Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina, or My Country, Tis of Thee I Sing

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Old World Bakeries or Why I Haven’t Lost Weight

Assortment of cakes

 

 

post by Donna
To be honest, I was not sad to say farewell to the cuisine of Brazil, but there is one thing I’m gonna miss: the bakeries. Fortunately, Uruguay and Argentina also have these wonderful European baking traditions with delicious fresh bread and pastries galore. And you can find one every few blocks.
The cakes are works of art, and have a lot going on by comparison to our cakes at home. They are packed full of surprises and ingredients – fruits, nuts, creams – but they really don’t taste all that great. You can buy them by the slice! This is great but I almost feel guilty for asking the baker to cut into a beautiful complete cake.
Here in Argentina, dulce de leche, a caramel-like cream, is (in my opinion) just overused – as icing on cakes – and most notably spread between cookies to create the national obsession: alfajores. I guess if there were a US- equivalent, it would be the black and white sandwich cookie (Oreo).
Enjoy these pictures and I’ll be sure to eat a pastry for you!

In Uruguay and Argentina, they are called Confiterias - this one was in Montevideo, Uruguay

 

 

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Buenos Aires – Gwen

Hola from Buenos Aries! We’ve been here about a week and a half now, relaxing and seeing the city. It’s a really gorgeous place, very picturesque (hence the thousands of pictures on my camera). We’ve had some pretty great experiences so far. We’ve gone to the capital building, the Pink House, like our White House, but pink! Dad and I toured it, it wasn’t too interesting to us, but it was nice looking on the inside. We visited the only matte museum in the world; a little whole in the wall with hundreds of matte cups behind glass. They sold matte cake, which was surprisingly delicious. We bought some, scared that it might taste like the actual matte, which in my opinion is GROSS. Made with the same plant as chimarrão from Brazil, which I thought wasn’t all that great, until I tried matte. Chimarrão is great. Another place we saw was Recoleta, I guess it’s called. It’s a huge graveyard that looks like a little city, full of mausoleums. It’s famous not only because of all the mausoleums, but because Eva Peron is buried there; I’m not really sure who she is, but she is very famous and important in Argentine history. But, I thought it was very creepy, looking into the windows of the above-ground graves and seeing bunches of coffins. Not exactly my cup of tea. We’ve done a lot more interesting things, but what I really wanted to write about was my tango class today!
On the weekends, and some weeknights, you can walk through street markets and see couples dancing tango. It’s very exciting to see, and really makes you want to learn to tango! So, that’s what I did. The class took place above a fancy little café, in a huge upstairs ballroom. When we first got there, there was nobody except older people. I was terrified that either I’d be in the class by myself, or have to dance with some old man. Thankfully, a few minutes later, a big group of kids from Los Angeles showed up and accompanied me. The class was very fun, and not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. Tango looks like a very fast, complicated dance, but it’s really pretty slow and the steps are very easy, once you get into the basic posture and balance. You definitely have to be light on your feet. I never really relaxed through the whole class, but things got easier for me. I enjoyed it a lot! Hopefully I’ll be going back for another class on Sunday night at 9! Pretty late, but that’s when everything starts here! I’m very excited to expand my tango knowledge. It’s a beautiful dance! If you’re ever in Argentina or Uruguay (it’s big there, too), take a tango class!!!!! It’s a must.
Gotta go now, Mom’s making chicken curry with the coconut milk from Chinatown, haha. (:

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From Brazil to Argentina

Post by Donna
Well, we left Joaçaba almost a month ago and have been steadily moving southward until May 6 when we arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. So this is just a recap of the last few weeks with some highlights to get us caught up.
The last days in Joaçaba were full of food – lots of good-bye meals! Moving out was complicated by John springing a hernia on the second item he moved. So Fabiano from church (poor guy) and I moved all the rest. John spent that afternoon and evening in the ER just confirming the diagnosis – pain meds are the only remedy short of surgery, which they recommended for when he returned home.
The move was one load off our plate, but 10 heavy suitcases and LOTS of transitions meant a lot more moving for Gwen and me. We just shipped the heaviest of those suitcases off to the States last night and I was sooo happy to see those huge bags go I didn’t even mind when the airlines said it would cost $200 in extra baggage fees! Good riddance! (What was in those anyway???)
Our first stop after Joaçaba was to spend a few days in Panabi, Rio Grande do Sul, the southern-most state of Brazil, visiting Eli, Cris and Vanessa in their new home. However, their home was too small to add anyone else, so they set us up with the pastors of their church, the Heep family. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them and when we left, we said good-bye to two sets of friends in Panabi, the Zamoras and the Heeps.

