Somehow, it’s been one year since we left Córdoba.  I’m not quite sure how that happened.  In so many, many ways it seems like just yesterday that we were packing up our house in Portland getting ready to set out on our big adventure, and now the calendar has turned so that it’s been one year since we woke in the dark and cold of a winter morning to start out trip back to the states.

Some of us couldn’t hide our feelings with a smile.

I wouldn’t say that there have been any earth-shattering changes for our family in the year that we’ve been home, more like a series of smaller changes and things that I notice:

1.)

I think the kids would say the fact that we got a dog is the biggest change. Tulip, our Australian Shepherd puppy, joined our family in February, and has brought with her all the joys and challenges of puppy-ownership. Although I have to say, really, we got an awesome dog.

2.) The kids have had an easier time transitioning back to being home than Rob and I have.  I think this is because Rob and I have a much fuller sense of what it took to pull our trip off.  We know that it’s going to be quite a while before we are able to do something like our year abroad again.  I’m not saying that we’ll NEVER do it again.  I would hate to say something like that, but I would be kidding myself if I didn’t admit that sometimes, life gets in the way of life!  I also think that for Rob and I, the trip was much more of a “vacation” from our regular life and stresses. That is not to say that it was easy and all we did was sit around drinking umbrella drinks and swimming in the pool.  We mostly drank wine, and the pool took us a while to get up and running……but seriously, although the trip was a break for Rob from an office job, it was indeed stressful navigating an unknown language and culture (the guy who opens the door to your exercise class, and your students all expect kisses of greeting from you, but the guy the comes to fix your air conditioner doesn’t).

3.)  It is more difficult to carry over the awesomeness-es of the Argentine culture into our American life than I thought it would be.  But why don’t people just stop by at 6pm and drink maté with you while you simply hang out and let the kids do whatever? Because it’s get-ready-for-dinner-where-is-your-homework-feed-the-dog-put-away-your-left-over-lunch-time at 6pm in most US houses, that’s why! Summer is a little bit more fluid, but because we’re living our “normal” life in Portland, it includes many of the things that our life in Córdoba did not: full-time working parents, cars, clubs, meetings, pets, and other obligations that we were joyously free from in Argentina. And our American friends are all in the same boat as we are.  And, no, I still have not figured out how just about everyone in Argentina stays up so late and functions the next day.  Not EVERYONE in the country takes a siesta.

4.) Even more than I suspected I would, I desperately want our Argentine friends to come visit us in Oregon.  The kindness and hospitality we were shown can only possibly be repaid by our friends coming here.  For that reason (and many others), we are thrilled that our friends’ niece will be coming to stay with us for three months in December!  Although we keep laughing at how early she’ll think we eat dinner and go to bed.

5.) In all of the crazy, though, I do feel like our family has something unique and special to share.  There is a meat market near our public library that has an outdoor grill, and we often end up there around the time they’re lighting the fire.  The kids invariably sniff the air and sigh saying:  “Ahhhh!!!!  Someone’s having an asado!” We have special family memories that we can share with each other and talk about:  how incredible it was to see things like the Puerito Moreno Glacier in the south of Argentina; the Incan Child Mummies in Salta, Argentina; and Iguazú Falls in Argentina and Brazil.  To see and experience these wonders not only myself, but also through the eyes of my children is a gift for which I will be forever thankful.

We’re ready for the next adventures that come our way!

Just a couple of weeks ago we took our last overnight bus in Argentina from Mendoza back home to Córdoba. The kids were just as thrilled with it as they were the first time we took an overnight bus from Córdoba to Buenos Aires. The fancy “suite class” buses in Argentina are quite deluxe, and have approximately one million times more room than any coach seat on an airplane. If you have the time, I would recommend an overnight bus over a flight just about any day.

Molly enjoying her own video screen on Andesmar bus lines.

I don’t think that I’m making a revolutionary statement when I say that over the years, air travel has become less and less enjoyable, although, maybe that’s because in those earlier times, I traveled by myself or with Rob, and now I travel with three children under the age of eleven. I write this and slap my forehead at the same time because we are about to embark on about six flights over two weeks that will take us through Brazil and back home to Portland. WHAT AM I THINKING?!?!?

