Finale

Every one's at school today except Buddy and I! Whew! A few hours of quiet time after a month of rushing, stress, goodbyes, hellos, stress, packing, traveling...did I mention stress?

We officially moved out of the house on December 11th. Our movers were awesome but incredibly slow so the process took five whole days...8:30-5 PM each day. We gave Lilian the Thursday off so she could come in and clean the house on Saturday when it was finally empty. Each day after the movers left, John took exceptionally good care that things were clean, patched and perfect. It was driving me a little crazy but he did an amazing job.

Backing up in time a bit...the night of the final performance of Aida, we had a huge flood in the house. The gardener came to clean the pool and set the water pump incorrectly, causing our water reservoir container to overflow into the house. Since we were enjoying the play, obviously we weren't home to catch it in time. The kitchen was ankle deep with water (at least it was clean water!) and because the reservoir is up by the attic, the kitchen ceiling was a mess. We dried it out very well, lost a few things to water damage but the wood floors were saved and no one died. Unfortunately, the landlord decided to blame us for the damage to the house. Interesting thought process but there you go.

We had been told by people at the Embassy to use our security deposit ($4400 straight out of our pockets) as our last month's rent. It was warned that we would never see the money again if we left the country without it. I had a hard time imagining our landlord taking our money - we really loved this guy...until he blamed us for the gardener leaving the pump set wrong. We had already used the deposit for November's rent (our last full month) and Dr. Claros was very unhappy about it.

Fast forward a few weeks - our closing on the house was December 17th. I was running errands but John was so very ready. He had a list of about 25 improvements we had made in the house, including five sets of lights - and they were a huge improvement over what had been there. We had always expected to leave them with the house as a "Thank you" to the doc. We'd installed a cabinet over the washer and dryer, John had removed and fixed some stained glass windows, small stuff and not so small stuff but this all was over a span of just 10 months. The doctor dismissed the improvements with barely a sniff and tried to charge us $150 for replacing the hot water pump which kept dying on us because it was so old.

To say I was upset was way under estimating my dismay. I was heartbroken. I was disgusted. I was beyond angry because I felt sick with disbelief that this man we made part of our family was playing money games. This all went on for over 3 hours. I showed up about 45 minutes after it started and tried to cool John off - he was shaking with anger. Then I got a full picture of what was going on and told Dr. Claros I was horrified by his behaviour. That's when I started taking down the things we had planned to leave with the house.

It was a terribly sad way to part with our Argentine home. I cried my heart out and didn't want anything to do with the dinner we were planning to go to with some friends of John's from his class. We went anyway and had a great time. It was balm I needed to restore some faith in the Argentine people. Funny how one person can really upset your view on the whole.

The only silver lining in the experience was it made it much easier for us to take our leave of the country we'd made our home for 2007. We left behind some superb friends - especially Mary and Drew - the kids left behind some superb friends of their own too. Nicole's heart wrenching farewells to her two closest friends was simply exhausting.

We had an amazing year, full of adventures and experiences we'll treasure for always. Our visitors added so much to our time there. It's wonderful to have adventures but it's more memorable when you can share them with those you love.

My favourite memories of Argentina ~

1. Iguazu Falls
2. Ushuaia - penguins!
3. Dog walkers with a dozen big dogs attached to them!
4. Cafe con leche
5. Medialunas
6. Tostados
7. Watching Kim learn Spanish
8. Petting a lion and two tigers (sorry Mom!)
9. Aida - my star!
10. SCAC - soccer tournament - my other star!
11. Getting lost finding the zoo then it was closed when we finally found it!
12. John's work hours (7:30-3 with every Friday off!)
13. Hippie Fairs
14. Tango lessons
15. Tango shows - even the never ending one!
16. My first Mate
17. Our parties
18. Nicole's Quince!
19. The kids' wonderful school
20. Our beautiful home

Adios Buenos Aires - looking forward to visiting you again!

Lisette as Princess Amneris in Aida

Farewell Blog

We're sitting in the Buenos Aires International Airport, waiting to board our airplane back to the States. It's been a rough week but now we're heading to family for the holidays. That's what makes it so much easier when it's not easy at all.

I don't have much time but I wanted to post one more blog while we were actually still in Argentina. It's been quite an adventure - definitely worthy of the 250 blogs I've created here.

