This is a post about swearing. Hence there will be swear words. If they are offensive to you, it’s probably not a good idea to read on. You have been warned.
As passionate as Argentines are about food, wine, futbol and family they really come up short when it comes to swearing. After you have lived here for a minute and have had your first encounter with Argentine driving, a good swear word or more would be handy. The reality is that while there are some creative curse expressions that Argentines use, there are not that many swear words in Castellano that a woman would use to blow off steam.
I do swear. Its how I express myself when I am frustrated or am adding emphasis to an adjective. I didn’t grow up swearing. As kids we weren’t allow to swear at home. Although I heard my father on occasion let one loose. I became fluent in swearing from sitting on an uspstairs trading desk for 8 years. Almost twenty years later, while I was able to kick a 1+ pack a day tobacco addiction, swearing is a habit that I haven’t even tried (or want) to kick. I find the word fuck indispensable when I need to make my point. It is a potent word in my arsenal that I try not to use around my kids.
There really is no comparable word to fuck in Castellano. If you watch an English language movie with Spanish subtitles they pretty much use the word maldición (a curse on you) for every English swear word including the F word. They of course do have some fun words that you might be familiar with like puta (whore), mierda (shit) and pendejo(asshole). But none of these expressions are used by women and usually are bantered about in the context of drunk buddies or sport fanatics, not really as a verbal assault. Not that any of that is a bad thing, but give me something to say to the asshole who almost kills me on the road everyday.
What is the typical shout out to a bad driver? ¿Qué paso viejo(a)? What happened old man (woman)? That flaccid remark is cutting here because everyone, especially women, are desperately doing whatever they can do so as not to get old. Calling someone viejo is as low as you can go with the insults. How boring and unsatisfying. So with no real meaningful Spanish equivalent I have resorted to using an embellished version of fuck (and hopefully silently if I have spawn in the car). It’s just going to have to do.
I think I have mentioned before that asado is a big part of life here. Typically the weekend is when most people are either cooking their own, have been lucky enough to be invited to another’s asado or go to a restaurant that specializes in asado. Yesterday, after an exhausting social calender this weekend, we were happy to go to a restaurant, specifically a parrilla.(parrilla is the spanish word for the barbecue or grill that you make the asado on) Yesterday was a gorgeous day so we wanted to walk to lunch meaning our regular parrilla (aptly named La Vaca) was not an option and we tried a new one. We were an abridged version of our family as the two older ones are mortified to be seen with us and basically dont like us at the moment. They stayed home and we were accompanied by the younger two, happy to walk hand in hand, excited to try a new place. Two uncomplicated children, how easy! What was I thinking?
This is how every asado starts...wine, bubbly water, bread, empanadas, provoleta (melted cheese) and morcilla (blood sausage)
Tira is similar to short ribs, very tasty. They were served with fried sweet potatoes.
Georgie usually opts for the fresh tallerines and tomato sauce. Pasta is good in Argentina.
Normally at home we have ice cream for dessert, the parrillas have extensive dessert menus. These brownies were very good, crunchy on the outside, gooey and fudgy on the inside
This is my personal favorite, Flan. The condiments are key, crema (whipped cream) and dulce de leche (milk carmel)
After a protein heavy meal like this, you experience a bit of food coma
Georgie trying to muster up the energy for the walk back
Here is the beautiful view from our table, city livin'
But he can play tennis and I like that he beat fashionista and sometimes tennis player Roger Federer. Vamos Argentina!
This epic win almost distracted us from the sport match that mattered last night , Yankees vs Angels. Yankees pulled it out a win again and are securely leading their division. This has been a magical season for the Yankees and their fans. While we will all suffer a bit of depression when the season is over, I cant take these post midnight bed times much longer. I am going to have to start napping. Here is one of the highlights of the season:
It’s a hard thing not to do. You want to give them everything they want or sometimes the things you wanted as a kid. You want to make them happy. It’s a powerful desire. But spoiling your kids has consequences. They aren’t pretty and you have only yourself to blame.
Living abroad alleviates some of the compulsion to buy stuff. You just cant. The newest hand held game system, not available for purchase in Argentina, the latest tennis shoes from Addidas, not sold here. A Mercedes SUV for a sixteenth birthday (yes that does happen in the States) will never happen because kids need to be 18 to drive here..ha!
That is not to say that my kids are deprived. Hardly. But sometimes they do have to wait and wish and want for something a lot longer than their contemporaries in the States. This is a good thing. And when their father shows up from the US with a big bag of marshmallows you would think that it was a Mercedes SUV.
Speaking of cars..We just got a new car, or actually new to us but a 5-year-old minivan. You would think it was a Mercedes SUV by the treatment it is getting from the family. It’s clean, no dents and the doors automatically open when you push a button. The kids had been talking about this new/old car non-stop for the weeks leading up to us taking possession of it. You would have thought we were going to Disney. It is refreshing to see them so satisfied with simply a car with operational cup holders and radio with speakers that function.
