Lunches, weddings, a funeral…. OH MY!

And I thought I was going to be sitting in my room for the first 6 weeks in San Juan, ha! My life has been incredibly busy (in a good way) mostly because my host Rotarian and his wife are extremely social people and are afraid I’ll end up sitting in my room all day if they don’t get me out… which is actually not the case at all so I’m having to work on asserting my independence in a society where overprotective parents seem to be the norm. I’ve been invited to lunch at many Rotarians’ homes where usually the whole family (I’m talking grandparents, aunts, cousins – everyone!) is invited so I do my best to answer the barrage of questions that are thrown at me usually simultaneously. I’ve met a LOT of people this way and I’m sure I’ll keep getting invited to the random grandson’s soccer game or daughter’s dance recital pretty much for the entire year. I swear my life has never been this busy!

In sad news, my host Rotarian’s wife’s mother died last Sunday. Although it was somewhat expected, it was still a very difficult time for the family. I accompanied them to the wake and to the burial for moral support but at the same time was glad I got to experience the way death is dealt with here, very differently than what I have experienced in the US. Here everything happens extremely quickly – within 24 hours the deceased is already buried and the mourning period is virtually over. There is no formal funeral ceremony and instead everyone that would be at a US funeral comes to the burial at the cemetery. At home the process is drawn out for much longer obviously, but at the same time I feel like a general sense of grief lasts for much longer as well. Within three days life was back to normal as if nothing had ever happened - perhaps this is just because this was somewhat expected… anyhow, if anyone actually knows why in the US we wait three or four days before having the funeral there are many people here that would be interested. I speculated that it’s because families don’t all live in the same place as they do here so for purely logistical reasons… let me know.

And the wedding! This weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to the wedding of a family friend of my host counselor Jorge. As with everything here, the main difference from the US is that everything happens later. The mass started at 10 pm, the civil ceremony at 11:30, and the dinner at 12:30 am. We left at 4:30 am and that was early! And let me tell you, Argentineans LOVE to eat (although stay unjustly thin!). The dinner was exquisite, with brownies and ice cream for dessert before the cake was even cut. Then throughout the night new dishes kept appearing while everyone danced and finally at around 7 in the morning croissants and hot chocolate for breakfast… I was sad we had to leave early!

ps. I finally found a gym (although no Zumba ;)