Monthly Archives: April 2006

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By Corine

No ola and chao anymore, it’s back to hallo and doei. Yesterday, 5 april, we arrived in Holland at 11 in the morning (Argentinan time: 6:00 am). Maurice was picked up by his parents and Marjolein, I got a ride from Rikkert in my old citroneta (which is now his!). Kristin left the house really clean and tidy for me. When she left for Berlin she had problems leaving the cats here 🙂 Later friends came for beers, Bas cooked for everyone. I thought I would be knock-out by midday, but fel into bed at about 1 o’ clock in the night. At 9:30 this morning I was already drinking coffee with Rikkert. Now I am organizing my house again, doing the mail, taxes etc. I am used to be here again, though it is still strange to hear people talking Dutch on the streets. And in the supermarket my first reaction is still Spanish 🙂 Our last remembrance of Argentina was the champagne breakfast we had with friends, just before we jumped into the taxi to the airport. I wonder what they are doing now.

The dictatorship

By Corine (who continues the former blog on a different computer, because of sudden virus-attacks)

Ok, were where we? Ah, the remembrance of the dictatorship on march 24! Well it was announced with some street ´parties´ the night before. Movies, a festival, demonstrations. We saw all sorts of posters on walls with sentences like ´never again. People handed out special papers. On the day itself, a lot of streets in the center were blocked by the police for the demonstrators. They marched for a couple of hours through the streets and ended up in the famous Plaza de Mayo. This is so close to our hostel, that we heard all the noise. Unfortunately we didn´t find time to go there because, for some unclear reason, we had an appointment with two families right at THAT time, to have a look at the car. While we were selling the car, the ´mothers´ did their speeches to thousands of people on the square. The president promised them to find out what happened to their children. We some of this on tv. When we were finally off to go, pouring rain started and everybody went home.
Before, I said that the Argentinians really like Maxima (though she was a nobody here before she married our prince, according to some taxidrivers…). But they definitely don´t like her father. Last week, when I talked with our Argentinian friend Carlos about this he told us that Zorreguitea lives right around his corner!! His mother even bumped into Maxima once in the supermarket, ha ha. We went to have a look. Thanks to a friend of Carlos (¨… my friends are big fans of the royal family, it really means a lot to them if they know where the parents of their princes lives …¨), the dumb guard of the apartment complex told us the exact number of the flat where Zorreguieta lives. The funny thing is that his street, Uruburu or something, is named after a former dictator …. We felt like ringing the bell and have tea. But we left, feeling surprised that the guy lives in a flat, instead of a big villa.

No more photo´s

By Corine

Yesterday we went kayaking in the Tigre, a real cool river-area (sort of a Delta) with a jungle atmosphere. It smelled like a rainforest, you could hear crickets, and from the water you can see beautiful roots, big waterplants, little houses, palmtreas, etc. The river itself though, was not so cool: plastic bottles, dead fish, oil, the occasional sewing tube ending in the river. So Maurice felt pretty unhappy when his canoe tipped over … And if this wasn´t enough, it happened when we crossed a wide river with a lot of boattraffic. Maurice couldn´t manage to get back in the boat (and the kid that was guiding us, didn´t really know what to do), so he had to swim all the way to the shore. I think we have great pictures of this trip. But if the pictures DID survive the Tigre-water, we can only show them when we are home. The camera is dead for sure, so no more pictures from now on.
The homefront asked us if we heard anything about the Queens visit, and about the remembrance of the dictatorship. Well, we didn´t see the queen. But I feel petty for her. She is visiting Argentina. But the Argentinans decorated a whole theater for her with … tulips. Then she is going to visit … the Anne Frank museum. And then she is going to visit … a Dutch colony in the north of Argentina. According to taxidrivers the Argentinians really love Maxima and they think Willem Alexander is very beautiful 🙂