Our new garden, Salta adventures soon and BAILA!

Tonight we did something wonderful! we bought little plants for our balcony. A Jasmine vine, a pot of lavender and a pot for the herbs mama K bought for me to grow also some little flowers to welcome in the spring feeling! PRIMAVERA! woohooo... warmness and longer sunshine please come my way quicker!

I absolutely attacked reports on the weekend and am nearly done! still marking about 25 compositions and finishing one last class... my head has been so consumed with work it is ridiculous! but can see the light at the end and its so nice to see little buds popping up here and there to remind me that winter isn't forever!


We have booked our flights to Salta!!! we are going to hire a car and shoot off into the rocky desert and salt plains! sooooo excited, so ready for a change in atmosphere! We have booked at this place in Tilcara that has awesome little rustic cabañas with little mini log fires in the room that we can snuggle on our bed too and look out the window and watch the sunset... okay getting very dreamy and romantic but will be gorgeous!!
and to drive!! yaaayyy its been 8 months. and it will be driving in some of the prettiest country side in the world!
and you can do these llama walks!! how cool is that! horse riding and llama walks for us! I'm going to walk around the mountains with my very own llama!  


Also on the weekend, in between all the marking and reports, Chris and I got an amazing opportunity to go see 'Choque Urbano- BAILA' (Urban Crash- DANCE) which was so so incredible! It was at this really rustic cool arts factory in Capital called 'The Konix' and it was amazing!! the dancing and set design and costumes and talent and drumming and percussion and music was incredible! It was like a more theatrical 'stomp' group kinda thing with awesome dancing. it was a sit down show that started at 10pm and finished at 12am (normal concert time in Argentina). It was so incredible and if you live here and are reading this, then get ya butt to it! absolutely worth it! (less than US$20 by the way! awesome).
Can't wait for balmy nights in summer to go and explore the arts scene in Buenos Aires!! yippeee
if anyone has suggestions, let me know!


Okay, composition marking to get back too! 
Do you like my new blue jumper, it was a gift from two students from the USA tour- they surprised me with this gorgeous Holster jacket.. spoilt and love it!! very special.


3 weeks and we fly off to Salta.. did I mention I can't wait!?
haha


Besitos
~ miki

Mis padres y otras cosas (My parents and other things)

Well, I just thought I would tag a little footnote to Mikaela's recent posts. It is a Sunday night and I have had a day that I will describe with the following equation:

football mania + reports + uni work + incredible meat pie = good.

As Mikaela wrote, we had such a great time with my parents here. We ate a bucket load of good food, explored B.A. and its' many offerings and had a damn good time hanging out. The Milo that came with them has been getting a work out. Literally, every day I have been watching the little brown capsules of Milo goodness float to the top of my glass of milk. This simple pleasure has been welcomed indeed. We are at the 7 month point and things are getting a little more normal now. Walking down a footpath and watching for major cracks and major craps (dog craps that is), eating steaks that are as tender as the definition of tender itself, speaking and hearing Spanish, live football on from 10am to 10pm on television on Sundays, passionate people, crazy ambulances with 6 different sirens all played at once, horse drawn carts clopping down the street in front of our apartment block and late nights are just some of these normalities. And, I love it.

We have a trip planned for Salta in a couple of weeks. It's a cool place up in the North of the country next to the Andes, that has incredible rock formations, salt plains and indigenous desert communities. Looking forward to this one a lot.

In essence, I just thought I'd throw some words on this page to let you know that I'm still alive and kicking and that Mikaela is doing an awesome job keeping the updates flowing!

Ciao,
Chris

Back working late..

So I thought it was bad enough having to only do reports twice a year... but here at St George's we have not semesters (2) but trimesters... that is three times we need to write reports and have parent teacher interviews.
Now not trying to sound wingy.. but that is what is going on in my work world at the moment and it always seems to do my head in.. 1 week to churn out over 200 reports..
my head is a blubber on the beach... just hanging on the sand not able to do anything..
okay that was a little dramatic and didn't really give a clear picture of my head.. I just feel stressed and I need to give it God!

At my desk

Why do we stress.. it's so dumb.. there is no improvement in the situation because of it.. its just our hormones freakin out, our brain saying stop it and it is taxing on the body. How silly of us (or I shall speak for myself I guess).

I am here in my office marking away while Chris teaches a couple of bass students after school. I am thinking that the sun is staying out longer (but it could be my head wishing for it so hard that is appears to seem lighter at 6pm instead of darkness)...
I also, in my procrastination from marking, have whizzed around the music department and taken some snaps since what you may have seen from the first few blogs at the start of the year.

