Danny's Birthday and Asado 101

Saturday, Danny's birthday, was really fun. We had another asado, and boy oh boy do we love them. The term asado is a technique used for cooking the meat, but it is also the name of the gathering. At the asado there is different cuts of beef alongside other meats, which are cooked on a grill (parrilla) or open fire. Most Argentines have a parrilla in their home, and share an asado with their family on Sundays.

This asado was held at Alfredo's house (Danny's boss). We were with Danny's team from work. According to them this was a more typical asado. Our last asado was more wild. We got to Alfredo's house at 1pm and stayed until 8pm. We just relax and take it easy all day. This is normal for them at an asado!

Everyone has their own way of having an asado, but here's the basic outline:

-Start with bread, cheese, and some sort of meat. This is served with beer, Coca-cola, or red wine. You talk for a couple hours while the meat is cooking. Cooking the asado is a slow process.

-When the first cut of meat is ready then you begin. There is an order which the meat is served, it's not all brought out at once. At both the asados we've been to the Costillas or asado de tira (ribs) are served first (This is my favorite!). Such good meat! There is always bread, a simple mixed salad of, for instance lettuce, tomato, and onion (lechuga, tomate, y cebolla). The blood sausage made an appearance again, this one was a little bit better then the last, but I would still not say it was good. There was vacío(flank steak), mollejas (sweet bread)-this is not really bread, it's carne, it has something to do with the saliva producing gland. I can't remember the other types of meat, but some of them they would not tell us what it was. They said it was best that we didn't know :). This meal is usually served with red wine.

-All of this scrumptious food is followed by drinking Fernet (I mentioned this in a previous blog). I was taught the way to make a good Fernet. To make a Fernet and Coke, use a tall glass filled with ice, then pour the Fernet up to 1/3 of the glass, fill the rest of the way with Coke, then top off with a splash more of Fernet (this is called crowning). Fernet is used as a digestive aid after the meal is finished.

-You clear the plates and then it's time for mate and pastries. Mate is their beloved tea. It's like how Portlander's are with coffee, but more intense. Mate is the name for the devise in which you drink the mate as well. You use a metal straw with a filter called a bombillo. Danny's team bought him a mate for his birthday (pictured). They are going to show him how to 'heal it' at work today. There's a process it has to go through before you can drink out of it. If you don't 'heal it' the mate is ruined. Danny really loved his gift.

-Next (this isn't part of their tradition) I brought out a lemon meringue pie for Danny. We sang 'Happy Birthday' to him in Spanish. He was really embarrassed, and especially that I got him a little “23” candle.

-We went outside and talked for a couple more hours and drank some more Fernet (very slowly). We found that once you finish the Fernet they notice your glass is empty and want to give you more.

-A lot of times there is more meat left at this point and people continue the night with eating more meat, and whatever side dishes are leftover.

So, there you have it. Now you can have an asado of your own!

Home cookin'

We finally had a delicious home cooked dinner tonight. We've been going out so much because it's cheap, our kitchen is pretty small, and our cutting knife sucks (oh yeah, it makes a big difference). I made some homemade spaghetti the night before last and I got distracted and cooked the noodles too long and they were slimy. I was pretty disappointed. But tonight, different story, good stuff.

Why is it that Coca-Cola tastes better out of a glass bottle? We don't normally drink soda, but it's cheaper than water. It tastes better here, we can't figure it out.

So, lately I have been hanging out in a LITTLE book shop with antique books. I've made friends with the store owner. He is a history professor and he has a wealth knowledge about the history of Argentina, which is something I am currently fascinated with. I am buying books to use in my art. He is pretty limited in his English and I am even more limited in my Spanish. But somehow we have sat in his little book store and talked for hours about Argentina. He thumbs through his Spanish-English dictionary every now and then to find the words he's looking for. I will have to take a picture of him and put it on here.

Danny's birthday is in two days. He's turning twenty three! Woohoo! His boss is having a welcome asado for him, and it happens to be on his birthday, so that's kind of perfect. I am going to take him horseback riding for his gift (don't worry he knows about it). We are going to go in the next couple weeks, I am pretty excited about that one too. Tomorrow night I am taking him out to dinner to Las Tinajas. It's the country's largest all-you-can-eat restaurant (tenedor libre). According to the recommendation it serves a "mind-boggling array of interational cuisine alongside a fake waterfall and indoor river." We're all for all-you-can-eat, fake waterfalls, and rivers.