There will be one postscript blog...I'll fill you in on our lives since moving out of the house and reminisce on our year in this beautiful country.

Feliz Navidad!
Love,
Shelley

Almost Gone

Well the packers have been doing an outstanding job. John has been working himself to the bone, finding things that I'd completely forgot about...for instance, he rescued my Eiffel Tower from being forgotten in the garden!

My work has been done for the majority of the week - I got myself and Jake packed and the kitchen organized so I'm taking this week off...yesterday I got a pedicure and my hair done. Rough work in the midst of an international move, eh? :-)

Our hotel is gorgeous, John and I move into a suite today...it wasn't available until now so we were in a very nice room but with all of our luggage and boxes to be mailed, the quarters were tight.

As our Argentina Experiment winds down, we're forced to reconsider our time here and reflect on all we've done and seen. I think that will be the subject of my final entry...so stay tuned!

Update - Packers

Great day! They sent four guys, three of which unpacked us almost ten months ago. The kitchen and dining room are completely packed as is the garage and most of the living room.

We've decided to move into the hotel tomorrow night...it gets the kids settled and gives the girls a quiet, tranquil environment to study for their exams. Besides - it's beautiful! John and I zipped over there this afternoon to check it out. If all goes really well, there's a chance we'll splurge for the massages!

I just spent a few hours and a whole lot of dollars buying Christmas gifts over the Internet and arranging for them to be mailed (wrapped!) to John's parents' house. Beats having to find a place for them in our luggage or wrapping and mailing them to ourselves! Now I just have to verify I'm basically done and then I'll be so very happy! I have got some wonderful gifts from here too but the kids want boring stuff like gift cards and Nintendo games.

They said they'd hold off packing up the computer so hopefully I'll be updating daily!

Goodnight!

Packing Masters

We're good. We're very, very good. Comes with experience I suppose. We're so good I'm sitting at the computer a mere 30 minutes before we expect the movers to show up...I'm that secure in how prepared we are. Ha! We'll see about that by tonight.

This weekend was spent on prepping. We also threw in three parties and a babysitting job. Oh, and the girls are getting ready for their finals this week. Stress level should be through the roof but John and I especially put in a lot of hours getting the house ready. So here I sit!

We won't move into the hotel until tomorrow or maybe even Wednesday night. We're keeping the packers limited to the main level and maybe the attic today. The attic scares me as I haven't been up there this weekend - don't know how bad it looks.

Hopefully this computer won't disappear into a box today and I'll update this evening!

Besitos!!

One Down

Our Express Shipment was picked up today. This is the shipment that will be sent air freight, hence arriving at our next home much faster (one month) than our regular household goods shipment. We're limited to 1,000 pounds - and we used up every ounce.

The movers showed up at 8:30 this morning but I was at the Elementary School to watch Jake's performance. He woke up with a fever and he looked like he needed a hug...but was horrified when I told him to go on back to bed. He insisted on going to school for the concert because..."I have a solo!" Great - another performer in the family! So I drove him to school and brought him home after the concert. He did great in his solo and the Tylenol this morning seemed to last all day.

This afternoon I went and did some shopping at an open house at a friend's. The idea was to pick up Christmas gifts but I think I bought more for myself. Oops!

Tonight Lisette had another performance at school, kind of a Talent Show/Showcase thing. Now she's got friends over and Nicole has her "friend" (yup, it better just be friendship!) Matt over. They're all preparing to head out to a party - the girls will only be able to be there for an hour and a half, the party starts at 11:30 and their curfew is 1 AM...I'm tired just thinking about it!

My favourite thing about having kids, well one of them, is listening to their conversations from another room. Lisette's friends are cracking me up! At the moment they're playing with Buddy and smelling him (he got bathed today!)

Goodnight! Hope John'll play taxi tonight!

Truckin' Along

As the move gets closer and closer, John's drinking more wine! Ha! He can see me tensing up so he's retreating to booze. Naw. It certainly hasn't got that bad. He did have a glass of wine with dinner, we decided to go on a date tonight. Our waiter asked us where we've been, why we haven't been by in a while. I should have given him this blog address!

