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We went to see the Boca Juniors play on Sunday. We chose Boca for two reasons: 1) The stadium, known as La Bombonera, is small and super intense, with the stands abutting right up to the field; and, 2) Boca has claimed Zoe’s loyalty, at least when it comes to Argentine soccer.

A little video footage for your enjoyment below. Unfortunately, the audio in my camera really doesn’t do justice to the noise level, but you can still tell that it’s loud. Zoe wanted to race home and learn all of the Boca chants, which her Spanish tutor promptly informed her involved a lot of bad language. Naturally, she was undeterred. In fact, she was proud that she was picking out Spanish curse words while attending the game, such as the one shouted very loudly at the end of our video!

As I’ve oft discussed, one of the biggest challenges for us living in Baires with kids is trying to get them to bed on time, which, of course, requires that they eat an early dinner.

But, if you want to dine out sometime before 8:30 pm, while still consuming an edible and healthy meal that does not involve pounds of melted cheese and “Close Encounters of Third Kind” mountains of carbs…well, let’s just say that you have your work cut out for you!

In the spirit of sharing, we thought we’d let you know about two of our favorite light & early dinner options: Natural Deli and Le Blé.

The Natural Deli (there are two) that we frequent is in Las Cañitas. It is a health food store/bakery/restaurant that is open all day and well into the evening, serving interesting sandwiches, homemade breads, pastas, and fruit smoothies. Their sandwich options can be had with yummy greens on the side, and if you opt for papas, they try to make them better for the bod with oven-roasting instead of deep frying! They also carry vegetarian options and do some vegan baking as well.

Another favorite option for a late lunch/early dinner is Le Blé in Colegiales. This is a French bakery/cafe that has amazing salads at lunch and very good sandwiches available during merienda (which they serve with a generous side of fresh greens). I wish we could get the salads during tea time, but we can’t, so instead, we go for the delish sandwiches and turn them into a 5:00/6:00 pm dinner. The portions are HUGE, so feel free to split between kids, or adults that aren’t ravenous.

My favorite tea at Le Blé is a red blend called Pu-er Fresh. Also, at lunch, their breaded chicken strips are tender and delicious as well.

A note about service — it seems the healthier the food, the more crunchy the service (in other words, the waitstaff can be more laid back than your typical Argentine cafe)! In both of these restaurants, but particularly at Le Blé, we have had to almost throw a body block to get a server’s attention. What we Americans will do to get some salad greens at 5:00 pm!

Here in Argentina, if you want to join a gym for any length of time, they make you get a physical from a doctor.

Up until today, we had avoided this by signing up for short stints at the gimnasio, and then moving on to a new workout place every few months (this was easy to do given that we’ve lived in 4 different apartments).

Most recently, we had joined the tennis club where the girls take lessons because they had a gym facility as well. We gave that up after a month though, because the weight lifting and cardio equipment was soooooo bad. (It was too expensive to maintain just for tennis.) Not happy with any of our local options, we decided to return to the Always Club in Palermo, because it presented the best cost to benefit ratio of any of the gyms we have frequented.

That was our fatal mistake. Returning to the same facility we had used before apparently triggered their “take a physical” requirements.

So this Wednesday morning, we went to see the doctor (who was an asshole). What a waste of time. He asked us about 6 questions, took our blood pressure, and then gave us each an ECG — yes, a resting electrocardiogram. Which, as I understand it, is pretty useless. But, he was shocked that neither of us had ever had one for screening purposes. I explained that they generally weren’t used unless a person had heart problems or was experiencing symptoms related to heart disease.

On the bright side, the office for visiting said doctor was upstairs at the gym, so we could pop in before a workout. Still, I found the whole thing to be ridiculous — just a stupid bureaucratic hoop to jump through.

Tom and I have been very surprised at the groundswell of interest in Michael Jackson that has arisen amongst the elementary-aged kids at the Zs’ school since his death. In fact, this Halloween, there were gloved-hand costumes in class.