I told you I would put the picture of the Andes Mountains on here, so here it is. It's from an airplane using a cellphone, but you get the idea.

Good Eats!

Today went to lunch at a really nice restaurant with a friend from Danny's work (Nicholas) and his girlfriend. She's Argentine, but she was born in Corvallis, Oregon- small world, huh? We sat outdoors in the sun. There were palm trees around. The restaurants roof was covered with those half-mooned terracotta looking shingles, and it definitely felt like we were on vacation. Both Nicholas and his girlfriend graciously ordered everything they thought would be tasty and we all shared and feasted together. It was delicious! We had asado tipe...um I can't remember the rest. Different cuts of meat, sausage, salads, breads, it was truly wonderful and relaxing. It was SO nice to have someone tell us what some of the foods were. It's amazing how much better the food tastes when someone who knows the language orders it. Basically today has been a relax day. We watched Homeward Bound and Danny and I both cried. That movie always makes us cry. (Danny is VERY reluctant to have me type this in here.) We are now at Il Gatto, a restaurant we both like and it was also very good. The food keeps getting better and better. I was a little worried at first, but now, I am really enjoying the food. I found out the grocery stores are kind of limited around here with the food they offer because it's a college town, but I think we'll venture further for groceries next week.

I guess the food varies when you go north and south of Cordoba too. From what we've heard everything changes when you go north and south, the climate, the people, and the food. We're excited to explore! We love living in the city. Everything you need is within walking distance, something neither of us are really used to. We're excited to move to Portland when we get back.

Everyone here is so welcoming, beautiful, friendly, and affectionate. We greet everyone with kisses on the cheek now. Danny's day at work starts off with greetings from everyone and kisses on the cheek. Imagine if all work places started their days that way. Danny's friends from work have really been so helpful. Their just ready to help us with whatever, we've been so grateful to them.

We miss you guys. Watching Homeward Bound made us miss home. We love you all!

Shall we dance?

FRIDAY:
It rained on Friday in Cordoba, which was the first rain here since February. I woke up to thunder and lightning, it was really fun. The rain was coming down like a typical calm rain in Portland, but people get really excited about it. It's similar to how Oregonians react when it snows. Several people took the opportunity to sell umbrellas on street corners. The streets are not built for rain, and neither are the sidewalks, it's so slippery when you walk. I almost fell at least five times. It happened to be the first day I had Spanish class too, and I got lost. I've been to the building twice and this time I happen to get lost...for a half hour. I went to lunch with Danny beforehand, which was lovely, but I was coming from the opposite side of town and if you know me well, you know I am not good at directions. They (my Spanish teacher and the administrative woman) were very sweet and understanding when I got there. They thought I was a half hour late because of the rain.

I loved the Spanish class. It was one on one with a woman named Flor. She was very sweet and we really hit it off. She's a great teacher, and I am looking forward to learning a lot. I am feeling more confident about my Spanish already, which has made life easier.

Guess what Danny and I did that night??? WE LEARNED HOW TO TANGO! It was really fun. It is a beautiful dance. One of our friends is going to send a recording of one of the dances from his camera. It was their second marathon since the opening of the place, and people tango for 30 hours, unfortunately some government officials got involved and stopped it prematurely. These people are professionals, so they weren't going to let that stop them, so they went to a bar, and asked them to put on some tango music and continued. Danny and I stayed until about 3 am, and we were heading home early, but evidently that was the perfect time to leave because as we were leaving the government officials arrived.

The evening started at 10pm with tango lessons. Falcundo, Danny's coworker, is a world champion tango dancer, and he taught the class. They make it look so easy, and smooth. The women are like puddy in the men's hands. The men lead with their chests, and the women follow the mans every step. It's amazing to watch after you've been taught how to do it. Then at midnight the floor is open to everyone. There were about 100 people there and it was just how you would imagine a tango club to be. Dimly lit, with a few red and white lights hanging from the ceiling. There were large unframed figure paintings lining the walls around the dance floor. At around 2:00 am a couple danced solo on the dance floor to three different songs. Two, which they had practiced, and one improvised. They look as if their ice skating across the floor. We will definitely be going back there again.

