The Countdown

We are only a few weeks away from our long-awaited summer vacation to the United States. We will all be flying to America together, and then I am going to come back to Buenos Aires for a couple of weeks, before returning to the States to enjoy some well-deserved state hopping. In looking forward to this trip, we have been able to reflect on our life here in Argentina... and we like it. It is easy to criticize, complain, and critique a different culture and we have tried our best to take it for what its worth, not compare it to life in the U.S. and enjoy what we have. Some days that is easier than others, but we're doing our best.

We have made lots of friends, found lots of activities, and have sufficient trips on our Mouritsen Family Fun List to keep us busy for the next two years. It has been fun to compare notes with the outgoing families to make sure we do the things they thought were highlights, and it's like Christmas waiting to see who our new next-door neighbors are going to be and if they'll have kids the same ages as ours.

Even after a year, one of the things that trips me up when talking to people about our summer plans is whether we say we'll be back in the winter, or right before fall... or spring... With us being in the southern hemisphere, we're in late fall right now heading into the coldest months of June and July. But we're leaving for the summer months up north and will then be back by the time school starts in early fall... or is it spring? Oh well. Most Argentines know what I mean, or think that I don't know the names of the seasons in Spanish.

Last night, Candace and I went to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie at the "premium" theater near our house: leather recliners, dinner menu, wetbar... the whole 9 meters (we are on the metric system down here). I'm sure this happens a lot, but it was more my choice to see the movie than Candace, but she was a good sport. And I must include the fact that I really liked the first 3 Pirates movies. I liked the same crew with an ongoing quest and the resolution with Davey Jones at the end of movie 3. I know they left it open for more movies with the map to the Fountain of Youth and I know they're going to make a few more Pirates movies, but I was very much disappointed in this latest installment. It would have been one thing to keep to the same shenanigans with Jack Sparrow with the same characters (Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley), but they got new people, new pirates, new ships... but what seemed were the same lines... same jokes... same sword fights... blah blah blah. Let's just say that I'm not sure I'll be rushing to see the next one the first two weeks it comes out. Oh well. Harry Potter 7 Part 2, Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, and a few others will have us back at the premium theater shortly.

Following the trend from last week, here are two excerpts courtesy of Candace:

Lily’s Memory

We have tried really hard to keep Lily’s memory alive with our kids. We know that they are young and may have a hard time remembering her in the future. We talk about Lily all the time. We tell stories about her over and over with the hope that hearing those stories repeated will help them remember her. Claire came into Sam’s room the other night wearing a pair of Lily’s old pajamas. Sam looked at her and said “Hey, those are Lily’s pajamas.” I felt so sad to see Lily’s favorite pajamas without Lily, but I also felt so happy that Sam remembered they were her pajamas. It has only been 7 ½ months since Lily passed away. It feels much longer to me. I have prayed that our children would be given the gift to remember her.

Oil and Water

Sam and Caroline don’t exactly get along. It is very hard for them to be in the room together without constant supervision. When Caroline is around Sam spends all of his time making sure she doesn’t touch anything that belongs to him. Caroline mostly goes about her business. In the past she didn’t get upset when Sam would take things from her, but all that has changed now. She has developed quite an attitude and opinion. She lets us know when she has been wronged. She has recently become quite aggressive with Sam. She will lunge at him and scratch his face and recently she bit him hard on the cheek. I have to remind myself that this will all pass. Luckily, Claire has all the patience in the world with Caroline and Sam. She is our peacemaker. I just wish so much peace didn’t need to be made!

Going to the Bullpen

This week had some good and some bad. The good was that while driving, I took it upon myself to turn left whenever I wanted, the people around me stayed in their lanes, I could turn right on red, and the surrounding traffic kept its appropriate distance in front, behind, and next to me. How could this be, you ask? Well... I was in the United States. What could possibly be bad about that? I was there by myself. I don't normally travel a lot, but the last two months or so have been abnormal, with my second week-long trip in 4 weeks, it's taken its toll. We will all be going to the U.S. in three weeks as a family for a vacation and we are looking forward to it.

As such, my anecdotes are all about life in the USA, which you all know about. Upon my return, Candace indicated that she had a desire to blog. When I told here there was a one blog per family limit as dictated by Al Gore, the inventor of the Internet, she didn't believe me. When I told her the Internet was full, she didn't believe me. When I told her that the blog readers would never accept a guest blogger, she didn't believe me. When I told her that it didn't bother me if she had some perspectives to share and she wanted to share the blog, she finally believed me. After all, the name of the blog is "Los Argentinos Mouritsen" and not "El Gaucho David" or "El Gran Bloguero David Mouritsen" or "This is My Blog, and Only Mine Mine Mine." So Candace has prepared some thoughts on life here and different things that will be incorporated into the normal posts.