Chocolate tree in Swiss, chocolate-making town, Gramado, Brazil

Next stop was Porto Alegre, the southern-most large city in Brazil. We stayed there several days and used it as a base to visit famed Swiss, chocolate-making town, Gramado. We got there right after Easter, which was a great time to visit – lots of leftover bunnies and eggs for cheap. We also visited the zoo in Porto Alegre, among other things of interest.

Rainbow over Cabo Polonio

On April 29, we took an overnight bus – our most comfortable ever! –to Uruguay. We got off 3 hours shy of Montevideo and made our way backwards to the coastal national park of Cabo Polonio – probably the funkiest little place I’ve ever seen. It was like a work of art on the beach – just amazing. The settlement is accessed only by these large 4-wheel drive converted trucks, and it has no electricity, except for generators. So it was two days of “roughing it,” but it felt like anything but. Cold weather and rain cut our outside time down and we didn’t get to explore the dunes like we wanted to, but we did enjoy the sea lions and lighthouse.

Beautiful Montevideo, Uruguay

Next stop Montevideo. Gwen and I loved this town. To me, it’s the most European city outside of Europe (but I haven’t been to French Guyana…). It was a little run down, but just beautiful – like a 50-some year old woman who was a real beauty in her 20s and has just faded standing still in time. The food was awesome, the Spanish enchanting – I just loved almost everything about it! I did notice that the people in Brazil are really friendly compared to Uruguayos, but I learned not to take that personally. LOVED Montevideo , and I would go back just for the heck of it!

Lighthouse in Colonia, Uruguay

We spent our last day in Uruguay in another incredibly enchanting Portuguese colonial town just across the river from Buenos Aires – Colonia. We rented a Mule (like a golf cart) and had fun zipping around town in that.
That afternoon, we ferried over to Buenos Aires and after a maddening taxi drive through rush hour Friday afternoon traffic, we arrived at home for the next month – a very cute little apartment that we all love.
Last night, we sent John back home to look for work, but he has already found a job (we hope), so he’s going to do things like have surgery instead. Chaise, Gwen and I have six more weeks in Argentina, which you’ll be hearing more about. Yesterday just before we left for the airport, Gwen said, “Imagine if it were us leaving for home today.” I think she envied John, but we agreed that the time has just flown by, while simultaneously seeming like forever. We are determined to drink as much matte, and eat as many empanadas and rip down as many prostitute advertisements as we possibly can during the rest of our time here. Seize the day!

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Flowers for My Mother

Post by Donna

In these parts, Mother’s Day falls on May 15, so I was caught off guard on May 7 when talking to my mom on the phone, I learned that it was May 8 in the States. Oops. Too late to send flowers the traditional way. So here are some special flowers for my mom to celebrate Mother’s Day. Love ya, Mom!

I wish I could tell you the name of more than one or two of these flowers, but, uh… let’s just call them exotic. We took most of these pictures just walking around our neighborhood in Joacaba. You may recognize impatients, which grow wild in Joacaba, and hybiscus and maybe bird of paradise. All the rest, just enjoy!

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Fun with Porkacheese

quebrada de las conchas and chaise1 at las delicias1 Post by Donna The day before we left Argentina, I told Gwen I was going to write a blog post and entitle it “Go Ahead, Cry for Me, Argentina” based on how sad I was that our South American odyssey has come to an end. Back to normal life… But yesterday, on our first day back, I realized that normal life is simply amazing. When I say that we had lunch at Taco Bell, then stopped for ice cream at Brahms, drove home, and then got to bed early, it may not sound like much, but every moment of yesterday was magical. From the short passport control line in Miami International Airport to my head hitting the perfect pillow, I appreciated everything anew yesterday. Clean bathrooms, strong and absorbent paper products, landscaping, foods that look as good as they taste, our car, air conditioning, a big, beautiful house, a shower curtain, key lime pie, a big, comfortable bed, no wake-up call/no check-out time, an over-sized mug of coffee with half and half, waffles with strawberries, cream and syrup, an ice maker, a tall glass of water from the tap, a dishwasher, a washer and dryer, going barefoot, views from every window, and peace and quiet of the Arkansas woods. I would have liked to put an exclamation mark after each of those things. Gwen and I agreed that yesterday seemed like opening Christmas gifts all day long. This July 4th will be really special for us as we truly appreciate, with a broadened perspective, what a blessed situation we live in. And yet none of the greatness of home takes away from how awesome our experience was. We kept journals, as well as posting pics on Facebook and using this blog; but it would be impossible for us to convey in words all this trip was. We met so many wonderful people, saw so much of Gods creation plant, animal and mineral learned so incredibly much about culture, history, geography and language of Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. We had a quick love affair with Uruguay that left us wanting more. Every day in South America was magical too. I thanked God daily for that experience, and still do because I know it will continue to enrich our lives. We still have a few blog posts wed like to share–Gwen’s school experience in Brazil, our time with Cara Capps, among others hot topics–so this isnt a wrap just yet. But thanks to those who shared this most amazing adventure with us through this blog. Signing out and settling back in, Donna