I went to a coffee this morning but just stayed an hour. Organization was calling me home. Jake went to school feeling great...and we got a call at 9:45 to come and get him, he had a fever and a nosebleed! What awful parents we are!! He spent the day on the couch with a fever, just a low-grade but it's sticking. Pain in the rear (the fever, not him!) and he's only got a few weeks of school left. Tomorrow I'm taking him to school if he's feeling okay but bringing him home with me after his chorus concert in the morning. That way, maybe we can get some homework for him.

Well, I'm yawning. Time for me to hit the old pillow. John spent most of his time at the Embassy today and when he was home, he was playing Nintendo DS with Jake. Now he's starting to get his things organized. Good thing he's a night owl!

Building Pressure

Moving is tough. The silver lining is that you tend to toss out a lot of things and then when you get to your destination and unpack - it feels kind of like Christmas. In the meantime, I'm starting to stress. So much to do, so much to remember, so much I could screw up. My desk looks like a hurricane hit it but the kitchen is already pretty much separated.

Tomorrow is when the kids have to separate their clothes and belongings - the very idea makes me hyperventilate a little. I've got to do the same thing which means dragging more of my winter clothes out of the attic and making an absolute mess of my bedroom. Not something to look forward to!

Then there's Christmas shopping for the kids. We're (yes, John helped!) basically done for extended family but we've got lots to do for the kids. I have an idea that will simplify things with the girls but Jake is a whole different story. The Internet is great but I'll be losing my computer much sooner than later...AHHH!

Okay, maybe it's time for some wine. Or maybe I should make another list... :-)

Addresses

Jake's been home from school for the better part of the week now. Very early this morning he came into our room crying and burning up with a fever. He had Tylenol just before bed last night but obviously it didn't last him the night.

I haven't mentioned what happened on Saturday night when we returned from the final performance...only because I didn't take the time. As I backed the car into the garage, both John and I realized the house alarm was sounding. He ran into the house and found we had a flood. Seems the gardener didn't turn off the water pump, just switched the other handle for water to go divert from the pool to the house. If the water pump isn't turned off, the water is sent up into our water tank that provides water to the second story of the house. Unfortunately, there is no safety valve in this tank so once it's full it simply starts overflowing. So for probably close to two hours, there was water spilling into the service area, down through the space between the upstairs floor and the kitchen. The water came up over my feet when I entered the kitchen. Luckily, there's a decent lip of tile between the kitchen and the wood floors of the dining room and study. John and I spent the better part of the next three hours squeegying/toweling/drying it up as best we could.

The reason I now bring up the flood, we're concerned that the humidity in Jake's room may be lending itself to his illness. There have been all sorts of colds running around the school so I'm not entirely convinced he's sick because of mold but we can't disregard it either. Just one more thing to worry about as we start going crazy with a move but then again, we're moving out of here too! Mostly sad, kind of glad.

And along with a move comes...change of address. We've had fourteen addresses in the nineteen years we've been married. I starting keeping a list with a few years ago and only have a couple incomplete addresses in it - mostly house numbers I haven't remembered or found. Now I'm making labels for Christmas cards and find that with all of our moving around, we've made friends with others who also move around too much! Thankfully their emails usually stay the same so I've got half a dozen emails out to request confirmation of addresses. It's nuts! A few people, I don't even know what state they're in anymore!

Don't lose me! :-)

Party was On!

We had a great party yesterday here at the house. It was the final farewell party for John and his classmates. There were about 50 people/children here - the pool was put to good use but there were two highlights...one when the Venezuelans took over the kitchen and the other when the Mariachi Band showed up! It was awesome! The party lasted from 1-11 PM so both John and I totally dropped last night. We crashed onto the couch and had to put our feet up for 30 minutes before we could even think about heading upstairs to bed. Exhausted but happy.

This morning, Jake woke with a fever so he spent the day with me...just working around the house. Lilian worked here all weekend so she had the day off. I pretty much have everything cleaned up from the party, sent a bunch of dirty towels/clothes to the laundry and filled a basket for John to return forgotten items to his classmates. Our moving company came to do our shipment inspection. The days are counting down. :-(

Tonight we all went out for dinner...laughed and teased our way through a good meal.

Grande Finale!

This evening was the finale of Aida. The kids did a great, great job once again! I must say, my girls were the most beautiful people on the stage...and I don't even think I'm biased! :-)

99% of my pictures were fuzzy, hard to get a good shot with an automatic camera without a flash! They were taping tonight again so we weren't allowed to use the flash.

