The Odyssey

I'm sure when Homer used his hammer and chisel to write about Odysseus' long journey home after the fall of Troy, he did not have in mind that some 29 centuries later, a family in the northern Buenos Aires suburbs would be awaiting their Odyssey for what seems just as long. Odysseus took about 10 years to make it back to Ithaca after the Trojan War. We just found out that our Odyssey (the Honda version) is taking a much longer journey to Buenos Aires than we previously expected. Our vehicle was originally supposed to ship circa 22 August 2010 AD, so I sent an email to the company last week just to check on the status of the container ship to see if I could track it myself. Well, I was informed that the container ship entrusted to safely transport the Odyssey had engine trouble, and had to take a 2-week break in Savannah, Georgia, postponing the Odyssey's arrival from 10 September 2010 AD (THIS WEEK), to 24 September 2010 AD (NOT THIS WEEK). May we all pay homage to Poseidon that the seas will be calm for an on time departure 6 September 2010 AD.

While we would miss our Odyssey anyway (since it's a sweet ride), it's made worse by the fact that some of our good friends who have helped us out tremendously the last almost two months have an Odyssey as well. So when we ride in it, we get all sad. Worse yet is there are two other families who got here AFTER us that also have Odysseys.... and guess what?! One of those families got their Odyssey on Friday. As it turns out, Honda Argentina doesn't sell Odysseys (CRX and Pilot is as big as they go) so there will be four Honda Odysseys in the northern suburbs in the next month (with Poseidon's cooperation). We've talked about going on vacation in November with 2 of those other 3 Odyssey owners and joked that it would be an Odyssey Caravan.... Sorry, it's late and I'm not on my game.

Enough about the car. One of the funniest things we have seen in the last couple of weeks is Sam's refusal to respond to anyone's effort to speak Spanish to him. He will happily shout "owah" and "chao" to people and will say "po favo" when he wants more food at dinner time. He will sometimes surprise us by repeating something someone says, but shame on you for speaking Spanish to Sam. Our maid, Lorena (who speaks as much English as Homer probably did), will cheefully greet Sam every day she comes and she is met with a grumpy "NO" from Sam. When I caught wind of that response, I had to try it out. Lily reminds us that we're trying to only speak Spanish at dinner time to reinforce what she and Claire learn at school, so when she does, either Candace or I will turn to Sam and ask about his day in Spanish, and he grumpily says "NO", and refuses to answer. If in English, he's a cheerful as ever. In Spanish, it's a "NO" every time... until you say "chao".

One thing that I have been ready to say "owah" to has been the parrilla in our back yard. The brick structure that is a staple in every Argentine's yard had been calling my name since we got here. Knowing that a proper "asado" is a process and not a quick "throw some meat on the grill" outing, it had to be planned at a time I could fully dedicate myself to doing it right. That was tonight. And so our first official "asado" in Argentina was.... postponed. Um, actually, my first attempt was a total disaster. I should have known that I didn't have the right equipment to do it right, but was blinded by desire to do the Tim "The Toolman" Taylor grunt while putting the finishing touches on a hunk of meat. I am such a loser. We broiled the meat instead. Alas, I am not defeated. Did Odysseus stop heading towards Ithaca cause he had a rock in his sandals? Did the Three Amigos give up when the infamous El Guapo had them surrounded? Did Maverick give up flying after Goose was killed? OK, yeah, he did for a little while, but then he got back in the cockpit and finished the course, but not as the trophy winner, which I thought was funny. Normally in movies like that, the comeback kid would win the trophy, but Iceman was holding the trophy at the graduation.... go figure. Well, I will try again. I have a few years to perfect the process. And I will. Oh yes. I will.

If the asado would have turned out the way I wanted it to, I would have retired to our upstairs where we installed a hammock (or as Claire and Lily call it, a mahammock? don't ask where that came from). Our whole top floor is a big playroom and there are exposed beams. Some friends (same ones with great taste in vehicles) had us over and they had two hammocks hanging from the beams on their own top floor and our kids just loved them. So we thought we'd invest in one. Well, it's a success... and we have since ordered another one. It is very comfortable. So comfortable and fun that the kids just fight over it. Um, glad we only got one at a time?

Since we have arrived, we have celebrated a birthday for Candace and a birthday for Dave. We went to dinner at the same place for both and it was great both times. It will be easier to branch out once we have the Odyssey. We also got word that we might get the rest of our stuff this coming week. While we're in a good schedule, we've been without almost all of our stuff for two and half months now. Without our own car (luckily Argentina has a great local car hire system that's relatively cheap) for going on two months.

As I look around, we've made a good start to our lives here. While the exotic-ness (I'm not spell-checking this) of living in a new country is wearing off as we make the weekly trips to the grocery store and pay someone to take us to church, I think we're having a pretty good time of it.