em·pa·na·da

n.

A Spanish or Latin-American turnover with a flaky crust and a spicy or sweet filling.

Its so nice to have one's luggage and wear fresh pants :)  I had the same jeans for 3 days.  Yesterday was quite the busy day.  We went to tia Lucia's house for an asado.  When we got there tio Orlando and his wife were already there.  Of course Orlando was fussing at Mike for not having called him to get a ride to Lucia's house instead of us taking a remi.  Tio Omar made the asado.  He kept cracking me up because everyone would be talking and he would say, escucha escucha!  Trying to get everyone to listen to him and of course they kept right on talking.  When we were done with lunch and drinking our espresso's Mike's other tia showed up, tia Maria and her daughter Carolina with her two kids.  So we got to see everyone briefly.  But there were other primos missing so this Sunday there is going to be a massive asado at tio Orlando's house.  I can't wait.  Here's a pic from yesterday's lunch

(l-r: orlando's wife, julietta, tia lucia, tia maria (back) me, mike, orlando, omar (back))

That evening I didn't feel like sitting at the house doing nothing so I convinced Mike to go downtown to the Artisan's fair.  Basically its a giant flea market.  Its the place to be on a Saturday or Sunday night.  People everywhere, selling food, trinkets, puppies, belts, leather products whatever you can think of and more.  They also have a little stage setup and there were people dancing and later on a kid's show.  After that we went to a restaurant called Alfonsina's.  Its a hip restaurant on the roof of a building.  We tried Quilmes Red Lager, our goal is try all the different Quilmes while we are down here.  So far all good.  Mike had an empanada criolla and I had an empanada de jamon y queso.  We also ordered a half pizza with roquefort cheese, yum!  To top it off I finally tried a caipirinha, let's just say it was strong!  

(me enjoying my Quilmes Red Lager)

Today we went out and tracked down different family members.  The first we could find at home was Tio Placido and his family.  We sat down and had a nice chat.  His daughter Laura was there, she runs a small convenience store in front of the house.  It was nice catching up with them.

(l-r: antonia, placido, mike, enrique and laura)

After that we caught a remis (a taxi service) to tio Angel's house in barrio Los Gigantes.  His wife Maria served us some empanadas arabes.  They were very good.  Angel insisted on driving us around to meet the other family members.  He drove us all the way out into the campo to see tio Daniel and his wife Maria.  Mike hadn't seen him in several years.  Out of his mom's family Mike resembles him the most.  We drank mate and ate pan casero.  It was nice and relaxing. 

(l-r: daniel, maria, mike, angel)

After we left Daniel's house we went by two more tia's houses but one is real sick and was at the clinic and the other wasn't home.  So tio Angel dropped us off at Lizi's house (where we are staying) and now we are getting ready to see tia Rosa again to eat more food.  Woohoo!  I leave you with this adorable picture of Lizi's little girl Flor.  So cute!

Tomorrow if we have ganas we are off to the Parque Quebrada de los Condoritos.  Since we didn't get to do the whole trail last time.  But only if we have ganas :) Ciao!

vecinaaaa!

We made it!  Every single standby flight we got on and arrived all in the same day.  Only one drawback our bags didn't booo!  The plane was overweight and since our bags were the last to arrive they didn't make the last flight from Panama City to Cordoba :p  The nice COPA airlines representative told us they would arrive on the next flight the following day and they would send the bags to where we are staying bright and early Saturday morning.  Well its noon on Saturday and we still don't have our bags :(  Our friend Lizzie is on the phone trying to figure out what's going on.  Other than not having any clothes our trip has been pleasant so far.  Yesterday we had breakfast with Lizzie's mom and then went to visit Mike's tia Rosa.  We stopped at the grocery store to buy a few american things like cereal :)  I need more than a cookie and a piece of bread in the morning.  Last night we went back to tia Rosa's house to see tio Lencho (not sure if I'm sp his name right).  Mike got his lomo sandwich.  What that is a heart attack on a sandwich.  Its meat, ham, egg, lettuce, tomato, cheese, mayo, mustard I think that's it.  Anyways so that's all for now.  We'll mainly be visiting family this week so there may not be any updates for a few days.  And in regards to the title, there is a commercial down here for a supermarket and at the top of the screen its says VECINAAA! Which cracks me up because I imagine them saying it like GIRLFRIEND! check out these deals, haha! 

latest going ons

Sorry its been awhile since I posted, I have been just too lazy to post. Isn't that sad? Of course I don't think anyone has been missing my posts sooo there ya go, haha! So we went to the beach in the beginning of September. It was bittersweet. I really enjoyed it but it brought back memories from the last time we were there with my dad. Good memories, don't get me wrong. I just wish he we was still here to enjoy the beach with us, he loved it so.

We arrived on Wednesday evening at the beach house. Driving from Charlotte took for-eva! 6 hours all on backroads, no major interstate to get us there, boo! However we saw some pretty country roads along the way. We took ms. leela with us to the beach and she just loved. Mike spent most of the time fishing, poor guy, he only got a couple of fish on the next to last day. He spoke with a few of the local fishermen and they said the best time for bluefish is in October. So we were there too early since it was only September. Early Friday morning my mom and Thumper arrived. She was exhausted from her drive, so she ate breakfast and took a nap. She joined us at the beach later. Saturday morning Eddie got there sans Agustinque. They decided last minute to stay home which kinda sucked since I was looking forward to everyone being down but maybe next time :) That night we had crab legs with clarified butter (thank you eddie for making that butter) and potato soup and fruit salad for dessert. Was stuffed on crab legs after that. That night we took a moonlit walk on the beach. Sunday we drove out to one of the lighthouses but got there too late so just drove back into town and ate dinner at Mosquitos before Eddie headed home. We actually made s'mores at the table, how cool. Monday we packed up and headed home. All in all a nice relaxing time but I was ready to come home.

I'm trying to remember the rest of the month but its all a blur. Work is good. Everyday is getting better, they are giving me more responsibilities. Still a lot to learn though. Being busy with animals all day defin makes the days go by fast! Mike's sister, brother-in-law and our niece came down on their way to Florida. It was nice to see them, I wish they could've stayed longer.

Right now we are gearing up for Argentina. We are leaving in a little less than a week. Its coming up real fast and I feel so unprepared. But I know once we get down there it'll be fine. I'm really looking forward to the trip. It'll be nice to see Mike's family and then go siteseeing around the country. I can't wait. I'll try to keep everyone updated of our goings on while we are down there. So I hope everyone else is doing good. I'm sorry for this rambling post, I'm having trouble gathering my thoughts right now, I think I'm getting sick (practically all my co-workers have the flu or had the flu). Here's some pics till next time. Cya soon! 

One of the many pier pics I took

Thumper pretending he is either a wookie or an ewok

 

My mom all tuckered out

 One of my fave pics of Mike and Leela

 Enjoying our crab dinner

 Trying to look cool, fail! haha!

 Eddie showing off his table s'mores

 Just before we left the beach, one last pic with my mum

 Me and baby Patricia (I bought her the tutu, b/c all girls should wear tutus heehee!)