Bella y la Beastia.

Truce’s class has been working on their own mini version of Bella y la Beastia and so this afternoon Depp, Indy and I were treated to a show at "La Esquina" the local theatre space which had kindly agreed to host.  

Truce had a little speaking part where she described some action in English, luckily for the audience her translator was close by to explain in Spanish.  I asked her afterwards why she didn’t do it in Spanish and she said she had no idea why her bit was the only bit in English, perhaps that was for diversity.   Never the less it was a very enjoyable afternoon with lovely singing and acting.  

Watch Truce's performance here.

I would write more about the show but I am in the middle of a Nerf war at the moment and fear for my life with 5 year old Depp yelling “prepare to meet your doom.” 

Brick by brick.

The winter winds have arrived with such strength that we hung the washing out after sunset yesterday and by morning everything was cold but dry.  A few minutes in front of the heater and everything was ready to be put away.  The weather changes so dramatically here.  At the start of the week, when Indy arrived at school it was -2.  Then by mid-week, the temperature was in the low teens.

The majority of homes here are built using a red ceramic brick and then covered in render.  Larger buildings have concrete columns poured and then the bricks are used to create the walls.  We’re not sure how they are secured in place but we are thankful that we don’t experience earthquakes in this part of Argentina.  In some of the poorer parts of town, extensions are added onto houses using just bricks held together with mortar.  The main problem with this style of building is that there is no insulation and the walls become extremely cold.  Our bedroom is above the garage and the exterior doors face the prevailing winds, which means that our floor is ice cold in the mornings.  You can forget the floor is lava, the floor is a glacier is a far more dangerous game.  Every morning we leap from our bed, via a series of pillows, to the hallway where the gas heater is just so we don’t suffer from frost bite.  In spite of the cold floor the house is very comfortable and we are thriving here. 

Depp continues to soak up the Spanish all around him.  The other day, as I was arriving home from work, the following conversation happened…

Talluah said, “I can hear your dad.”

“Why did you say that?” asked Depp.

“Because, I can hear your dad.”

“No,” said Depp rather matter of factly, “why didn’t you say puedo eschuchar su papá?”

Further to this, a few days later a friend had dropped off some boxes with toys, kitchen utensils and other things she no longer needed.  When Depp came home from school and saw the boxes he was still in Spanish mode and started speaking to Talluah in Spanish, “Mama, look at the boxes.  Three boxes with toys.  Are they all for me?  Who brought the boxes?”  Then he started naming the toys inside and the books. 

Día del Padre

Today is the Argentine Father’s Day and we had been invited out to Silvina and Alejandro's house to have a father’s day lunch.  This was an opportune time to watch someone prepare an asado in a parilla that’s big enough to sleep in.  We are gathering a collection of plans to make the ultimate parilla for our backyard once we return to Australia.  There really is something about cooking with fire that makes you feel more connected to the event rather than putting something in the oven and setting a timer, maybe it's the smokey flavour.

Indiana enjoyed a little horse ride without a saddle.  Hopefully she doesn’t ask for a pony for Christmas, as our back yard is a tad too small.

We have been made very welcome here and it's was a privilege to spend Father's Day with such beautiful people.  The kids had a great time being able to wander around the farm exploring.  Depp most certainly had used up his weekend reserves as he didn’t quite stay awake for the car trip home.