In all honesty I’m thinking that I cannot possibly believe that our “1 Year in Argentina” has just about come to a close.  This past year has been replete with new experiences:

FIRSTS:

• Have I ever had really, REALLY carbonated water delivered to my house once a week in adorable seltzer bottles?  No!  Do I LOVE it? YES!!!!
• Have I ever lived in a house with a pool?
• Have I ever, in all my adult life, spent eight hours at someone’s house for lunch, and then felt like I was hurting their feelings by “leaving so early.  What is the hurry?”
• Have I ever relied on my YOUNG children to help me get my point across to another adult?

Have I ever spent so much time together with my family?  NO!  This has been an exciting (and sometimes exhausting) year of learning.  While in Salta, a city with incredible colonial architecture in northern Argentina, we visited the MA’AM museum.  This was one of my favorite museum visits, by far in Argentina.  The museum houses a small collection of artifacts collected from tombs found high in the Andes Mountains, and three incredibly preserved mummies.  Only one of the mummies is on display at a time, for preservation purposes, and we were lucky enough to see the boy.  These mummies are children who were part of an Incan ritual that helped to protect the people who lived in the areas surrounding the Andes. The children were brought to the mountain peaks alive, and dressed in beautiful, ornate ceremonial clothes.  They were given a sort of corn alcohol to drink and cocoa leaves to chew, and then buried in stone tombs on the mountain.  The museum was very quiet as people shuffled trough the small space looking at the artifacts and reading the descriptions. As we quietly walked into the room containing the small mummy (in a special plexiglass cylinder kept at near freezing temperatures and low humidity), Ben said to me, “Mom, do you think the kids KNEW what was going to happen to them when they were walking up the mountain?” I still get the feeling of someone punching me in the gut when I think of that question. I had no answer for Ben, and told him as much. I tried to talk about how it was a very different culture, and it was a very different time, but those words didn’t begin to address what he was wrestling with inside his seven-year-old brain.

Have I ever been to so many rugby games?  Heck, no!  But really, is it all that much different from fall soccer on Saturdays?  Not too much.  The drinks of choice for both adults and kids are different:  mate instead of coffee for adults, and Coke or Powerade instead of water for kids, but other than that it’s still a bunch of kids running around having fun while their parents stand by and snap pictures and visit with other parents. I will say this, though:  the bonds of rugby are STRONG, and more often than not, the son plays for the same club that his father and uncles played for, and many rugby families have known each other for generations.

Have I ever lived in such close proximity with so many large insect-type things? Heavens, NO!  Cockroaches AND scorpions?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!?!?  Let’s just say that this one will fall in the “LAST” category, too. And I have to say that even though I have a great deal of respect for cockroaches–I really do!–they were around with the dinosaurs, that doesn’t mean I won’t spray the heck out of one, or smash it with a shoe the minute I see it.

Have I ever been so lax about the kids riding around in cars without seat belts, or cramming onto laps in cars? Of course not, but lots of paradigms had to shift to live here, and I can guarantee that once back state-side, we’ll be back on track.  Much to the dismay of my children, I’m sure. Another one for the “LAST” category, I guess.

LASTS:

• Insects:  see above!
• Clown-car-ing it:  see above!
• Quite luxurious overnight bus:  see above!
• Long-term living without a dishwasher:  Please GOD make this a last! I can’t afford the glasses and dishes I break!
• Living in a house with an absolutely spectacular quincho:  I sincerely hope this ISN’T a “LAST,” and Rob and I are determined to do everything we can to recreate this incredible structure back home.

This is only part of it, but this quincho is my absolute favorite part of the house!

• Spending lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoons eating, drinking, and visiting with friends and family.  I certainly hope this, too, ISN’T a “LAST,” but as Americans, we always seem to be in a hurry to move on to the “next thing.”  It seems that often we are looking ahead without recognizing the preciousness and beauty of the moment.  Tomorrow we have been invited to an afternoon asado with friends, and I find that recently, I am thinking, “Ohhhh!  This could be the last time that we have asado with …………..” I know that when it truly IS our last Argentine asado (at least as pertains to this adventure), I will cry my heart out, and I’m sure I won’t be the only one.  The kids have all come to love the practice of asado. What’s not to love?  The kids run around and play, and come back for quick snack breaks, while the parents sit around without paying much attention to what the kids are up to!

