Untitled - By Choice

Christmas in South America is very different than we are used to. Having spent two Christmases here on my mission, I've experienced the hot, humid, firework-enhanced Christmases. This one did not disappoint. Christmas Day was the hottest day of the year so far in Buenos Aires (hitting 96 degrees). We did make it into the pool for a while and had a fun day opening presents and enjoying all things Christmas.

On the other hand, the holidays now pose a more difficult challenge in the Los Mouritsen household. It was very hard to see Claire open presents that she hoped Santa Claus would bring as there were so many things we had two of--one for Lily and one for Claire. There is a box of unopened gifts stored in our garage that will become Caroline's. It is most difficult to think of all the fun times we have had as a family on past Christmas Days and to know that each and every holiday will expectedly unfulfilling.

We miss Lily. It just plain hurts.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2008

O Christmas; Tree

A very special event took place for us this week. When Lily got sick, we had been in Argentina just over two months and were still getting situated, trying to meet new people and getting comfortable in our new surroundings. The community welcomed us with open arms. During the time at the hospital, the community rallied around us to help us through this most difficult time by taking our kids, providing us meals, running errands for us, and generally being there for us in our time of need. When Lily passed, we upped and left as soon as we could to get back to the States and some familiarity, leaving all those who grieved with us in Argentina behind. Some of our close friends had told us that the circumstances made it hard as they were unable to have a final opportunity (like a funeral) for closure.

In working with the community, we came up with two separate memorials for Lily. The Embassy approved the planting of a Magnolia Liliflora tree on the compound accompanied by a plaque, and the school agreed to put a bench accompanied by a plaque in Lily's memory. The bench has yet to be placed (we checked today), but we had the tree-planting ceremony earlier this week. There were more than 100 employees, friends, and family members that came to support us. The tree is in a prominent place on the grounds allowing me (and everyone who wants to see it) coming and going every day with no effort. I had a chance to thank the community and our friends for all of the continued love and support. We then put some dirt around the roots of the tree and watered it. Then, just like the funeral, one by one people came to give us hugs of love and support. It was a very special event for us. At the end, Claire sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" in front of the whole crowd. She just walked right up, took the microphone, and belted it out. What a sweet sweet girl. I'll post a photo when it becomes available.

While the service was short, I had dressed up (in a suit) and was sweating profusely in the 85 degree, super humid weather. It has made it so hard to get into the Christmas spirit. Our house has been gussied up by Candace, but it is only an oasis. There are few Christmas lights and decorations around town, and we have begun to see the firework stands (for Christmas Eve) popping up around our house.

Other big news is that we just found out that a TGIF restaurant is going to be built right next store to a restaurant called Kansas. The Kansas is a popular place since it opens for dinner before 8pm. I'm not sure when the TGIF is going up, or if we'll ever go there (we've never been to Kansas), but it will be one more touch of the States. The main drag by our house has a McDonalds and a Burger King to keep the TGIF company.

Going out to dinner takes special planning due to the lateness of the normal dinner hour here. The ward party was on Friday night and it was scheduled to BEGIN at 7:30. While not terribly late, especially if it was an adults only dinner, it's getting late for folks with young kids. As we discussed the possibility of going to the party, we heard from families who were here last year that we should not be deceived by the "early" beginning hour, and that it only starts that early to accommodate the international families in the ward. We determined that it was just too late for our crew and passed, and only found out the next day that it was a good decision.

Ward Christmas parties are for kids and Santa. I should note that this is certainly not a complaint about our ward, just an observation about the cultural differences. As it turns out, while the start time was 7:30, the opening prayer was said at 9:00 and dinner was served around 10 pm. Some friends of ours left at 10:30 pm before dessert and before Santa. Santa arrived (must have taken forever to get to the southern hemisphere) around 11:45 pm, and the party ended about 12:15 am or so. Wow. Wow. Wow. Not so sure if we're just being Grinch-ish, or Grinches, but I wouldn't touch that late of a party with a 39 1/2 foot pole.

We hope Santa doesn't hold it against us and that Santa's helpers (i.e. USPS, Amazon, DPO) keep on working hard until Friday so that we can have a great holiday.

We wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy Holiday season this coming week.

