Love for La Lucila

My little neighborhood in Argentina is called La Lucila. 
It's a cross between Eureka Springs, a small hippy town located in Arkansas and the 1950s.
In the 4 blocks that it houses, there is everything you could ever want and more.

• 4 restaurants: An Italian, A Mexican and 2 cafes
• 1 bar
• 1 gluten free store
• 3 beauty salons
• 3 natural food stores
• 1 chain grocery store
• 2 fruit and vegetable shops 
• 4 bakeries 
• 1 pizza shop
• 1 sushi shop
• 3 butchers
• 2 glasses/ optician shops
• 1 toy shop
• 1 art shop
• 4-5 knick knack shops

The best thing about La Lucila is its love for Pablo, my 2.5 year old son.  In every store, he enters, people shout out his name or give him something free, or first bump him or whatever, that brings a smile to his face.  He is happy to be in our neighborhood and free.  We will miss the charm and attention they give him.  

Yesterday, we went to the cafe, and he had a typical 2.5 year old irrational meltdown because I wouldn't buy him a bottle of water as we were trying to get some croissants to take away.  So the manager, got him a little glass and gave it to him.  

He regularly wants to rock up to the little bar because he knows he'll get free chips and peanuts and he is assertive enough to go ask for more. 

Little La Lucila has filled our hearts immensely for the last 2 years of our lives in Argentina and we'll miss it tremendously when we leave.   

#SOL20 #Day11

The Coronavirus Blues

So, as many of you frequent readers and friends may know, I am moving to China next year.   While in many ways, I am so excited about this move.  It will be good for my son as the ECC program he will go into next year aligns with my understandings and beliefs of what a strong, Reggio inspired program should be.  It will be good for my husband, as he currently has a number of Chinese clients, and is hoping to extend that circle and potentially open up an office in the Silicon Valley of Shanghai.  Finally, I am excited about this move for a number of reasons.  First, I will get to catch up with and hang out with a number of friends who currently reside in Shanghai.   Also, I am excited to work in a full implementation of the C3, really diving in, exploring and supporting teachers in building an inquiry model that incorporates workshop elements and also builds kids understandings and opportunities to make connections about civics, the economy, history and geography.  Finally, I am excited about all the food I will get to consume in China, after 2 volatile years in Buenos Aires, which includes eating the very best and worst of Argentina's offerings.    Still, there is a big cloud lurking over our heads known as the coronavirus.  It's not only causing problems with my potential move to China.  It's spilling over into my joy.   

To start off with, I was supposed to go to New York to the Teacher's College Climate Change Symposium.  I was so excited to get this future forward PD and really was looking forward to it helping me imagine some clear lines with upcoming C3 units I was to develop with my K-5 teams in Argentina.   This has been cancelled because of the Coronavirus and I am currently dealing with the repercussions of trying to get money back from various stakeholders, long on-hold calls, and also, the sadness of not getting to see some dear friends from New York that have recently had some big life changes (babies, house buying, etc).  

Coronavirus isn't killing only my travel joy but others too.  My best friend and her family are scheduled to visit us in BA in the first week of April for the Easter holiday and we are crossing out fingers that their flight does not get cancelled and that they are able to fly.   Both my son and I need our buddies, Heather and Lane, and their energy and love, to help finish out this tiring school year. 

Finally, Coronavirus is putting a kink in the momentum of our school.  After a rollercoaster ride of a year, the superintendent was finally gaining momentum with a number of initiatives: PD, a new mission, hiring of a new admin team, etc.  and now, we have shifted our focus to all things distance learning.   I know in the future we will look at these days and be thankful that they helped us prepare for such events with great detail but for right now, it's frustrating from a big picture perspective, that the school is getting held back in moving forward because of having to deal with the coronavirus potential crises. 