SATURDAY:
We had asado today!!! It's an Argentine BBQ. You find whatever you can to burn, and use any metal contraption you can find to put slabs of meat on, then you cook it, serve some Fernet and you have an asado. My oh my is it delicious. Everyone sings, and dances, I LOVED IT! Oh Fernet is 45% alcohol mixed with Coca Cola. It tastes like an herbal medicine I take when I have a cold. It's a Cordoba specialty. We loved the people and the food, it was such a good time. We ate blood sausage (Morcilla), which is coagulated blood. I'm not going to lie, it was not very good, but the rest of the meat was phenomenal. They invited Danny and I inside their culture. We felt so welcomed. Here's a little of what an asado is like. It's all in Spanish, sorry no subtitles :-)

I forgot to tell you our address. It's different then the one we gave to the moms. They were off by one number, it was kind of confusing when we got here because the address they gave us did not exist, and the key didn't work here, but luckily someone showed us a trick to opening the door.

Independencia 812
Planta Baja C
Nueva Córdoba 5000
Córdoba Argentina

imágenes de nuestro apartamento

Nuestro apartamento

I haven't told you guys about our apartment. We really like it. Isn't it cute? It's wonderful because we have a patio. That's where I am sitting right now. We have internet with a really bad connection, so it will work for a couple minutes every so often, then disconnect, so I am hoping this goes through. I have been a little bit scared to go out and find a place to use the internet because every time I go out people ask me all sort of questions and tell me things and I have NO IDEA what they're saying. This has happened a couple of times where I will say, “no entiendo,” ( I don't understand) and then they will get other people in the store involved and they all speak at me, and I will say, “no hablo espanol.” But they get more people involved and then I just end up feeling stupid in front of a ton of people instead of just one. I can see the humor in it while I am not involved, but it is really humiliating when I'm in the middle of it.

I start Spanish classes tomorrow, and I am really excited about it. It's for two hours a day, five days a week, for two weeks. It's one on one, which is what I need right now. I am going to continue to take the two week lessons for as long as I need it, and right now I really need a lot of teaching. They are for two weeks, but I would just take them at different levels every two weeks, hopefully that makes sense. It's not letting me put the pictures on right now. I will try again in a little bit.

cuatro dias

I typed this yesterday, but I didn't have access to the internet:

It's our third day in Nueve Córdoba, and I am feeling better about it. (Just so you know Córdoba is spelled Córdoba, but I don't know how to get the ó without going to the character map, so for simplicity sake I am writing it Cordoba.) Danny started work today, and I am writing to all of you and reading about what to do next. I am really excited to explore all that Cordoba has to offer.

I guess all the pictures I saw and information I looked up led me to a false sense of what it would be like here. It has the beautiful architecture and friendly people the books talk about, but there are a few pages missing from the guidebooks.

I am going to give you my first impressions of what little I've seen so far. From my short encounter with Nueve Cordoba I've found it mostly to consist of pastry shops (Cordobes love their treats and sweets), clothing stores (they're very fashionable), little eateries, and other various small businesses. The streets are filled with bustling Argentines (especially late at night, their average bedtime is 1:00am, and the majority of the cities inhabitants stay up all night on Saturday night and party like it's the last night on earth...or at least that's what it sounded like), garbage, stray dogs (and their poop), explicit posters and advertisements of women (which I am not a fan of), and lots of drivers (who do not believe pedestrians have the right of way). Again, I am trying to paint an honest picture of my first impressions of the city. I've had a more positive outlook since last night.

The contrast of what I read the city to be like and the reality of it made me feel a bit disappointed. Not to mention, being away from my support system, and grieving about missing you guys. So I might have seen things through darker glasses at first.

Argentines honestly eat dinner between 8:30pm and midnight. They stay at restaurants for several hours at a time, and they know how to take it easy. Oh, and if you don't ask for your bill, they will never bring it to you, unless of course you try to leave without paying, or at least I am assuming that's the case. Since they take their time, you let the server know when you're ready and they will not bother you a moment before you're ready.

I love that they have sunshine here even though it's technically still their winter/springtime! In Oregon, I usually wake up feeling like I have a hangover every morning (Don't worry grandma, I don't know what a hangover feels like), but I don't need an alarm clock here, and I feel refreshed, and awake...it's odd.