Hurry... Santa Ees Comeeng

While I don’t claim to be a PEZ® aficionado, I do remember several years ago getting a Speedy Gonzalez PEZ® dispenser and thinking it was really neat. It was cool to have a PEZ® dispenser that was a little out of the ordinary, i.e. not the normal Spiderman® (does he need a ®?), Batman, Superman or He-Man dispensers. I remember losing Speedy and scouring each and every convenience store checkout counter for another Speedy Gonzalez to no avail. Would Speedy ever be replaced? Could I ever really replace Speedy? What does Speedy Gonzalez have to do with this post? Well, let me tell you.

Hopefully you remember Speedy Gonzalez from the old Tom and Jerry cartoons so I don’t have to take the time to explain who he is. Now think back as to how Speedy spoke. Think of his accent. Now imagine Speedy Gonzalez singing “Santa Clause is coming to town”. It would sound more like “Santy Claus ees comeeng too tooown”. THAT is what Claire sounds like. When we arrived, we put Claire into an Argentine pre-school where the instruction is conducted in English, but all of the activities are in Spanish. So they have been learning Christmas songs right before the summer break (reverse seasons, remember), and Claire came home earlier this week singing like Speedy Gonzalez. Her native Argentine school teachers teaching a native English speaker a Christmas song in English—I’m sure that’s exactly what her teachers sounded like. “Ees good, ya?

After finally settling back in, Candace® and I finally decided to go see Harry Potter’s Seventh Movie Part One of Two of the Deathly Hallows. There is a movie theater here called Hoyts Premium. For whatever the country lacks in traffic planning, they made up with Hoyts Premium. For 45 pesos (about $11.25) per person, there is a separate movie entrance area (with non-public restrooms), a separate waiting area complete with a hostess to announce when your movie is about to begin, pairs of leather full-size recliners in the theater, with a full menu and “call” button in the chair should your drink be too low. The food costs extra, but if you wanted, you could have a three-course meal (smoked salmon) for about 150 pesos per person (less than $40).

The movie theater is located about 20 mins from our house at a mall that houses the only Walmart in close proximity to us, and the parking garage has little sensors on it to tell you how many spots are available on each level of the parking garage. And it’s easy to find an empty spot cause the sensors are hanging from the ceiling and show a red light if the space is full, or green if empty, so you can see from far away where there is some parking. With all of this high tech stuff, you’d think it would cost an arm and a leg. Our three-hour parking (this is INSIDE the city limits of Buenos Aires, mind you) costs a whopping 6.6 pesos (less than $2).

We’re finding that while there are still some good deals to be had around the city (deluxe movie for about the same cost as a normal movie in the States, cheap parking, cheap labor), most goods are outrageously expensive and continue to get more expensive. The official government statistics and private estimators have a Grand Canyon sized gap in what they believe to be the current rate of inflation. We have certainly noticed a difference (not in our favor) in the short time we have been here.

“Ándale, ándale, arriba, arriba, ‘cause Santa ees comeeng.”

A Day in the Life

Before moving on to this week's topics, I thought it was worth posting the below two photos.

The first picture of from our Thanksgiving trip to Carilo (Where Dreams Come True). When we got to 'La Reserva' for our horse riding, Claire's friends (ages 12, 9, and 7) were all determined to ride their own horses. Claire, while big for her age, is 4, and we didn't think it was too terribly safe for her to ride a horse by herself. There was no age limit presented in the safety briefing and the waiver paperwork we signed.... Oh wait, there was none of that. We showed up, mounted, and were off. Claire was determined to have her own horse. Just when her parents had to put their feet (or foots, or footy) down, the horse whisperers trotted out this little pony for her to ride. You should have seen the look of pure joy on Claire's face. She rode that little guy the whole time and did a wonderful job. The picture either reveals that Claire really is a giant for her age, or that this horse had some kind of head shrinking dust spilled all over its body. Claire the Gaucha. Awesome.

This second photo is exactly what it looks like. It's a pile of horsey poopie with a Sam-sized footprint in it. So there was this pile, and all four adults saw Sam eyeing it. As he got closer, four adults (in their 'teaching' voices) said "Sam!" His selective hearing was engaged, he raised his foot, and squish (or squash, splat, plop, glop). The steam came from mommy's nose (not really), daddy's ears (really), and the poopy (double really). I'm still not sure Sam knows what the big deal was. What a character.

