Thinking of Home

[by Malin]

Our blog posts are less frequent since school started. Every day, Will and I are proud of Abby and Taylor for waking up and facing the school day at Escuela Nueva.  Not only is most of the day in Spanish, but the curriculum, teachers and customs are different – everything from what to do during recess to how to act when the teacher leaves the room (crazy, apparently). We send them off with Rolo, our friend, fellow soccer dad, and taxi driver, and we think: “Go Kids!”  They win the bravery award here.

Now that we can see the end of our experience in Argentina (7 weeks from now), we’ve started to admit more openly to the things we miss and the things that drive us crazy.  As Will says, “I think we’ve been here long enough to start complaining.” Yesterday the kids started quizzing us about how we’re getting home from the Boston airport.   Hmm. 

Of course, last week was our worst week here.

On Monday, Will and I awoke at 5 a.m. to find two men in our living room, in the middle of robbing us.  They picked the lock on the front door, making off with the kids’ computer, Abby’s backpack, and the landlord’s 1980s CD collection (Pink Floyd, Phil Collins…).  When we chased them off, they dropped the backpack (yeah!) and the CDs (huh?).  The result is that all of Abby’s great photos, except the ones on this blog, are gone.  We’re sad. 

Later that day, we shopped for chains and padlocks for our (broken) front gate, and installed metal door bars like they have in hotels.  Will gets major credit for somehow accomplishing these home improvements using only a tiny screwdriver. We feel reasonably safe again.  And of course losing all the computers or our passports would have been even worse, so we’re thankful for that. 

Added security

Our handful of skeleton keys

Now we know why there are shutters everywhere

Will's ingenious anti-theft alarm

This week in an effort to look on the bright side, we have been making lists of good things about Trelew and Argentina.  Things we will miss:

• Helado (ice cream)
• Not being in a hurry
• Desert sunshine
• Stripes (Taylor’s white tiger, lost in the desert of Patagonia somewhere)
• The simplicity of living with very few things (okay, maybe this is just Mom and Dad)
• Infinite family time
• The friends we’ve made
• Sugar cereal, Direct TV, Tang, and other evidence of more permissive parenting (Abby and Taylor…and maybe Will)
• Flamingos in the city
• The bakery across the street from our house

And now, in order to vent, are some things we won’t miss:

• A laundry machine that appears to beat our cloths to a pulp
• Living in Fort Knox
• Grocery stores that close from 12:30 – 5:30 pm, just when I’m ready to shop
• Crazy, aggressive, hostile drivers
• Restaurants with bad food and surly, hostile waiters
• An internet connection that is unreliable, slow, and stolen from the neighbors
• Using towels as potholders
• The dirt, litter, and graffiti that are everywhere here
• Dripping faucets, broken toilets, lumpy mattresses, eroding walls, broken locks, dirty carpets and other evidence of a rental house in decline
• Being so far from our friends and family

We're thinking more and more of home, especially after Monday's bombing in Boston.  We're thinking of family and friends, runners and spectators, residents of Boston and everyone affected.