Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Epps/Ritchies!!!

We spent the week on the Outer Banks, in North Carolina.  It was great to be with everyone -- we spent the week playing pool, ping pong, football and soccer on the beach, shuffleboard, and lots more.  Rachel even went swimming in the freezing ocean with our cousin Don!  Good thing we stayed so active, because we sure ate our fill -- I can't even start to list it all here, but highlights were mom's homemade baklava and Mike's homemade Cafe Rio pork burritos. 

We also had fun listening to the girls play their instruments (I jumped in on the piano a couple times, but it was mostly the stringed instruments we listened to).  They have learned (and written) some beautiful trios for violin, viola, and cello.  They've really come a long way.  I know we all wondered a little bit how it would all turn out when each of them started learning an instrument, with their screechy hours of "tacca-tacca-stop-stop."  Now we're all so glad they've practiced so much, our favorites are "Scotland the Brave" and the theme from "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Being the oldest, growing up, you keep saying to yourself "I can't wait for these little kids to grow up so we can play together!"  Well let me tell you, they're grown up now.  And now they're winning at all the games we play too!  We had a lot of fun hanging out this past week, and having Mike there to join in on the fun was fantastic. 

Mike and I are back in Argentina now.  It was a great week -- a big thanks to my family for showering us with good food, great gifts, and fun times. 

Thanksgiving

Mike and I spent last week with his family, Thanksgiving a week early. It was so good to see them, and we got to meet our new little niece, who was born in June (and got to see her roll over for the first time!).

We stayed at Mike's parents' beach house in Rocky Point, Mexico (just south of Arizona, on the Sea of Cortez). The sunset one night was particularly beautiful, though I guess the get them pretty often there.

We ate a lot of fantastic Mexican food while there, but the highlight of our time there was our big Thanksgiving feast: turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted squash, and throughout the day we snacked on homemade ceviche (amazing!). It was a great Thanksgiving -- good food but even better to be with family.

Today, the other Thanksgiving, we went to a potluck with some other embassy folks. You may remember for our "fakesgiving" earlier this year I made sweet potato casserole (an Epps family favorite) with local sweet potatoes. It was so difficult because they were so tough and starchy, I swore to myself I'd never make them again. Well, luckily Mike didn't know that and signed me up to bring them again (they did turn out pretty well last time). This time, I boiled them for 3 hours. It knocked the starch right out of them, and the skins pretty much fell right off! Win!

As you can see from the picture, the marshmallows are a little "well done.". Just how I like them :)

We're spending the evening at home together, our first Thanksgiving, baking and eating pumpkin pie, and feeling do grateful for all our blessings and for each other.

Chile and Easter Island

In all fairness, this blog post should just be titled "Chile," because technically Easter Island belongs to Chile, but it felt like such a different world.  And because the locals there put up signs that said "for the international knowledge of everyone, we never consented to be a part of Chile."

We spent a day in Santiago, a day in Valparaiso on the coast, and 2 days on Easter Island.  We LOVED the trip.

It rained during our time in Santiago, which turned out OK because it cleared out the pollution, which is apparently pretty bad there.  We kept complaining "Oh, it's raining and we can't see the mountains," but on our flight back from Easter Island, we saw a big, literally black, cloud hanging over the city, and you couldn't see the mountains anyway.  Don't worry, we saw them on the plane ride back to Argentina.  Incredible.

Our day in Valparaiso (or "Valpo" as the cool people call it.  Actually, I don't know who calls it that, but we do.  Otherwise it's such a mouth-full), well, it was awesome. It was a very colorful city, in all senses of the word.  It's a port town, so a little rough around the edges, but lots of brightly painted houses, and lots of culture.  Most of the town sits up on a hill, and you have to take these tiny box "elevator" trams to get up there.  Except the first one we found was closed (we weren't the only confused tourists wandering around :).  So we started hiking up the hill, and luckily, we hiked right through one of the things we wanted to see -- an "open air" mural museum.  Most of the murals were in state of constant change (i.e. graffiti-ed change), but the ones by the most famous Chilean muralist were left untouched.  We kept walking up and up the hill until we came to the home of the VERY famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.  If you haven't heard of him, he is known throughout Latin America.  I first read his poems when I was studying in Guadalajara, Mexico.  His home has a great view of the ocean, and it is said this is where he got most of his inspiration for his beautiful poems about the sea.

We ate a lot of seafood throughout our trip, and all of it was good.  Grilled octopus and lots of ceviche and crab-almond raviolis and conger eel stew (we thought it was fish stew until we looked up the word later....it was REALLY good).

