Tag: holidays

Yes, we’re celebrating

For a country that considers itself non-religious, Semana Santa – oh, sorry, Semana de Turismo – is a big deal. That’s Easter Week in case you’re still not up to speed 😉

Duly noted, of course, in my calendar:

Fortunately we had nothing of particular importance to accomplish this week. Our friends Sandy and Don, whom we just left at the airport for their move back north, were kicking themselves that they didn’t factor Semana de Turismo into their planning, but almost everything that needed doing got done regardless.

Where there’s a will there’s a way.

It’s that day

When you see chairs lined up either side of the road, it means tonight is the Carnaval parade in Atlántida. But they’re not there just as a nice gesture. If you want to sit, you have to pay.

I went out to see part of the parade one year, and haven’t felt compelled to do so again. You can find more in the Wikipedia article on Uruguayan Carnival (which apparently doesn’t meet Wikipedia’s high editorial standards, oh my!) and find videos of our local desfile here.

Halloween in (non-urban) Uruguay

halloween-01

I stopped a posse of trick-or-treaters with ¿puedo sacar un foto? (Can I take a photo?) It took none of my school-picture-photographer expertise for them to expertly group. In response to my ¡Perfecto! Muchas gracias I heard several de nadas.

OK, still broad daylight, but here are unaccompanied kids, acting “abnormally” (in other words, as kids), and it’s all OK.

Which is not say I saw no parental guidance (but certainly none distrusting or fearful!). Just that adults had to be there only for the really little kids.

After I took this picture, I assumed that Junior Senior (left) had been distracted. On the second take, I realized his mother was telling me in heavily-accented English that he doesn’t like pictures. Cool. Gracias. Cooler: an advanced soul recognizing the danger of facial recognition technology? LOL. Maybe.

Christmas decoration in a store that gets it

Let’s not forget the real reason for the season: to sell shit. In this case, remote-control dinosaurs. Alas, this ain’t e-gadget-obsessed Tokyo. I waited in line at Tienda Inglesa Atlántida in back of, and in front of, shopping carts laden with slabs of meat, chorizo sausage, cheese and baguettes, the ubiquitous gallons of Coca-Cola poison, plenty of beer, potato chips, plates and glasses for vacation dwellings, deli sandwich packs, a head of lettuce and some tomatoes (RIGHT ON!), but… …not one remote-control dinosaur.

While even the impoverished in the north remain enslaved by consumerism, here the holidays mean time with friends and family. Granted, shoppers in Tienda Inglesa Atlántida aren’t the social equivalent of the unruly crowd waiting for free toy handouts at a Salvation Army in Pittsburgh. Nonetheless, there exists in Uruguay a family “glue” that will trigger a touch of nostalgia in USA-Americans of a certain age.

Personally, though their presence makes my life a little more difficult, and a lot louder, I really do wish for our seasonal visitors a really enjoyable holiday time with their family and friends, playing with a soccer ball or fishing during their endless hours on the beach. I think they understand that a remote-control dinosaur adds little to that experience. I hope so, anyway.

Día del Padre

diedelpadre

Father’s day meant to me finally, a circular from Tienda Inglesa whose front pages are filled with cool stuff instead of women’s clothes and processed food products.

It took on new meaning when Santi arrived waving a paper, which I took to be a bill he’d seen in our mailbox. But no, instead he gave me a father’s day note and a very nice bottle of wine I’d never had before. Sweet! (The P.D. says The bus was moving a lot [when he wrote the note].)

Particularly unexpected since he has a father and father-in-law living nearby. But that’s Santi; he bought a Hibiscus for my wife on mother’s day.