Just to review, we just moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina. While being nervous about the move and what it would mean for our family, we were particularly concerned about how the kids would take it. We have moved every two years since 2004 and knew it would start taking a toll on the kids the older they got. With Lily and Claire being 5 and 4 respectively, we wondered how they would take this big move. And we are so pleased to report that they are doing wonderfully. They are excited about meeting new friends and learning Spanish. Their 10-word vocabularies (in addition to being able to count to 10) would rival any 8th grader in the Granite School District (not coincidentally where I was an 8th grader in West Valley, Utah). Both Lily and Claire love to shout 'hola' to anyone they can see, be it punk Argentine kids skateboarding, older couples walking their dogs, or anyone that is not an immediate member of our family. They love to say, "Hola, soy Lily (or Claire)" and "adios, amigos", and they have the proudest looks on their faces when someone answers them back in Spanish.
The language immersion program in our household has been so successful that Sam has picked up some Spanish words just by listening to his sisters. Just today, he spent a good 20 minutes during church (Sacrament meeting) turned around saying "ow-ah" (hola) to the gentleman sitting behind us. After the man clearly understood Sam and returned the greeting for the ump-teenth time, Sam made his way up and the down the aisles cheerfully greeting the congregation. It was hilarious. He has also, independent of our prompting, replaced his normally cheerful "goodbye" with "ciao", and you can even coax an "adios" out of him if he's in a good mood. We feel so good that the kids are adjusting well and have dealt with the change with such positive attitudes. Only once (upon receipt of an email from a beloved friend in Colorado) did Lily realize it would be a long time before she saw any of her old friends again and she broke down in tears.
If we could keep occupied, the kids would keep smiling. Part of the reason for the difficulty is that we haven't received the first shipment of our stuff yet. We were supposed to get a small shipment pretty soon after we arrived, but it has been delayed, so our sizeable house in BA has become the largest hotel room we've ever stayed in as we are still living out of only the things we brought in our suitcases. The kids can only play with the same toys for so long. Another deterrent for some playtime is that we have hard floors throughout the house. The main floor and upstairs are all a beautiful hardwood, while the top level is a very thin carpet with no padding, not conducive to horsey rides and rough housing, which we tended to do a lot. After returning from my mission in Buenos Aires, I remember how nice it was to lay down on the carpet at home. BA certainly missed the boat on the carpet movement. It would have been nice to have some carpet earlier this week as Claire fell out of bed twice, once landing on her face. We could tell you exactly where she landed on her face because it was bruised up pretty good. Now that she knows that it hurts, she's been doing better.
We have been pleasantly surprised at some of the services here we did not expect. We expected good air (I crack myself up), but we didn't know that Argentines love their ice cream. There are a substantial amount of ice-cream shops that could be described as upscale. It is all made fresh with no preservatives so it doesn't keep long, but it is delicious. Even better, all those places deliver for free. We joined one of the shops' membership program which allows us to buy 2 kilos for the price of 1 every Monday. Wow, what a great idea. We also found that the big grocery stores deliver, as does every where else (from the local empanada shop around the corner to McDonalds... yep!). So we're in the market for a chicken delivery guy (already made contact), water, and others as needed.
We are also in the market for a part-time maid. Many (but not all) of the families hire a maid to help out around the house and sometimes help with the kids. We are just looking for someone to come in twice a week and clean the house. We have interviewed a few Peruvian (ALL the maids are Peruvian) candidates, but have yet to find a good fit. The most recent one we interviewed yesterday wanted 18 pesos an hour, that's like $4.50/hour... OUTRAGEOUS. That's 30% over the going rate. The pay range we have found is around 12-16 pesos/hour (with a 3.92 peso to 1 dollar exchange rate). Super cheap and they have all been highly recommended. I'm sure we'll have news by next week.
As we get settled into the house, albeit with none of our things, we are learning more and more about how electricity works. Being a novice electrician (by changing the occasional lightbulb), I didn't fully appreciate the different in voltage and that it does really matter. The voltage in Argentina is 220v and most of our things are 110v items. We are provided a few converters and will plan strategically on where they go and what gets plugged into them. We are lucky that some wonderful companies (like Apple) make their electronics cross-compatible so all we need is a plug adapter from the 'normal' two flat prongs, to two angled prongs. We learned our lesson the first day when one of us (I won't say who to maintain confidentiality) plugged in his/her hair dryer and it lasted 10 seconds. Who knew?? Of course I say that like I would have done any different.
On the social front, we hosted some people at our house tonight (an outgoing family that has seemingly bent over backwards to help us get acclimated in BA and to whom we have a huge debt, and a family that showed up at church that will be moving here in two months to work for an American oil company). It's a big deal since Candace expertly found some excellent recipes we could share that didn't require any complicated kitchen devices... since we have none. It turned out great. We have been pleased with the social tendencies of the families down here, and we are all in the same "no family close" situation. All of the families seem to be outgoing, friendly and welcome social interaction. They are so lucky we moved in.
The local ward has also been very welcoming. While not being an American branch, by October, there will be 10 American families (about 15 kids) in the ward, including the BA North and West mission presidents. The chapel is small and the layout is different, but we're pleased for the exposure the kids are getting and we have been comfortable there.
Finally, the cool stuff... like, now that we live in Argentina, what exciting things have we done! Well, remember that it's winter, we have no stuff, no car, and have been here two weeks. Candace has taken the kids on walks around the neighborhood and we ordered ice cream and had it delivered (and that was exciting!). There is something cool though. We walked the kids over to what will be Lily's school in 10 days. It is a large complex and has an elementary, junior high and high school on the same grounds. The school sits on a hill overlooking the Rio de la Plata. On our walk over there, we passed the school to a park that was on the banks of the Rio de la Plata. We could see the ships out on the water and had a wonderful coastal view all the way down to downtown Buenos Aires. Our suburb is about 8 miles from downtown and with the curve of the coast, we had a great view. So we can enjoy that whenever we want as it was about an 8-10 block walk from our house. That was cool.
We will keep you posted on other cool things that we do as I'm sure there will be some, but playing hide and seek again doesn't quite qualify. We hope all are well. We need our stuff to make this house a home, but we're getting settled and we're really here. Ciao!
