Niche-making

Hello lovely family and friends!

Hope you are all doing well (I heard word of a winter storm—hope you’re all bundled up!). We’ve been thinking of you all tons! Sounds like lots of fun adventures are happening all over—please write us back and give us all the juicy details!

As far as us, we’ve been busy actually making a life here. Funny how now that I have work (even if they are random hours all over the place), makes me feel much more like I “live” here. I started classes at an English Institute where I work part-time, and the kids are AMAZING! I imagined loving the three-year old class the most, and they are pretty adorable (and TINY!), but I’m surprised by how much fun the senior high-school class is, too! In all my classes there’s singing, dancing, activities (...involving throwing a tennis ball?), games…--all sandwiched in between long hello and goodbye sessions that involve kissing on the cheek every kid, teacher, and neighbor passing by until the school’s locked up. This week’s song for the little kids is, “Let’s be friends!” and, oh yes, there is also a dance.

Unfortunately, these dances were not at all helpful last weekend at five in the morning when Peter and I were jamming to “Sweet dreams were made of these”-dance remix at a “boliche” (dance club) …under a fog machine and flashing lights, no less. We were finally convinced by our host-sister to go out dancing after she had been tirelessly asking us for weeks. We thought the fact that it was her birthday was a pretty solid reason to finally go. And, actually, we had a blast! Sure, we didn’t know a majority of the songs that sounded peculiarly identical. Sure, it was so crowded that routinely getting elbowed in the ribs became a fun, new dance move. But, let’s face it, Peter and I can tear it up.

But, there’s no rest for the wicked and we were up and atom (or is it Adam? Or a..dumb!?) early Saturday morning. I spent the day with my friend from school, Lindsey, exploring the river delta culture of Tigre where boat is the main transport. After enjoying the markets and delicious fruit smoothies, we took a “tour” around the “neighborhood.” Of course, it wasn’t so much a tourist attraction as just the Tigre equivalent of a city bus…a municipal boat that went around a series of little rivers that connected tiny islands, home to houses on stilts. This is the kind of place everyone knows each other; couples sit on their docks, drinking yerba mate (tea) and waving to the boats passing by, or getting on and off as they need. Kids take the boat to school, and the post-worker is also a sailor. We spent the rest of the night enjoying the company of our host family and their friends, speaking SpanishSpanishSpanish until we forgot we were. Relaxing on the terrace under moonlight, smelling and tasting the barbecue of a master, and laughing with new friends and family—these people have truly mastered how to best enjoy each other’s company, and we feel pretty lucky to be included.

This weekend looks promising, too, especially because…it’s Chinese New Year! Being that it’s the year of the tiger (the best, and my year) I’m expecting a lot of great things. Hope you all enjoy your weekend as well, and “Gong Hei Fat Choy!”

Love,

Leeann

Ps: Peter's blog's at: http://osoenargentina.blogspot.com/

Pps: pictures on Picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.com/leeann.sit/Argentina#