Oh my word, I forgot to tell you about flying over the Andes Mountains. Holy moly, what a awe inspiring view that was. Danny took a picture on his phone, which I will publish later. He has our phones at work, in attempts to get them up and running.

Cordoba's food and drink: (what I have found so far) They really love pastries, mate, wine, bread, and cheese. I have heard all this talk about what big meat lovers they are, but I've found they're more gluten, sugar (azucar), and lactose lovers. I just read that their steak houses are fast disappearing here, for reasons of which I know not. The beef that we have tasted is superior to most American beef that I've tasted. They feed their cows with grass, and a lot of American cows are corn fed. There's a lot more flavor to it here. Yes, they love their wine too. I personally don't like the taste of alcohol, but I will definitely have to try some of their red wine (vino tinto) while I am here. If you don't know, Argentina is famous for their amazing wine. Often times Argentines put sparkling water (Agua con gas) and ice cubes in their wine.

We've tried empanadas at 2 different locations, one of which was outstandingly delicious, and the other was good. One of our favorite meals was the steak fajitas at a touristy spot called Johnny B. Goods. We wanted to see a picture of the foods we were about to eat and the dishes were titled with English names.

I am discovering that there are little gems sprinkled through out the city. We stumbled upon one last night, Paseo del Buen Pastor (Pictured). It's just a few blocks from our apartment. We saw it during the day on our first day and it looked like a fun place to hang out and I thought it would be a great location to create some of my art, but it really came alive at night. The building was originally the women's prison and was rebuilt and restored as a cultural, tourist, and recreational center. It recently became a location to showcase young emerging artist's work. It has contemporary art with shows rotating several times a month. Danny and I perused the bottom floor, displaying comic strips from an assortment of artists. We could understand a few words here and there, but the enjoyable part was seeing the pictures. They were done in all different types of media, and with very different styles. I am excited that there are a few different places to view art. I will visit Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes next. It has a more permanent collection from the 19th and 20th centuries.

We also saw a beautiful neo-gothic style church called, Iglesia Sagrado Corazon, but most people call it Los Capuchinos. I will tell you more about it later and show you pictures. I am going to get started with my day.

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I am so thankful for your support and prayers. I love you and miss you all!

Arrived in Argentina

We don't have internet in our place yet, and wireless internet is not as big here as it is in Portland. I just want to let you all know we made it here safely, and I haven't been able to call because I need Internet to call. I have it here, but I am in a restaurant, and it's a music place and they play their music really loud, so I can't really talk right now. I am going to be straight up with you all and let you know that I am having a really hard time right now. We have not met a single person who speaks English and it's been really hard for me to get adjusted to. Danny's boss picked us up from the airport and dropped us off and came back later that night to show us the necessities around town, so he has been a God send for us. I realize I have been here for two days and it can only get better, but both Danny and I could really use your prayers. This experience has already brought us closer and we have had fun learning new things, but it's still difficult as well. On a more positive note the empanadas are AMAZING! I love and miss you all!

Shout out to Bondi's

If you guys are in the Venice Beach area, and want some Australian style BBQ, or if you like meat at all, then go to Bondi's. We ate there last night and ate to our hearts content. It's on Windward Street. Danny and I like food, and you will certainly be hearing about food through out this blog. I am giving you a heads up now, just in case you think it's abnormal to have an entry dedicated to food. What I am trying to say is...get used to it.

Arrived in Santiago, Chile

We had a wonderful flight getting here. We flew LAN, and it was much better then we were expecting. They have a personal screen that shows movies, tv shows, games, etc... in front of each seat. We watched Indiana Jones. I heard it wasn't that great, so my expectations weren't that high, but I really enjoyed it. The food was pretty good as well. We didn't get that much sleep, in and out for about 2 hours. I remember flying as a kid, and I was out like a light every time, ahhh...those were the days.

When we first arrived in Chile there were a few jitters, okay, there are still jitters, but a little less. Everything is in a different language, with a few translations here and there. When we arrived to the metal detector to go onto our next flight, Danny reaches for his wallet, and gets a scared look on his face. He looks up at me, and I know right away that look means, 'I don't know where my wallet is.' That's a scary feeling anywhere, but especially when you're arriving in a country where you barely know the language.

