On October 21 2015, at 3:59, during Real Madrid vs PSG in the champions league, little Isabella was born.  Two days before Monica started having a lot of pain in her back and contractions.  On October 20th we went to the hospital, paid 110 pesos for the remis because Monica couldn't walk.


They monitored Monica for an hour or so and then said it was still to early and we should go home.  So we took the bus 41 back home.  Monica felt relieved that there wasn't any issues and she felt better.  The next morning Monica told me she didn't sleep at all and she had contractions all night.  We had a scheduled stress test with Doctor Manrique so at 11:00 we decided to leave for the hospital.  Again Monica couldn't walk so we took another remis.  We got to the hospital and let the doctors know that Monica was at 38 weeks and had had contractions all night.  They took her to a little room called the pre-parto room.  I waited outside figuring they would let us leave later.  The nurse, after about an hour, came into the hall and said I need to go and sign Monica in.  So I went and registered Monica.  I came back and waited in the hall.


The nurse came out and said I should go in and change. I said why change, but then I figured ok I guess this is happening.  I changed into the green doctors scrubs and went back into the room.  Monica was already in the labor room with her epidural.  I sat beside her for a while and finally the doctor came and said it was time.


My job was the head holder.  Monica was in a lot of pain and asked for more pain medicine.  They gave her some.  After some more contractions and pushing the doctor said its time to deliver.  So they go the stirrups ready and the bed handles and we were ready to go.  Monica's hands were numb and she said she could grip her legs to push.  She pushed and pushed and it looked like it was hurting.  I was basically lifting weights fighting her head. The official head holder is not an easy job.  But I figured I wouldn't complain.

After some agonizing pushes the doctor got the suction.  And sucked Isabella out.  The doctor told me to look, and I looked and saw her head.  She was slimy.  Then Monica held her and then I guess they cut the cord.  I went into a little room and the measured and cleaned her.  It was pretty amazing.  After that I changed and went to our room where I waited for Monica and the baby.  We spent one restless night together at the hospital.  The next day everything was all good.

I spent that night at home and slept pretty well.  The next day I went back to the hospital and they gave us the all clear.  After rounding up all our gear we left the hospital in a remis.

 

Technopolis is basically a giant fair that showcases all of Argentina's "cool" things and technology. Free admission (paid for by the government) meant that it was a easy and fun date with the wife, just a 45 min bus ride to the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

The day we went was holidy which meant that it was packed full of people. One bad thing about free admission is that almost everything had a long line to get in, for some reason Argentines seem to like forming lines and waiting, (there is a line for everything, the bank, grocery store...).

Anyways we had fun walking around and looking at what we could see, which was mostly people standing in lines waiting to go inside to see something. We walked around, had a picnic and looked at the interesting dinosaur exhibit, which also had a long long line but we could still see the dinosaurs.

We then decided to wait in line to what looked like a cool modern art exhibit. After waiting for 30 minutes in a short line we were finally let inside, but it wasn't a modern art exhibit, it was, well I'm not sure what it was, just a little warehouse with college students thesis' in display cases, their actual papers just sitting behind display cases. It had something to do with music and the math behind music and notes, who knows, so we looked around, laughed, and tried to figure out why we had to wait 30 minutes to get inside.

Then we went to a big expo center and they had a video game exhibit, pretty cool right, but there was a long line and Monica didn't want to wait in a line to see something she had little interest in, so I managed to peek inside, and after seeing Xbox 360 and dance dance revolution on display, I figured it was probably good we didn't wait in line, not exactly the E3 expo in Las Vegas.

The dinosaurs were cool and they also had some mockumentary about aliens attacking buenos aires in the sixties which was covered up by the government, that was interesting.

A fun interesting fair which was not exactly a World's Fair or Stark Industry new technology fair.....
Argentina is still pretty far behind the USA.

What was the World Cup like in Argentina you ask? Well it was basically one big party. People were actually happy and nice and excited. You could really feel a change in the city. I think people were really excited for each game to start, well each game that Argentina played in. All the other games were basically time fillers in between the real games which were the Argentinas games.

 The argentine flag was everywhere and world cups banners and posters celebrated Messi and the rest of the team were everywhere. I've never seen a whole country rally around one sporting event like the  Argentines did during the World Cup.

We were able to go downtown to watch a game in the park where the city had installed giant screens to watch the game. It really was an experience. I've never heard so many old men cuss and yell in Spanish. La puta que te pariooooo, la concha de tu madre, la puta que le pario fue falta... Even my wife let out a couple,, every time Argentina scored we cheered and jumped and everybody kissed, I guess in Argentina it's really important to kiss the person you are with when Argentina scores, luckily I had Monica. It was fun, smokey, (lots of people smoked) crowded and exciting.

The rest of the World Cup was entertaining and luckily for the country Argentina made it to the final, I think people were more nervous than excited and were really disappointed not to have beaten Germany. It felt like the whole country had died and forgotten the joy and good spirit they had had for the whole tournament. People went back to their daily lives and people started talking about crime and inflation and the good times were forgotten. It was amazing to see what soccer could do to a whole country and something that the United States and Americans in the usa really will never understand about the soccer.

They say that Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America. I don't think that is accurate but if you ignore everything about the city and only focus on buildings you may see something that may resemble Paris or Europe. Of course as soon as you look back down to the street you quickly realize you are still in South America.

 

There are some cool spiral staircases in old buildings

 

 

After lots of paperwork, photocopies and train trips to San Miguel, we were finally ready and able to get married in San Miguel, Buenos Aires. On May 30th we tied the knot in a little registro civil in San Miguel. To me San Miguel feels like real Argentina, dirt and grime, the real nitty gritty, real Argentina. Dusty, dirty, smelly, full of characters, buses, old rusty cars, stray dogs, trash, puddles, dirt and concrete.

 

Mom and dad arrived from the airport the day of the wedding and were able to take a taxi straight from the airport to San Miguel and the wedding. They were waiting in the taxi when I showed up after taking the train and a Remis. It was weird to see them in such a place and moms English hello rang out like a screeching eagle in the desert. It was nice and amazing to have them in Argentina for such a special and important day.

 

It was fun showing them parts of Argentina that most tourist would never see. The chaotic, dirty streets of San Miguel.

The wedding was nice and quick, exactly how we had planned it. After the wedding in the civil registry we took two remises to the temple. Dad was hurting but he never complained, which is amazing after surgery and kidney stones and kidney infections. We made it to the temple and things were great. The wedding was very nice and romantic.

 

A day never to forget.