The last thing before I go is that my hubby is in Spain right now: one of the recently blacklisted countries that is currently adding new cases in the hundreds each day.   He has been gone so long and isn't feeling well and is frustrated with the socialized medicine in Europe, which is always so good, until these kind of catastrophes happen.   We just want him home and healthy, so we can snuggle and not miss papa anymore, in the words of my son. 

Anywise, enough complaining for today, I think I'll try to use this post as inspiration for a poem or song tomorrow to the tune of the coronavirus blues. 

#SOL20 #day10 

Moody Wind

The wind is hurried
Scurrying everything in
Its path
Up and away.

Uncertainty hangs heavy
Permeating the sky
Clouds divide
and come together.

The weather
imitating my mood
doesn't know what it
wants.
Salty, sweet?
Water with gas? Water without?
Workout? No workout?

I confront the wind
On my bike ride home.
Feeling tossed about
Tired arms and legs.

And all sorts of objects flying through the air
Is just another metaphor for the chaos of life at the moment.

#Day 9 #SOL20

Early Sunday Morning

The sun climbing over the wall covered in vainy leaves
Is creeping over the pool
Towards the house

We sit, almost still.
Me typing away on my keyboard
The lull of Pablo's Ipad on nearly mute.

The sweet, sticky smell of chocolate chip pancakes
Lingering in the air.

My head is craving coffee
and My body longs to be back in bed

But we'll go on.

There's so much fun to be had today
*Meet my new colleagues via Zoom
*Coffee and the happy park
*An afternoon swim
*An afternoon run
*Dinner with Leilani
*Reading time: with my current book, The Immortalists

Non Stop Saturday

7:15 am
Mommy, wake up.  
I want chocolate milk.
I want bread.
I want more milk. 

8:00
I'm going to do a pee pee. 
Mommy, come play with me in my house.
Mommy, when are we going to Bernie?
Mommy

8:45
Let's go to Bernie.
Do you want your scooter?
It doesn't open for 10 minutes.
We can wait outside. 

9:30
Let's go to buy fruit.
What do you want?
Strawberries, Corn, Peaches, Apples, a pear, that green apple.

10:40
Where's the pool guy?
Mommy, where's the pool guy?
Mommy, are we going to your school?
Mommy, when are we going?
Get your stuff on.  Let's go.

11:10
I want to go on that slide. 
You can't go on that slide without me.
Come on, let's go on that slide. 
Wait in line with the other kids.
Wooooaaa.

12:00 pm
I want to go to the happy park. 
Let's go to the happy park.
I want to go inside. 
Let's go inside.
I want to go to the blocks. 
Let's go to the blocks.
I need to go home.
Why Mommy?
I'm so hot.

12:30 pm
Swimming pool. Swimming pool. 
I am going to get changed, Pablo.
Okay, I'll go change too. 
Mommy, can you help me take off my shirt?
Mommy, can you help me put on my swim suit?
Mommy, let's go. 
Mommy, we need towels. 

1:00 pm
What do you want for lunch?
Fish.  
Do you want fish or chicken?
Fish and French fries
You are having fish and vegetables or chicken and french fries.
Chicken and french fries. 

2:00 pm
Time to go to sleep, Pablo.
No momma
Get in the bed
Can we read these books?
OKay, get in the bed.

2:45 pm
Go to bed Pablo.
No momma 

3:30 pm
Mommy, wake up. 
Pablo, I am right here, awake, alive.
I am just tired.
Why mommy?

4 pm
Do you want to play in the water?
Yes. 
Do you want to play with your table?
Yes.
Do you want to go in the pool?
Yes. 

5 pm
I want pizza. 
The pizza shop doesn't open until 7
Mommy, where's the pizza guy?
We can't order until 7.
I'm hungry

6 pm
I want pizza. 
Okay, let's order but it's going to take some time.
Why?
Because the shop doesn't open until 7

7:30 pm
Where's the pizza guy?
Let's look at my phone.  We can track him.
He's not moving.  Where's the pizza guy?
Where's the pizza guy?
Where's the pizza guy?