These newly minted Argentine fans practice a wide array of his dance moves together. They love all of the man’s music: his later work, the Jackson 5 and his early solo stuff. They bring lyrics to school and memorize them, even if they don’t know the tune. They ask questions like, “Which name is cooler, MJ or Michael Jackson?” They look up all of his old videos on You Tube. They invent their own variations on the moonwalk.

To be honest, if Zoe doesn’t stop singing I’ll Be There, well, let’s just say we might have to use some duct tape! And, of course, this obsession means we are going to see This is It! tomorrow. Zoe has heard from her classmates that it’s really great… .

My new favorite museum in Buenos Aires is the Museo de Armas de la Nación. The kids adored it. It’s not too big. What’s not to love?

I encourage you to take a walk through this historic building laid out like a rabbit warren, each room containing its own treasures. You will be treated to a mix of very old guns (handguns and shotguns), historic knives and swords, ancient spear replicas, cannons, Gatling guns, suits of armor, a life-size diorama of traditional Japanese warriors, collections of toy soldiers, and, yes, even a gas mask designed for a war horse.

One of the things that struck me while perusing these killing artifacts was the shift in personalization that happened upon the advent of mass production. Older swords and guns were often heavily decorated, and one could tell, treasured by their owners. Their import to survival reflected in their painstakingly beautiful adornments.

Modern weapons, by contrast, seemed cold and plain.

I also wondered about the difference between curved swords and straight swords — what were the advantages and disadvantages of both? From what I can tell, it seems that the curved blades were used by cavalry men and were good for slashing motions. Infantrymen, on the other hand, were issued straight swords so they could impale their enemies with a thrusting motion in hand-to-hand combat.

Apparently impaling is difficult with a curved sword. Who knew?

Pictured above is a Gatling gun that was used in the Revolución del Parque in 1890.

As others have written before me, the Argentines are serious about their hygiene. There are bidets besprinkled pretty much everywhere throughout the country.

Personally, I’ve never really been a fan, they seem more trouble than they are worth. The bidet in our apartment is never used, except to store toilet paper rolls over the knobs. (There’s literally no extra space in our bathroom.)

Anyway, my transition to bidetophile came about as a result of an extreme case of gastrointestinal distress that led to massive amounts of vomiting and diarrhea. Residing at the Posada de la Laguna during this illness, sipping my lovely deliveries of green tea and toast from the kitchen staff, caused me to feel as if I were staying at some sort of twisted, bulimic weight loss spa!

I digress…again, sorry.

So, one day, while my poor body was purging itself of toxins, my keen family was on the water attempting to canoe amongst the spectacular flora and fauna in gale force winds. This meant I didn’t have anyone to fetch me new toilet paper, causing me to eyeball the bidet, reluctantly realizing it was going to act as savior with my low supply of tissue.

I held off for as long as I could, but finally, I succumbed to the siren song of warm moisture (as opposed to the razor sharp papel higiénico squares I was using). It took me about an hour to figure out all of the knobs and settings, but once I gave it a test run, I thought it was so damn great, I insisted Tom give it a try! (The poor man, it must be hell being married to me.)

I was reminded at Zelda’s school production celebrating Cristobal Colón‘s discovery of the Americas that we folks from the U.S. are very impatient and direct.

We don’t have long flowery hellos and goodbyes. Instead of taking the time for a nice chat over coffee at a cafe, we choose to order huge caffeinated drinks to go so that we can inhale them in our car while rushing somewhere. And, our national anthem launches into the singing immediately without prelude or conclusion.

Not so the Argentinian anthem, which begins with what seems to be its own symphonic movement prior to anyone actually lending voice. Every time I find myself lulled into self reflection by the Argentine national song’s instrumental introduction, I am subsequently jarred out of my reverie when the vocal portion begins.

We weren’t sure what to expect when we went to Zelda’s celebration of Chris Colon, which featured 1st and 2nd graders as well as some 2 & 3 year old jardín children. To say we were dazzled is an understatement. The older kids (including Zoe) painted the backdrop in art class. All of the costumes and props were great. The wee thespians spoke clearly and no one forgot their lines.