Post by Donna Learning a language is a lot of work but theres some fun in it too. We have had a lot of giggles over English words that Brazilians have adopted, Portuguese words that sound frighteningly like something else and things we have said without meaning to. Hope you can see the humor in some of these. Lets start with Porkacheese, our pet name for this language, which resulted from a mispronunciation one day at the dinner table in Arkansas, when Gwen declared, I dont want to learn Porkacheese! Well, shes eating those words now. Brazilian Portuguese, or Brazilero as they call it, employs a number of English words of more recent origins. However, it seems that in pronouncing them, Brazilians are incapable of ending the word with a consonant sound. They have to tack on a vowel at the end. So ping pong becomes pingy pongy, Internet becomes Internechee and tic toc is chicky tocky (the ti combo in Brazilero has a ch sound). Then there are words that if you dont get just right, you might embarrass yourself. For simplicitys sake, I am going to spell these words phonetically so its easier to understand the confusion. If you need shortening in the store, better ask for banya, not banyo unless you also need to use the restroom. Likewise, if youre looking for size double X, careful to say sheesh sheesh because saying shee shee will give the clerk the impression youve just peed yourself! And finally, when you go into one of the many bakeries here and are tempted by a bon bon, in Brazilero bom bom, get that o sound just right, because if you walk up and ask for a bum bum, youve just ask for a butt! Who knows what that might get you! And for those of you with some Spanish background, you might be able to relate to how difficult it was for me to come to terms with saying the word for year in Portuguese: ano. In Spanish, say that only if you want egg on your face, or if you actually mean to say anus. Finally, weve learned over the months that some things that were involuntarily coming out of our mouths were meaning other things and probably causing all sorts of confusion. I had to work hard to break myself from saying, OK. In Spanish, this is well recognized with the same meaning it has in English, but in Portuguese, it means, what. And I wondered why people would repeat things to me after I had clearly said, OK! Gwen, on the other hand, trying her best to encourage her friends who want to learn English, often greats them with Hey! or, in Brazilero, King! So, if sometime in the future, you meet a Brazilian who greets you with King! well know the extent of the influence Gwen has had on Brazil. This is just the tip of the iceberg of fun weve had with this language, which we feel sure was the result of a spoiled Spanish prince, who instead of getting the speech therapy he needed, created a new language! No offense intended there, just sayin.

Gwen Has Come Out!

Post by Momma Donna

It didn’t take Gwen long to realize she would turn 15 while we were in Brazil, and from early on, she was declaring her desire for a quinceanheira (keen-say-ahn-yera) – a formal coming out party, akin to the sweet sixteen party some still celebrate in the United States, just a year earlier. A rite of passage of sorts for those who can afford it, it signals to society: this gal is ready to git hitched! (Ha! Hardly!)

None of us have ever been to a quinceanheira in the states, let alone Brazil, but I was familiar with the tradition from some films, stories I have heard of others’ parties, and I also searched the Internet and spoke to as many Brazilians as I could find who had been to one or had one of their own. I started this process back in 2010 and learned one thing fairly quickly: this was going to be an expensive affair, even though almost everything one needs for this sort of soiree can be rented – including a cake! Even so, a formal dress rental cost more than buying a new dress in the States would have cost, so we decided instead to look for a dress for Gwen while we were in Bolivia.

We found one, but it was not a long, formal, rather a semi-formal dress. And that one divergence from tradition led to another and another until we finally just gave up all-together on trying to throw a traditional quinceanheira. And if we couldn’t do it according to everyone’s expectations, then we might as well do something no one was expecting, right? Thus emerged the idea to have a Polynesian night theme party. We incorporated some elements of the tradition and did some things like we might have in the U.S., and then other things were a hybrid style, so there was something different for everyone there.

If trying to plan a party in a foreign language doesn’t seem hard enough, try doing it with the bus as your mode of transport! Without exaggeration, I must have walked 20 miles in preparation for this party. Thank goodness downtown Joaçaba is not that big, but not knowing where I could find some things, and wanting to check prices between stores on other things had me going back and forth and around in circles for about two weeks. I never in my life missed Hobby Lobby and Walmart more than in the last two weeks.

