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Eleni Gage

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Breakfast with a Side of Parrots: Dispatch from a 14-Month-Old Expat

October 26, 2012 by Eleni |

My name is Amalía and I’m a Greekaraguan.

Tomorrow I am 14 months old. These are my favorite things: pizza, woof-woofs, Papou.

Right now, I am living in Granada, Nicaragua, where my Abuela was born.

Here is a picture of me with Abu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Miami Beach, Mama used to take me to Starbucks in the morning. Here in Granada, sometimes we go to a place called La Floresta. It means “the grove, which has to do with trees and flowers. Their sign looks like the logo on Mama’s website.

Here it is: 

Mama likes the pitaya smoothies. I like the flowers. 

I also like the parrots. 

On the way to the La Floresta, I saw a nun. But there’s always lots of interesting people and things to see in Granada; you don’t have to look very far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For example, at lunch on Lake Nicaragua, I saw some big kids on a school trip. They took a boat.

     

There are big kids everywhere. Holding hands, buying ice cream. Here are some big kids I saw celebrating the festival of San Geromino in the street right outside our apartment!

           

There were grown-ups too, wearing masks to make them look like old-time Spanish men and ladies.

          

Once, I even saw a big girl dressed like a bride; Papi said she was on her way to her First Communion.

Mama says that sometimes Granada looks like a Japanese painting.

Once, she said it looks like a painting of cows in Africa that Yia Yia Joanie has on the wall of my Tío’s bedroom in Massachusetts.

Sometimes, she says it looks like a river she loves in India.

Other times, she tells me it looks like Mexico.

And other times, she says it reminds her of New Orleans.

But I think Mama’s silly. She does odd things, like take pictures of her food before she eats it. I’m only 14 months old and I know that Granada looks like Granada.

      

Mama says sometimes it’s hard to have so many places and people you love, and not to be able to see them all at once. And sometimes it’s sad to see big kids and other bebes who don’t have as much as I do. But, I like to remind her—and I think she agrees—that as far as I can tell, life in Granada is a nonstop party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also like the parrots:

Filed Under: travel, Uncategorized Tagged With: Catholicism, India, Mexico, New Orleans, Nicaragua

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Eleni Gage

About Eleni

The daughter of a Greek father and a Minnesotan mother. I grew up in Athens, Greece, and the suburbs of Worcester, Massachusetts—
and became obsessed with cultural rituals and traditions along the way.

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