On being sick in BA

We arrived just in time to catch 2 full winters in one year.  At first we didn't seem to catch any of the virus' going around - and then this past month. Flu, cold, fevers - you name it. I've completely lost track of who was sick when.  I just know that now i write this feverish and appreciative that we didn't go to Iguazu falls this weekend as we originally planned.

My random encounters with healthcare in BA have been utterly mind-blowingly convenient and relatively cheap.  When Felix needed stiches here 2 years ago, we went to a private hospital, were immediately seen, sent to wait a mere 20 minutes in a nice cafe while the pediatric plastic surgeon came.  Next, cut to our current 'living here' lives -we have relatively speaking very expensive health insurance.  Apparently it covers the kind of plastic surgery that isn't caused by falling down - more like 'hey i want new boobs' - i still don't believe it.  The insurance does cover HOUSE CALLS.  We've had 4 different house-calls/doctors come over. They're all a little unique and human, but professional and great at the same time.  I remember a house call in London too - can you imagine in the US if a doctor drove to your house to see you?!!!

control via love of BA

lately i have been feeling out of control. can i blame it on the seemingly endless transition, the normal sibling crap, the 'normal' feelings of anxiety when a workaphile isn't working, or not understanding the answer when i ask a question to a stranger in spanish?  I'm not sure what it is, and i hate to waste time finding out. I want a cure.  So, i will find one.  Spanish classes.  Start a new company. Write and illsutrate long thought about childrens books. Make family photo albums from past years.  Get boys on tightly run schedule...Writing about mundane crap here seems to feed my workaphile sense, as if someone would want to read this and the mere act of easily hitting publish is accomplishing something. i fear a post like this is noise to a blog about something that certainly shouldn't be about complaining.  but, hey that brings me to something eating at me. i must NOT complain too much about things here now.  Because sugar aside, there is so much that is good about life here.

1. life in a luxury high rise is pretty damn aweeeesome.  Although i miss our yard, pool, privacy, etc, i do love not having to worry about gardners, pest control, weird noises in the night.  Now i bask in the choice between front and back elevators, about remembering the name of one of 10 security guards that work here (many are unusually handsome.) i get to go literally across the street to the grocery store (let's ignore the seemingly offensive nick name Argentine's give their local grocery stores.)  I can go down to the gym, playroom, sauna, steam room (when the kids are settled in.) And, all of this costs boatloads less than a cheapass apartment in LA.  We did search for 2 weeks for an apartment and this was in a fancier neighborhood than we initially planned on.  But, for a mid-term rental, and my frazzled nerves after getting my purse stolen - a high security luxury tower that was within our budget was perfect.  Plus, we are within a very short walk of the zoo, the palermo 'woods and lake', and Club de Amigos.  So, i'm very thankful to be here.

2. Maximo's friends are aaaaaamaaaazing! I am going to start crying typing this, but their generosity and open-armness are the most generous kind series of actions I have ever been privy to experience.  I know it's in large part because Maxi has been a wonderful, loyal friend who loves them very much.  But, still - i won't go naming names - but we're talking about friends who have lent us their car for the year, friends who invite us to dinner over and over, give us gifts, have their children delight and console ours, weed through paperwork, find me names of shrinks (obviously still need to call them.) - the list could go on and on.  But, i hope this kind of loyalty and kindness is something deep in the Argentine spirit and something my kids learn for life while here.

3. The pace of life is slower.  Or at least mine is.  And, it's giving me space to think, to freak out a little, to contemplate.  You don't see everyone buried in the cell phones while walking down the street (reception problems? fear of stepping in hole or shit? or is it delighting in the liveliness of the city?)  Whatever it is, people eat dinner at 10pm.  They eat snacks at dinner time consisting of desserts.  They kiss eachother everywhere.  The teachers say 'kisses' when they say goodbye.  Love is all over.

Sweets given to my boys today at school: Felix got 2 LARGE candies for no particular reason.  Teo - "an ice cream cone filled with Dulce de Leche" for today's lunch dessert.  My Whole Foods eating, refined sugar avoiding self is freaking the x-out.  The 2 year olds bring snacks consisting of chocolate milk or disgustingly sweet 'juice' with a roll of cookies or cake.  Yet the children look ok and people are all very sweet.