I know I have written a fair amount of posts about soccer on this blog and you might be thinking “enough”. If your only exposure to soccer has been taking you school age kid to a game at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning to the town fields, I don’t blame you. But having lived her for some time now, and already possessing the proclivity to enjoy a spectator sport, I have become a huge fan. For Argentines, its a religion. On those days when the Argentine National Team has a qualifying match, you can go outside and no one is on the streets, no cars, people, nada. Everyone is in front of the TV. When the team scores a goal, you can hear your neighborhood let loose a collective cheer of happiness. There aren’t too many things as good to watch (and fast, 45 minute halves, no commericals, no halftime shows) except maybe a great baseball game.
Here is my favorite goal of Lionel Messi. This was a Copa Americana match against Mexico in2007:
He is only 22 years old, but if he continues to play the way he played this year, he could be an all time great. Fast footwork, eyes in the back of his head, a touch with his shots that is unrivaled and a generous player to boot. He is Maradona without the baggage. From all accounts, he is a nice kid, who still lives with his family who faced adversity as a kid with a growth hormonal deficiency. After years of treatments and surgeries he has come out the other end one of the greatest football players ever.
Here is another amazing goal, its happens so fast but it looks like Messi kicks the ball through the body of the goalie:
Lionel Messi won the UEFA Best football player of the year trophy last night. It could not have gone to a more deserving player and nicer guy. As a parent its great for the kids to have someone like him to look up to. Haven’t had enough, there is always more.
If I was clever I would have photoshopped some heads on, but I am not.
Its winter holidays right now. With the kids going to an international school we have 6 weeks in June/July and 6 weeks Christmas until the beginning of the February. Most schools in Argentina have 2-3 weeks off and start the second half of the school year the beginning of August. Well this has been a kind of funky holiday for us.
Generally we have traveled during this holiday, sometimes north of the equator, sometimes here in Latin America. This year, because the oldest was going to be going to camp in the northern hemisphere for 2 1/2 weeks smack in the middle of the break, we decided to stay here and ski. There has been one problem with that plan, there is no snow. At least not in Argentina. There are some great places to ski in Argentina, Las Lenas and Cerro Cathedral are probably the best. The one problem is that they have little to no altitude, so it better be cold. In past years we have been to Bariloche twice to ski at Cerro Cathedral and have been rained out both times. So we are now looking at going to Chile to ski where there does appear to be snow. That will happen at the end of the month.
Normally this would be a great time to take the kids to the zoo, museums, the movies, shopping etc..normally kids in local schools would still be in session for at least another two weeks. But not this year. The gripe porcina (swine flu) has hit hard, or at least the government would like us to believe that. To show how responsive they are being, they close everything down. The kids are all out of school, basically until further notice. In the last week they have closed cinemas, my gym, concerts and sports events. And as of tomorrow (which is Argentina’s Independence Day, 9 de Julio) there is now a long weekend, including Friday which is a “feriado sanitario” (or health holiday) in which everyone has been encouraged to stay home, away from large crowds, with the hope to stall out the virus. It makes things very quiet around here. I never left the house today. The kids went for a walk with Corina to buy medialunas (sweet croissants) for tomorrow. Its OK for a few days..but even I, who can always be entertained by a book, could see how this will get old quickly. When GM gets back from the States we will for sure go somewhere. This would make him nuts. Either to the more immediate campo or to Junin.
Until then, more Camp Mommy. There has been a lot of Pictionary the last few days and we started a Puppy/Kitten 500 piece jigsaw. We got all the edge pieces isolated and the corner pieces identified. Then Ana, in her quest to clean every surface of humanity, stuck the puzzle back in the box. Well there is tomorrow, and the day after that, and the next day….
I am participating in a McLinky Thingy, curious how it affects traffic but more importantly, its a fun way of throwing darts around the world and making contact, in this case with moms.
Here is a current photo of all the kids.
While it might not look like much, it is a photo of all the kids, they are all looking at the camera, and and for the most part they are smiling. (Georgie doesn’t smile, she smirks) It may not rival past Christmas photos, but I wouldn’t say it wasn’t an effort. We are at the point now where the kids, especially Hank(13) and Cal(11) need to be bribed with chocolate (in this case hot chocolate) to be cooperative in front of the camera for what turns out to be less than 5 minutes out of their busy day. And long gone are the days of coordinating outfits from Bonpoint. No more velvet knickers for Hank, I am fairly sure those are the clothes he wore to bed the night before. Callum is in his underwear and t-shirt, Owen, the only sane one, is in his school uniform and Georgie, who has a wardrobe full of beautiful pajamas from Baby Cottons and Petit Bateaux is wearing a Sponge Bob T-shirt of her brother’s. At least she wears it with confidence.
