Bella Vista

Yesterday was probably my favorite day here so far. I finally got to go see my family's "weekend house" they are always talking about. It is in Bella Vista, a tiny town in the province of Buenos Aires about a 40 min. drive out of capital federal. I'd never been in their car, and apparently there is a garage right under the apartment building. Also, it is the law to have a fire extinguisher in your car, but our apartment doesn't have a fire escape, a smoke detector, or non-barred windows. Interesting. Anyway, we drove past this huge shanty town called Villa 31 on our way out of the city. I'd heard about it in my class, but it was really powerful to see it. It was just miles and miles of trash with tiny cardboard and tin huts and children and dogs running around everywhere. There are a TON of homeless people in the city, but you kind of forget that outside the city the poverty is a hundred times worse. There was also a smaller shantytown on the road into Bella Vista, but when we got about a mile in it turned into vacation homes. We had to pass a little gate thing to get into their "neighborhood." The house was brick and really nice, with bunk bed type bedrooms, a big great room with a fireplace and a ton of pictures, a big kitchen, and an upstairs I didn't even see. Outside there was a big patio with a cool wooden roof and fans, an outdoor grill area for asados, a nice yard, and a small pool. My host mom's two brothers and their kids were there. The grandma (who was also there) actually owns the house, but the whole family spends practically every Sunday there together. The younger cousins also had friends over, so there were quite a few of us. We played soccer in the yard for awhile with all of the kids, which was really fun. Everyone kept asking me to take a shot, or trap the ball, or this or that. The uncles would stop what they were doing to watch me play and clap and stuff. It must be just so rare to see a girl who actually plays. The uncle was grilling all the meat for lunch during this, and kept walking over with small pieces for people to try. Soon after we all sat down at a huge table outside for an actual, place settings and everything meal. The grandma's maid apparently comes with them on the weekends, because she was doing all the other cooking and cleaning up. We had beef, pork, blood sausage, grilled potatoes--it was delicious. Later we swam and just hung out in the yard. I talked a lot with Fran's 22 yr. old cousin Gonzalo, who is very interested in U.S. culture. He spent two months in New York a summer or two ago to learn English, and he is obsessed with the Giants. The whole family actually tried to talk to me in English sometimes, which was pretty funny. The adults know a couple lines from movies or whatever, but the younger kids are all already taking English classes in elementary school, and the parents were quite proud to have them try to speak to me in English. Gonzalo, Fran, and I played tennis on the neighborhood clay court later, which was cool, as I've never played on clay. After that we walked into town to buy some cookies and soda for "tea" (the afternoon snack around my dinner time at home). Walking there it felt like a mix between Mexico, some random beach town, and my cottage. Gonzalo actually lives in Bella Vista, and he knew literally every single person we passed walking on the street or in a car. I finally got to have my first mate (the famous and extremely popular yerba tea from here) when the entire family sat down to drink it. You just keep refilling the same little pot with hot water and pass it around to everyone in turn.

We headed home around 7:30ish, and in the car I was informed that the entire immediate family was coming over for dinner (so the two sisters, the brother, all the spouses, and the two kids). Fran and I went to Mass at 9, but I'm still not understanding much at church. Everyone got to the apartment around 10ish, and we all sat in the living room eating empanadas from some take-out place, which is I guess what they always do when everyone comes over. We'd been sitting about 5 minutes when Pablo, Fran's older brother, said "should we tell them?" to his wife Loli and the sister Flor jumped up and screamed "no!" excitedly. Loli then announced that she's pregnant. Now I guess I've never been with a couple who announces an engagement or a pregnancy or anything, but everyone was just freaking out. The mom and a sister were crying, people were kissing, I got a million hugs, there was shouting. It was really really cool to be part of such an important family moment like that. They then spent the entire dinner talking about it, discussing how the sister Caroline's baby (she's due in May) can have a friend, telling Mateo he'll be the oldest cousin, talking about how big Loli's breasts will get (haha everyone looked at me then to see if I understood what they were talking about), etc. At the end of dinner everyone stood up and the oldest sister gave a formal toast that was very touching. She said something about how it was a double blessing, a pregnancy and Claudia (my host mom) receiving apparently really good news about her cancer. When everyone left Fran and I watched the movie Nueve Reinas until 3 in the morning. It is like Argentina's most famous movie, and it's about con artists in BA with a big twist at the end. Even with the Spanish subtitles on and pausing it to ask Fran something every 10 minutes, I was pretty confused. I'll have to watch it again with English subtitles sometime because what I got of it I really liked.

So, it was quite a day, with lots of family time. I really do feel like part of their family now, which is nice. I just love how they spend so much time together. Fran and his siblings are actually good friends, and they see each other enough to know what's going on in each other's everyday lives. Same with all the cousins. It's so different from our society in which you usually just see extended relatives for big holidays, if that. It has also been cool to kind of experience having older siblings. Yesterday did make me miss my real family a lot though, and I was probably the most homesick last night even though I had had the most fun. I am excited though for when my brothers and I are older with our own families, and I really hope we are as close as this family.