Going back in time

I've been working on a theory about living in this small, industrial city in Patagonia.  Here it is:  In Trelew, it's always 1974.

Supporting evidence:

• Muscle cars and loud tailpipes are the epitome of cool.
• Recycling?  Nope.  Only a bottle-return on local beer.
• Construction workers whistle at women (constantly).
• Despite a national obsession with the game, no soccer for girls.  Instead, the big sport for girls is roller skating.
• Cursive writing is a major element of the kids' school.
• Popular ladies fashions include polyester stretch pants.  For men? Members Only-type jackets.
• No car seats or seatbelts in use, ever.
• Litter and graffiti are everywhere, on everything.

A lovely yard nearby

Okay, they aren't all muscle-cars...but they are still from the 70s!
The desert climate means they don't rust so they're still on the road.

Near our house

Paleontology park and Asado

On Sunday we went to a paleontology park in Gaiman.  We went with two of dads colleagues (Pablo and Marcelo).  We went up a steep hill and along the way they had displays of fossils.  The formation in which we walked was the Sarmiento formation.  After that we went back to our house and had an Asado (an Argentinian cookout).  Pablo's son ate Lams heart and tripe (intestine). Here are some pictures...

Basketball in Argentina-2!!!

Hey faithful blog readers! Sorry I haven't blogged in a while... 8 hour school days tend to give you a few headaches.  Less than one month until we come back to Durham!!! We are so excited!!!!!!!

For those of you that don't know, a few weeks ago I switched to a different basketball club, called Club Independente. I switched because of the lack of femininity and because of the drastically high amount of fart jokes. I know, I should be proud of myself that I know enough Spanish to interpret that, but unfortunately it had the opposite affect. Anyway, now that I have joined this new club, I find it amazing. All the players are girls, a lot of them really tall, all of them over the age of 13, and pretty awesome at basketball. It is so cool what you can learn from watching these girls play. I have gained so much confidence in myself, improved my lay-up amazingly, and learned so much about the game of basketball. I have also found a few new friends,made a few new role models and learned not to get on my coaches nerves or else he makes us do 20 push-ups (and that is just for not standing in a line fast enough!).

My coach and his daughter (whose name is Sofie, and who if I interpreted correctly, is trying out for the U-15 Argentinian National Basketball team) threw a party for the team. It was so fun hanging around those girls, eating churripan (the Argentinian version of a hotdog) and watching pro boxing (which I still don't get the point of, even though all my teammates had their eyes glued to the screen).

Here are some pics!!!

The basketball party-one girl in the back is 19 years old!!

Marlene's birthday party

We are not the only foreigners in Trelew. Our neighbors (next door) are German (except for Ruben, he is owner of the museam my dad works in) . Thankfully they all speak fluent english. They have two kids Marlene age four and Pepi age two Pepi is also very crazy. My mom keeps telling me that he is just like I was (it gets annoying). Anyway, Marlene invited us to her birthday party. We gave her cupcakes, flower barrettes, a hat that mom knitted and three cards (German and English) for Pepi we got a wooden train thingy handmade from El Bolson. Here are some pictures.

Merlene's (middle) birthday cake

Blowing out the candles!!!
pepi is blonde with a green shirt

ruben and his mom

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.

El Bolson Vacation

For the past week, my family has been staying in El Bolson, a tourist town in the Andes that is about eight hours away from Trelew. On the first day we drove to a hostel between Trelew and El Bolson. The next day we arrived in El Bolson and took a short hike that most of the time taken up was driving up a treachorously steep, dirt road, and the other part going up a 90 degree angled trail that was only 1000 meters, but felt so long because it was so steep. We stayed the night in a hostel and went horseback riding and then drove to Lago Puelo, a lake nearby. On Saterday we went to the famed market where you can only have a stand if you make it yourself. For friends and family, we have presents! On Saterday afternoon we had a fun time rafting the Rio Azul, and jumping in the water with the rest of our group. On Sunday we took a hike in the mountains and on Monday we had a very long ride home. I took over 200 photos, but you guys can only see a few of them :(

I told you the first hike was steep!

Riding horses-I finally conquered my fear of them!

Jumping off the raft into the river.

Our Easter Sunday hike

Our hostel (a small B&B)

The Chubut River Dam

Last weekend, my Dad's colleague asked us to take a trip down to The Chubut River Dam with his family. He is married to a German and, as most Germans do, she and her two kids speak English. They have a 4 year old girl named Marlene and a 2 year old boy named Marcus, but everyone calls him Peppy, do to his extensive activeness. During the hour long car ride down to the dam, there was naturally lots of jumping, screaming, laughing and putting lollipops in everyone's hair. And since the Argentinians are so relaxed, and we only had a 6 seat car and eight people, no one had a seatbelt on:). Naturally, lots of crawling over people and sitting on laps and Peppy trying to get into the front of the truck. When we finally got there, there was a tunnel carved straight into the rock and through the tunnel was the dam. We had asado in the little village below the dam (not exactly the ideal place to live if the dam breaks) and took lots of pictures.

The tunnel into the rock

The town where we had lunch.

The dammed up river.

Me and Marlene on the top of the dam that you drive over to get down to the village.

The dam

Peppy playing with a random persons dog.