I'm sure you'll be able to tell whose is whose... since mine are random and written like a third-grader. So, I'm calling the bullpen... Ladies and Gentlemen, my wife:

Music Class

I have decided to join the blogging world. I know my posts won’t be as clever or funny as Dave’s, but our daily experiences are so different and I wanted to share my experiences.

With Claire in school and Caroline napping in the morning I wanted to find an activity I could do with Sam. I found a music class and thought it would be perfect since Sam loves music and dancing (mostly he loves noise). I have taken him for seven weeks now. The class is held in a room filled with stage props and other distractions. The first week I could hardly get Sam to participate in the class at all. He was so distracted with all the things in the room. I went up to the teacher afterwards and told her this wasn’t going to be a good fit for us. She was going to charge me so much for one class as opposed to just paying for the whole month so I decided to just try it for one month. I did a lot of talking with Sam before the next class and told him he needed to participate in the class and not touch all the props or climb on the stage (what kid can resist props and a stage?) The class is for kids 18 months-4 years old. Sam is not quite 3. Almost all the other kids in the class are around 18 months old. Sam is and always has been big. People always think he’s much older than he is. He is really twice the size of the other kids in his class. Those who know Sam know that he lives his life with a scream, a jump and a run. His voice has a default setting of LOUD. After the first week he started to participate in the music class. He got really excited about it, which brought about another problem. In his excitement, Sam knocked over child after child. He hardly noticed them in his efforts to dance and jump. I watched the looks on the other mom’s faces. I think if they had a vote we would have been voted off the island. Last week one of the little girls hit Sam in the head with a wooden instrument. You all probably heard the scream. We have enjoyed the class together. I just hope we haven’t ruined it for all the other kids. Sam is a joy. He is rough and tough. I remind him regularly to be gentle with his sisters and me. It just isn’t in his nature!

Back to Dave.... ha ha... I just wanted to include a couple of my favorite pictures.

The Wonder Years

No... this is not about Fred Savage. Caroline turned 1 on 28 April 2011. We had some cake. We invited some friends. We had some homemade ice cream. We watched Caroline look at the cake. We watched Caroline poke at the cake. We saw Caroline go headfirst at the cake. We saw Caroline take the cake in both hands and go to town. We saw Caroline be overwhelmed by sugary goodness. And then she went to bed. So fun.

This week, we also went to dinner with some new friends we found via Claire's after school cooking class. They are from Louisiana and are down here working for Exxon. At our seafood dinner (delicious, by the way), they told us of the family business of harvesting alligators. It was Steve Irwin close up. Now I'm just as afraid of alligators as I am of sharks... and clowns (just kidding about the alligators).

Running out of Land

Happy Mother's Day! It would be easy for me to say that we had a good Mother's Day here, but since I'm no Mother, it wouldn't mean much. Argentine Mother's Day is in October so we had to make due with what we had. Thank goodness we had a Mother to honor.

Earlier this week, I was able to see some of Mother Earth's beauty. Have you ever thought that you would make it to the end of the world? What is the end of the world, or in Spanish, el fin del mundo? In Christopher Columbus's time, it meant something entirely different than it means now... and what exactly does it mean now? Is it a tall cliff? Is it natural disasters?

Well, this past week, in my case, it was pretty much running out of land. The southernmost province in Argentina is called Tierra del Fuego ("Land of Fire") and there is a city on that island-province called Ushuaia. I spent a few days in Ushuaia. The city sits on the Beagle Channel separating the island of Tierra del Fuego with some outlying Chilean islands before the south Atlantic ocean where the next stop is Antarctica.

It was cold. You can see from the pictures and video that the city is on the water with imposing mountains behind it.

I've been very fortunate in that I've been able to explore some of the more exotic parts of the country. So far, they are all places worth bringing my family back to see. Ushuaia certainly fits that bill. Tourism at the end of the world.

Easter and the Devil's Throat

We had a great Easter. It was low-key, and I think that we were all pleased that the Easter Bunny remembered that we were no longer in Colorado. We had a nice egg hunt in our upstairs and the kids were sporting their new Easter duds.

Each holiday brings with it both the pain of missing a family member, and the knowledge that we will all be together again. Our kids are so sweet, and we are often reminded of the extra incentive we have to be good. Our life in Argentina is good.

As for the second part of the title, La Garganta del Diablo, or Devil's Throat, is the largest of 200-plus distinct waterfalls at Iguazu Falls National Park in northern Argentina (on the border with Brazil). It is on our list for a future family trip, but I was able to make it up there for work, so don't be surprised if some images appear in the future with Candace and I. While I'm warning you in advance for the duplication, I think it will be worth the double look.

The Devil's Throat:

Other views along the upper trail:

It was a special treat since the water levels are particularly high this time of year. Making the flow that much more impressive.

For Claire's Quote of the Week, she said: "Mommy, Coca-Cola (spoken with an Argentine accent) is Spanish for Coke."

She is hilarious.