The next leg of our trip was Easter Island.  Everyone has been asking us if it was worth it (it's very expensive and a 6 hour flight from Santiago).  We have concluded that yes, it was worth it, but not if you're looking for a Polynesian beach vacation.  It was a very quirky little island, and we left it feeling that we had a one-of-a-kind adventure.

Easter Island is the piece of land furthest from any other piece of land (I still haven't found a good way to say it, but you know what I mean). It first became inhabited about 1500 years ago, and most experts agree that the natives arrived there from Polynesia.  They were the only Polynesian culture to have a written form of their language, but no one is alive anymore that knows how to read the script, so much of their past is a mystery.  They are famous for the giant stone "heads" erected all over the island.  These statues are actually not heads, but rather over-sized heads with squat torsos.  They are called "moai."  They all stood on platforms called "ahus," and all faced inland, sending positive energy to the family or clan that erected them in memory of their ancestors.  Unfortunately, at some point the islanders grew to be too many, or got island fever, or something because they started warring and killing each other and cutting down all the trees, and toppling each others moai.  Then, most of them were captured and taken to Peru to work as slaves in the guano mines.  Then, those that survived the mines were returned to the island, but took smallpox with them, and killed a huge number of the population on the island.  In the end, there were only about 110 natives left.  They have now intermarried with the Chileans and others now living on the island, and you can see their Polynesian features and names on the campaign signs throughout the town.  But the island is devoid of a distinctly Polynesian feel.  Everyone speaks Spanish, and almost all the plants and animals are introduced (horses and cows and chickens and dogs).  There is one town, Hanga Roa, with 5000 locals.  We spent half a day walking around, saw the church, bought the local banana bread across the street (just as the guidebook recommended), and ate at one of the restaurants in town.

The next day was our Indiana-Jones-Adventure day.  We rented a little stick-shift SUV and drove around the island, exploring quarries and caves and taking pictures of the mystical moai, while reading their story in our guidebook.  It was incredible.  You have NEVER seen anything like these statues.  You can find a link to our photos below, I don't have the words to describe them.

You may have noticed that the SUV was a stick-shift......and you may or may not know that it has been a life-long dream of mine to learn how to drive stick......well, Mike and I figured that a better opportunity would never present itself (a 10 mile stretch of road that was practically devoid of cars, with nothing to hit but some bushes).  So Mike taught me how to drive manual!  It was a bit rocky at first, 6 tries to get the car started, and then VROOOM!  Mike was a very good teacher.  I hope he had a good laugh when he finally caught his breath.  His only rule was that I was not allowed to accidentally hit one of the statues :).



Enjoy the photos!

Picasa Web Album

More pics from Uruguay, and from the Argentine Campo

A few more pictures can be found below to finish up our Uruguay trip from a few weeks ago.  Also, this past weekend we took a trip with some friends about 2 hours outside of Buenos Aires to an "estancia," or ranch.  It was great to drive a little bit and get some fresh air.  We sat outside and read, walked around the farm, rode the horses, and just relaxed.  Oh, and ate LOTS of meat. 

In Uruguay, one of our favorite things I forgot to mention in my last post were the "ramblas," or walkways that ran all along the water.  It was a sunny weekend, and the walkways were filled with people.....well, rambling.  Drinking mate, talking, sitting in the sun.  Really pleasant.  

 Colonia was a quiet little town, with a pretty church, lighthouse, and little museums and cafes.  Today, we were looking through our tourist guidebook, reminiscing about Colonia, and Mike saw a picture of one of the quaint little streets we walked down.  Except it must have been taken about 10 years ago because there was no tree growing through this antique car yet :)

This is Mike strolling through the estancia property during this past weekend.  After sunset (shortly after we took this picture), we did a little stargazing.  With the help of Wikipedia and a constellation app, we found the Southern Cross (you know, the constellation on the Australian flag, that can only be seen in the Southern Hemisphere).  Pretty exciting, we thought.  Come visit, we'll point it out to you!

Working in an embassy

It has been a sad week for those of us who work in embassies around the world. We are accustomed to going about our work quietly, but now we've been thrust into the spotlight. And that is because US embassies are one, if not the strongest, symbol of America overseas. While the attacks on our embassies break my heart, it makes me proud to be a Foreign Service Officer and to be representing my country abroad. Most of us that work in embassies are not ambassadors; we don't make speeches that make the press, and most of us don't broker high level trade agreements or peace deals. But we make an impact in smaller ways every day as our paths cross with locals in the host country, and everything we say and do can be taken as a representation of the United States, whether we're aware of it or not. It is a heavy responsibility. In the consular section, I talk with over 200 Argentines each day who want to visit my country. They may have had limited or no interaction with an American up to that point. My colleagues and I try our best to greet each person with a smile, with respect, with an appreciation that they want to visit our country and sometimes with a sense of humor.....which brings me to the things that made me smile this week.