We look through all our stuff quickly, and Danny is looking to me for direction. "Run back to the plane!" Meanwhile I am freaking out in my head and praying simultaneously. I stay with our luggage while the security personnel are looking at me strangely. I have no idea how to tell them Danny left his wallet on the plane. Fortunately they never approacched me, but in case they did I came up with, "Mi esposo tienes dinero en aeroplane." I think that would have got my message across.

As Danny's running back to the plane he passes by some flight attendants in the walkway and tells them his situation. They yell, "run!"

He finally arrives back on the plane and no one on the plane speaks english, so he just runs back to his seat, and frantically searches through everything. He cannot find his wallet. Just before giving up he reaches underneath the seat cushion, and to his amazement, IT'S THERE!

In that situation I realized how powerless I am right now.

I feel a lot better knowing that we have all of our identification, we're safe, and waiting at the gate for our connecting flight to Cordoba. We board our flight in 2 hours. I think I am going to attempt to sleep for a little bit beforehand. I am REALLY missing you all back home right now.

Taking off tomorrow

Here's our itinerary. This is mostly for my mom and mother in law, but others may want to know as well.

Thursday September 11th, departing 3:55pm. We are arriving in Santiago, Chile @ 6:00am. Then we'll arrive in Cordoba, Argentina @ 12:10pm Friday September 12th.

We'll be taking off from Argentina on December 22nd 6:35pm. We leave Santiago, Chile @ 10:35pm and arrive in LA @ 7:05am. Then we arrive in Portland @ 1:20pm.

Please pray for us. We realized we're flying on September 11th, and that gave us both a little scare. I imagine there will be extra security that day, so please pray that it goes smoothly. Thank you! I miss you all!

Come on Down!

Yesterday Danny and I accomplished a lifelong dream of ours...to go on The Price is Right. Yes, I know, many of you have loftier goals than us, nonetheless we were happy to accomplish it. As far as the game show itself, it was a bit of a disappointment. We got in line at 5:50am and waited for about a half hour until men in red coats came to give us numbers that indicated our place in line. After we got that we were told to be back in about an hour. After breakfast during our break we came back and had to stand in more lines and then you get your priority number...that takes about 2 more hours.

Then, you guessed it, more lines. They take your picture give you a name tag and look at your ID. That takes about 3 hours. Then you get in groups of 10 people at a time and you have a 10 second interview. That's your chance to WOW them, not a strong suit of mine. After that you wait for an hour or so more. Meanwhile we are all really hungry and they have a huge In and Out truck serving food to all the people who work on the show. They continued to have people come through the line and tell us the food is not for us. Oh yeah, and they forgot that the In and Out food was coming that day so they made us wait for even longer because they had to eat their food. Some people were pretty ticked off about it.

We met a lot of great people in line though. We sat by two hilarious, very outspoken black women, who were mother and daughter. The daughter was reading a book called, "Why men love bitches," that pretty much sums up her personality. Danny and I got a big kick out her. We also met two guys in their forties wh0 were jacked up on Red Bull and beer, and only got an hour of sleep the night before. They were hilarious too. There were two tapings of the show that day and they ended up going to the taping after us. I can pretty much guarantee one of them will get on the show because they were outrageously funny.

So, at 1:30pm we finally walked into the studio and it was tiny. They make it look so much bigger on TV. It looks like the set hasn't been updated since the 70's. There was definitely fun parts. They played fun music everyone stood up and danced together in the studio. Drew, as you may have guessed, is hysterical. He kept on apologizing about making us wait for eating the In and Out food and making us hungry, but then he went on too tell us (in great detail) how delicious the food was. He lip synced a song during the commercial and took of his jacket, strutted across the stage, and put on a big production. Everyone loved it.

We met the guy who made it into the Showcase Showdown, so we felt famous by association. They have the applause sign on after every mention of a product and the people behind the cameras get up and wave their arms, and kind of shame you if you don't yell loud enough. Needless to say by the end of the show I felt like a pawn. Regardless, Danny and I are happy we did it. We got to cross off one more thing on our list, and we met a lot of great people. Our show airs on November 3rd. We were sitting in the middle section.

Today we found out some great news. The consulate can process our papers today and give us our visas tomorrow. SO, we're planning on heading down to Argentina on Thursday! We are SO excited. AND we will be able to get back in time for Christmas!!!