Unfortunately, most of what I am about to describe does not have a photographic counterpart to it. About a month ago, Gwen’s camera broke. Electronics are terribly expensive here, so we ordered her a new one for her birthday from Best Buy. My friend Elaine volunteered to pick it up and ship it to us FEDEX. But it didn’t get here on time (or yet). So we had only our video camera to take pics with and as it doesn’t have a flash and the lights were dim… well, our pics suck. We asked to borrow a camera, but that was forgotten in a rush to get to the party. Some video was OK though, and I’ve made a little compilation – about three minutes worth of party highlights.

After months of planning, weeks of acquiring and crafting and days of cooking, I still grossly underestimated the time it would take to pull it all together once we got to the pavilion. But God provided us with two angels – people we hardly even know, who happened to be in town and just wanted to help. With their help, as well as contributions of transportation and work from many of our Brazilian church family, the last of the shrimp were diving into cocktail sauce just as the first guests arrived.

We held the party at a samba school called Aliança. It was outdoors, lots of greenery. At one end of the pavilion was Gwen’s throne and a some decorative panels we hung to create a stage area. Also, the obligatory (for a Brazilian party) balloon sculptures in the form of palm trees were to the sides of the throne. Behind the throne, we ran a slideshow of alternating great pics of Gwen and pics of tropical flowers with Bible verses that are typical for the quinceaheira celebration. We made paper bag lanterns, about 25, and placed them all around, and we lined the entrance with tiki torches. We decorated the tables with orchids, melons carved as tikis, candles and greenery on an orange bamboo mat. The food tables were skirted in turquoise blue, representing water, and in the center of the food table, we created a little island with three miniature palm trees, bottoms of which were covered in sand, and there was even a ship and airplane wrecked on this little island.

three little palms on a tiny sandy beach in the middle of a vast ocean of blue, surrounding by lots of great gifts!

We served tropical chicken salad hour’dourves (made with pineapple, grapes and cream cheese), sushi (made by a local restaurant), shrimp cocktail, fruit kabobs with chocolate sauce, brownies and the typical Brazilian party sweet called brigadeiros (like small truffles). With the exception of the Coke (the only drink we served) and brigadeiro, all the foods were new to most of the guests. Of course, the fruit was familiar, but the form was new, as was the application of chocolate sauce. Some tried sushi for the first time and John was able to con a couple of unsuspecting young men into taking large bites of wasabi. The cake was coconut cream. Basically, I had to walk folks along, explaining the food to them, but almost everything was eaten, though not everyone was a fan of sushi (no surprise).

After about an hour of eating and mingling, the Schillingers walked up the stairs through the woods and our Pastor Eli welcomed everyone. Then Mercy Me’s “I Can Only Imagine” came on and Mom and Chaise walked in, and then Gwen, escorted by John—and the crowd applauded. We all sat down and Eli gave a brief message, asking the 40 some young people (and the 15 or more adults) in attendance to consider the influences on their lives. Then I presented Gwen with a Bible (Portuguese/English) and a crown. More applause. And John made some remarks – unplanned – that I translated into Spanish and Eli into Portuguese. This was kind of awkward, not just because it took about a minute to say 10 words, but also because during his speech, Chaise fell off a chair. He was a big boy and didn’t cry, but it really broke up the sentimental mood. More awkwardness ensued as we tried to cue “Waltz of the Flowers.” Our music was coming from a DVD player, so there was no skipping the rest of “I Can Only Imagine.” So yea, you can only imagine!

John and Gwen had taken a waltz lesson the day before, courtesy of Gwen’s lovely ballet teacher Andresa at Bella Danza. And they did quite well. After about two minutes of this five-minute waltz song, I sent Chaise to cut in and dance with Sister. It was just about to work until the crowd broke out again into applause. All of this clapping seemed to happen on cue, but I have no idea who was initiating it! This time, however, it scared Chaise and he decided against waltzing. So, more awkwardness while we waited for “Waltz of the Flowers” to yield to “Thriller.”

Gwen with her friends from Santisima Trinidade High School

From that point on, it was a teen-age affair. We bussed the tables and then I just wanted to sit down and relax for a bit, but my greatest help of the evening wanted to start deconstructing the tables and more. I decided this must be a Brazilian thing. I kept saying, “Let’s wait till the party is over,” but things kept moving. Indeed my biggest disappointment was not getting to enjoy the ambiance it took me weeks to create! 

Honestly, I don’t know all the ways our party was different than the typical quinceanheira, because, as I have stated, I’ve never been to one! The most important thing was that Gwen had a great time, as did all the guests. It was a once-in-a-life-time experience not only for her but for everyone who attended.

Here is the best image of the tiki melon centerpieces. These guys created a smoking melon-head baby monster out of it. You can do that to centerpieces when you're young and carefree. What I really want to know is where did the naked baby doll come from????