Another busy week in BsAs

The last week here in BA has been a busy one. Everything is going well at school the first week. Diego, being used to only 3 days a week of preschool, sometimes complains about having to suit up for school every day. But once he gets there, he has a good time. He gets along well with his classmates, particularly his friend Santi (short for Santiago.) Santi’s Mom has told us he has been demanding to watch more TV shows in English, because he wants to communicate better with Diego. Hopefully he can convince Diego to work on his Spanish. As I write this at 1222 PM, Diego is at an afternoon birthday party with his class to celebrate his classmate Ramiro’s 4th Birthday.

Bianca has also had the chance to socialize a bit. Her classmate Fiona’s mother, Beth, is an American from Chicago, and she hosted a “play date” on Friday with some of the other girls in the class. Bianca also attended a birthday party for Florencia on Saturday. Quite the production - about 20-30 kids. They had food and soda, boys vs. girls games, a magician, and even a dance portion with lights and disco smoke. It was interesting how most of the parents (ourselves included) drop off the kids for the party and come back a couple of hours later. Meanwhile, the party is well chaperoned and in a secure environment. In spite of the language barrier, Bianca had a wonderful time. Unbelievably, there will be another birthday party next Saturday for another classmate. I am not sure if we will attend or not. We have been talking about taking a weekend in the country.

From the perspective of Mom and Dad, we have been trying to fit in some of our own activities in the morning hours without kids. We took the subway down to the Plaza de Mayo last week, and walked around the downtown area after enjoying a coffee and pastry. The three hours we have with both kids in school tends to fly by. Next thing you know, it is time to get back.

Typically, though, one or both of us will spend the afternoon hours at the park with Diego to give him a chance to blow off steam (and energy.) With the exception of a few rainy days, the weather has been very warm and sunny. The seasonal equivalent in the north would probably be late August to early September. The big adjustment for we Arizonans has been the humidity, which lately has been ranging from 94% in the morning to 75% in the afternoon. This week the temps have averaged about 29 C / 84 F for highs and about 18 C/ 65 F at night. We ran the AC unit in our bedroom last night.

We have been a bit lazy with cooking dinners at home. We went to Oporto, one of our favorite places, for dinner last night. The food is very good, and best of all, on the second floor, they have a kids play area. We can enjoy our wine and meal while the kids play under the supervision of a restaurant-provided “nanny.” Silvia and I both opted for mini bife de lomo (tenderloin steak) and the kids had milanesas, (breaded cutlet) with fries. We were served by a waiter who remembered us from our visits in October of last year- a nice guy. The meal was good and reasonably priced: two glasses of wine, two sodas and the meals for 60 pesos, a little less than $20 USD.

On a recommendation from Beth, we found a well-equipped food store in Palermo called Jumbo. It is, on a smaller scale, reminiscent of a Wal-Mart or Target store with a supermarket inside. They have a good selection of meats, produce, and groceries of every kind. We also stocked up on some paper and plastic goods for the apartment. The only drawback is that it is not within walking distance. Not a major concern, though. A 5 -minute Subte (Subterraneo=Subway) ride and 10-minute walk got us there this morning. They have a taxi stand in front of the store, and it was only a 7 peso / $2.33 USD ride to the apartment. Our main reason of going to Jumbo, however, has not yet been fulfilled: They occasionally have Mexican corn tortillas available. They were sold out today, though. We settled for a bag of flour tortillas. Silvia and I definitely miss our Mexican food. There are several Mexican restaurants nearby, but none of them open before 8 PM!

Well, this post is getting long. We’ll update the blog with some more info and pictures to come.