Settling In

We are just short of two months in and finally feel pretty settled. Our days are no longer filled with surprise after surprise. Tyler and I have found somewhat of a routine (or maybe rhythm would be a better word) for our work schedules and care taking of Pea. We're getting a handle of life in Buenos Aires--frequent trips to multiple supermarkets, frequent bank runs for coins for the buses, frequent trips to the park for Ella, frequent sweeping of our hardwood floors, lots of eating out (it's just what to do in the city, I guess), and Tyler and I have taken the plunge into tango.

Though I'm nowhere near what I wanted to be in terms of learning the language, I'm doing a pretty good job of understanding others and what they are wanting from me. Communicating back is more of a problem, but a lot of people are gracious and friendly about my stammering and hand gestures. I had really wanted to dive into the language and was carry a fair amount of guilt about being so behind until I realized that I am in fact mortal and just can't do it all. First there was Tyler's surgery, then Ella's pox, and figuring out how to get the things we need to survive. Add to that my work schedule, my training for both childbirth ed classes (to teach) and training for La Leche Leauge leadership. Housework, dishes (no dishwasher), and cooking--which T helps with greatly. Tango, which we are doing almost nightly. Then add to that the vast amount of energy that our almost 2 year old requires (demands?), and I just don't have that much left. We're here for several more months, so there's hope. But I'm beginning to look at this trip differently and accept my priorities as they've been laid. Right now most of my Castellano comes from yoga, tango, other moms in the parks, and the grocery.

Tyler and I were recently discussing how good, and hard, this trip has been for our marriage. Without all of our 'normal' things back home, there's not a lot of places to hide. All we really have here is, us. We've been much more deliberate about building our marriage and loving each other well in the past few weeks. We are finding both challenging and extremely rewarding. Since we got married and, even more so, since Ella was born, we sort of fell out of the dance scene back home--a part of life that was huge in bringing us together in the first place. We're so excited about picking up a new(ish) dance and having the opportunity to do something for us.

The studio Tyler and I are taking tango from is simply awesome. It's very old-school, traditional tango. We expect to spend a lot of time here before perhaps moving on later to a studio that emphasizes the newer style of tango (tango nuevo).

We celebrated Tyler's birthday yesterday (29...makes me feel old) and will continue celebrating on Sunday when I take him to a soccer game. Soccer is more of a religion here than a sport, and I admit to being a little scared about the game. Fans are Hard Core. Uprisings frequently happen in relationship to games. We plan to lay low, not wearing either of the teams colors and leave promptly when the game is over.

We are very behind in taking/posting pictures and videos. I'd love to capture this city by camera, so I'm going to make more of an effort to tote the Rebel around.

I leave you with Ella and Tyler reading a bedtime story. Ciao!