So as we prepare to say, “Goodbye for now,” to Argentina, and, “Hey!  We missed you!” to the US, I must ask our US friends to forgive us for a couple of things:

• If you invite us over for dinner, and we’ve been there for four hours, and show no sign of leaving, just remind us gently that we’re not in Argentina anymore (sniff, sniff!).  We’ll eventually leave, but we just don’t want to hurt your feelings by leaving too early!
• The besos (kisses) hello and goodbye have become second nature for us (even Rob!), so don’t be weirded out if we come in for a kiss:  it’s been a long time since we’ve seen you anyway, so give us a kiss!
• If we invite you over for dinner that very same night, or the next day, don’t think that we’re bored at the last minute:  we just want to see you NOW!  We don’t want to wait a week or two, so come on over, and don’t be in a hurry to leave:  we like spending time with you!

Feliz after her second day at the jardin

So those of you who know me well enough know that I wouldn’t usually write a “cutesy” title like the one above, but the little smocks that they wear in Argentina in preschool are so dang cute, what else could I write?

Molly has recently started preschool (jardin) here in Cordoba, and so far, so good! The jardin is called Sui Generis,  and according to my Spanish teacher, that is also the name of a crazy former Argentine band http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sui_Generis.  The community center/gym in which the preschool is housed has an indoor and an outdoor pool, so Molly and her jardin buddies get to go swimming twice a week.  She’s thrilled!  The teachers are warm and loving (like all the teachers seem to be here), so it is the right place for us!

Molly says her favorite thing about her preschool is the pool, but she hasn’t even gone in yet:  tomorrow’s the first swimming day.

Molly was ready for this big change:  she needs an outlet for her energy, we want her to have some friends her own age, and we want her to learn more Spanish!  We are so very fortunate because jardins seem to be about as common as Starbucks in Seattle here, and her’s is two blocks away.  From 9:30 – 12: 30 she plays, sings songs, does crafts, swims, has an English class, and eats snack.  A lovely way to spend her mornings while the boys, Rob and I work away the hours working on our Spanish, and grade school curriculum.

The boys are still playing rugby, and this past weekend it was COLD, and the boys raced over the field to keep warm.  Apparently, they were playing the Jailbirds.

Ben on the take-down

Elliott on the run

The pool is full now, and someone came to clean it today.  They had some pretty specific instructions for me, but I didn’t really get it all, so if our skin falls off the first time we take a dip, I’ll know we used too much chlorine.  Maybe we should just invest in someone to take care of that for us.  Now all we need is the weather to warm up.

We’re headed to the “mountains” this weekend for a long weekend, so maybe we’ll be able to swim when we get back!

My ever so patient husband has been after me for quite some time  now to write a post about our house search.  We’ve been in our house at Lafinur 3572 now for one week.  We’ve settled in quite nicely, and are looking forward to hosting our first asado (for all Argentine friends—-wish us luck!) this Sunday.

This was a journey that started for us, really, back in April when Rob and I came on our own for a “scouting mission.”  We looked at just a few rental houses then, and although we in no way expected it to happen, it would have been really nice and easy if we had met someone in the process who said, “You know, I don’t have anything now, but I do have this lovely house that will be ready at the beginning of September.  When did you say you’re getting here?”  Well, that DIDN’T happen, so instead of arriving with a set place to live, we arrived with a set place to stay:  N’Aike Casa de Huespedes, http://www.naike.com.ar/.  The people there were wonderful, but we were ready to have our own space, and the kids were ready to spread out and run around.