"What university do you attend, sir?"
"Universidad de Morón." Pause "That doesn't sound very good in English does it?" (It took me a minute to realize he had made a joke - applicants are usually too nervous to make a joke.)

"Señora, do you have any other nationalities?" "No, yo soy Argentina." (This literally translates as "No, I am Argentine," but it sounds to me like she's saying "No, I am Argentina.". Then I look at her full name and it is Maria Argentina. She really IS Argentina! Her middle name is Argentina!)

A family of four walks up.
"Where are you going to travel?"
The mom speaks right up:
"I'm taking the boys (los chicos) to Disney."
I look at the husband.
He says "Yeah, I'm really hoping she'll take me too."

Uruguay!

Mike and I are in Uruguay this weekend, and having a great adventure. For the record, Mike is an incredible trip planner, so we've gotten to see and do much more than I expected in such a short amount of time. I have planned a number of trips in my day too, but due to my directionally-challenged-ness, if you join me on a trip I've planned, you'd better be prepared to walk or drive at least 20 minutes in the wrong direction at least twice a day :)

We took the ferry from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, about a three hour "tour." Since getting to Montevideo, we've walked all around the city; saw the Palacio Salvo, which was the tallest building in South America when it was built in 1920; ate chivito al plato: a pile of fries with meat, ham, cheese, bacon, an egg, olives, ketchup and mayo on top; walked through old town, and an antiques market in a park; we ate some grilled meat and grilled sweet potato at a "meat market" by the port, where restaurant after restaurant was firing up its wood grills; we took a cab out to the suburbs to see the LDS temple and then we went to a sushi restaurant that had a great review in the NYTimes -- I've eaten a lot of sushi, and LOVE it, but this was THE BEST sushi I have ever had, go figure. Ceviche sushi with cream cheese, cilantro, and chili; we also walked (and cabbed) along the "rambla," which is a little like Lakeshore Drive in Chicago.

2 major things we've noticed here: 1) the amount of mate drinking here far exceeds what we've seen in Argentina, which is a lot. I'd say every third or fourth person we'd see walking down the street would have their thermos of hot water tucked under their arm, and a mate gourd in their hand. In fact, Mike saw a motorcyclist with the thermos under his arm, the gourd in his hand, a cigarette in his other hand, and...yeah, we're not really sure how he was driving. I spotted a mom with the thermos, gourd in the hand, soccer ball in the other hand, and her other hand holding on to her child (moms have more than two hands, if you hadn't noticed).

2) It smells like smoke here. All the time. It makes your eyes sting and everything. We finally asked the cabbie and the hotel staff "Why does it smell like smoke here all the time?" And they both said "I guess because of all the parrillas (the wood-fired grills)." They guess, because they are probably so used to it that they can't smell it anymore.

Now, we just took a city bus to catch a coach bus to take us to Colonia, a small town just up the coast. We'll spend tomorrow there, then head back to Buenos Aires. Thanks Mike for planning this great trip!

War Stories

I had one day this week that was crazy! I've been wanting to blog about it all week because I have so many good stories.

I am currently spending half my time at work in the non-immigrant visa section (tourist visas) and half in the immigrant visa section. I love both. But on this particular day I was in immigrant visas.

My first applicant was a fiancée of an American citizen, moving to the US to marry him and live there. Pretty straight forward case, no fraud or anything. I finished the interview at the window, and told her that the visa was approved and that she could go. She thanked me, and turned to leave the tiny interview room, but the door was jammed. And no one could open it!!! She was stuck in that little room for about 20 minutes before we could get the door open. I told her "At least I didn't refuse your visa and then trap you in here."

The next couple came in and (after seeing so many people try to break down the door) immediately said "We'll just leave the door open, thanks." This gentleman wanted to move to the US with his wife. I had my suspicions that he had been living illegally in the US, and asked him if he wanted to review his statement about his prior travel to the US before signing and swearing before a US Consular Officer. "Sir, I think you HAVE been to the United States before." "Never. Never been there." "Sir, I have reason to believe you have." "That was my brother." "Um, I don't think so. Are you sure you're ready to swear and sign your name to this?" "Well......OK, I entered the US with my Argentine passport in 2000 and didn't leave until 2006.". Me: "Well, thank you sir, for telling the truth.". In my head: "What?! No one ever tells me the truth, what just happened?" The guy just started gushing as his wife had her head in her hands: "Oh, I feel so much better now that I told you, it's like a huge burden off my shoulders, I'm so glad I told the truth!" I was too. He'll still have to wait until 2016 to reenter the US, but telling the truth to a government official can go a long way - now we were able to clear things up and I was able to give him instructions on how to apply for a waiver with DHS. No guarantee he'll get it, but lying in an interview always makes things so much worse.

