Well, it’s just another Saturday afternoon here in chilly Buenos Aires. I allowed myself to be talked into staying out until a truly ludicrous hour, for which I’d feel very disappointed in myself if not for the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten in my life happening to me at a time of day responsible people usually wake. Seriously, carne asado on fresh baked bread from a street vendor by the river. I could sculpt my feelings for that sandwich. Of course, that means that I’m finally getting around to spending a day in bed today to fully recover from this dark cloud of a head cold that’s been hanging over me all week. Hardly my usual Fourth of July.
So I’m taking a half hour out of my busy day doing Spanish homework and watching movies with subtitles with a hot tea IV to write a love letter to the homeland. There are things that you don’t realize you love about America until *you’re not in it.* Important caveat: one should not infer from this list that I don’t love Argentina. I can write that post tomorrow, if you’d like.
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT AMERICA
A non-traditional partial list by
Melanie “resfria” Janiszewski
I love that in America, going out dancing means a 3am bedtime, not 8am. I love that in America, if you say, “I’m really tired, I think I’ll go home,” people say “Okay, I’ll call you next week! Thanks for coming out!” instead of “NOOOOO! If you go home I’ll be the only woman with five men!/Just come for five minutes!/If you leave, I won’t have an excuse to make them go home!/It’s the best sandwich in Buenos Aires!” Note to self: get better at saying NO.
I love Mucinex D. As I was sitting on the wall overlooking Ria Plata blanketed in fog, I turned to Lucho, the Argentino sitting next to me whose name is actually Luciano, and said, “I am going to die tomorrow.” “Please do not jump! I care about you!” “No, Lucho, I have a cold, and it is 6:30am, and I am sitting on the edge of a river eating asado. Tomorrow, I am going to die.” When I got home, I felt truly grotesque, but in a last ditch effort to preserve my life, I took a mucinex before crashing. Amazingly, I feel better today than I have any right to feel. God, American pharmaceutical companies are awful creatures, but they do make some good products.
I love my parents’ house. It’s in the forefront of my mind today, because as I write this, Mom and Dad are probably bustling around frantically before you all arrive, with your fruit salads and awesome baked beans and homemade coleslaw. Dad has a bigger bag of illicit explosives than ever, as always, and in about an hour he’ll sneak either Sammy or Adam to take a look, or maybe both. It’ll be hot enough to cook a cold out of me but not miserable, and there will be water balloons and sparklers and mom’s hamburgers and all of you. Man, guys, I wish I was there. Don’t get me wrong, I’m right where I want to be. But if I could somehow manage to be in Ohio for about six hours, yeah, that’d be pretty great.
Because I love all of you. I’m not miserably homesick, at least not yet. I really love my new home town, more so now that I’ve started language classes, and I can’t think of a place I’d rather be, the next six hours aside. I’m getting oriented to life, if not the city geographically, and I can only imagine things’ll get better. At least I hope they do. I gotta say, the 6am weekend thing is really getting old, and I always find that I somehow become five years less mature when I’m in a foreign country for some reason. But I do love you, and wish I could be with you today. After all, in a weird kind of way, I am happy in my new life because of all of you, and because of my life in America.
So thank you, America, for Argentina. I love you, motherland. Happy Birthday.
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Well we had your rain baby! But dad made it great fun anyway. The 10 kiddos had a picnic on a moving blanket in the 'forbidden' living room with 'The Wizard of Oz', and I don't think we had any accidents! Mostly chips and hotdogs. Scrappy ate unwatched plates, so he had a great dinner! Sidewalk chalk was done on the front porch, grilling on the side porch...just not the same in the rain! AND it was my fault. On the third, I walked the gardens, and realized how dry they were. And said to myself, 'MAN we need rain'.
ReplyDeleteAh. All my fault. But folks had fun inside anyway, the sangria flowed, so that was all that was important, I think. And we varied from burgers this year, did BBQ chicken. And brats. Seemed to go over well. At least folks ate! No complaints. I tried the killer chocolate cake, and the frosting gave me hell. Again no one complained, but it wasn't my best. I'm learning that it doesn't need to be my best!!
The rain dulled to a drizzle so we kicked the kids outside for kickball, and little Sammy Smith only wanted to carry the ball around, so that was a hindrance, but Dad somehow managed around that. He was the star of the night (Dad), dumping all the kids into the hottub with kiddie bubbles (nobody needed a bath after that -- and the giggling was contagious -- parents and kids alike!!) and well the fireworks... Kids were chanting 'Mr J Rocks!!' while I held the poor shattered Scrappy and missed them for yet another year. Maybe doggy drugs might not be such a bad idea next year...
The dueling fireworks with next door weren't really an issue as Dad lit up the sky, I'm told. And evidently his sparklers REALLY rocked. I sang Scrappy songs while plugging his poor ears... Talk about futile.
AND beloved daughter, everybody missed you. One most of all. But we're delighted you are where you are, even if you stay up all night??? I'm glad you're reconsidering the "no" factor. It's a good word! And I love you more than you can ever know!
Goosebumpy hugs that enfold you and kisses that smother you!
-- yours always
Melanie,
ReplyDeleteI can't describe the party much better than your mom. I was fantastic! I think my highlight was the "bubble bath" too. Of course, Ben had to whine everytime he got squirted in the face...poor Ben. He has so much to learn about lfe. Oh, Dave the "Dinosaur Man" was great too. Seeing Ben's face light up as he pulled out dinosaur bones and explained them was really neat. He is still carrying his shark tooth and dinosaur rib piece around. The hardest part will be keeping them in one piece and not losing them!
We truly did miss you and as usual, your parents are so sweet and fun and loveable and ....you know, all the other nice words you can come up with. We love them so much, as do our kids. The J's are "it" in my house!
Take care and we will definitely keep you in our prayers. We can't wait to hear of your next neat experience!
Love, Chris-girl