kids played we had tea and visited.
Thurday I visit my grandmother again. And then I had my mini high school reunion of 9. The girls have met before a couple of times, so the level of interest has decreased these last two years. I guess my presence only gather 9 of the twenty something that have been meeting together. We had a great time. We ate pizza and talked about everything and anything from social justice to the health care system, from private schools to education and teachers in general, kids and discipline and limits, and jobs and relationships. I came back home at 2am. I haven't been out that late in over 10 years!
My mom and kids went to my brother Axel's house and they spend a few hours playing with their cousin Ivo. Ivo has been coughing a lot, and gone through a few rounds of antibiotics without much improvement. He is 6, his parents are worried about the constant coughing. My mom said they played well together.
Pictures are in my Facebook page.
On Wednesday we went again to visit with my grandmmother. She is feeling better, thank goodness. No hospital in the horizon. In the afternoon we went to another restaurant with playground, called Madrilia, that is relatively close to my mom's house. By now we know every single restaurant with a kids' zone. My friend Mercedes came over with her two kids, and while the kids played we had tea and visited.
Thurday I visit my grandmother again. And then I had my mini high school reunion of 9. The girls have met before a couple of times, so the level of interest has decreased these last two years. I guess my presence only gather 9 of the twenty something that have been meeting together. We had a great time. We ate pizza and talked about everything and anything from social justice to the health care system, from private schools to education and teachers in general, kids and discipline and limits, and jobs and relationships. I came back home at 2am. I haven't been out that late in over 10 years!
My mom and kids went to my brother Axel's house and they spend a few hours playing with their cousin Ivo. Ivo has been coughing a lot, and gone through a few rounds of antibiotics without much improvement. He is 6, his parents are worried about the constant coughing. My mom said they played well together.
Pictures are in my Facebook page.
Day 20 and 21
We went to my grandmother's house today because she is not feeling too well. She went to the hospital yesterday and was told to stay in bed at least for 3 days or she was going to be hospitalized. She is 95, so she has more chances of getting something in the hospital that the rest of us. It's better for her to stay home if possible. So we went for a visit with the kids. Let them play with my computer and watch tv while I was sitting with her and talking.
I lost my voice yesterday, so I am not very happy about it. It is hard to visit when you can't talk or start talking and can't stop coughing. Ugh.
Nevertheless, I got to meet a friend later on in a restaurant with a playground. That seems to be the only kind of restaurant we can go to because the kids get too bored and it's impossible to talk. So I met my friend Patricia there. The restaurant was a complete fiasco. It was cold as a refrigerator, the service was awful - they even brought a cup of coffee without the plate that goes under the cup! we had to ask for it - and there wasn't soap or paper towels in the bathroom, just to mention some of the problems. But my friend was coming from another neighborhood and there wasn't any other place to go then, so we stayed for a while. It was a good visit, the second one of this trip, and we parted our ways decided to keep in touch.
On Tuesday we were going to meet a lifelong friend of my mother in Palermo. She was coming all the way from Corrientes, about 10 hrs driving. She never called, and when she did, she said she was going someplace else. My mother needed to run an errand downtown, so we took the train and the subway and went downtown. Unfortunately, the errand about the cell phone she needed to run was fruitless and she didn't solve the problem. A total waste of time, except for the trip for the kids. So in the spot we decided to go to Palermo anyways - without the friend- to another restaurant with a playground called "La Payuca". I think it means a kind of plant, but I haven't had time to figure it out. The kids loved it. We ate well and stayed for over three hours with my mom. Then someone called my name. It was a friend from high school, Maria Eugenia. We haven't seen each other for over 20 years, but we are friends in Facebook. Palermo is 45 minutes from where we used to live and go to school, so it was a surprise to find someone familiar. The world is so small after all.
Brett didn't like the subway, but both of the kids loved the train.
I lost my voice yesterday, so I am not very happy about it. It is hard to visit when you can't talk or start talking and can't stop coughing. Ugh.
Nevertheless, I got to meet a friend later on in a restaurant with a playground. That seems to be the only kind of restaurant we can go to because the kids get too bored and it's impossible to talk. So I met my friend Patricia there. The restaurant was a complete fiasco. It was cold as a refrigerator, the service was awful - they even brought a cup of coffee without the plate that goes under the cup! we had to ask for it - and there wasn't soap or paper towels in the bathroom, just to mention some of the problems. But my friend was coming from another neighborhood and there wasn't any other place to go then, so we stayed for a while. It was a good visit, the second one of this trip, and we parted our ways decided to keep in touch.