Then.....I had an American citizen mother applying for her 13 year old son. Mom had gone to the US on a visa and overstayed, but eventually was able to overcome that and become a citizen. However, when her son was 6, she had her brother-in-law smuggle him across the border. Not the kid's fault, and he qualified for an immigrant visa now through his mom, so I was just finishing up his paperwork (though I was grilling the mom about his uncle, trying to get more info on him). Then, the boy starts tugging at his mom's sleeve: "Can I ask her mom? Can I?". He then looks at me and shyly asks "How did you get this job?" My heart about melted, I love talking about my job! He said "I heard that it's really good to know 2 languages, and I know Spanish and English!". I told him he'd go far. Sharp kid. But part of me was thinking he wouldn't necessarily like my job, which is to bust people like his uncle.

THEN: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor visited the embassy and did a town hall meeting where we could meet her and ask questions! I got to ask a question (see pictures)! She is an amazing lady -- very sharp, but very kind, and for a person so high ranking, she definitely remembers how it is to be much further down on the totem pole. She walked up and down each aisle of seats as she answered the questions (NOT an easy feat. If you've ever tried to get to your seat in an auditorium, you know). She talked about her love and appreciation for work and service, and how everyone, from the hotel staff that cleaned her room that morning, to the clerks on her staff and up, made a difference in the life of someone today. Every kind of work has value, she said. Anyway, it was a great experience -- Mike and I feel so lucky that we get these kinds of experiences in our jobs with the embassy!

One more....

When I was about 3, I got my first baby doll.  My mom asked me what I was going to name him.  Well, I didn't know what to name babies -- the only one I knew was my little brother.  And so I named the baby: Baby Michael.  

Sports Memories

Here we've got my trophy line up: I played softball for 4 years, from when I was 8 till I was 12.  My first team was sponsored by Applebees and my second by Centura Bank.  I usually played first or second base because I was great at stretching and snatching up throws that landed short while keeping my foot on the base.  I never played catcher because you couldn't wear the catcher's mask with glasses.  Most of my softball team were my neighborhood girlfriends, and we had a great time.  I can still remember all the cheers!  G-O-O-D-E-Y-E!  Good eye, good eye good eye!  We want a single, just a little single, S-I-N, G-L-E, Single Single Single! 

I also played three years of basketball on local rec leagues. My first team was the Wildcats, then the Tornadoes, then the Stingers.  I was never fabulous, but we had a lot of fun.  On more than one occasion, my teammates passed the ball to me, but I wasn't looking and it hit me in the head.  Ha!  We all had a good laugh. 

I played one year of tennis (I should have talked about these sports in reverse order, we're going from best to worst).  It was on a rec league in Raleigh.  I had a few tennis lessons growing up, but I needed a lot more practice.  I remember being beat by an 8 year old once (I was at least 14).  But I learned the rules really well, and now enjoy watching tennis and shouting out "Deuce!"

Oh, and we can't forget my Shannon Miller Barbie.  All this Olympics gymnastics hype has really got me reminiscing about 1996.  Mike caught me last night with my jaw on the ground watching a TV piece about Kerri Strug when she landed that famous vault.  I was so fascinated with the Olympics that year.  I remember jumping up and down on the trampoline with my cousin, Jen, chanting "USA!  USA!"  And of course Shannon Miller was my hero.  This Barbie could do all kinds of tricks, like spin around and bend all her joints.  I brought her on all of our family trips and played with her in the car.  Good times.

I Spy.....

OK, so in this top box I found......candy wrappers?  I have no idea why I saved those.  I must have had a reason though.  A couple of Christmas ornaments I painted.  I used to paint anything I could get my hands on: last week I found a ceramic fish (circa 1992), whale, and wolf that I had painted as well, and about 40 painted sea shells.  My rock collection was also a huge find (I only painted a couple of those though).  We used to go panning for gem's at Panner's Creek growing up in North Carolina.  I had fool's gold, little garnets, obsidian, pumice, quartz, amethyst, and who knows what else.  I LOVED going panning.

I Spy #2: POGS.  Did any of you collect POGS?  I had that little orange container FULL of them!  But I still don't understand how we played with them or won them.  I just knew they were cool to have.  We also have here an eagle that balances on your finger, a snake made out of beads, a yo-yo (which yes, I could actually make work), a little penguin floating in a bubble, a penny collection (only from the 80's on though), a tiny flower pot, some Asian fans, a mini etch-a-sketch and simon says game, a "prayer rock" that I painted like a puppy, a troll (loved those trolls!), a Tamagachi (remember those!?  You had to keep your little electronic pet alive!), and of course another of my painting projects, my initials!