Several difficulties exist when trying to find a rental house in Cordoba from afar.  The first difficulty, for us, was the language barrier.  Neither Rob nor I speak enough Spanish to really get along well in a face-to-face conversation, so the thought of trying to have a conversation on the phone about real estate put us into a cold sweat.  Language barriers aside, however, we soon found out that real estate agents will only show you the properties that they represent, so in essence, you have to have several real estate agents working for you at the same time.  And then there’s the whole issue of the fact that we were trying to look for these properties from many, many miles away.  Like many things in Argentina, finding a rental house is all about who you know, and what contacts you have.  As a general rule, Argentines prefer to conduct all business face-to-face.  We had a very difficult time getting anyone to return our phone calls, and an even more difficult time getting them to return e-mails.  When we did get a returned call or e-mail, people would ask us to just come by their office.  When we explained our situation, they simply told us to give them a call once we arrived.  Having something as major as SHELTER (I’m pretty sure it’s one of Maslow’s basic physiological needs) as part of the unknown was not a comfortable feeling.  Lucky for us, Rob and I had our individual periods of anxiety at different times.  This made it much easier for one to calm the other one down and remain cool-headed.

Although you can find listings on web sites like casas.trovitargentina.com.ar, and La Voz, many of these listings give a very brief description of the house, and have no pictures.  And I found out fairly quickly that although houses may be listed, that does not mean they are available.  This was the most frustrating part for me because, of course, I would find a lovely house in the same neighborhood as the boys’ school, and it would have been rented six months ago.  How easy, it seemed, it would be to simply erase that listing when the house was rented…hmmm…..

Yet another stumbling block that we encountered (although we knew about this one in advance), was that most houses in Argentina are either rented for short-term (up to 6 months), or long-term (at least 2 years).  The short-term rentals are furnished, and the long-term rentals are not.  We wanted to rent a furnished house or apartment for one year.  This probably would not have been as much of an issue had we been looking downtown, but because we wanted to be in a more residential neighborhood, there were fewer options.

Apparently in Argentina, once someone is in your house, and has started paying bills, it is very difficult to evict them.  This is even the case if the person is basically squatting, and not paying any rent.  The difficulty to evict them becomes even greater if they have children.  People told us stories of court cases that dragged on for years of home owners (who were not even renting their house–it was just a private vacation property!) trying to get squatters out of their house because those people had moved in, started paying the property taxes, and refused to leave.  Because of this, owners of rental houses require what is called a “guarantee.”  This is basically a co-signer who promises to take on the rent if the original renters refuse to pay. Getting a guaranteer can be very difficult, and complicated.  Often it involves getting pay stubs and tax papers from the guaranteer, and proof of employment from both the renter and guaranteer.  Not having employment, and preferring not to ask our new Argentine friends to put themselves forward to be our guaranteer, we were forced to approach this from a different angle, re:  cash up front for six months rent.

After spending about 10 days looking at different rental properties (most of which were basically empty:  no furniture, no kitchen appliances, NO LIGHTS!), I decided to ask one of our real estate agent, Matias http://www.ilamarca.com/home, a very American question. Did he have any clients who were trying to sell their house, and would be willing to basically move out for a year, take the house off the market, and let us rent it lock, stock and barrel.  He thought for a minute after I asked him this, and then said he might have one, but he would have to contact her first.  The next day we walked in to Silvina’s house on Lafinur.

The house was perfect for what we needed:  three bedrooms (plus one maid’s room—storage room for us), four bathrooms, a pool, a washing machine (!!!!), a pool, a lovely quincho (a covered patio where you have

your parrilla and asado)

and all the furniture that we could have asked for. These are really pictures of our quincho and parrilla.

…..for the kids at least.  Everyone woke up this morning proclaiming that they would NOT be going to school today.  Because that wasn’t really an option, there was a lot of squawking and complaining (all the way around). It should come as a shock to no one that everyone ended up going to school, and somehow made it though.

All three kids are now picked up by the school director in a taxi, and she drops Molly and Ben off at kinder (the baby school, as Ben likes to call it), and then takes Elliott to the language school.  Rob and I follow later on foot.  It’s about a ten-minute walk, and not too bad as we are getting to know some faces in a very small town.  The man at the candy store on the corner near our house likes to practice his excellent English, and the banana man down the street always greets us with a hearty “Bueno!”

At school, we have two coffee breaks during the morning, and now that Rob and I are in different classes (we started out in the same class), we are getting private instruction. My teacher today seemed a little surprised and put out that I felt like I could work all the way through the 2nd coffee break. In fact, many of the other instructors kept knocking on our door, “You’re not going to take a break?” I wanted to say, “I think I can handle another half an hour without a break,” but of course, I can’t say that in Spanish, so there you are.   I should also mention that our day STARTS with a coffee break.  We are supposed to be there by 9:30, but class doesn’t actually start until 9:45. 

