The Opposite

Yesterday was a bittersweet day. I had one of the best experiences I have ever had with Lucas by attending his first soccer game, but at the same time 14 or more of my fellow countrymen were dying protesting against a criminal regime. This is the guilt us Venezuelans living abroad have to live with every day. It doesn't matter how great things are going in your life, there is always that hollow feeling inside reminding you that you will never be truly happy until your country is free. I named this post the opposite because that is how my relationship to Venezuela feels sometimes, the better things get for me in my life, the worse they get in my country. Today is a difficult day, I been questioning if things are ever going to get better, can the bad guys really win? All I can really do from here is hope that things get better, and that just makes me feel powerless.

In Venezuela the bad guys have the guns, the money and the power but we must not let them take our hopes and dreams. So I will focus the rest of my post on the positive. Lucas's first ever soccer game at a stadium was a success. It was Roma Vs. Juventus at the Gilette Stadium at Foxborough. We had great seats and we were able to see great players up close like Buffon, Chiellini, De Rossi, Nainngolan and almost every star of each of the two teams. Unfortunately, the only Venezuelan playing for Juventus, Tomas Rincon, captain of our national team, did not play. We did get close enough for him to say hi as you can see in the above picture.

Lucas was great during the whole game. That is 90 minutes of soccer that he was able to watch without getting bored, a great demonstration of his attention span.  His uncle did get him a huge bowl of popcorn and some Gatorade that kept him entertained for a while. Juventus scored first and he was really disappointed. But when Roma scored he had the experience of celebrating a goal at a stadium, he was happy and wanted more. During half time after drinking all of his Gatorade bottle I knew I had to take him to the bathroom. He freaked out with the crowd and the sound of all the toilets and urinals flushing at the same time and he refused to pee on any of them. I had to think fast, I knew he really had to go, so I picked my water bottle and had him pee there on a corner of the restroom. I threw the bottle on the trash and the problem was solved. In the end when I asked him what he enjoyed the most of the whole game experience his answer was "Peeing in a bottle".

Today was a normal day, a lot of smiles and easy feedings from Matias. He gave me time to reflect on what's next for Venezuela and to try to keep it positive. It's hard not to be positive with his smiley face staring at you.

What did I watch?
Crossfire: I have always been a fan of stories that use the unreliable narrator technique to tell the same story from different points of view. This movie does it really well as well as tackling some pretty advanced discrimination topics for the era in which it was made. Perhaps it is not surprising that the producer and director where eventually blacklisted for their political beliefs.

The Visa

This year both Alegna and I were eligible to become US citizens. We filled out all our forms together, got our fingerprints taken and went through the interviews at the same time. But, for some strange reason, we received our invitation to take the oath of allegiance on different days. Today Alegna became an American citizen while I have to wait until probably September.

We woke up this morning and debated on whether Lucas should attend the ceremony or not. Luckily we decided against it and dropped him off at daycare on our way to Worcester, where today's ceremony was scheduled to happen. We got there at 10:30 AM and Alegna went through all the process while I was sitting in the guest section with Matias. It was a long ceremony that consisted of mostly waiting for everyone to come into the room. Lucas would have lost it. It finally started at 12 and it lasted about an hour. During this whole time I was sitting with Matias on a very crowded theater with not much wiggle room, but he was great as always. He didn't cry once. He kind of complained a little bit when it was time to eat, but once I fed him his bottle he was OK again.

The ceremony was very nice. They did their oath, then recited the pledge of allegiance and listened to the national anthem. There were some nice moments like when they started calling country names and anyone originally born there would stand up. It was a very festive environment designed to make the new citizens feel welcome. The oath of allegiance is interesting in that you are renouncing allegiance to your own country. I think it is kind of a bittersweet feeling. On the one hand you are becoming a citizen of the most important country in the world, in my opinion as significant as being a citizen of Rome during the Roman Empire. But on the other hand you are renouncing the country that made you who you are. These bittersweet taste quickly went away with some very wise and moving words from the judge presiding the ceremony. "You are renouncing allegiance to you government, not to your country or culture". That's when it hit me, I have already renounced to the Venezuelan government, probably about 17 years ago, renouncing to my "Venezuelaness" is probably impossible because it is part of who I am. I am always going to enjoy an Arepa and celebrate goals by the Vinotinto. But, I'm sure going to be proud to also become an American. The country where both my sons were born, where I had the opportunity to get a job, buy a house and live in peace. I most certainly will enjoy my rights to live, be free and be happy.

What did I Watch?
Kong: Skull Island: The best word I could come up to describe this movie is "Blah". Apparently they are setting up this whole "Monsterverse" where they will have Kong fighting Godzilla, Mothra, etc. in future movies.