El super wonderful, bizarro ZOOologico

The Buenos Aires Zoo is great and bizarre.  I maybe biased by a visit on a sunny, uncrowded day.

It's entertaining, interactive, urban yet an Argentine love of the creature in all of us prevents anything from seeming cruel.  We've been to a lot of zoo's around the world, and this one is unusual - it's big, it's in the middle of the city, yet has not been completely modernized.

It has large rodents running wild, aggressive ducks. It's completely not childproof featuring little lakes without railings everywhere. Full of architectural remnants from the days of great Argentine wealth - architecture that makes you wonder and think about how they saw animals and the rest of the world.

Apologies for the crappy camera again.  The zoo was originally designed when the goal of zoos was to have people relax, picnic, stroll and happen to see some animals in small cages.  So there's amble meandering space.

Here are some pics:

They sell food for the free-roaming animals.

The national pride: Mara's! Roam free 4th largest rodent, roam free! You will find them everywhere in the zoo, getting bullied by the most aggressive dog-sounding ducks I've ever seen. And very proud peacocks. They're easily confused with the LARGEST rodent who lives here too - the Carpinco, aka Capybara

The elephant house built over 100 years ago is said to look like 'An Indian Temple'

no railings anywhere. 

a sign in front of a demonstration about how people used to see the zoo, and the conflict between preserving history, animal species and prioritization.

Teo the brave goes to Washington

Teo began his first grade here in Buenos Aires!
He is attending a bilingual school called the Washington School.

We toured more schools than is sane, some a little more artsy, like we're used to at home. But Teo immediately fell in love with the  traditional yet warm Washington school. Our theory is that the American name, and internationalism made him feel comfortable. In the end he's the only native english speaker in his grade. And he skipped over the first half if first grade. But, they're doing something very well and he is very brave because he is happily staying all day.  8am-430pm.

He seems to love wearing a uniform. And he told me that the national anthem can make him cry because it feels so beautiful. The best kid in school gets to hold the flag. He says he wants to do it one day.

Highlights:

• they serve large sugary desserts at lunch (mothering cringe)
• the kids use folders that they fill up as the year goes bye so they can see their progress
• they teach cursive writing starting in the first grade
• they take a bus to go to 'gym' a country club on Mondays
• birthday parties are held on weeknights directly afterschool. Parents are not invited.  Kids are asked to have permission slips signed so they can take a bus to the party that will let them out around 730.  The reason? Many kids have houses outside the city they go to on weekends.  You will get your kid back full of sugary cakes and candies at their US bedtime.  But, many an argentine are known for putting their kids to sleep past 10 on schoolnights. School starts at 750am.

Above: Teo practicing TKD the day before school started. Below, eating lunch with his new friend, Emma, on his first day of school.  She was holding his hand and making him very happy.

Felix begin his school life

Felix has started school, aka "Jardin, Colonia."  We got very lucky because a friend of a friend got him into a coveted spot at Club de Amigos (when we called they said they had no spots.)

My impressions:

• AMAAAZING teachers - Lu and Dani have been warm, engaging, playful - in a manner that suggests that Portenos don't fear getting sued for grabbing your kid and throwing them in the air in glee.  I love this and wish we had more of it at home.
• The school is inside a 'country club' right near our apartment in the middle of the city.  This enables me to theoretically sit in the safe cafe, swim, go to gym while he's in school yet still be on the property.  There are gorgeous birds flying around, along with airplanes from near bye airport.

red crested cardinal

Felix's friend Nico 

Felix is learning to swim properly 2 days a week at school

• Felix is not in a good mood when he wakes up from his nap.  Unfortunately, his school starts at 2pm.  I have spent a few hours doing acrobats to get him inside the club during fits. 
• My spanish isn't that great, but I'm pretty sure a lot of the songs we are singing have politically incorrect things in them. Goes along with how people refer to each other, lovingly, 'fat, old..'
• SUGAR...ahh, i have no idea why sugar consumption in Argentina isn't something people are freaking out about.   At snack time, the 2 year olds bring their meriendas which by custom should be sweet....we're talking about giving them heaps of cookies, cake, chocolate milk, dulce de leche.  I am considered neurotic if i give Felix plain crackers and fruit.  Ironically, the other 2 year olds beg for some of Felix's sugarless crackers everytime we bring them.  And, it's not only snack time.  If you go to the grocery store here and look for 'desayuno' section, you will find a wall of various sweet baked goods.  Kioskos are full of candy. Teo is given VERY big deserts at his school at lunch time.  I'll have to write an entire post about this...

