Hello!
Even though you can't tell when you're reading this, it's been almost a month since I wrote my last blog post! How come? Well, I have been visiting Buenos Aires with my family for just under two weeks, spending time with both sides of my extensive family. Though we did a lot of stuff with our cousins and family throughout the trip, there was one main reason that we chose to visit Argentina this year: it was my paternal grandma's 90th birthday!
As soon as we touched down in Buenos Aires right after our flight, we quickly dropped off most of our luggage and bags at my Abu's house (maternal grandmother), then met up with my uncle Bernardo to pick up a rental car for my family that we would use to get to the house we rented for the weekend in the countryside of Argentina. It
should have been about a 2 hour drive, but it quickly stretched into a four hour journey on account of a 90 minute traffic jam, plus an underestimation of how rough and unkempt the dirt country roads we had to take were. Finally, after a few hours of driving in a darkening countryside, we pulled up to the house where we were greeted by my cousin Victoria and her family alongside Bernardo's family. After about 30 minutes of prepping the house, the final car arrived with the guest of honor: my Granny herself.
Unfortunately, I had just started to fall under a sickness that had been getting passed around my family, so I was not feeling my best, but I still really enjoyed seeing the extent of my father's side of my extended family all under one roof, for the first time in years. I was able to meet Victoria's children for the first time, talk with my aunts and uncles about various topics, and generally catch up with everyone and how their lives had been going recently. After picking away at a delicious charcuterie board and playing with my little cousin Lila, I felt like I needed some rest and went to sleep early, as the rest of my family enjoyed some cake.
The next day, we spent HOURS taking family pictures, eating good food, and generally hanging out. I was feeling worse off than before so I was relatively withdrawn from everything, but I was still ecstatic to see my Granny, Dad, and other members of my family so happy and interacting with each other as if we lived near each other our whole lives, despite our family actually being spread throughout the entire globe. Later on in the day, we visited a horse ranch and got to pet them! And as we left since it was getting dark, we got to see all of the horses getting corralled to a different field by all the working dogs and farmers.
Once it got dark, we were back at the rental country house and we all split into little groups doing their own things. While my dad, Bernardo, and I stood around the grill working on our dinner asado, Victoria and her family stood nearby making smores for the first times, all the while the rest of the family played board games inside the house. After a delicious dinner with Dad's asado, we gathered around Granny inside the house to present her with her two birthday gifts.
The first gift, spearheaded by Victoria, was a collection of 90 short stories written by people who knew Granny throughout her life, which included all of us, family friends, and even some random ones like her community's priest! The second one was a photo album made by Dad that followed her entire life through pictures, and full of pictures of our family throughout the years. Granny was moved to tears and was very grateful for the gifts, and we all watched as she paged through the photo album, recalling certain memories and stories, and later we each read the short story we wrote for the story collection. Phenomenal gifts!
The next morning, everyone left to go horseback riding and enjoy the nature of the Argentine countryside. Well, everyone but me and my Dad, since I was feeling particularly ill that morning. However, after a quick shower, I felt reinvigorated enough to help clean up the house for all of us to move out. And just like that, the Granny 90th Birthday Celebration Weekend ended!
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