8:30 pm
Brush your teeth, Pablo
Why? 
Because you just ate chocolate ice cream.
And...
Because your godfather's a dentist.
What?

9 pm
More books, Mommy.
No Pablo, it's time for bed.
Why? 
Because it's late and time to rest.
Voy a dormir. 

#SOL20 #day7 #tiredmomma 

Nostalgia Soundtrack- Part 1

Trying to figure out an idea for today's blog while listening to music and one just penetrated my brain.  There are a probably number of other songs to add to this list but here are some in no particular order that generated small moments instantaneously.

1994- March- All 4 One: I swear... A definite sign of how much my music choices have evolved over the years since my wild days as an 8th grader.   I remember this song because it was the only time I ever called a radio station to request a song and actually got through.  After I hung up the phone with the radio station, I called a number of my friends who were listening to the radio to listen for my voice and the song to come on.  

2010- March- Coldplay concert:  Fix You... Oh what a beautiful night outside of Emirates Palace when it sprinkled down rain upon us in the steamy desert, followed by a steamy night with the Syrian and a personal day to recover from it all.  It was a night I will never forget. 

2012-June- Christina Aguilera and Pitbull: Feel this moment... I was teaching 5th grade and the kids had been doing a dance unit with the PE teacher.  During the dance unit, they did a flashmob to this song in the lunch room, which was gorgeous and full of energy, which overflowed to the end of the school year and was played almost every hour during our 5th grade class trip in the Pyrenees.  

2016- July- Twenty One Pilots: Ride.. This one was popular during the summer Andres and I visited the US before we had Pablo.  We went to the lake.  We drove from St. Louis to Greenville, North Carolina stopping in Nashville and the Smoky Mountains and we went to Heather Rich's wedding in New York City.  It was a great last summer couples trip for awhile as we became parents the next summer.  

2019-December- Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats: SOB... I heard this one just as I was rounding up the most recent season of Atypical.  It was featured during a chaotic scene which featured the main character getting married to his best friend in a Vegas Chapel.  The whole thing was comical but the speed of the song paralleled our entire Christmas vacation and us chaotically moving from one country, house, bed to another over 3 weeks... More importantly, it introduced me to this artist whom I have fallen in love with sense. 

#SOL20 #Day6 #Theweekendshere

The Borges Plaza

Down brick laid streets, canopied in birch and oak trees, lies the Borges plaza,  a unique little place in my neighborhood where so much transpires.   You should think the 1930s, because quite frankly, with everything in Argentina, you should think of this time period when things were alive, blossoming and Europeans were seeking Argentina out as a dream destination.   But, while you think 1930s, add 2020,  the trendy 60 year olds in one corner dressed in flowy cotton pants and white shirts are doing Tai chi.  And while we're on 2020, go back 30 years to the early 90s,  those are the teenagers lurking around the central fountain in the plaza, lying in one another's laps, dressed slightly goth, slightly grunge, looking for love and/or trouble.  So back to the 30s, which would be the place, my son and I spend most of our time, the playground.  There is a carousel, imagine creepy amusement park, old metallic forms of transportation, parts literally hanging by a thread or actually so decrepit that they fall off, and tacky colors, meaning too many of them.  Whether it be a preschool, or a playground, Argentines love their colors but the schemes are never aesthetically pleasing.   How can a city that built one of the most stunning downtowns in the world fall apart when it comes to playground equipment?  And oh how it does.   Beside the carousel, is a little 3 meter by 3 meter cage, filled with balls, that my son goes into, and with the slightly anal retentiveness of his mother, often proceeds to pick out all the broken balls and put them in the corner because he believes they should be taken out of the ball pit.  Finally, there is a sand pit, often filled with someone's left toys and very dirty small children, so of course my toddler gravitates there. Fortunately, today, he just wanted to slide, but still we ended up covered in sand, warranting this evening's bath.   The plaza is a weekly event and a charming little bike ride away, a trip back in time, and a reminder of how the kids of this generation still just need simple fun.