....and a thing for every place....

One of my favorite sayings is "a place for everything, and a thing for every place."  I am SUCH a sentimental and nostalgic person, that it is extremely hard for me to get rid of things.  However, getting married, receiving many wonderful wedding presents, and moving to an apartment half the size of each of our apartments in Caracas means some things have got to go.  Mike loves sorting and consolidating, so every time we get rid of something, he feels happy, but I feel sad.  Poor guy, every time he holds something up and says "can this go?" I get all teary-eyed and say "but I got that when I was 12 at such and such a place and such and such a time!"  It's been exhausting for both of us.  But such is life in the Foreign Service.  Moving every two years means you can't hold on to every little thing.  And anyway, as my mom always says, "people are more important than things," and Mike's the most important thing in my life now.  Just gotta make sure I pack him up with me each time I move from this point on :)

Luckily, we are about done sorting and donating/tossing, and it feels so nice to be settled into our own apartment, and everything has a place.  To help ease the pain of getting rid of some things, I took some pictures of some of the memories I uncovered and thought I'd blog about them so they're not lost forever! 

I think this will probably be a series of blog posts (there are a lot of pictures), so thanks in advance for indulging me in this bit of sentimentality/memory recording.

The View as We Do the Dishes

We are loving it here. We each received our shipments from Caracas this week and are really starting to feel at home. We sorted through our duplicates, and will be donating quite a few things, which also feels good. The apartment is really coming together, more pictures soon.

Highlights from my jog yesterday: hundreds of people out in the park, and at least half of them were roller blading, including a few 60+ year olds! The skill levels also varied: some were playing street hockey and some were trying to teach other how to simply stay on their feet. Lots of joggers too, running with me around this track in the park. It felt like a 5K again! I can't imagine when the weather warms up, it'll feel like I'm running a marathon! Except I'll still only be running about 2.5 miles :)

We really loved Caracas, but I think we are really going to try to take advantage of our time living downtown here in Buenos Aires because it's so much safer. Not perfect, but we really feel at ease being out and about and it's great. We love walking everywhere! We're not exactly sure what we'll do with our car when it comes......guess we'd better start planning some road trips!

Oh yeah, Iguazu

I forgot to blog about our trip to Iguazu! We went two weeks ago, and loved it. We saw lots of wildlife, including toucans, a cuckoo, alligators, turtles, and....coatis....

The first coati we saw scrambled across the sidewalk in front of us, and we couldn't believe we didn't get a picture! We were disappointed, until we saw approximately 200 more over the next two days. Haha! They were like pigeons, running over to anyone that opened a bag of chips. But they were so cute!

The falls were incredible, the amount of water pouring over was staggering.

Mike also set us up with a boat ride that took us right into one of the smaller falls (small is a relative term). It was AWESOME and we got soaked.

Um, Mike took all the pictures, so I will refer you to his blog to check them out!

Farm Show and Fakesgiving

Yesterday, Mike and I and a friend from work went to an Exposicion de Ganaderia, or in other words, a Farm Show! It was like a State Fair, every kind of farm animal you could imagine, stands selling all kinds of jams, meats, and cheeses (and dulce de leche), and giving away samples! There were companies like John Deere showing off their GIANT pieces of farm equipment as well.

The drink called Mate is an incredibly essential part of the culture here: people carry their thermoses and gourds around all day. We laughed to see a hot water vending machine that people could use to fill their thermos, and a mate stand in the middle of the horse ring for the judges.

Another part of the gaucho culture, I guess, are these ginormous berets called "bouinas," and of course I had to buy one, after seeing all the gauchos wearing them. You can see me sporting the boina and Mike with his new mate gourd in one of the pictures.

Oh, and you'll also see a picture of some cows in pens next to a steak restaurant. Not sure what goes down there, but we stuck to the Choripan stand outside.

Another part of life here in July is that it's COLD! Well, relatively chilly, anyway, highs in the 50's or 60's. With the weather like this, a couple of our coworkers decided we should have a potluck Fakesgiving. It was great! A few non-Americans attended, and though I think they were bewildered about a few thanksgiving traditions, like setting out cranberry sauce in the shape of a can that no one eats (the girl next to me couldn't stop laughing), they loved the food. I made sweet potato casserole, and my goal was to make it taste as similar to my Dads as I could.