So now on to this week. Based on an experience we had yesterday, I thought I would provide a posting about a more mundane part of living abroad: The Grocery Store. One thing that Candace was concerned about before moving to Argentina was the availability of whole grain foods and decent produce. Despite repeated explanations that there are large grocery stores, she remained skeptical. After being here several months, we have settled into a routine and know the ins and outs of the different options. There are two companies with very large grocery stores, Jumbo and Carrefour. Carrefour has a few large centers around the suburbs and a lot of mini-Carrefours sprinkled around the various neighborhoods. Unfortunately, with our skillfully planned menus, we are particular about what he buy so the mini-Carrefours are used more for when we need something quick (since there is one about 5 blocks from our house).

We do most of our shopping at Jumbo. Yes, that's the name of Dumbo's mother. Yes, the mascot of the store is an elephant. Yes, it is funny that with obesity getting so much airtime in the United States that we shop at a store with a name like that. We do, however, get everything we need at one store. There is a Walmart about 20 minutes away, but it's not a Super Walmart--envision a Walmart with only Argentine goods--not as enticing, huh?

So we make it out to Jumbo about once a week. When we first arrived and didn't have a car, Candace always had the groceries delivered. If you spent the equivalent of about $115, your groceries could be delivered for FREE... so we did. The hassle is that there are probably 50-60 cash registers at the front of the store, and you really have to pay attention to which line you get in. At least a third of them are for home delivery only. There are about 10 that are for small orders (less than 20 items), there are a bunch of regular lines (that get WAY WAY backed up since... well, I'll get to that in a second), and there are a handful of priority lines. Who gets priority? Handicapped, seniors, pregnant women, and women with infants. So yesterday with Claire, Sam and Caroline all in tow, we became priority customers.

While that in itself isn't all that funny, we arrived at the line immediately after a non-priority customer had unloaded his whole cart and the checker was getting ready to start ringing him up. The checker saw us (read: Caroline) and asked the man to step aside. So we took our cart and a half of goods around him and checked right out. I avoided eye contact with the guy who was visibly annoyed... oh well. Sorry, señor, but we DO have a baby... step aside! And off we went.

The other funny thing (like funny = hassle) is that in the produce section, you go around picking out everything that you want, then you have to go to the scales (in the produce section) where they weigh everything and put a price tag on it. It is a far cry from showing up at the front of the grocery store and having them ring up everything right there. Now back to why the lines get so backed up. If you're not smart about when you shop, you'll find yourself there for hours. The Argentine people love crowds. When there is a holiday, EVERYBODY goes out. On the weekends, EVERYBODY goes out. On Saturday afternoon, EVERYBODY goes out shopping. Remember one of the first blogs about the mall food court at 1:00 am... people just love being out. They go out and congregate. So when you shop, the timing is important or you just get stuck.

COMPLETELY UNRELATED: We got the new side view mirror and I fixed it myself. I'm going to be a guest mechanic on BBC's Top Gear.

Finally, another reality of living in a foreign culture. During the last month, the domestic airport in downtown BA has been closed and all flights were moved to the International Airport (Ezeiza). So I had to travel this week and my flight was supposed to depart at 8:40 pm on Aerolineas Argentinas (one I try to avoid due to it's consistent lateness, lack of onboard entertainment, and sub-par (compared to other indigenous airlines) snacks). We were at the airport plenty early and were just killing time until about 8:15 pm when we checked the monitor (FLIGHT ON TIME) and made our way to the security area. That's when we were told that all flights on Aerolineas were delayed. We said that the monitor says its departing on time (even in Spanish) to no avail. We went back to the monitor (FLIGHT ON TIME), sat down, and then looked at the monitor again at 8:30 pm (10 mins before we were supposed to leave), and (FLIGHT DELAYED). It was delayed until 10:00 pm... so we hurried back to try and claim our seats at the cafe where we were waiting to wait some more. While wandering around about 9:05 pm, we heard "THIS IS THE FINAL CALL FOR FLIGHT BLAH BLAH BLAH." So we hurried back to security, made it onto the flight (as some of the last passengers), and were in the air by about 9:20 pm.

Not that I haven't been delayed on a flight before (or 100 times), it was just the manner in which the delay was known in advance, advised at the last minute, then with no more notice (the monitors when we ran back to security still had it leaving at 10:00 pm), it was going to leave us. Hence my attempts to avoid them. Blegh.

So that was our exciting week. It's getting warmer and warmer, and we're trying to get into the holiday spirit in shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops.