I have had a really nice last few days. The 16 hour car ride across desert and plains should have been optional, but it was all worth it. It rained or snowed the entire time when we were at the house in Junin. Which for someone like my hyperactive husband can be problematic (although he made himself busy and useful by doing some painting inside). I on the other hand, busied myself by sitting by the fire and reading numerous books. I did get up periodically to cook or go out to eat. I also got up to go to bed. I was in heaven.
Here are some photos I took. The outdoor ones I captured when the sun was out for the 5 minutes it was out during the entire 72 hours we were there.
For just a few days. GM and I (sin chicos) are taking a mini break to the house in Patagonia. We haven’t been since the beginning of February. When we left it was the dog days of summer, when we arrive tomorrow it will be the waning, yet still harsh days of winter. GM will happily walk around looking for broken fences, spilt water pipes and weather permitting he will fish illegally. I, on the other hand will be forced by wind, mud, rain or snow to stay inside and cook (sheppard’s pie and chicken stew are on on the menu) and spend time in front of the fire reading a good book. Poor me.
Compared to our last big ski vacation this past week’s ski vacation to Chile was a cakewalk! No follow-up visits to orthopedic surgeons needed.
The stars lined up perfectly for this holiday. The weather was tremendous..we had 5 out of 7 days of spectacular sunshine. We arrived after a big snow storm and schools had started in Chile. There was lots of fresh snow and didn’t have to share it with anyone. So me, the fair weather skier, clocked lots of runs with the kids. As a family we have hit a milestone. Everyone can get themselves dressed and manage their stuff. And for the most part everyone can carry their skis to and from the mountain. Yeah! we are a skiing family and its fun for mom too! And just when I thought it might be time to retire. Here is some cute video.
One of my favorite photos of all time taken in 2005 at Chapleco Ski Center located in northern Patagonia in Argentina. You think Owen needs a haircut? Neglect of my children manifests itself in long stretches of time between haircuts. You know its bad when a boy is asking, begging for a haircut, or even worst when teachers suggest it in a written note...
While it may be a ski vacation for the family, the next ten days for me will be full of dressing children, finding missing essentials pieces of equipment and outer clothing, picking up and dropping of kids at various classes and watching them swim in a stinky indoor pool. The highlights for me will be freezing my ass off on a longer than should be ski lift ride sneaking in a few pages of a book.
One of the great things about the internets is that you can avoid human contact when it comes to doing mundane things like buying plane tickets. Its just so much easier to be able to look at your own computer screen and see all the flight options, prices, and seats than having someone have to communicate all this information via a bad phone connection. When I do have to call client service people, I am not looking for a fight, because generally I find these people are trying to be helpful,but often it is less satisfying than an electronic commerce experience.
The other day I was attempting to buy plane tickets on Lan Airlines. Lan is a Chilean airlines that we use when we can because they are much more reliable when it comes to scheduled departures than a local airlines that will remain nameless. In the past, in fact less than a month ago, we were able to buy tickets for a domestic flight on the local Lan Argentine website. Made reservations as Arggie residents, purchased with a US credit card, checked in online, no problems.
Before I even made this new reservation, I was already aggravated by the process I had been through to get our accommodations for this trip, which is another long story of stupid customer service. So needless to say, I was looking forward to smooth transaction online.
It wasn’t meant to be. I had successfully made the reservation, imputing six peoples worth of names, frequent flyer numbers, DNI numbers, birth dates and any and all personal data that could be asked for. When I tried to pay for the tickets, the screen went blank except for the words”<< payment error>>”. I was stricken in horror as to how was I going to be able to go back to the page that had the passenger information intact…I saw my only option was the back key on the browser and not surprisingly I ended up at the “welcome” page. So stupid me goes through the whole ten minute procedure again, only to get the <<payment error>> message again. I have to call. First I called the Argentine Lan.com sales office, and they told me if I am using a US credit card then Iwould have to use the US site. (which must be a new procedure, but they lead me to believe its always been this way and I am just a moron.) So I called the US Lan.com and they told me that if we are Argentine residents we have to book our tickets on the Argentine website. So since I have only US credit cards I was told I needed to change my reservation using US Passport numbers. I said, OK lets do that then. I was then told because I called Lan.com and not regular Lan sales, I will need to call another number he cant possibly forward me to. So I hang up and start over with a surly person who at one point when I was struggling to find one of the kids passport numbers amongst 12 passports (we each must carry two because our visa for Argentina is in an expired one) and 6 DNI books, said “maybe you can call back when you are ready…”. And I should have called back because it got uglier from there. I think bullet points would tell the rest of the story much better.
