Category Archives: daily life

TV alternatives

Posted on March 27, 2008 | Leave a comment

 



 

That storm we had last week did a lot of local damage, including taking out the cable for the TV for most of the town. You may know we’ve ranted against TV in our lives for a long time now. It’s addictive junk that turns your brain to mush. Though we did crowd around our friends’ set when the Red Sox were playing, and I have been known to watch marathon sessions of Iron Chef (did anyone see the rabbit episode a few weeks ago?!)

 

TV here had the mixed blessing of (mostly) being in Spanish, so as the kids were watching cartoons you could almost justify it being subliminally educational, in a linguistic sense. But, easy come, easy go. In TV’s absence, the kids spend more time hanging upside down. Which is subliminally educational, in a gravitational sense.

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Posted in daily life, family and friends

Argentina 2, Day 10

Posted on March 26, 2008 | Leave a comment

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So what’s Emily doing when Eric and Julia are off at Colegio Patris? She’s doing an “independent study” to finish 8th grade. It’s a very structured form of home schooling that involves weekly assignments, emails, and phone calls with a teacher back in Redlands. It simply wasn’t feasbible to find a handicapped-accessible school for Emily, especially since the hassle of sorting it out isn’t worth the trouble for this 2.5-month-stay. Though we did manage it during Argentina 1 (back in 2003, when she was in 4th grade), we were in a much larger city and, frankly, we lucked out back then.

We haven’t established much of a routine yet, but now that the other kids leave for school each day by 8 am, we’ll get better. Since my colleagues in California don’t wake up for 4 hours after me, I sometimes do errands in the morning hours and work more in afternoons. Today Em and I walked into town to change money at the bank, buy vegetables and a battery charger (I fried our other one by not paying attention to voltage), and make photocopies. Her wheelchair works well for hauling our loot.

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Posted in Argentina, daily life

Argentina 2, Day 4

Posted on March 19, 2008 | 5 comments

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So – this is home. A three-bedroom, two-bath bungalow on Calle 467, between 17th and 19th. Usually rented during the summer months when rich folks flee the urban heat of Buenos Aires and seek respite in a mellower town. Comes complete with furniture, cable TV, pool, large parilla/grill, lime and avocado trees, and one large cucaracha (or perhaps more than one, but I try not to notice).
Parillas (pronounced “parijhaz” in Argentine Spanish) are mainstay elements in Argentine backyards. Used to cook meat (beef, and an occasional chicken for diversity’s sake) during the rite of grilling, often on Sunday afternoons but sometimes every day. Ours is particularly large and situated in its own small house; here’s Chris getting the charcoal started. Also some other pics of our kid-friendly yard.

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Posted in Argentina, daily life