Unfortunately......the sweet potatoes here are white with a purple peel, excessively starchified (though yes, they're still sweet), and as hard to cut as tree trunks. I boiled them for half an hour, mashed them, then added exorbitant amounts of butter, cream, and sugar. They tasted fine, but were a greenish-yellow, with a couple of purple chunks. So.......I shredded two carrots, and blended it all up! Pretty close! Threw on some walnuts (no pecans here), and....I made my own marshmallows! Actually not too tough -- you just need gelatin, melted sugar, and beaters or a blender.

So (keeping in mind that I left out all the steps it took to get the potatoes the right consistency, after having so effectively de-starchified them), it took me about 7 hours total. Yup, that is a once a year (or once in a lifetime!) recipe. But I'm so proud they turned out!

This is my kind of city!

So this morning I went jogging around a nearby park (there's a track that goes around a little lake), and I loved it!

I saw: hundreds of joggers, roller bladers, mounted police, dog walkers (10+ at a time), jump ropers, bicyclists, paddle boats (though no one was on them today, it's the middle of winter) and green lorikeets! 

In fact, there were so many joggers, I felt like I was running a 5K or something, super cool!

Getting to Know Palermo

Outside the Museo Evita.  Mike took all these great pictures, FYI, so he's not in any of them.  I will remedy that shortly! 

We've had a great first couple of weeks.  Last weekend we took a city bus tour and got to know the different neighborhoods of Buenos Aires.  This weekend we've been exploring Palermo -- the neighborhood we live in.  Museo Evita is in Palermo, and it has a great cafe with crepes!

Our church building in Palermo.  We definitely are city dwellers now, it's stuck right in there with all the high rises.  Our grocery store is also definitely an urban grocery store -- small, packed right in with the rest of the buildings, but the best part is: everyone brings their own little carts to wheel home!  Which is great, because we've got a cart coming on its way with the rest of our stuff.  Living across the street from Costco in the US will teach you the necessity of your own little shopping cart.

Speaking of grocery stores.......this leads me to courteous-encounter-#1 of the week.  Let me say that neither Mike nor I expected outpourings of warm friendliness here, for a variety of reasons, but we have been proven wrong.  Sure, there was the little old lady who pushed Mike out of the way when we were in line at the museum, but on the whole everyone here has been very nice!

We were looking for bacon at the grocery store and couldn't find it, so I asked a young man who was stocking shelves: "Tienen tocineta?"  And he had no idea what tocineta was.  I was racking my brain, trying to rewind back to high school Spanish in case there was another word for bacon, but when I turned to Mike to ask and said the word "bacon" in English, the boy shouted out "Ah, panceta!" and then in English, "Come here!  Come here!"  He ran across the store to show me where the panceta was.  So nice!  And he knew a little English!

 The view from our balcony.  Can you see the Rio de la Plata in the distance?  It's great, except that every time I see it, the line from the musical Evita jumps into my head, where she calls out "Rio, de la Plata!"  And then the entire musical gets stuck in my head again.  "Hello, Buenos Aires!  You wanna know whatcha gonna get in me?  Just a little touch of star quality.  And, if ever I go to far, it's because of the things you are, beautiful town, I love you."    It's very difficult to get those songs out of your head when you live in Buenos Aires, let me tell you.

And here's a photo from our city bus tour.  It was actually pretty chilly sitting on top of the bus, with the wind and all.  It was probably upper 40's, low 50's when we went.  My brain refuses to accept that it can be cold in South America for some reason, especially in June, but it definitely is.

Ah, courteous-encounter-#2:  We were walking to a co-worker's house on Friday night, hadn't been there before, and I wouldn't say we were lost, but we couldn't find the building (no street signs or building numbers in sight).  A girl came up to us, and said "Are you lost?  I've been walking behind you for two blocks, and it looks like you need some help."  And she helped us find the building!  No laughing comments like "Ha, you guys aren't from around here," which would have been easy for her to say, since we were also carrying a plate full of treats and probably looked ridiculous.  I was so shocked that she stopped and kindly helped us find where to go, and didn't point out the fact that we were foreigners. 

Anyway, we are settling in here pretty well, more updates soon!

We're here!

Haha, the only picture we have of us so far is one the pet expediter took for us when he dropped off the cat.  Yeah, he's alive!

Well, we made it to Buenos Aires.  It was an overnight flight, and we only had to go an hour east in time-zones, so we weren't too exhausted when we arrived.  Oh, and some of you have probably not met Mike's cat -- his name is Kyska, and he's really more like a dog than a cat (runs up to meet you when you come home, follows you from room to room, weighs 23 pounds).  We love him.

Mike and I are both working in the Consular Section in the embassy here in Buenos Aires.  We've had several people ask if we like working together in the same office, and we say "heck, we worked together in Caracas, when we were secretly dating.....it's a lot nicer to have everyone know you're officially in love and married! :)"  And really, we spent so long being good friends and co-workers in Caracas before we even started dating, that we've kind of fallen back into that pattern, swapping visa interview stories at lunch and such.