On Tuesday we were going to meet a lifelong friend of my mother in Palermo. She was coming all the way from Corrientes, about 10 hrs driving. She never called, and when she did, she said she was going someplace else. My mother needed to run an errand downtown, so we took the train and the subway and went downtown. Unfortunately, the errand about the cell phone she needed to run was fruitless and she didn't solve the problem. A total waste of time, except for the trip for the kids. So in the spot we decided to go to Palermo anyways - without the friend- to another restaurant with a playground called "La Payuca". I think it means a kind of plant, but I haven't had time to figure it out. The kids loved it. We ate well and stayed for over three hours with my mom. Then someone called my name. It was a friend from high school, Maria Eugenia. We haven't seen each other for over 20 years, but we are friends in Facebook. Palermo is 45 minutes from where we used to live and go to school, so it was a surprise to find someone familiar. The world is so small after all.
Brett didn't like the subway, but both of the kids loved the train.
Day 18 and 19
Saturday, Jessica stayed with her kids at Mom's house while her husband went to some birthday party. We had a good time talking and visiting, and later on we walked to a commercial street called Lope de Vega (a famous Spanish writer) to look for a red coat she wanted to buy. She found one. On the way back, her husband found us walking and picked us up in his car and brought us home. We watched "Eclipse" with twenty interruptions from the kids, but we watched it. Where the movie came from is a mystery for me, since it is still in the theaters.... right, I am in South America.
Sunday I went to church to Asamblea Cristiana again. It was raining, so my mother took me there. It was a great service. The music was very moving, and the speaker was a peruvian pastor that used to be a "sendero luminoso" terrorist militant. Sendero luminoso was or is, I don't know, the marxist extremist group that killed people in the name of the revolution in Peru. This particular person was a leader during the Fujimori government. His name was Jorge. Couldn't get his last name. But he was captured and imprisoned and his penalty for being a high rank leader was being shot. They needed a judge order though. During his isolated confinement, he was visited by a blind pastor that told him the gospel. Jorge wanted to kill him for even talking to him, his marxist convictions were so deep. But one of his marxist dogmas was that you can't kill the lame, the mute, deaf or blind. So he couldn't touch the pastor. When the day of his execution arrived, Jorge decided to turn his life to God. He was blindfolded and taken to a police station where he was kept for three days. At the end of those three days, he was released. Free to go. His papers had mysteriously vanished and there were no proof of his terrorist activities, so they couldn't execute him. There were also a group of human rights visiting Peru and the government couldn't risk the international exposure of executing a prisoner without solid proof. Jorge couldn't believe it. He went and found the blind pastor and accepted Jesus in his life. He has dedicated his life to minister to all kinds of people in need. He has been living in Argentina, in the very cold south, for 20 years. He was blessed with a fruitful ministry and a wife and two little daughters. After ministering in the north of the country for three straight months, he and his family were returning in a bus to their home when the bus was hit by a truck. His year and a half year old daughter died instantly. His wife was in a comma. While he was buring his daughter he told God that he couldn't understand what was happening, Scripture about protection and God's care for His people kept coming to his mind to accuse him. Finally he told God that nothing could stop him from preaching and asked God for his wife to be healed. She recovered. That was 12 years ago. Jorge still today ministers and preaches all over the country. Wow, it was such a powerful testimony.
After church we went to a small music festival at my old high school organized by a choir. I know the choir director, Ines. She was my music teacher in high school. She isn't that much older than me really. Her husband Alberto used to be my psychologist when I was doing group therapy in the 90s. So we went to my high school and there had some tables set up and there was a guy with a guitar that could play anything you wanted and we did some karaoke. The choir sang beautifully many songs, and some people sang folkloric melodies, tangoes, and some other popular songs. We ate some empanadas, cake and sodas. I had a very good time. I sang one song with the lyrics in my hand because I couldn't remember anything to sing. I remembered a thousand songs that night though. Funny how your mind can play some tricks on you.
The kids walked all over the high school with my mother. They enjoyed getting into the classrooms and writing on the blackboards. For me it was so weird to walk into the school. It's been over 20 years. A lot of memories were brought back by walking the hallways. Now the school is for both boys and girls, but it used to be a girls only school when I attended.