Click here to enter your link in the blog hop and view the entire list of entered links…
We had a kind of sad little 4th of July. GM and Henry left for their respective destinations in the Northern Hemisphere last night so its me and three kids for the next few weeks. The plan had been to go to the center to a Fourth of July party that the Argentine-American Cultural Institute does every year. We have never been, we usually aren’t here for winter, but we thought we would check it out. While it was not promising fireworks, it was advertising American food, music and games for the kids. Well, it was canceled. Because of the swine flu. Yes, the swine flu is hitting pretty hard right now. It is flu season here and there are 15 million people living in this metropolitan sprawl called Buenos Aires. So there have been about 2400 reported cases in the country and about 50 deaths.
Enter the Kirchner government, who only last Sunday choked big time in their congressional elections. They were not gracious losers. But never to turn down an opportunity to look good, the government has roared into action on the swine flu. Feeding into an already amplified latin paranoia about health related issues and germs (per my latina friend), the government has order pretty much everything and anything shut down, closed, keep out. That means school (which only has a 2 week winter break) has been closed down 3 weeks early, most cultural/civic events (like the big 4th of July in town), and some musical concerts have been postponed until further notice. There is discussion about non essential businesses closing for several weeks. I heard my gym might be closed next week and the hairdresser was closed for the weekend. So there is a bit of panic going on. Since the weather has been BEAUTIFUL here and the Kirchners finally got theirs, I guess there needs to be something to talk and worry about. God bless the swine flu. And God bless America.
The kids wanted barbecue ribs but I wasn’t able to find any pork ribs so I had to modify the meal (which is the challenge of cooking here, a key ingredient will be in the market one day, not the next) and instead we had pork chops, applesauce, macaroni and cheese and a green salad with tomatoes. Kind of American. For dessert, we made these yummy red velvet cup cakes with cream cheese icing. They might not look like Martha but they tasted like Martha.
I am exhausted. I haven’t slept well in the last week. Its has been a week full of late dinners, afternoons full of children’s parties and on Sunday it all culminated in one last asado. It was a last supper of sorts, I know that may be hyperbole and offensive to some, but it was more sad and final than celebratory. Why so glum? A dear friend has left Argentina. I am tired and sad because finally after lots of parties and dinners, I said my final goodbye.
Will I see her and her family(my family now) again? Yes, I will. Probably in September and in November for sure. This of course makes her leaving tolerable. But it is not the same. This is a person who I saw everyday. This is a person who I shared my children with, we visited our respective homes outside of Argentina, we exercised together, we drank (a lot) of coffee together, we dieted together, we shopped, traveled and cooked together. She has a husband that my husband more than tolerates, they are friends, good friends. Our children are like family, they fight, they play and sometimes they just are..in the same room, doing nothing. You get the picture. My life here will never be the same.
But this is the life GM and chose. I remind myself that if it wasnt for the nature of the expat life, I would never have met her and I am grateful that we have the means to be present in each others life going foward. Its all good except the part were I take it for granted that after a punishing workout together with Juan, we can sit at a bistro table on the sidewalk, have a badly executed (all around) cafe con leche (for me) and a cortado (for her), talk about nothing and have a good laugh over it.
I am feeling a lot less in exile these days. But my blog is still a mess of political and personal thoughts along with experiences of living in Argentina. While I can't promise, I will try to balance talk about my kids with something more universally relevant. And sorry if salty talk is offensive but I was a derivatives trader in another life and it cant be helped.
I think I have mentioned before that asado is a big part of life here. Typically the weekend is when most people are either cooking their own, have been lucky enough to be invited to another’s asado or go to a restaurant that specializes in asado. Yesterday, after an exhausting social calender this weekend, we were happy to go to a restaurant, specifically a parrilla.(parrilla is the spanish word for the barbecue or grill that you make the asado on) Yesterday was a gorgeous day so we wanted to walk to lunch meaning our regular parrilla (aptly named La Vaca) was not an option and we tried a new one. We were an abridged version of our family as the two older ones are mortified to be seen with us and basically dont like us at the moment. They stayed home and we were accompanied by the younger two, happy to walk hand in hand, excited to try a new place. Two uncomplicated children, how easy! What was I thinking?
It’s a hard thing not to do. You want to give them everything they want or sometimes the things you wanted as a kid. You want to make them happy. It’s a powerful desire. But spoiling your kids has consequences. They aren’t pretty and you have only yourself to blame.
While it might not look like much, it is a photo of all the kids, they are all looking at the camera, and and for the most part they are smiling. (Georgie doesn’t smile, she smirks) It may not rival past Christmas photos, but I wouldn’t say it wasn’t an effort. We are at the point now where the kids, especially Hank(13) and Cal(11) need to be bribed with chocolate (in this case hot chocolate) to be cooperative in front of the camera for what turns out to be less than 5 minutes out of their busy day. And long gone are the days of coordinating outfits from
I am exhausted. I haven’t slept well in the last week. Its has been a week full of late dinners, afternoons full of children’s parties and on Sunday it all culminated in one last asado. It was a last supper of sorts, I know that may be hyperbole and offensive to some, but it was more sad and final than celebratory. Why so glum? A dear friend has left Argentina. I am tired and sad because finally after lots of parties and dinners, I said my final goodbye.
