We've made it!

Hi, friends!

I've been slow in getting this going, but here's our first post. The plan is for everyone in the family to post here, so Quinn's been taking pictures and we're all collecting stories. Check us out every so often if you're interested in reading about and seeing what kind of adventures we're having...


With our Argentine (Argentinian?) flag flying proudly from the balcony we're settling in to our apartment in Palermo, Buenos Aires for the next six months. We've mostly been exploring our neighborhood on foot, stocking the fridge, buying school supplies (we even had to buy a ream of printer paper to send with Quinn!), buying and getting school uniforms tailored,
and even heading over to Parque Las Heras for a game of fútbol made especially exciting by the need to dodge (quite unsuccessfully) the millions of dog poops that we find everywhere (after two days I finally washed the boys' shoes, but mine are still sitting outside our front door, Hawaiian style, while I work on controlling my gag reflex).

This morning the boys headed off for their first day of school at Instituto Lange Ley, which is just around the corner from our place, a three-minute walk from door to door. We figured only one parent, the Spanish speaking one, should take them for their first day, so Erin came home after dropping off Quinn, who begins at 8:00, and reported that firefighters (bomberos) are visiting the school today - they must have ordered that one specially to reduce any first-day anxiety from Quinn. Jack took off with her for his 9:40 start time, armed with a little slip of paper in his pocket that read, "bien." He wanted a reminder of what to say when a new friends asks, "¿Qué tal?" Both will get to come home for lunch before returning for English study in the afternoon, so we're eager to hear how it went.

Big plans for today...a walk to find cheap cell phones, gray socks for Quinn (more uniform requirements) and more wrangling with VISA to figure out how to get cash here. I gotta add that now that credit card companies are required to disclose all their fees up front we are horrified to see how much we pay each time we take out a cash advance. We're limited in what we can take out from ATMs not only daily but each withdrawal, so in order to pay tuition and rent, which must be in cash, we have to use the ATM multiple times, days in a row, to get the full amounts...with a $15+ charge for each withdrawal! Unreal, huh. It would almost be cheaper for me to fly to New York each month to withdraw money from an ATM there. Oh well, a relatively small price to pay for a great adventure.

I'll leave you with a boring "First breakfast" video - just practicing how to upload everything.



Hasta luego,
Mark