CARNAVAL

CARNAVAL

JG: Like any civilized society, Argentina celebrates the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday with a party in the streets.

 

Charlie's comment: Amazing!

Placita Julio Cortazar en Plaza Serrano

Flash forward 15 years

She got the spray

Spray fights

Charlie's adventures in silverland

Charlie says: I was playing in the fountain without my clothes. You can only see my underwear in this picture, and my body.

I wanted this big cheese as my treat. So we got it as my treat. It was so heavy that I had to put it down on the floor but I couldn't.

I don't like or love Joker but I like Batman. This mural is near the fountain.

Walking with children, MALBA

Jamie says:
Jonathan asked me if I was taking video while taking this photo. He wanted to know if I was capturing the high pitched screeching noise coming from both girls. Nope, this will have to suffice.

This afternoon we went to MALBA. We had read in a guidebook that it had an interactive kinetic exhibit that children would love. But when we arrived we encountered a astonishingly beautiful collection of Latin American art, but unfortunately nothing remotely child friendly. Dava ran around saying "WOAH! WOOOOAHHHH!" which was delightful to me... but possibly not to our fellow museum goers. We were reminded by staff that the kids couldn't touch anything. Charlie delighted in the green penis on an otherwise black and white male torso.

We left shortly after and spent just as much time in the front of the museum as we had inside.

Afterward, we took a walk past many embassies, to a park in Recoleta. On the way home, Charlie explained to me that she wanted a butterfly as a pet. She said "I would put it in a special container, a big special container with flowers on it and orange flavors and fruit flavors." She said she wanted to take it on the plane, that she would take very good care of it and teach it how to behave. I suggested that we could get a caterpillar and watch it make a chrysalis and turn into a butterfly. She didn't like that idea.

Yes, there is a pool on the roof

Jamie says: One of the most pleasant aspects of our first week in Buenos Aires is the pool on top of the apartment building where we are staying. The weather's been in the high 80's and humid, and a swim has been the perfect antidote to a sweaty day of walking for hours. It's a good sized pool with a shallow and deep end. Charlie has been swimming every day since Tuesday. Dava and I broke our swimming streak today in the interest of taking a nap. 

Charlie chasing butterflies 

2nd Day of our bus tour, a quick way to get oriented 

Street art is everywhere 

amore love

About Yesterday's Bus Ride

Charlie says:

This morning Dava and I watched pictures of yesterday's bus ride. The first one was me and Mommy sitting on the bus listening to music, in the front of the bus. The one that I really liked best was the one that had me and my mom looking at a butterfly.

JG: This is in reference to a hop-on-hop-off tour bus ride we took yesterday (and will continue today, using our 48-hour ticket). For much of it, Charlie and Jamie rode the open upper deck while I cowered from the heat with Dava downstairs.

What Dava has been up to

Schools

Over the last couple of months, people kept asking us, is Charlie going to be in school in Argentina? We would answer, that's the plan, and Dava too! But the truth was that, though I had spent a significant amount of time reading and researching schools in Buenos Aires, and Jonathan had asked his contacts (and their contacts) for advice, we had found information was not easy to come by, and sometimes contradictory. This was partly a function of it being summer vacation in B.A. over the last couple of months. 

So we weren't sure how the school thing would work out once we hit the ground, but we did manage to schedule three school tours for our first couple of days. Our very first morning (not including the hazy, sleep-deprived first morning after we arrived at 4:30 am on Wednesday) we visited Jardin Fallow Land and were immediately charmed by their openness and holistic approach to schooling. The school is housed in a converted townhouse, which reinforces the very homey, warm, relaxed feel given out by the staff, the decorations, and the promise of daily home-cooked meals for lunch. The school had spaces for both Charlie and Dava, happily.

Charlie said: What I liked best was the gym room, it has ropes and the blankets we can climb on [aerial ropes]. 

We also saw Lange Ley, which came recommended from a Buenos Aires Parents Group. While it was much more convenient than Jardin Fallow Land (a pleasant walk away, rather than the forced march away that Fallow Land will seem on some days), it was a larger school with a less personal environment than Fallow Land. 

First Dinner

Our first dinner was at El Dorito in Palermo. Thanks to a recommendation from a playground parent, we had a lovely dinner at a family-friendly restaurant. Here is 'el penguino' which is the house wine in any restaurant, served in a penguin carafe. Better wine than anything we're used to drinking in the states.

Our first day included a swim in the pool and trip to the playground

Charlie wants everyone to know she was wearing her bikini that she got from her cousins Anya and Nicole. 

Day three in Buenos Aires

Jonathan says: This morning I asked Charlie what she thought of Buenos Aires so far. And she said "Awesome!"
Here is a picture at a fountain that is around the corner from our house, in front of the local cafe.

Charlie says: I miss you very much. I miss everyone I like who's in New York City right now. And I also want to say "This is my picture."
This morning I went to a cafe and I got a croissant and a special cookie. I went to two schools. I have a picture of this morning and there is a fountain.
Jonathan says: croissants here are called medialunas. We're working on important vocabulary.