Upon Arrival...

We can't believe that we are already here and that our Argentine adventure is upon us!

We left England on one of those most glorious of February days in which the promise of spring is tangible.  There were crocuses and even daffodils opening their faces to the beautiful and very welcome rays of spring sunshine.  The breeze was gentle and the temperature a very mild 12 degrees centigrade.

The flight seemed long, but we finally made it to a day which wasn't nearly as hot as I was dreading.  Knowing that temperatures in BA often end up in the high 30s, a humid, but relatively cool, 22 degrees was very welcome.

One of the deputy heads of our new school came to the airport to meet us and another Brit called Thomas (who will be teaching science at the school).  Rob greeted us and lead us outside where we waited about 5 min for a dilapidated minibus to collect and transport us to our new accommodation.  The first thing he said when he saw the car seat was 'you won't be needing that here'!!!  So Sophie went into the minibus and did not sit in her car seat for the ride.  She did not even wear a seat belt as the minibus obviously did not come equipped with such a new-fangled idea ;)

On the way to our new homes we passed through the school to collect Soledad who was given the job of making sure all the new staff settle in well.  Soledad is a very lovely lady of around my age who used to go to the school as a student and now works for the college in the admin office.  She took us to our new flat and showed us everything we needed to settle in (including a fridge full of the essentials).  She has helped us with our health screens that we had to do, taken us on a tour of the school, translated for us and is even in the process of helping us get wi-fi set up in our flat.  I don't know what we would do without her!

But every one here has been very friendly.  Jo and Simon have been in contact with us for ages, helping us plan what to bring and pack and giving us good advice from a family who have recently made the move.  Michaela, Chris and Thomas are new this year as well and it has been very nice to be able to share this new adventure with others.  Peggy, Melanie and Ian we have met a couple times for lunches as well which has been lovely.  It seems as if there is a supportive expat community here which makes Stephen and I very glad that we will be able to have at least some friendly faces around in the first few months until we get to know the language and customs a bit better.

Our flat has 2 bedrooms and is not large.  It is modern though with a comfortable sofa, nice furniture and lots of storage space (which is a nice change from a British flat). There is a nice balcony off the living room with lovely views of the river.  It is strange to be so high up as neither of us has lived in a tower block before.  The benefit of it though is that you have a bird's eye view of the area which is very nice.  The kitchen is tiny but it also has a small balcony off of it with a washing machine, sink and some storage space. There is one bathroom with rather amazing good water pressure in the shower and one powder room near the door.

The complex of tower blocks is security guarded and very safe.  Children as young as Sophie seem to have the run of the place and everyone stops and chats to and tease all the little kids.  There is a little play park, a swimming pool, lawns to play games on and enough paved space that Sophie can scooter all she likes in complete safety.  We are working on her right now so that when she wants to go play on her own she can ring the buzzer from downstairs, we can buzz her in and she can then get to us without us having to even leave the flat.

Jo and Simon remarked that the only way to get on here with a child is to take what we know as the good parenting guide in England and throw it our the window.  Things are just so different and while there are dangers where they didn't used to be there is also a much more relaxed way of doing things.  Parenthood seems to be as much a community led thing as a parental responsibility.  For example, Sophie went swimming today at the pool at the school and because there were other children swimming and the lifeguard is actually the swimming instructor for the kindergarten classes she could go in swimming by herself rather than on a one-to-one ratio of parent to child like in the UK.  She had such great fun and after introducing her to the lifeguard and saying what she was capable of I was free to go back to our delicious asado (bbq).

Although it is early days yet and we have yet to start our real purpose here in teaching, we are very optimistic that we will enjoy it.