The Holidays

Spending the holidays far from home is certainly different and challenging, but also a learning experience. Culturally it's interesting to see the differences between how we celebrate.

So first we'll start with a belated recap of our Buenos Aires Thanksgiving:

The holiday doesn't exist here- so there's not much to compare. We just needed to find some fellow estadounidenses to share a turkey dinner with us and make us feel less sad about not being with our families- and we did! We are both members of an online forum called BAexpats.org. This is our go-to site for whenever we have questions about how to live in BA. Posting a random question or finding someone else who already asked what you wanted to ask usually bears some utilitarian nuggets of knowledge. Of course, you usually have to dig through a few annoying "I've been living here for 3 months and as an English speaking 'american' and am an EXPERT on Argentine culture" comments, but those are good for a venting reply or a laugh if I don't want to waste time responding.

ANYWAY- we looked on the forum for what to do on Thanksgiving and some people were already planning a big dinner! We signed up and took a train to a northern suburb of Capital Federal, Vicente Lopez, and found ourselves on the doorstep of an ornate mansion that was currently being occupied (and I think maintained) by some fellow estadounidenses. There were about 30 people there and plenty of food, wine, and even a champagne toast. The man who organized the event ordered 3 frozen Brazilian-imported turkeys and it was just enough. He also made a whole vat of mashed potatoes with gravy, and others brought delicious side-dishes like green-bean casserole, salad, rolls, and stuffing...mmmm. A recent arrival to BA even smuggled in some cranberry sauce- impossible to find here! It was a delicious meal and we met some interesting people. The crowd was a mix between retirees and older (and wealthier) vacationing expats, 30-something business entrepreneurs, recent law-school grads taking their tanked-economy job deferrals to travel, and some study-abroaders. We were pressed to find people that we felt like were in our situation: 20-somethings planning to stay longer than the average study-abroader and wanting to spend it by really getting to know the city, language, and culture on a tight budget. We are a small demographic here I think, but hopefully when classes start up we'll find some other people who are in the same boat as us.

Christmas:

The Munzingers were here to make these holidays happier and more familiar than our Thanksgiving. Kathy brought lots of supplies, including all the ingredients for making cookies (a Munzinger family tradition) as well as a 2-lb bag of brown sugar and a big jar of Peanut Butter for us to keep. Sara's parents also surprised us with Christmas stockings and Ethan brought along some Christmas music (that we listened to on repeat for most of the trip). They really made it feel like Christmas in the little San Telmo apartment we all stayed in together. Kathy made a delicious Christmas dinner- we had salad, twice-baked potatoes, a roast, roasted garlic and bread. And as Jill's family usually has a Christmas ham, Kathy and Sara specially glazed and cooked up a cut of ham for her. We spent the rest of the evening listening to Christmas music and playing games around our tiny Christmas tree-cone that we decorated with construction paper garland.

This scene was a stark contrast to the world outside our door. While Frank Sinatra sang about "White Christmas", children laughing and sleigh bells ringing inside our apartment, outside it was 85 degrees and the streets were empty. I have never seen the streets of Buenos Aires as eerily vacant as I saw them after 2pm on Christmas Eve. It felt creepy to be outside in the middle of the day and worse in the evening, because absolutely no one was around and everything was closed. It was like a ghost town...

But then came the fireworks! Right at midnight the city exploded with sound and light and came alive again. Fireworks were being shot off from every direction as far as we could see. It was really beautiful and I felt this sensation of connection to the rest of the city, after a day of feeling like we were the only ones around. Everyone was stopping at this exact moment to look out their windows with their families and celebrate- it was like watching the ball drop on New Years Eve. The fireworks lasted for more than an hour. Then the streets became loud again, as they filled with people lining up to go clubbing on the biggest night out of the year.

Christmas Eve is the bigger day for people in Buenos Aires. The streets are dead because everyone is inside with their families for Christmas dinner and then they all watch the fireworks together. After the fireworks young people depart and head out to go clubbing with their friends until the sun comes up. BA really is the city that never sleeps, but we are people who liketo sleep and felt strange going out on Christmas, such a family-oriented holiday in the states. So we could hear the festivities outside our window but didn't partake.

Christmas morning we had mimosas and a breakfast casserole, and Jill had some quiche (a Meade family tradition). Sara's parents had also laid out a stocking for each of us and we took turns opening them together. After this, Jill Skyped her family and opened the suitcase full of presents her mom had sent along with the Munzingers. It was nice to feel connected to my family and have some semblance of a normal Christmas by opening presents with them (virtually anyway). It really meant a lot to me that both my parents and Sara's parents would go to all the trouble for me. Later in the day we went to Recoleta Cemetery, one of the few things open and then had High Tea at a fancy hotel nearby. It was a happy BA Christmas with Sara's family here.


New Year's Eve:

They left on New Year's Eve, also Jill's Brithday, which was definitely sad. In BA New Year's is a more family-oriented holiday than in the states. The streets were eerily empty again which amplified our own feelings of being sad to see Sara's family's go- but we trudged on! We made a nice dinner and Sara made an ice-cream birthday cake from scratch for Jill. It was delicious. Again at midnight the city lit up with fireworks and we had a great view from our balcony. We sat in the dark and watched the fireworks and toasted the New Year. We were still feeling a bit down, but managed to stay up until 2:00am so that we could watch the ball drop in New York in another attempt at feeling connected to friends and family back home. Jill called her parents to wish them a Happy 2010, and then we went to sleep looking forward to what our 2010 in Argentina would bring...