Sunday, June 17, 2007

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy, Grandpa Bob, and Grandpa Jay! I got up at 8:30 today and got ready. I ate breakfast (two media lunas, tostadas with dulce de leche, two cups of hot chocolate, and grapes) and got ready to go. Because it is “so cold” here, there is a shortage of gas and so the taxis weren’t running. Fani finally found a remiss (kind of like a taxi, only not) that would come and get us. The remiss arrived about 10 and we went downstairs to meet it. We drove about 10-15 minutes to the house of Sergio’s parents. Sergio is the husband of Federica, Fani’s daughter. We got there and had to wait for Sergio’s dad, Emilio, to find the right key to unlock the fence. We got in and they took us to the kitchen and told us to sit. Fani and I sat there and talked for about 10 minutes until they were ready to go. Emilio’s wife is Elena. To distinguish between the two “abuelas,” Violeta (the youngest granddaughter) calls Fani “Abu Tortuga.” Abu is short for Abuela and the tortuga part is because on the ground floor of our apartment building, there is a little garden with turtles in a pond. It reminds me of how we used to call G’ma “Grandma Flip-Flop.” We drove to a bakery and there was a huge line. We waited in the car while Elena went in and bought some goodies for the day. By the time we left, there were 18 people waiting outside the bakery just to get in the door! We drove about 30 minutes on the “autopista” or highway before getting to Federica’s house. We got there about 11:30. She let us in and told us to sit down at a table. She and Sergio were both still getting ready and their girls had spent the night at Fani’s other daughter’s house. Elena made coffee for her and Fani and hot chocolate for me and we sat around and waited. After a while, we went outside. They have four dogs. Enzo is the largest and he looks like an all-black Rottweiler. Lela is a Golden who likes to fetch rocks for you to throw. Roki is a black dog and so is the other dog whose name I can’t remember but sounds something like Alleluia, but is not. Elena gave me a tangerine off a tree in the backyard! After a while, Federica and I left to go pick up the girls at Hilda’s house. I enjoyed talking to Federica because, unlike Fani, she made sure that I was understanding what she said. Of course the most exciting subject (for everyone but me) was my robbery. We got to Hilda’s house and picked up not only Federica’s two girls, but also four of Hilda’s and Florencia, their friend! Federica’s daughters are Violeta (3) and Jazmin (6). Hilda couldn’t come because one of her daughter’s (Trinidad) was sick. Hilda’s daughters are Camilla (16), Valentina (12), Candelaria (8), Trinidad (7?), and Mili (4). I knew Florencia, Camilla, and Valentina from when they came to visit. We drove back to Federica’s house, just a bit squished. When we got there, the girls went inside to watch TV and so I sat with them for a while and then went outside. We just kind of relaxed for about an hour and a half before eating. We ate outside under the chincha (which is like a park shelter with a little kitchen under it). We had little pieces of pork in buns before the main meal. Then we all sat down and had pieces of meat and salad. It was good. I liked the way they did the meat. I sat in the middle of the table between the kids and the adults. After we ate, the girls told me to come inside with them. They were watching more TV. I stayed in for a while, but then went back out into the sun to play with the dogs. After a while, Federica, the girls, the dogs, and I took a walk around their neighborhood. It is weird because they live in a really nice house with a huge fenced yard and a pool and the chincha thing, but the road is dirt outside the gate and the neighborhood did not seem very nice. We had fun walking around. Mili held my hand. When we came back, the dogs found a puddle in a ditch outside the gate and went swimming. They were wet and filthy! We went inside and I played with Violeta and Mili in Violeta’s bedroom. We played school and other fun, childish games like freezing in funny positions until someone started laughing. The girls liked it when I pretended to fall asleep in school and would pretend to snore. Violeta got a little microphone out and sang for us as we sat in chairs and watched. She wouldn’t let anyone else in the bedroom. Mili and I played with baby dolls. The girls delighted in making loud noises so that my baby would “wake-up” and start to “scream” and “cry.” I named my baby Jose and so did Mili. It was funny. After about an hour, it was time for the girls to have milk. We went to the kitchen and there was chocolate milk and cookies and alfajores for us. We ate our snack and then Violeta told me to come back to the bedroom. We went back and played for a little while longer until it was time for us to go. Fani and I rode with Hilda’s children, their father, and Florencia to the bus station. I rode in the back with the 5 girls. It was quite crowded, but really fun. Mili kept making faces at me and I would make silly faces back. After kissing all the girls goodbye, we walked to the ticket counter. Fani bought our tickets and we got on the bus. We were the first ones on so we got to choose our seats. We sat in the very front; I sat next to the window. We rode on the bus for a little over an hour. I talked to Fani and looked out the window. It was weird because we were driving on the highway, but we would get off at every exit and let people off and pick up more people. A lot of people wanted to go to the city because of the holiday tomorrow, or so Fani said. We got dropped off about five blocks from the house. We walked back with Fani holding onto my arm. We made it safely to our apartment. Fani made me dinner: soup, over-microwaved pizza, and peaches with dulce de leche. It was 8 by the time I finished dinner. I changed my clothes and put some stuff away. I worked on the computer and wrote this blog entry. Fani went to bed soon after dinner. I am going to head to bed soon after I read for a bit.