Janalee's First Entry -- Our Adventures at Carrefour

Hola Amigos! Now that we’ve officially arrived, I thought I would give the blogging thing a try. Have patience, this is my first post. I might take awhile to get the hang of it!

I think we’re all still a little shell-shocked. None of us has ever moved on a plane before. When we moved to Washington, DC from Arizona, we packed up all our stuff, loaded it into a Ryder truck and drove cross country… this time, after saying goodbye to our house, storage shed and many friends, we simply got on a plane with a few bags and took off. It’s great to be traveling so lightly, but frankly it also feels a little strange—like we’re part of a country ballad or something weird like that.

We’re staying at our friend Michael’s until we find a house, which may be fairly soon (at least I’m sure Michael hopes so—when he said “mi casa, su casa,” I don’t think he anticipated one piece of luggage fully loaded with every possible item Heavy Baby—Amelia’s favorite doll—might need). Later today, we’re meeting a friend of his to go house hunting. She’s already got five places lined up for us to see in La Quinta (the fifth district of Mendoza), so I’m sure we’ll find something soon. We may also look at apartments. There are some lovely buildings near General San Martin Park (http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/119875.html; I borrowed this picture from someone else’s blog—do you think that violates some kind of blogging code???), a huge park laced with walking paths, ponds and lakes, etc. that spans most of the length of the city. Yesterday, after taking a long and much-needed nap, we picked up some empanadas—deliciosio!—and then walked to the park for a small picnic.

Other than being a little dazed and confused—I’m up writing at 5:30 a.m. this morning. You would be too if your friend took you to Don Mario’s, a place famous for serving steak “bigger than your head”—we’re very excited to be here.

Last night we made our first journey to Carrefour, a French grocery chain. You can find everything there—in fact, along with yogurt, fruit and cereal, we bought a little bed and bedding for Amelia. (With Heavy Baby, a few toys, and a new bed, she’s ready to move in permanently with Tio Michael!) Part of the adventure of living here is navigating places like grocery stores. In that sense, Argentina feels very European – milk comes in square cartons; peanut butter is almost impossible to find; and you can forget mac and cheese. But that’s also part of the fun. Last night I found myself completely overwhelmed with about 20 different kinds of dairy products with the name “crema” in them… I thought I was looking at yogurt, according to Tio Michael, not so. For the record, he’s not sure what they are either, but he knows they are NOT yogurt.

I can’t wait for you all to come and visit. We’ll have great fun exploring the city together… we haven’t even gotten to the wineries yet. This year will truly be an aventura grande!

Desede Mendoza

Abrazos, Janalee