The week that we'd rather forget....

This week began with the tragic earthquake in Chile.  Although we heard that it was felt on the Atlantic side of South America, we slept through it.  After the Chile quake, both Salta and Mendoza provinces in western Argentina have experienced serious earthquakes.

Then we were in rare form this week,  first G with a bad case of food poisoning which zapped her strength and left her to carry on a lengthy affair with a pillow.  She doesn't remember sleeping so much nor reading so much.  It was about all she could accomplish this week.  We never figured out the culprit.

J had his first guitar lesson.  His teacher is Maria Louisa, a Peruvian living in Buenos Aires.  J heard her perform at a South American guitar festival at George Washington University in DC in the fall of 2008.  When we made contact after arriving in Buenos Aires, the first coincidence was that she had just returned from a trip to Panama, spending time in El Valle.  Then we played "do you know?" and she is a friend of Lali C, an artist and musician friend of ours in Panama.  Also Maria Louisa's brother was the director of the symphony in Eugene, Oregon for a number of years.  She's an experienced teacher and excellent guitarist.  J's looking forward to the lessons.

On Thursday, J was introduced to Buenos Aires golf, joining an Oregon expat and a young Swede at a private country club 45 minutes outside the city.  San Andreas Golf Club was everything one might expect:  ivy covered clubhouse, wood-paneled locker rooms, beautifully maintained course, and hardly another group on the course.  Very enjoyable company and a couple of decent shots made for a great time (though a bit warm, probably almost 90 degrees)

Thursday night, with G still slumbering and reading, J joined three other fellows for a night at the soccer match: River Platte vs San Lorenzo.  50 or 60 thousand chanting, singing, whistling fans.  Sports fans in the US can't start to match the passion of Argentine soccer fans.  The home team won, so everyone left with smiles.  But the next day, J woke up sneezing, watery-eyed and with a very raw throat.  And that brings us to today.  We're still couch potatoes, but things are looking up..

We shuffled down to the market for some food, bought a couple of newspapers,  and shuffled home again, enjoying the warm sunshine.  Hopefully by tomorrow, we'll be back to near normal....compared to the woes of Chile and Haiti, we are on top of the world!

This was taken at a butterfly garden at the Recoleta Cultural Center -- a "temporary" exhibition in a courtyard.

G finished three books:  Breakfast with Buddha (****) by Roland Merullo, The Bird Artist (****) by Howard Norman, and Disobedience (***) by Jane Hamilton.  J finished The Whistling Season (*****) by Ivan Doig.  Good thing we are scheduled to go to a book exchange on Tues afternoon, an Expat event very near our apartment!