On deciding to start a book...blog

i keep thinking about writing a book.  seems delusional to hope anyone would ever want to read it - in this era of tweets and destroyed attention spans.  perhaps that is why i want to write it so much.  i want those beautiful long spaces of thought  to come back. i want to revisit those times in my life when there were literally no cell phones and I was remote. Disconnected from others and so much more present in the places i went to.  Now we’ve recently moved to buenos aires, and there are people walking around connected to the cloud on their phones.  americans texting in english to old friends, feeling so close to them that they can’t really feel how strange it is that men walk around heaving carts behind them like donkeys down the busy streets.

OK - i wrote the above before i decided to start a BLOG - which makes it all sort of irrelevant. I'll be writing for you to read backwards. If you have gotten to this point, I am surprised :) Blogs need photos and headlines and quick bits to be digestible. So that's what I'll try to do from now on.

I begin this BLOG from Tea Connection, a lovely cafe and totally Argentine despite it's name. It's having problems with it's alarm system which HURTS my hears, but no one seems to mind. I'll take the bus home now and digest some advil.

First impressions

Before i forget, i want to track my first impressions here.

- you can eat REALLY well on a lot less money.  With the dollar exchange rate, we can have delicious fancy meals out for very little money.  There's a cool restaurant scene. I think we've packed on a few pounds in a very short time.

- the museums are really good and also relatively cheap

- it's more foreign here the more i get to know it. first visits i thought it was language. now that my language is getting a little better, i see it's more than that...a lot more.  attitudes towards self, family, friendship, government, recreation, all different.

- they're killing their kids with crazy amounts of sugar and lack of sleep.  no matter how absurd it may sound to the typical argentine, i think this is a monumental crisis for this country.  they put sugar in EVERYTHING. they give 1 year olds soda and cookies and cake EVERYDAY.  The kids all look exhausted.  it really blows my mind. there's sugar in the coffee grounds you buy at the store.

- there's a general ease with rules that is really nice.  the idea is to follow rules for safety and common sense, not because they're rules.  this makes for crazy driving, but it also makes for easier going people who seem less stressed out.

- the middle class mom seems to have an easier life. she doesn't worry about her kids diets or sleep (kidding.)  schools are not relatively so expensive.  she is expected to demand time for herself to do things like exercise, have friends, etc.

- money is not spent on sidewalks, streets, etc.

- getting in line is different.  even felix is not taught to wait in line to wash his hands.  ex, 8 kids are brought to 4 sinks and told to wash their hands - and they just have to deal.

- you can actually see the water going down the drains in the floors of the bathroom.  there's always a little exposed drain area.  apparently this is not the same drain as the toilet water uses.

- most drains do not go counter clockwise

Some pics

Below are misc pics from our first few hectic weeks here...before the thought of blog, before i figured out how to use android properly to easily make this blog (note crappy camera from lower end phone i have here.)

Felix at school :)

BELOW: The boys bathe...a sequence often seen.

Felix and Lu

typical sidewalk...broken. At first Felix would point and say "broken" but after 100 of them, he stopped.

we saw a great show at Malba and Teo went on stage after

we saw the show w/Abu Rosa

This is where we live! Torres De Salguero

Did you know that Teo lost his first tooth here?

Below: Feeding ducks and geese with Abu Ro in Rosedal/Rose Gardens of Palermo

The horror: kids in cars without carseats, sometimes without seatbelts...a common practice in taxi's. 

The boys have watched/played entirely too much ipad.  Steve Jobs may have been satan.

Teo's room

We happened to come across the elementary school where Abu Ro went!

Teo and Abu Ro