The Pledge Drive

I have made a conscious decision to try to avoid politics in this blog. Mostly because it is what us Venezuelans usually talk about so I wanted to have a space that was free of that. But Sunday's plebiscite or popular consult or whatever you want to call it is too important to ignore. I ask you if you are reading this and you are Venezuelan please access the following links to find out where you can participate:

If you are in Venezuela: https://crdvenezuela.com/index.php/puntos/
If you live outside of Venezuela: http://www.unidadvenezuela.org/2017/07/conozca-los-puntos-la-consulta-soberana-del-16j-habilitados-exterior/

If you are not Venezuelan maybe you can help by spreading the word or if you have some free time go and encourage the people in these places. It means a lot to us to feel that we are not fighting alone against this curse that has been upon us for the past 18 years. The short summary of what is happening Sunday is that the current president is trying to change our constitution to support some sort of soviet style commune state. The only legal way to change the constitution is via elections, but that has been denied by the servile courts. Polls say that about 80% of the population reject this, so the civil society has decided to organize these elections themselves to pressure the government to listen. Massive support and participation is needed so every bit counts.

After that public service announcement I get back to this blog's real topic. The day was pretty quiet, much better than yesterday. The highlight came this morning from Lucas. I had to go change my shirt after a Matias spit-up and I asked Lucas to watch him while I quickly ran to my bedroom. His response was: "I am always going to take care of him. I promise!" Lucas is going to be a great big brother.

What did I watch?
Stazione Termini: Every movie directed by Vittorio De Sica that I had seen until now I had loved, unfortunately this was the exception. A very boring tragic love story with two unlikable characters. The only redeeming quality of the film, I think, was the setting. It all happens at the Termini Station in Rome which is home to some interesting sights and sounds, I wish they had exploited it a little more.

High Society: The final result of the Friday poll was a tie between this movie and the Emigrants. I didn't really feel like watching a 3 hour Swedish movie so I went with this one. Nothing really special, as the most notorious commenter of this blog, Russ, mentioned a better version of this story can be seen in The Philadelphia Story.

The Venezuelan Day Parade

Today was the Venezuelan independence day. Every year they commemorate this day with the president watching over a military parade pretending that we have some sort of military might when in reality we probably are more similar to Seinfeld's version of the Puerto Rican day parade. I spent some time of the day fantasizing about some sort of Anwar Sadat episode that would free us from one of the worst presidents in our history but Matias quickly snapped me back to reality.

My day started at 2 AM this morning. I was afraid that on my first day I would not hear him cry as I sometimes do and Alegna would have to wake me up, but I heard him! So far, so good: pick him up, calm him down, prepare a bottle and feed him. BAM! Done in 30 minutes, back to sleep!

Alegna wakes up at 5 AM, gets ready for her first day of work in 3 months, so she obviously does what every loving mother would want to do every morning, she kisses Lucas and Matias goodbye. Lucas does not notice but Matias definitively does. She gives me an "it wasn't me" face and leaves. Now I'm stuck with a crying baby at 5:30 AM. After many iterations of feeding, burping and changing diapers he finally goes back to sleep at 7, Lucas's usual waking up time. I'm exhausted so I just collapse on my bed waiting for the dreaded "Daddy! Is it morning yet?" that comes every day like clockwork. But not today, today Lucas was a real pal and he gets up at 8. I yell from my room that yes it is morning and that he can get off his bed. He goes to the bathroom, pees, flushes and washes his hands all by himself like a champ and comes into my room. He asks for mom and starts to cry when he realizes she's back to work, but I bribe him with my phone and the offer of some youtube videos. I pass out again and wake up an hour later. He's still watching videos so I convince him to go have breakfast. Pancakes and popcorn is his request and I decide that it is not as unreasonable as usual so I abide and he devours it. Matias wakes up, he's happy so we all get dressed and we are off to daycare.

In the car Lucas asks why Matias is coming, I usually drive him by myself but today that is not an option. He is concerned: Matias is too little for school and they might hit him. I tell him that older brothers should defend their little brothers, he replies "Yes I will get really really mad if someone hits him!". Drop off at daycare is fine and I get home just in time for Matias's feeding. The rest of the day goes without a hitch, he eats his food, I get to watch some TV and walk around the neighborhood as I planned. There is no mess on the kitchen, everything is in the dishwasher and all the bottles he used are clean. I was supposed to buy some baby formula with some coupon from Target that Alegna left me but I don't think saving $5 off is worth risking my successful day so I stay home. I pass out on the sofa until Alegna and Lucas get here and I can officially say I survived my first day!

What did I watch?
Zabriskie Point a Michelangelo Antonioni film with terrible unlikable characters and an implausible story but that is surprisingly still watchable. It focuses on some one dimensional revolutionary counterculture hippies in their fight against a caricature of a greedy businesman. It does have one of the weirdest sex scenes I have ever seen though.

The Road to Hong Kong the last one of the Road to... series starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, it is basically the same movie with the same types of gags as the other 6 (of which I have seen 4 already) but it works for light entertainment. I found the scene at the 7:36 mark of this video particularly funny.

So that's it! I survived my first day. One down, 60 more days to go. I think I'm going to be fine.