Chris with a boarder bass student after school in a prac room (mirror image from my laptop ppl.. he isn't playing left)

The big classroom

In a prac room (who left that lead on the ground! -spoken like a music teacher...)

The Acoustic room

And so it looks all neat and schmick. I think it is an amazing place to have a music department!! but... it is a cement slab built on a underground spring and is the lowest point in the school.. the constant wetness is no good.

But music is being made in this place! At lunchtime today I was running kids through a catch up music exam, gospel choir was singing in the big classroom with Simon and Chris was floating around while two groups of students were practicing in the rooms their rock songs as bands. It was so utterly musical and functioning and rad!

Did I mention that Gerri brought with her a LARGE can of Milo as a gift from Australia for us... oh my, you can't go past it!! I have been giving tastings of it to our friends here in Arg, and they like it too!! maybe we could start a milo franchise over here!? it would take off I reckon!!

Well going to head and hopefully get to the gym! I got a ton of marking done!! time to hit the reports! it is the comments that bring me down... so many to write!

Ciao for now, see I'm trying to be more frequent with my blogging.
besos,
Miki

Koelma Padres and a weekend to Uruguay

The last 3 weeks after getting back from Mendoza have been action packed!
30th July we had Gerri (Chris' mum) come to stay for 2 weeks and also Geoff (Chris' dad) for 1 week in the middle of that. It was fantastic!! It is the coolest thing getting to show off our new home and town with those we love and don't get to see! So it was a blast and yes, full on with work and everything. But that is living isn't it. all good.

Well as usual, my sister Zo gave me a kick up the bum saying I'm a lazy blogger (yes I am) and need to push on and update this dusty thing, so here we go.

With Gerri arriving we welcomed her with champs and a picada (cheese and cold meats platter) that I ordered and was made by our little local deli 'La Quesera' which was incredible and lots and lots of fun! There was so much to catch up on and lots of hugs to be had and Chris and Gerri's face was all smiles and fuzzies and it was special!
Our first day began with sleep ins and then an afternoon trip to the Recoleta markets. As the sun was setting we saw live music and bought roasted sugar peanuts and walked around soaking in the vibin' atmosphere. was great!

Gerri took rest and adventured solo into Quilmes while we were at work. Geoff then arrived on the Wednesday and they stayed in Recoleta in an apartment while we finished our week at school. The weekend was packed with exploring Capital- the four of us went to Recoleta Cementario, lovely lunches, cruised around the markets and then Chris and Geoff went to a futbol game while Ger and I had girl time. We went off to the most expensive hotel in Buenos Aires called Alvear Palace Hotel for high tea- and high and mighty and fancy and fun it was!!! it was a blast! We met up with the boys after, went to the awesome theatre turned bookshop and spent a lovely evening altogether. Chris and I stayed in Capital that night.

 

Sunday adventures: San Telmo markets down Defensa (a old cobbled stone long long road closed off for kilometres of markets on Sundays). We walked and walked and looked and bought hand made things and it was fantastic! next stop was La Boca where we had a tour through Boca Juniors Stadium - this was the highlight for Geoff and it was great to see the boys sharing that together! Then we tripped to Caminito to watch the tourists and tango dancers and all the colourful magical buildings.
It was indeed a weekend where we became tourists again, but so cool to see ger and geoff in their travelling element!

Geoff flew back to Australia on Wednesday and the following weekend was off to Uruguay with Gerri! On the Buquebus which is the super speedy and very up market ferry we head for Colonia de Sacramento. It was a very relaxing, slow paced, walking, cafes, fresh air and enjoyable weekend!
And this was the second country we have now been to in South America!! tick  =D

 

So now mama K is back in Oz, and Chris and I have been heads down tails up pushing through large amounts of marking and reports that are storming towards us. I am feeling under the pump to put it one way.
September we get one week off holidays- where to go?

In all honesty, I am hanging out for homeness in Australia- I remember at the start of the year feeling quite frustrating on spending money and going back to that side of the world when we were so keen to explore everything over here... but I am so so so keen to be at my brother's wedding and be around my grandparents and my favourite beach spots and to drive a car along the coast, or just to even jump in a car and drive!! missing my Australian home a lot! missing my girl friends and missing the Australian energy a lot. It's not a sad depressed feeling I am having, it's not even close to wanting to pack up and head back... but it is such a fondness I have for my Australian home that I am sooooo looking forward to holidaying back in Aus! I am counting down the months on the calendar!! 4 months to go.

home

Sitting here now on Sunday evening, sun is setting over our little city town Quilmes- dusky pink and gold peaking through the crispy cold clouds- content and snotty from my sinus infection... but feeling good, drinking mate and happy to be here.

Chat soon mi amigos.
Besos,
Miki