I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support through all of this. We will continue to need it, because as history has taught us, we can never be too sure about all the details with immigration, flight plans, etc.

Today we went to Santa Monica to a really swanky restaurant, The Penthouse. Everything was immaculate. It was on the rooftop of The Huntley Hotel. Pictured at the left is the table we sat at. We had two lemonades and one appetizer and our bill was for $25's. We got the crab cakes... two measly crab cakes. I think you really pay for the view and the atmosphere, it was BEAUTIFULLY designed and decorated. It overlooks all of LA. When you go to the bathroom there's a huge window in the stall and you can overlook while you're 'using the facilities'...wonderful.

We biked 22 miles on our beach cruiser bikes from Venice Beach through Santa Monica, then finished up at Malibu Beach. Oh my word, we were so hungry after our ride. We ate at Bubba Gump's and had some frickin' delicious coconut shrimp!

I've concluded that Venice Beach is my favorite beach out of the three mentioned. People are way too crazy not to love them here. I think I am also attracted to the community feel. I love how everyone just loves to have fun together. Today and tomorrow there having a gathering of a couple hundred drummers on the beach. Good times. Oh, you know the street performers I talked about yesterday, where they flipped over 6 or 7 people? Well, Danny wasn't there last time, so we watched part of their act today, and of course they chose him to be one of the people they asked to volunteer, and eventually they flipped over him too. He was blushing so bad and got really embarrassed, it was funny.

Venice Beach Entertainment

Our second day: Today has been nice and relaxing. We woke up and got breakfast burritos and fresh squeezed juice at The Fruit Gallery and ate on a bench on the beach. Unfortunately Danny had to start work, but I unpacked and went grocery shopping, I am settling in. There's constant commotion and high energy outside our window. Last night Danny woke up to hear a guy yelling because someone was stealing his car, and a different time I woke up to hear I guy yell out "I LOVE LA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I guess he just wanted to let everyone know.

There's always fun music and waves crashing... I could get used to this. On my way back from grocery shopping I ran into some hilarious street performers. I recorded part of it with my phone for your viewing pleasure. It's hard to tell from the angle, but there are 6 or 7 people bent over that he is doing a side flip over.

Our first blog posting!

Hi everyone, welcome to our blog about our adventure to Argentina! In case you haven't heard, we've spent the last 5 months trying to get down to Argentina dealing with all sorts of immigration and legal issues... fun:) But we're ALMOST there!

We arrived in Los Angeles today. Man, has it been interesting so far. Danny and I are at a place right on the boardwalk of Venice Beach in Los Angeles, CA. The man who checked us in was quite the character and closely resembles UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) fighter Bas Rutten in every way. He actually used to be a cage fighter, and he used to live in Lake oswego, funny stuff. We couldn't have asked for a better location. Street vendors line the boardwalk and everyone seems to be pretty mellow here, I think it's a mixture of sun and drugs.

We dropped $100's on cab fare this morning just getting to our apartment, then to the consulate. We decided to take the bus from now on. I always enjoy the culture among bus goers. Everyone was really helpful in getting us to where we needed to be today.

The Consulate. This is the reason we're here in LA, we have to present every piece of documentation available on our lives in order to get visas to Argentina. Really intimidating. I didn't know it was so official. I crossed out a word and had to rewrite my entire application, twice. By the third time I figured out that they didn't want me crossing things out (there's already an english/spanish language barrier in LA, that's why I was a little slow to catch on). We were in the office just sitting there for about 2 1/2 hours with a dull silence in the room, and an occasional conversation in spanish here and there. There is ONE woman in charge of ALL the people trying to get visa's into Argentina in 11 states! That's a lot of work. Bad news for her, bad news for us. She thinks we can leave on Friday. So we'll be here for a week. I guess it could be loads worse. This is the place to wait if they're going to make us wait. Really fun people watching, and there's a place that serves Boar's Head meat across the street from the place we're staying, so I am in quite a joyous mood about that.

I have been up since 2:30am, in cabs, buses, and a plane and I am pooped. I am going to rest for a while. Give me a call anytime in the next week on my cell phone, after that I can be reached @ 503-616-3817. There's no charge for you to call this number or receive calls from this number because we have Skype. Adios!