Lisette - center stage, Nicole - far right, Mommy, Daddy and brother Jake - proud!

Take Two

The second performance of Aida was last night. All the kids stepped it up a notch so I'm not sure why Lisette reported that the kids thought Thursday night was better. I'm a brutal critic, I tend to notice any or at least most mistakes and I really thought that overall, last night was even better than the previous.

Lon took an amazing picture of Lisette Thursday night but we were unable to download off of his camera chip so he's promised to email it to me. I'll post it when I get it! Lon and Runez departed Buenos Aires last night - we had such an amazing time with them! Runez told me Lon's nickname was the "Energizer Bunny" at the school she works at. I certainly can attest to the energy level of this guy! He really kept us hopping! Pun intended! :-)

The girls went out to dinner last night and got back home just after midnight. So we all slept in this morning until it was time to take the girls to soccer. Yes, soccer. Still! This was their fourth "final" soccer practice/asado (BBQ)...extended farewell or what?? LOL

Our Superstar

Lisette blew me away! To say we were proud parents is such an understatement. She made both of us cry with her performance. At intermission I wanted to dance around and sing "She's my daughter, can you believe how talented she is??" Somehow I managed not to grab everyone by the shoulders and claim mother status.

Obviously the Aida performance was last night. Our visitors arrived back in Buenos Aires from Iguazu yesterday afternoon. I had slept in and then basically hung around the house again. Leisure is my middle name when I can manage it. All three kids came home on the bus for the first time in forever. I taxied both of the girls back to school at separate times for their preparations.

Nicole played a palace girl/museum visitor/slave girl off and on through the play and she looked stunning! She's quite content to be our Soccer-Diva while Lisette lays claim to Actress-Diva. :-)

Directly after the play finished, John and I hustled home with Lon, Runez and Jake then jumped in a waiting remise to go downtown for his class dinner. We arrived at around 10:30 and they hadn't started eating yet. I practiced my Spanish with the wife of one of the students. Unfortunately she's from Brazil and with her Spanish also came a Brazilian accent! Lord help me! We managed though. LOL

Halfway through dinner I had to put on my nurse's cap. An older lady had fainted in the hallway right outside our dining room. At first glance, I started mentally preparing myself to start CPR...she looked terrible. However, she was breathing and her heart rate was steady - she was very pale and clammy. Found out she had a history of triple bypass and stroke. The ambulance took about 20-30 minutes to arrive. In the meantime she became somewhat conscious, answering some questions and giving us some health details. She was able to squeeze my hands on command and move her legs. So basically I just stuck around until the ambulance came, making sure she stayed alive. She did. John exchanged business cards with a gentleman who was a friend of hers...I asked him to let us know how she was. I'll pass it on to you guys when we hear.

Finally arrived home at around 2 AM and fell into bed.

Lazy Daisy

I fully enjoyed my quiet lazy day but I didn't get much done. I spent a great deal of time designing our Christmas card...a GREAT deal of time. Then John had to throw his two cents at it which meant I had to redesign part of it. Finally, finally, it was time to pay for it and - Boom! - they can't send the order down here because it weighs more than a pound. Sigh. I stuck that on a back burner until tomorrow.

The girls had play rehearsal again today and I brought in a big, actually two big, trays of sweets from a neighbourhood bakery. According to Nicole, all of the food was eaten instantaneously. Sounds like teenagers to me!

That's all to report today - the weather has been stunning, trees and plants are blossoming, I saw my first hummingbird of the season...ahhhhhh. :-)

Drawstrings

We've started the process of moving. Yesterday John and I set the dates for our move...we'll complete our Argentina Experiment in the next few weeks. I'm in a bit of a conundrum about it - looking forward to the next adventure but not looking forward to leaving some things and people behind here. Such is our life!

Our visitors headed up to Iguazu Falls yesterday. The house was so quiet last night with the girls at play practice, just John, Jake and I here. This morning all is quiet too - Lilian is taking the day off so it's just Buddy and I. I have the windows open to let the cool air in, the weather has been perfect.

I have to start sorting today. Clothing, toiletries, books, linens, then kitchen items we'll have sent on the Express Shipment which will meet us soon after our arrival in Virginia. The rest of our Household Goods we may not see until March. Obviously that means I need to select wisely. Time for a list! :-)

Ushuaia Continued...

