Day 2

You know you are not home when the church bells wake you up at 8am. And a strange dog comes through your bedroom door and puts his cold nose by your face. I was sound asleep. The church bells toll every hour from 8am to 8pm giving the full hour and then once for the half hour. It's harder to hear them during the day because of the traffic. You forget about open spaces when you are in the city and you have to look up up and above to see a fragment of the sky.

Today we walked a few blocks to my grandmother's apartment. We had to avoid near death experiences every time we crossed a street. People drive crazy. There are no stop sign and the few that exist no one respects. So you have to cross the street to your own risk. We walked to the park, a central square, that is surrounded by the public hospital, the public library, the public school, several cafes and restaurants, and a shopping center, a small one. There were only a few preschoolers in the park because school is in session. It's a pleasant 65 degrees. Blake and Brett played a little bit and run after the pigeons. There were four or five parakeets and they were impressed to see them.

We had lunch with my grandmother. I walked to a store to buy some food and came back walking to my mom's house. Walking is going to be the thing here if I am not going to put 10 pounds before I leave.

The newness of being here has somehow faded already since everybody seems to believe that I can solve their issues among each other. Of course I can't. But they think I can somehow intervene. Every one has their own point of view and is uncapable of seeing the point of view of the other. Which is so sad. Being old is no walk in the park. My grandmother is not having a good time at all. I can understand her problems, but I also see that my mother can barely cope with her own life and take care of her, when they can't even get along for five minutes. It is very stressful. No one wants to serve the other, it is all about what each wants...

Day 1

Arriving at the airport, we discovered that Bill couldn't go with us to the gate, so I had to manage with the kids by myself taking off shoes, and taking out laptop and all that stuff you have to do these days when you are going to fly. Seen that the pilots were older was reassuring. It's good to know the ones in charge of your life, however briefly, are experienced. They announced immediately that there was going to be some turbulence due to the hurricane Alex being close by... so much for reassurance. The flight to Buenos Aires was uneventful except for the times that Brett threw up on my very clean cream sweater and my dark (thankfully) jeans. Then Blake threw up. I don't know what was their problem, maybe motion sickness or something they ate. They were fine once we arrived to my mom's house.

One of the interesting things on the screen in the plane was the "time to destination" which in Spanish translates to something that also means "time to destiny". I thought it would be useful to know when you are arriving to your destiny or even when you have reached it. You may be exactly where you are destined to be and not know it! Or you may be really far away from your destiny and not know it either.

I got to see my brother first. He has not aged much, some grey hair maybe. He was kind enough to go pick us up and our enormous four bags that almost didn't fit in his tiny car. I also saw my mother of course, and my uncle and grandmother.

Even when the 4/1 money exchange things are not exactly cheap here. I had to go buy hair products and prices were about the same.

Blake and Brett took turns taking naps. And finally went to sleep at 10pm.

Journey soon to begin

Journey
a. The act of traveling from one place to another; a trip.
b. A distance to be traveled or the time required for a trip: a 2,000-mile journey to the Pacific; the three-day journey home.
2. A process or course likened to traveling; a passage: the journey of life.

Just decided to start posting my thoughts about this trip to Argentina. Hope y'all enjoy it.