News from Argentina

Dear all,

We would like to update you about our trip back to Argentina.

First of all, I,Marcos, would like to thank you all very much for making my PhD celebration so great. It was awesome to see you all there for me. I will never forget that moment.
The day after the defence was quite messy. We still had too many things to organise at home.

I should say that we underestimated the amount of work. However, I knew that eventually we will leave, so things would be somehow solved. By the end of the day, Marjolein helped us  to get rid of some belongings, some friend piked up some stuff, and Frank and Margreet (the landlords) accepted the house condition without problems.

The departure was very touchy.

We flew to Argentina with a stop in Paris. After 17 hours we arrived in Ezeiza, Buenos Aires, where some relatives and 30 Celsius degrees gave us the welcome.

Everything happened very fast. We met some friends and other relatives, which we liked very much, and little by little we started to feel at home again. We still have to organize our new lives here, and we need to rebuild our routines. Fortunately, we found a new public school in our neighbourhood, which we liked because it is specialised in languages (Portuguese, French and English). The school also participates in a program where students from this school exchange with students from Europe. Among others, a Dutch boy came to the school last year.

We not only met relatives and friends, but also our old dog and a new puppy

We used to collect too many things in the past, such as kid draws, CDs, cloths, ornaments, old appliances that may be repaired, etc. This is probably a cultural habit. Now we have decided to make a big change in this respect. That is why we need to do so much work at home.

We also need to update some furniture and do some maintenance, but luckily Marcos got help from Sofia and Bruno


Another thing that we want to change is the custom of having a car and using the car for almost everything, even for going shopping 300 metres from home. That is why we plan to keep the Dutch style here. Marcos started looking for a Dutch style bike, and this is what he got

Not so bad... (although we miss the bike bags!)

Football is something cultural in Argentina, you might know it. It can be played anywhere, anytime, and does not need to be planed because if you start to play, more people will join spontaneously. Here is Bruno in his first experience of spontaneous two-hours-match


And this is a luxurious field, since it had the goals. The lines, instead, are imaginary and everybody agree where they are.

Finally, I should say that Argentina is the BBQ meat country. This kind of things happen almost every weekend! (this is too much :D)



Tot het volgende bericht!

Bruno, Sofía, Amelie, Indira  and Marcos