I think the section here is glad to have us -- with our experience in the consular section in Caracas, and our Spanish language skills, we were able to jump right in.  Not to brag, but Mike did 225 visa interviews before lunch on his first day (I only did 162).  So yes, we're fitting right in!

Buenos Aires is such a great city -- we live in a great part of town with lots of restaurants and parks that we can walk to.  We're getting a lot of exercise, which is great because we're eating a lot!

People LOVE dogs here -- we've seen professional dog walkers walking more than 10 dogs at a time.  Then they go let them loose in the park, where it just turns into a dog barking frenzy.  We've never seen anything like it, I swear I saw over 100 pooches at a park the other day. 

What else.....hm, my brain is dead, we're at work right now......more later!  Just wanted to send out a first update!

Buenos Aires, here we come!

Well, it's official! Mike and I have both officially been assigned to consular officer positions at the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires. We are very excited. Buenos Aires is an incredible city, and we're very lucky to have both been assigned there. In fact, it was nothing short of a miracle: we had been trying for months to be reassigned (my original assignment as some of you may recall, was Vienna). But in the end, the State Department was unable to assign us together.

I was a couple hours away from quitting when we got word that a position for me may have opened up. It turns out that someone else assigned to BA was no longer able to go, and I would be able to serve in that position. The job starts at the same time as Mike's, so we'll both arrive May 30th and work there for 2 years.

We view it as a complete miracle that we are both able to go to such a wonderful city when we were begging to get sent to much worse places (Juarez, Iraq) in order to get reassigned together. Also, now that I don't have to quit, I am eligible for "tenure" this year, which means I can take LWOP and could even quit and re-enter the service if I wanted, without starting the process from the beginning again. My not-having-to-quit also means we won't owe the Department a substantial amount of money to pay back my training, per diem, and leave. VERY lucky.

The prospect of having to quit much sooner than I had anticipated also made me realize we had no plan B for what I would do if I weren't working and we didn't have kids (or even if we did have kids, and I decided to take a break or quit). For weeks I couldn't come up with the answer to my own question: what am I interested in? What would I want to get a Masters in? And then, coincidentally the day I almost quit, I came up with what I thought was a pretty awesome plan (Mike thinks I had to come to terms with it all and come up with a plan B before the miracle could happen :).

I had been thinking about how much I had enjoyed the 5 months of German training I had received (for my Vienna assignment), and how fascinated I especially was with the grammar (finding common Latin roots between German and Spanish, noticing how Biblical or old English sentence structure is very similar to German,and shouting out things in class like "Is that a gerund?!). And I thought, perhaps, I would love to get a Masters in linguistics. And I think I will. I also had been looking that day into jobs for FS spouses in Buenos Aires, and I found opportunities to work at the international school there, or to get a TESOL certification and teach English as a second language. These were all options that I could do in combination or one at a time, short term or long term, on and off again, in any country in the world. It sounded fantastic (I was, after all, originally an elementary education major in college) and I was so convinced that's what I was supposed to do, I was a little baffled when a couple hours later, I got a call from the Department, asking me to please not quit.

Well, needless to say, when I got the call asking me to stay on as an officer, I said yes. After 6 months of long distance, which included an engagement, marriage, and getting ready to move to another country, Mike and I are just glad to be back together and to not be heavily indebted to the Department. What happened really was a miracle, we're convinced of that, just like us meeting in the first place was. I mean, meeting the love of my life in Venezuela, who'd have thought?

We're SUPER excited about BA, we have heard it is just a fabulous place to live, and I really enjoyed my visit there last year. Please come visit!

The Hunger Games Movie -- A Few Thoughts

I just got back from the Hunger Games movie and had a few striking thoughts.  Don't worry, no spoilers (I don't think).

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, the 3 books are set in a post-apocalyptic-type North America.  We've got "The Capitol" in the Rockies, the center of power brimming with technology, out-of-this-world gourmet food, and a rich and self-obsessed population.  The rest of the land is divided up into 12 "Districts."  The 13th District was destroyed by the Capitol after they crushed an uprising, 74 years ago.  Each year, the Capitol orchestrates The Hunger Games: entertainment for the Capitol dwellers, and broadcasted to the rest of the population to remind them who is in charge.  2 "tributes" are selected at random from each District, and thrown somewhere together in the middle of nowhere with one purpose: they are forced to kill each other off, until only one tribute is left.  Oh, one more thing.  The tributes are all children, between 12 and 18 years old.

