Alfajores with Mate

And here we are in Argentina! Even though we have taken many airplanes, I still cannot believe that we can wake up in the morning, sit around watching videos and singing nursery rhymes all day, and then go to bed in a new continent and hemisphere. Modern air travel is actually amazing. 

 It felt fitting to go from Spain to Argentina given their enmeshed pasts and shared languages and cultural features. But, despite the similarities, this is a very different place than Spain. Buenos Aires is a vibrant city with way more workout parks and dogs than we expected (lucky we like both of those!). The kids are wowed by the cute and elaborate playgrounds. They have played in playgrounds shaped like a castle, a boat, a robot, an otter, a large television, a tree, and I can't even remember what else. Tova's gauge for country quality is the appeal of playgrounds so I would say life here is pretty great (from her perspective anyhow). In actuality, things are a little crazy for Argentinians right now with money and governance. Though, to be fair, things have been crazy in those domains for about a century so maybe it seems like an old ongoing trouble and less like a sudden disaster? I was hoping for some local feedback on this point and luckily people seem to be happy to readily stop us on the street to chat and let us know how they feel unprompted: "Argentina is not doing well" "We are fighting this revolution for your/our children" "this is a meat country" and things like that interspersed with an equal if not greater number of comments about my parenting "take your baby out of the sun" "go sit in the starbucks with your baby" "you need a stroller" "your children all have your face" "children, what eyes!" Whew looks like I do understand some Spanish after all! 

 The children's schooling this week involved some interesting study on local topics. Sophia had to research the life of Evita. She was very impressed by all of it to the point where Aurora began reading the Evita wikipedia entry, except Aurora was mostly impressed by how many times Evita's poor body was buried, dug up, stolen, stored in odd places, reburied, dug up and so on and so on. The Evita museum was a perfect spot to bring Sophia's research to life and the kids learned great lessons on how the most love comes from treating people with consideration and compassion. Tova and Zadie watched a few online learn-to-tango videos. I think they enjoyed it but Tova couldn't believe that the tango was so simple - so we had to watch videos of real tango dancers until she was impressed. Aurora and Sophia started some Spanish classes to bring their independent study of the language more to life. We all learned about the history and traditions surrounding mate and then made some ourselves. Mate is a drink very steeped in tradition and ritual. And even though we learned all about the reasoning behind the fancy mate cup and straw and the method of drinking, it all still seemed so over the top - a bit like matcha. Surprisingly, Aurora disliked the mate immensely and Tova adored it - which is too bad because we try to keep Tova away from anything that gives her even more energy. We had Alfajores with our mate because it made sense and we didn't want to miss a chance at eating a new type of cookie. The traditional alfajores were not that popular with the kids but they all enjoyed the version with a chocolate cookie that is also covered in chocolate. Finally, we are exploring the Italian history of this great city (and coping with the heat wave) by thoroughly experiencing the impressive affinity and quality of the gelato scene. I had no idea that gelato was so important in Argentinian culture but it just makes all of us love this city even more.  

Buenos Aires claims the highest number of bookshops per capita

Wish we loved mate - hopefully it grows on us

Living the currency devaluation life

So cute! Looking happy at the Evita museum

She is slowly starting to look at her book and not just eat it

One of many great playgrounds

Mate is really important so they provide free hot water to refill your mate thermos

This couple took the tango more seriously than Tova

Tuckered out from the playground