This theater piece had it all: drama, narrators, musical numbers, and charming toddlers. Below are some pictures that show: 1) Christopher contemplating travel; 2) The monarchy of Spain with the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting (Zelda’s part) discussing funding for an expedition; 3) The sailors crossing the Atlantic; 4) The impossibly cute Pre-K kids in a musical sailor number; 5) The Indians and the Europeans meeting; and 6) A musical flag extravaganza honoring all of the countries in the Americas.

I have to say, they take their drama seriously here, and it shows. This exceeded any similar in-school productions we attended at the elementary level in the US. (I confess, I am one of those parents that enjoys seeing my own children perform, but generally, I find these events to be rather boring. So for me, this was certainly a pleasant surprise.) Bravo!

A while back, we were desperately searching for an English-language film at the cinema that was suitable for the whole family. At the time, there were only adult options in English available and they had a minimum rating of PG-13 back in the States. (Here in Buenos Aires, most foreign fare aimed at the junior set is dubbed, but adult films are subtitled.) Since we didn’t know anything about the movies in question, we began searching online for information about content for the Zs, who are not horribly media savvy.

As we were doing our pelicula fact finding, Tom stumbled upon the site Kids in Mind.

Wow — we had no idea that there were people who sat down and watched a movie and literally cataloged every female hard nipple covered by a shirt, every mention of the Lord’s name in vain (check out the profanity glossary), substance abuse references, and of course, moments of actual nudity and graphic violence.

Tom and I quickly abandoned our original reason for being on the site and randomly began entering in recent summer films. What was our favorite discovery? Well, if you should happen to take a family outing to the cinema for a viewing of “The Hangover”, you might want to take advantage of their list of suggested “discussion topics“:

Bachelor parties, marriage, dating, relationships, trust, love, counting cards, spousal abuse, lying, Ruffelin, the Holocaust, Holocaust survivors, sexually transmitted diseases, recklessness, drug dealing, gambling.

In the end, their unique reviews were somewhat useful, but good Lord, I really did feel like a prude!

Thanks once again to Candace and Gil, without whom we would do nothing interesting. Today, it was a trek outside of Capital Federal (the name for the inner barrios of Buenos Aires) so that we could attend some sort of joint British/American outdoor fair at the posh Hurlinghame Club.

The club itself is a bit of a throwback to colonial times, it has an 18-hole golf course, polo fields and stables, tennis courts, cricket, swimming, blah blah blah. It is quite a huge piece of property and was indeed a nice setting for a beautiful spring day. I learned today that the club is supposed to be where polo was first introduced to Argentina.

There were food booths with the standard parilla fare, sweetened popcorn, games for the kids, lots of grass to play around on, loads of vendors (we bought a llama wool blanket to bring home), a marching bagpipe and percussion band as well as Scottish Highland dancers. (A big thank you to Gilson Pereira for remembering to bring his camera and for taking the photo here!)

On a side note, as we trekked back to the R. Dario stop, we saw the train fly by before we made it to the platform — it was actually a few minutes early. I didn’t know that was possible with a train system!

Electrical systems are often overloaded and somewhat finicky here in Buenos Aires, as evidenced by our recent candle-lit birthday party for Zelda!

We had another such incident today. While dining at a new Panadería/Confitería, I went upstairs to use the restroom. Unfortunately, said baño was not stocked with paper towels for the drying of the manos. Luckily (or so I thought at the time), there was an air drying unit, which was unplugged. Being the enterprising person that I am, I restored its connection to mother electricity and…well, let’s just say it was a bad idea.

The bathroom light went out, the dryer didn’t work, and I had to fumble around in the pitch black with wet hands to get out of there. When I repaired back downstairs, rejoining my darling husband, he jokingly asked, “Hey, it just went dark down here. Did you make the lights go out?” I winced and said, “Yah, I think I did.” He didn’t believe me at first, unable to come up with a connection between plumbing and electricity!

Needless to say, I felt horrible for blacking out the illumination in the main dining area! I suppose they still have a few “opening day” type kinks to mitigate at La Argentina.