This is Marga, logging in as Mike because, of course, I don´t remember my own password (regardless of what he says, Mike didn´t tell me I had to memorize it!).
Our second day in La Plata began quite late. It took forever to put Michaela to sleep last night and we didn´t wake up until 10 AM this morning. This meant we missed breakfast, though we figured we´d have plenty to eat while visiting relatives in the afternoon.
We started by going to a travel agency close to the hotel and making our reservations for our trip to Patagonia. We´ll be leaving on the 7th, so we still have a few days left in La Plata (though we may go to Buenos Aires for the last couple). We wanted to exchange $, though it seems all the banks and exchange agencies are closed on Saturdays, so we didn´t have any luck. We continued on walking a little bit around the city, again noticing how little it has changed in the last 20 years. I´ve found kioscos and other stores in the exact same place where I left them. The sculpture in the park where I used to play as a kid is still there, albeit the color has faded from the top. We walked through ¨calle 1¨, saw a soccer game and went by my grandmother´s house. My grandma has been dead for several years, and the house looked incredibly old, tired and in disrepair. I know my aunts & uncles are trying to sell it ' it would be really nice if someone could buy it and bring it back to its old splendor.
We also walked by the apartment building where I used to live. I pointed out to Mike my bedroom´s window.
It´s been very strange being back in my city. I still feel like a foreigner here, and yet it seems to have changed so little. As La Plata doesn´t really get any tourists, nobody expects us to be visitors so they treat us as locals, like we belong. That´s nice but disconcerting at the same time. Do I still belong to this place of my childhood?
I honestly thought it would have changed much more, 20 years is a long, long time. Tomorrow, I think, we should walk by my old school and see how it´s fared.
After our walked we went back to the hotel and then to my aunt Gladys´, where we had lunch. We hang out with my aunt until it was time for our next appointment, a visit to my uncle Mikita´s & aunt María del Cármen´s house. There I also saw my cousins Noelia, Carolina and Ernesto. I´d met the latter two when they were toddlers. Noelia, the youngest, just had a baby herself. We drank mate and talked about the family, old and new times. Mika loved playing with their little dog, looking at their two beds and just exploring a new place. We did take pictures and film (for you, Kathy!)
Later, we went over to my aunt Stella´s. She has a gorgeous new house. She´s the youngest of my aunts, was 14 when I was born, and she looks great. She had prepared a cake to celebrate my birthday, and I had a great time visiting with them. Mika fell asleep at first, but then had a great time playing with her second cousin Sasha, who is 5, and my uncle Pancho (Stella´s husband). He was sooo great with us when we were kids, we played horsey with him and so many other things, and I guess he hasn´t changed at all. It was really nice to see them.
And that´s it, now we are back at the hotel. Mike is stuffed and doesn´t want anything else to eat but I wouldn´t mind something. Maybe we´ll go out, maybe not. Michaela and Mike are now playing in the lobby waiting for me to be done. So I am.
Until tomorrow!
Posted by mike at May 3, 2003 04:54 PM