After lots of chastising of my apparent lack of clarity in communicating names and number we finally get to the paying part, yeah!!
First he asked me if my card is a debit or credit card and I said both, because it is. He said that’s impossible and asked me what it says on the card and I said both, he said impossible and I asked him to please try to process it with this card.
Then he asked what is the bank name on the card and I said [bank name here] and he said its not on his list. I reassured him it is a legitimate financial institution and could he please try to process it with this card.
He told me it is my responsibility to be able to tell him the name of the bank that issued my credit card…
I told him ” I have been messing (or similar word, not sure) around with this reservation for six hours and I would very much like to buy these tickets, now.”
He said “that if you are going to continue to talk to me using profanities, I will hang up on you” I respond, bewildered, “what profanity did I use that has offended you,” because I honestly did’nt know (and still don’t), I am pretty sure I didn’t use a really nasty curse word…
He said “YOU know what you said!” and I reply laughingly because it has now gotten so silly stupid, “I really don’t, please tell me..”
He said, “you are trying to trick me into saying the profanity and get me into trouble!”
In the meantime there were hungry children moving in on me and a quick conclusion to this was becoming a necessity for everyone.
“May I speak to someone else, please.”
“You can call back”
So now I am really pissed, “What is your name?”
“I gave you my name at the beginning of the call”
“Can I have it again”
“No”
Totally and utterly defeated, “I am going to give you another credit card its and its from Chase bank”
His response “JPMorganChase?”
Several minutes later I have purchased my tickets. He asked me “Is there anything else I can do for you Mrs. O’Connell?”
I think it would have been wise to say no, but I couldn’t help myself ” Was the word I used that you didn’t like screwing or fucking or mes…”
Paraguay isn’t known as a tourist destination. However that being said, friends from Paraguay assure me its a beautiful country with really nice relaxed people. Despite their endorsement, it is known as a land of exiled dictators, gun runners, possibly Al-Qaeda training camps and other sorrid, unregulated and tolerated illegal activities. So it would only follow that the democratically elected president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, is the former Archbishop (he left his orders) of Paraguay, has just admitted to being the father of at least one of the several children several teenage girls are claiming he had fathered during his priest days. No impeachment here, just business as usual. I think the thing that gets me about this story is that in this Latin American, prominently Catholic country, no one seems to care or believes anything should be done about it, but in the United States, we impeached a president for basically having a blow job by another adult. What is up with sex and the American (as in USofA) culture? I digress.
Anywhoo, Paraguay is a bit of a cowboy state, the perfect location for a boy’s long weekend. My husband and two friends went to Paraguay for a despedida ( goodbye party) for one of the said friends, who after 5 years of trying to impose transparent business practices on unwilling Argentines, is returning to the safe and predictable life of living in Norway.
So the idea was to go and get in trouble, but not so much trouble that they miss their return flight on Sunday afternoon. The weekend starts with a 4 hour flight delay because a Paraguayan club futbol team gets hung up in BA and the plane waits. This really pisses off my husband who has never been able to embrace the Latina concept of time and scheduling. They arrive in Ascunsion at 5 in the morning and hit the ground running. There is some discussion about trying to find the colony Nueva Germania which was established by Fredrich Nietzsche’s rabidly anti-Semitic sister and husband. It is this point that details are sketchy and the narrative gets lost. Good thing there are some artifacts to fill in the blanks. (more…)
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 have had a really nice last few days. The 16 hour car ride across desert and plains should have been optional, but it was all worth it. It rained or snowed the entire time when we were at the house in Junin. Which for someone like my hyperactive husband can be problematic (although he made himself busy and useful by doing some painting inside). I on the other hand, busied myself by sitting by the fire and reading numerous books. I did get up periodically to cook or go out to eat. I also got up to go to bed. I was in heaven.
For just a few days. GM and I (sin chicos) are taking a mini break to the house in Patagonia. We haven’t been since the beginning of February. When we left it was the dog days of summer, when we arrive tomorrow it will be the waning, yet still harsh days of winter. GM will happily walk around looking for broken fences, spilt water pipes and weather permitting he will fish illegally. I, on the other hand will be forced by wind, mud, rain or snow to stay inside and cook (sheppard’s pie and chicken stew are on on the menu) and spend time in front of the fire reading a good book. Poor me.
Compared to our 
One of the great things about the internets is that you can avoid human contact when it comes to doing mundane things like buying plane tickets. Its just so much easier to be able to look at your own computer screen and see all the flight options, prices, and seats than having someone have to communicate all this information via a bad phone connection. When I do have to call client service people, I am not looking for a fight, because generally I find these people are trying to be helpful,but often it is less satisfying than an electronic commerce experience.