This is the rainy season in Turrialba, and yesterday afternoon was a doozy!  I have never seen rain like that before, and we live in Portland, so I thought I had seen rain.  Tropical rain is a completely different animal, though. In a house with a metal roof, you really hear the rain, too. We had a “Sound of Music” moment when the lightening and thunder started, and suddenly, all three kids were in our room because they didn’t like the sound.  It shook the house, and I couldn’t help but wonder why people who live in a place with lightening and thunder storms like that one have metal roofs.  That’s just a friendly “wonder,” and not a judgemental “suggestion.”

Every day we’re learning more about each other, and of course, Spanish.  I told Molly today that “caballo” means “horse,” and she told me, “No, Mommy!  ‘caballo’ means ‘hair.'” Close, but not quite.  I am thrilled that in just a couple days, she is picking up so much of the language.

I wish I could tell our host family how much we already adore them.  They are wonderfully patient with us, and have shown us so much kindness.  So instead I do dishes, we keep our stuff tidy (and then Sonia comes around and cleans everything up again while we’re at school) and say “Gracias!” about a million times a day.  It’s a start, at least.

It’s funny the things we think about, and the things in which we find value.  I find myself looking at things very differently as we near our departure for Costa Rica and Argentina.  But WAIT!  Before you start thinking that I’m getting sentimental (I am), and all missy-missy for our friends and family (I am), let me explain what “things” I’ve been thinking about, and looking at lately:  food and napkins.  Sad but true, these things have held a pretty high spot on the totem pole of my brain lately.  I am sorry to say that when I mention food, it’s not even like I’m thinking about world hunger.  The other day I went to the grocery store, and with only 23 days before we leave (23!!!!!), I’m starting to really think about what I buy, and if I’ll use it before we go.  “Should I buy one pound of butter, or two?” I asked myself.  I went for two…..my friend Ingrid gets whatever I don’t use.  I’ve been trying to use up food in our freezer, which is a challenge when your husband is a big game hunter and had a good year last year, and someone who takes pig butchery classes for fun (actually, I got that for Rob as a gift–very “Portland DIY”).  I came across my freezer bag of Parmesan rinds recently, and have promised to give them to my friend Geoff when we go.  Those things are like GOLD to any cook worth his or her salt.

As far as napkins go, I keep wondering if I should bring some cloth napkins.  “What a ridiculous thing to think about!” you may say to yourself, and I completely agree!  The thing is, I keep thinking about this, and I keep going back and forth.  I think, “Well, it’s not like they take up a lot of space, and wouldn’t it be nice to have just a set or two of cloth napkins?  What if we have someone over? I like cloth napkins!”  When Rob and I were in Argentina they had the most silly, ineffective paper napkins (it was like trying to wipe your hands with one-ply toilet paper!), so I’m not completely crazy.

I’m reminded of an NPR show I used to listen to that was basically three or four adult sisters who would get on the radio and just chat about what they were up to.  It was basically a radio blog—fantastic!  I loved it:  Satellite Sisters.  Anyway, on one particular show, one of the sisters was getting ready to move her entire family to Shanghai or Bangkok or something.  The sisters were having an in-depth conversation about whether or not the one sister should bring her gravy boat that matched her set of china.  She pointed out that she was not, in fact, bringing any of her china, but wondered if she would be able to find a gravy boat in Shanghai or Bangkok if she didn’t bring her own. They probably discussed it for a good six to eight minutes when one sister broke in and said, “Look, do you think you’ll even be able to FIND a turkey?  And if you do, will your oven be big enough to roast it?”  The traveling sister then replied, “I have no idea!  THIS is EXACTLY the wacky kind of stuff I’m thinking about these days!”  Well, I get what she’s talking about.  So in a never-ending effort to avoid thinking about all of the wonderfully amazing people at home who I love so dearly, and am going to miss so terribly, I think about how much butter I should buy when we’ll only be here 23 more days, or if I should bring cloth napkins to Argentina.