Saturday, May 26, 2012

It's the simple pleasures...

Good friends are leading a group of university students on a cross cultural trip through Argentina this month. This past week we met up with them in Sta. Rosa for a few days, and hosted part of the group at our house there. The remaining students stayed at a nearby hostel, run by a woman from South Africa and her Russian husband. How's that for cross cultural?!

Anyway, the students enjoyed the slower pace. With so much to see in Buenos Aires, their first week had been B.U.S.Y! In Sta. Rosa they kicked back a little, visiting La Cumbrecita and Villa General Belgrano, as well as interacting with the folks at a nearby rehabilitation ministry.

Thursday we all headed to Carlos Paz. The group stopped in Alta Gracia on the way, to check out the Jesuit museum. The students were most fascinated with the 400 year old toilet system :)

Friday Ivan took them to nearby San Nicolás for a small town festival, celebrating 25 de Mayo [the Argentine equivalent to our 4th of July]. Today they chartered a bus to travel about 40 km east of Cordoba for a rodeo. This is the real deal, with participants vying for spots in the national competition to be held soon.

This coming week the students will be doing all kinds of things, from touring historical sites to visiting schools to spending an evening in the home of an Argentine family... and a whole lot more!

I get tired just thinking about their schedule.

The group brought us six of our suitcases, which I enjoyed sorting through. Since I had to pack according to weight, each suitcase was a mish-mash of household items, clothing, fabric, tools, and assorted miscellany.

Our friends also brought some special treats in their own luggage. I'd sent Katie a wish list with some grocery items. My favorite was this:
Mmmmmmmmm!

I've been busy today cleaning, cooking, doing laundry and dealing with some computer issues, but in the midst of it all I stopped long enough to brew a pot, and then savored it with a warm-from-the-oven brownie (corner piece, of course).

It's been a nice, quiet day as I steadily worked through my "to do" list. I'm feeling pretty good about what's been accomplished, especially on the computer front. Our son (and I.T. guru) walked me through the problem I've been having recently; for some reason I haven't been able to download Kindle books to my computer. I've done it the same way for two years but suddenly it wasn't working. After trying several things, we finally discovered it was the browser I was using! I'm a Firefox fan, but something must have changed in their most recent update that conflicts with Kindle. Anyway, we figured out I just have to use Safari instead. Problem solved!

That meant I was able to successfully download one of the cozy mysteries I bought with my Mother's Day gift certificate, compliments of our son. [The other one will be auto-delivered when it comes out in July.] 

hazelnut cream coffee
homemade brownies
new cozy mysteries
It's the simple pleasure...

4 comments:

Mari said...

Simple pleasures are often the best! Sounds like a good day!

Betty W said...

Isn't it great to have a Kindle! Finally we can read books with a touch of a button (and a credit card...). I love it!
Your brownies sound so good and the coffee....mmmmm I can almost smell it. :)

Have a great weekend!

Skoots1moM said...

oh so glad you received your suitcases...i had been worried something would happen to them. I feel much better now.
tickled you got to enjoy coffee and brownies...i seem to remember your struggling a couple of years ago working out that brownie recipe...
i've enjoyed knitting some socks for our pregnancy center today...in mint...i get to give them to my friend tomorrow at sunday school...she enjoys volunteering and working with the women there.
bet you had fun with the students...i miss having students in our home...colleggirl is staying in tuscaloosa throughout the summer, so it won't be normal around here...we're still praying up a part-time job for her until August
it's been above 90* here today...hot, hot, hot
it's not even June yet
ugh...

The Bug said...

Sounds like a lovely time. I'd like to SMELL the coffee, but you can drink it. However, I will fight you for the brownie - ha!