Make sure you read the last one first!

When we returned to the train station, we found Quique Diaz (train owner) had left us a signed copy of the history of the "Fin del Mundo" (end of world) train. So cool.

Dinner was at a much less expensive, less touristy seafood restaurant. More crab for me!

Sunday brought us back to the mountain. It was cold but no rain so up in the ski lift we went. After a 15 minute lift ride, we arrived on the platform and started climbing. Supposedly there was a few different paths but we only found one and for the first half an hour/45 minutes it was easy going. The kids posed in a bog and on a rock and made snow angels. The snow angel episode inspired an older Argentinean woman to make one too - funny! The last ten minutes of hiking were tough. Jake ended up in a fit over his cold, wet feet and a cold, sore throat. So I stayed behind with Runez and Jake to nurse his feet back to warmth and to tell him to suck up his sore throat. The girls and men headed a little farther up the mountain but returned in time to find Jake all warm and snuggled.

It was a shorter trip down the mountain, especially knowing that delicious hot chocolate and chicken stew lunch was waiting for us in the chalet...along with a wood-burning stove.

Back at the hotel, the girls mellowed and the rest of us headed to the nearby beach to look for rocks and shells. We witnessed a Golden Retriever mix enjoying the frigid water to the fullest. It made me shiver just watching him swimming around. It may be Spring but the air temperature was near freezing. We found lots of rocks, some shells and Jake practiced skipping rocks while John showed what a rock-skipping artist he is!

Last night the entire city lost power for about two hours. Shortly after we lost power, we also lost the water in our rooms. It was already bedtime and we'd already brushed our teeth, so it wasn't too bad.

This morning John, Lon and Runez went for a half hour sightseeing flight. I slept in and refused to worry. Well, I tried really hard not to. For no other reason than I knew John needed to, I supported the venture. They all came back alive, we made it to the airport in time and now we're home! One more adventure checked off of our life's list. :-)

The Bottom of the World

We just returned from spending three + days in Ushuaia, Argentina. Ushuaia is the southernmost city of the world and it is stunning! I'll add pictures when I've recovered from the trip a little.

Ushuaia was in Spring Heaven when we arrived on Friday. Everyone we met from the time we landed gushed about "the perfect day" - it was sunny and just slightly cool. We only needed a light jacket until later in the evening. We walked around downtown for a bit and had lunch before checking into our hotel for a very quick nap (we had to leave the house at 4:30 AM so desperately needed a power nap) then went back into town to take a boat trip to Penguin Island. I'm not sure if that's the actual name, but it works!

We saw Seal Island first, home to a huge family of sea lions and wanna-be penguins (but they can fly) then on to an island that the catamaran beached onto amongst a huge colony of penguins! Our penguins (chosen carefully among the many who wanted to be named by us, I'm sure!) were named Fatima, Spot and Bob. Our overall favourite was definitely Bob. Dinner was at a Tourist Trap but very yummy! One of the local dishes is a very spiny King Crab - yeah baby!!

Saturday morning was very rainy. We drove up to the ski lift that takes you half way to the glacier but the weather stopped us in our tracks. Instead, we had a hot chocolate at the chalet...smart, huh? We decided to go take the "End of the World Train" which took us around the National Park just outside Ushuaia. To prepare for our two hour trip, it behooved us to have some more hot chocolate (and a sandwich but it was cold, so the hot chocolate was more important!) While waiting on our hot chocolate, John struck up a conversation with a gentleman who sat beside us at the little cafe. They chatted for quite a while then the gentleman got up and brought me back a calendar from the gift shop! Wow! Very nice, I thought. Then John explained that the guy actually owned the railroad. WOW! VERY NICE, I thought! He proceeded to arrange for us to have our own private car on the train and we found more little gifts sitting on the seats within that car. It was exceptionally cool. The train ride was stunning, beautiful, gorgeous, breath-taking...all you would expect from such a wild, wide-open frontier.

I have to take a break and get us fed, be back later with more!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Crazier!!

My Babies...notice Jake is OUTSIDE the enclosure...this is at Lujan Zoo just outside Buenos Aires. There were two tigers and a male lion inside this cage. We all (Jake too!) got to play with two baby pumas and a baby lion. Rode an elephant and a camel. Played with monkeys and ducklings and bunnies. Only in Argentina... :-)