I just finished the first book last week, and enjoyed it (apart from the 1st person/present narrative style, very......different). This is far from my favorite series ever, but it was exciting, and I felt the author was trying to get a message out.  Maybe I'll need to read books 2 and 3 to get the whole message, but I thought it was something like this: the people from the Districts are all constantly threatened, even terrorized, their own land's natural resources being stripped from them to be enjoyed by others, and they feel powerless to do anything about it.  Or, another interpretation (as one of my friends pointed out to me): modern society is obsessed with reality TV shows and violence.

I expected the movie to be much like the book, which it was, except........it wasn't.  First of all, as soon as the "competition" part of the movie started, I was horrified to watch children killing children.  Even though I knew it was coming, it was very different seeing it reenacted on the big screen.  (Which is probably one of the author's points -- this. is. wrong.).  But then to look around me at the hundreds of kids in the theater (I'd say the average age of the kids was 12 or 13), and to watch the children watching children killing children, THAT was nightmarish.  And it only got worse.

One friend in my group said that the author wrote the books so that children would understand the brutality of war.  To try to give them perspective without them actually having to live through a war.  Well, I think after the first few children were killed, the kids in the theater were a little shocked.  But soon, they started to cheer, as each of the "bad kids" were taken down.  Cheering and cheering and "yes!" and then settling back down to watch more.  My friends and I were taken aback.  Our theater had become "The Capitol."

Only.....there was a little girl sitting next to me.  Maybe 7 or 8 years old.  And when little Rue from District 11 died, this little girl started crying.  And she couldn't stop.  She understood.  Her parents just patted her leg and kept watching the movie, but I knew how she felt.  So I gave her a tissue (she definitely needed it).

The other kids in the theater probably just didn't know how to deal with the gravity of the movie, so they got excited and cheered.  But if the author's purpose really was to teach children, I don't think the opportunity was necessarily lost tonight.  But those kids are going to need parents that do more than just pat them on the leg.  After all the cheering dies down, the kids will need:

To talk.  Children are sharp.  They would understand an explanation of the real-life parallels the movie/and/or book introduces.  And they'll need parents who know when they're ready for such movies/books/and talks.

They'll also need examples of adults who aren't obsessed with reality shows and violence.  (Do a little soul-searching -- as you're watching March Madness, would you rather see a jerk of a player get an elbow in his face that had it coming to him, or see a player help his opponent up?)

Or these kids might just need a hug, and another tissue.

Wedding Photos

Well, these are too amazing not to post. The supposed snow/ice/sleet/wintry mix that was supposed to rule the day fell apart the morning of, and just left us with a beautiful dusting of snow.  The rest of the day was nothing short of magical.

The Wedding - 1/21/2012

Our photographer was my dear college roommate and longtime friend, Lauren Moss.  You can check out her website here:  http://www.rmossphoto.com.

Thanks again, Lauren!!!!

JUST MARRIED!!!

 Mike and I were married in the Washington D.C. LDS Temple last Saturday!  It was the perfect day, I don't think things could have gone better.  We were a little worried about the weather (the forecasts were calling for a "wintry mix" which usually = "wintry disaster" in D.C., but it just snowed a few inches the night before.  The morning of, before the wintry mix of rain and grossness could wash the snow away and ruin out pictures, the storm system split in two and went around D.C.  Just for us!!!

We were married in the D.C. LDS Temple, which Mike's grandfather designed.  Mike's grandfather (Keith Wilcox) passed away right before Christmas, and we were both lucky enough to attend his funeral in Utah.  He was a great man with a great vision for such a landmark of a building, and it was a very special day for us.  If you're not familiar with LDS (Mormon) weddings, it was a small religious ceremony, in a beautiful white room with mirrors on opposite sides, reflecting eternity. 

Then, we had our wedding reception at Woodend Mansion in Maryland, which was designed by the same architect who designed the Jefferson Memorial!  It a historical site now owned by the National Audubon Society, and it was just beautiful (see above).  After spending the past two years overseas, it was so fun to catch up with family and friends I hadn't seen, and introduce them to Mike!  Mike's family is mostly out west, so we will have an open house out there in a few months, which we're also looking forward to.  His parents and brother's family were able to come to D.C. though, and they are great! 

We went to New York City for a few days for a quick (but wonderful) honeymoon, where we saw a taping of the Jon Stewart Daily Show, the Broadway musical Wicked (Mike got us AMAZING seats!), and we ate.  A lot.  New York was great.

Mike is back in Venezuela now, finishing out his tour, and I am still in German training for the time being.  However, we hope to soon be able to tell you where and when our onward assignment will be!  Stay tuned!!! (And more pictures are on their way!  Didn't my college roommate Lauren do a great job!?)