Sunday I went to church to Asamblea Cristiana again. It was raining, so my mother took me there. It was a great service. The music was very moving, and the speaker was a peruvian pastor that used to be a "sendero luminoso" terrorist militant. Sendero luminoso was or is, I don't know, the marxist extremist group that killed people in the name of the revolution in Peru. This particular person was a leader during the Fujimori government. His name was Jorge. Couldn't get his last name. But he was captured and imprisoned and his penalty for being a high rank leader was being shot. They needed a judge order though. During his isolated confinement, he was visited by a blind pastor that told him the gospel. Jorge wanted to kill him for even talking to him, his marxist convictions were so deep. But one of his marxist dogmas was that you can't kill the lame, the mute, deaf or blind. So he couldn't touch the pastor. When the day of his execution arrived, Jorge decided to turn his life to God. He was blindfolded and taken to a police station where he was kept for three days. At the end of those three days, he was released. Free to go. His papers had mysteriously vanished and there were no proof of his terrorist activities, so they couldn't execute him. There were also a group of human rights visiting Peru and the government couldn't risk the international exposure of executing a prisoner without solid proof. Jorge couldn't believe it. He went and found the blind pastor and accepted Jesus in his life. He has dedicated his life to minister to all kinds of people in need. He has been living in Argentina, in the very cold south, for 20 years. He was blessed with a fruitful ministry and a wife and two little daughters. After ministering in the north of the country for three straight months, he and his family were returning in a bus to their home when the bus was hit by a truck. His year and a half year old daughter died instantly. His wife was in a comma. While he was buring his daughter he told God that he couldn't understand what was happening, Scripture about protection and God's care for His people kept coming to his mind to accuse him. Finally he told God that nothing could stop him from preaching and asked God for his wife to be healed. She recovered. That was 12 years ago. Jorge still today ministers and preaches all over the country. Wow, it was such a powerful testimony.
After church we went to a small music festival at my old high school organized by a choir. I know the choir director, Ines. She was my music teacher in high school. She isn't that much older than me really. Her husband Alberto used to be my psychologist when I was doing group therapy in the 90s. So we went to my high school and there had some tables set up and there was a guy with a guitar that could play anything you wanted and we did some karaoke. The choir sang beautifully many songs, and some people sang folkloric melodies, tangoes, and some other popular songs. We ate some empanadas, cake and sodas. I had a very good time. I sang one song with the lyrics in my hand because I couldn't remember anything to sing. I remembered a thousand songs that night though. Funny how your mind can play some tricks on you.
The kids walked all over the high school with my mother. They enjoyed getting into the classrooms and writing on the blackboards. For me it was so weird to walk into the school. It's been over 20 years. A lot of memories were brought back by walking the hallways. Now the school is for both boys and girls, but it used to be a girls only school when I attended.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Day 16 and 17
My grandmother came over like every day. She is having some memory problems. Like not remembering that the jacket you are trying to put on her is hers. Or what day of the week, month or year it is.
I walked to the pharmacy to get some medicine for Brett. He is coughing and looks like he has a little fever. The sidewalks are all broken, and there is dog's poop everywhere. It's unbelievable. You have to walk looking down or either you break your neck or step on poop.
Jessica, my sister, her husband Maxi and my three nephews finally arrived today. Then I had to take Brett to the pediatrician just in case, because he was very congested and had a cough. Dr. said it was nothing. To keep him comfortable with ibuprofen. Then my brother's wife arrived with my other nephew. So yeah, I got to see all my nephews. It's funny to see them trying to communicate with Blake and Brett. Tobias, Jessica's youngest, told Brett "well, now you can speak to me in Spanish" They all played well and had a good time. We ate empanadas and pizzas, and then Axel, my brother came from work and he got to eat something all by himself.
My grandmother wasn't feeling well so she stayed home.
I am mad I didn't bring my regular photo camera and brought only the new video one. I didn't have time to play with it and it doesn't seem to have a flash, so you can barely take any pictures indoors. I am very disappointed. Missed a lot of photo opportunities.
I walked to the pharmacy to get some medicine for Brett. He is coughing and looks like he has a little fever. The sidewalks are all broken, and there is dog's poop everywhere. It's unbelievable. You have to walk looking down or either you break your neck or step on poop.
Jessica, my sister, her husband Maxi and my three nephews finally arrived today. Then I had to take Brett to the pediatrician just in case, because he was very congested and had a cough. Dr. said it was nothing. To keep him comfortable with ibuprofen. Then my brother's wife arrived with my other nephew. So yeah, I got to see all my nephews. It's funny to see them trying to communicate with Blake and Brett. Tobias, Jessica's youngest, told Brett "well, now you can speak to me in Spanish" They all played well and had a good time. We ate empanadas and pizzas, and then Axel, my brother came from work and he got to eat something all by himself.
My grandmother wasn't feeling well so she stayed home.
I am mad I didn't bring my regular photo camera and brought only the new video one. I didn't have time to play with it and it doesn't seem to have a flash, so you can barely take any pictures indoors. I am very disappointed. Missed a lot of photo opportunities.
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