Photos from Dia de la Bandera

Here are a few photos from Dia de la Bandera at Fallow Land. Only 6 more days of Kindergarten for Charlie! 

 

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day from chilly Buenos Aires.

[JG says:
I don't like to make a big thing of Father's Day. Living with Jamie, Charlie and Dava, I am fairly showered with love on the regular anyway. But today they put together some special decorations (below) and gifts, and the kids and I went for a walk to get medialunas, and we all went to CCK for the afternoon, and Jamie and I finished off the night with steak and malbec at home, so I am feeling well fêted. Thanks, family!]

Saturday

Jamie says: We had a lovely day today. In the morning we went to feed the birds at Plaza Alemania. 

In the afternoon we walked to Plaza Francia because we read there would be a Juggling Festival. A picture below shows both girls getting shoulder rides. 

Once we arrived, the "festival" turned out to be about 30 kids playing hackysack and drinking mate. We did happen upon a bubble man which made it all worth it. 

Jamie's Phone is Horrible

Jamie says: 

One of the reasons this blog is not regularly updated is because my phone is horrible. As many of you know, my iPhone unexpectedly broke two weeks into our trip. I purchased a LG Android and an Argentine number just to stay connected. I should have spent a little more and gotten something better; he phone has so little memory that my life has evolved into a constant game of deleting one app so I can download another as needed. 

I just texted Jonathan photos and had him them email me. There was complaining. 

Here are a few recent photos. It is such a bummer not to update more often. We're having an amazing final few weeks. 

On Sunday, Charlie had her friend Trianna over. We went to a nearby park with paddleboats and also enjoyed choripan sandwiches. Dava may have liked them most of all...  https://youtu.be/RHOT0_aAr44.  

(Yes that is a giant mosquito bite on her temple). 

A shot of Jonathan and Charlie playing chess with Dava providing some strategy advice.  

[JG says: We bought the chess set in Pumamarca. The pieces represent the Incas against the Conquistadores.]

I love this kid. Charlie climbing a fence in the park across the street from our apartment building. 

Charlie and her Friends

JG says: Over the last four months we have watched appreciatively as Charlie has made friends with her classmates despite the language barrier. I saw their friendships up close today on what turned out to be an unofficial class trip of sorts to the historic Cabildo, the former Buenos Aires town hall, with lunch at one of the city's oldest cafés, Cafe Tortoni.

Charlie says:

Today we went on a tour of a museum and it's really fancy.

My friends in this picture are ... well, I'm not gonna say them all, but I'm going to say two boys and two girls. They are: 

– Valentino is the one that is right behind me.

– Mia is the one that is wearing a bow and standing right next to Milena. 

–Augustin, who is a boy, and I haven't said yet, is standing right in front of Chiara and next to Antonia and Mia. 

– Ines is the one that's right next to Lara and Augustin's brother; I don't know what his name is so that's why I'm calling him "Augustin's brother."

This was in the cafe. All my friends were there too. You can see them in this picture. The one with the purple sweater is Lara and the one with the white shirt is Antonia and the one with the flower headband at the end of the table that you can kinda see is Milena, who everyone calls "Milé." The one with the cat ears (it's actually a headband) is Chiara. I was eating tostadas con jamon y queso and I was drinking–in Spanish–jugo de naranja, but in English orange juice.

[JG's note: Jamie and I approve of la mama in the bottom left.]

This is a picture of us (well of course my friends and me) on the subway. My friends were all in line, me first. Let's start with me: Me, Antonia, Lara, Milena, Inez, Elena (who everyone calls Ellé), and my friend Augustin's brother, and that's it! The seats were really fancy and that subway was like a worm; it didn't have doors at the ends of the car. It only had doors for getting in and out.



 JG says: And here's a selfie from back at the Cabildo, with Plaza de Mayo, the central square, behind us.

Quick photo from Sunday

Kirschner Cultural Center

JG says:

One reason we chose Buenos Aires as our destination for this adventure was that we heard it was kid-friendly. There certainly are plenty of places to take the kids on a rainy weekend afternoon. (Afternoon, not morning: many of these places are only open after 2pm, in keeping with Argentine children's schedules of sleeping off their Saturday a.m. hangovers and then staying out till 10 pm that night.)

Here is some imagery from one of our favorite spots, the Kirchner Cultural Center.

Giving it the ol' toddler try.

This works too.