A Very Busy Weekend!

This weekend we went to the new mall that opened up here recently. OMG. It was amazing! I am not a big mall fan, I don't usually like the just shop around and browse. But we wanted to get out of the house and do something before going to farm, and we decided to go there so I could look for some hair products that I will need when I get my hair chopped off later this week :) There is a store here, Fedco, where you can buy imported (read expensive) body care products that you can't buy anywhere else. We assumed the new mall, Cacique, would have one, and it would give us an excuse to check it out! Well, It was really a treat! I didn't have super high expectations since I know how most malls here are, (older, mostly natural light which can make it a little gloomy looking if it's cloudy, and they tend to have all the same kind of stores.) and I assumed that it would be more of the same. It wasn't! It was very American in the style, and in the stores!!! There are plenty of American stores that I didn't know existed here! Most aren't open yet, but some where.

Coming in the next 6 months, we will have Forever 21, Victoria's Secret, G by Guess, and Aeropostale. Not that I necessarily shop at all these stores, but it is really nice to see something familiar! Also, just off the food court, they have a McDonalds, and a McCafe. Across the board, McDonalds here are much nicer than any in the US. Food is more expensive, the clientele is classier, and the insides are new, clean, and look really nice! Until now, I had never seen a separate McCafe. It was set up like Starbucks stores are, and looked like a great place to drink coffee, do some work, or relax. But the best part of the mall was the top floor.

The top floor is were the casino is and also the sit down restaurants. We ate at La Birreria. It is a pub that has lots of great European beers, and pretty delicious American bar food!

The restaurants are set up to look like an old American town, and the end is open with views of the city. After we ate lunch and shopped around a little, we stopped for some yogurt and La Yogurteria. It looked like yagoot and supposedly had active cultures and was low fat. This was not yogurt, and did not have active cultures. I also highly doubt that it was low fat. I'm glad we only got 2 for us all to share. The kids didn't seem to mind that it was was soft serve ice cream :)

After the mall, we went to the farm, but on the way, we drove through Giron.

I love small towns here. They look so different from anything I am used to, and I love the dirt or cobblestone roads, the way everything looks the same, and I am so fascinated with how people live so close together.

Everyone is pretty much on top of each other, and it seems so cozy to me. It isn't odd to see tons of doorways open, people hanging out on the street and talking. It is just such a different way of life than I am familiar with. Where I come from, there are neighborhoods where you can walk a ways and see your neighbors, or apartments, where you usually don't see too many people. But here, people all seem to get along, and want to be friendly with everyone around. I just love it!

Sunday we went to a restaurant called La Niebla. It was so fun! It is a restaurant in the mountains on the road to Cucuta another city in Colombia that is northeast of Bucaramanga, and right near the Venezuelan border. Cucuta is about a 3 hour drive, and this restaurant was about an hour in that direction. Here is the view of the city from up there.. It was cloudy Sunday, so it's kind of hard to see.

It is on the complete other side of the city than I had ever been, and we went through a very poor neighborhood to get there.

These houses are built into the side of the mountain and have the most extraordinary views of the city! The only problem is that they aren't constructed very well, and during the rainy season, there is always concern that the rain will erode too much of the mountain, and they will crumble. I also learned on the way up there that rainy seasons have been bad, and recently there have been fears that the mountains will fall down over the city. The area that we go a lot (and close to where Carlos grew up) is especially in danger. So they are putting up barriers to protect the area.

Now. On the the restaurant!

The best part was the sangria.

The view was a very close second!

For my meal I got these Tex Mex Patacones (green plantains with guacamole and cheese). They were delicious! The guacamole was actually very spicy, and that is very very rare here!

Also fun was the fact that they had two dogs and a cat there. Usually I wouldn't be a fan of animals in an eating establishment, (esp when they try to take my kid's food.. like the kitten who climbed on Emma's chair in order to try to sneak her steak :) but it was a very outdoor type place, and after we were finished eating, (while enjoying more sangria :) we let the kids play with the animals and they had an amazing time!

They clearly need a pet. They wouldn't leave this kitten alone.

They also loved playing on the playset and running around with other kids! They both zonked out as soon as we left, so by my measure- it was a very successful afternoon :)

We had a great weekend, and it was a shame it had to end!

I think i'm getting a job!

I am considering a job.. I can't believe it! I came into this saying I wasn't going to do anything, but it is getting really old doing the same thing and not having any friends other than my in-laws and Johana :) Carlos' boss wants me to do something in the ICU because they are really interested in teaching everyone English, and showing them how things are in the US. But I am a little iffy about that. I feel like since I don't speak too much Spanish it will be a huge undertaking, and possible a big waste of energy too. Maybe I can do a little work there later, BUT there is another opportunity that I find very interesting. It was suggested before that I can be an international liaison for the hospital. I thought that this would be more up my alley because it would be reaching out to people who speak English. The only issue with this is that I want something that is VERY part time. Carlos talked to the person in charge of International affairs, and she said that they could use me for any time I would be willing to give them. There are a lot of people from Aruba at the hospital. Aruba is so close to Colombia, so they come here to go to the hospital since the health care system is pretty good here. A lot of these patients don't speak too much Spanish, so when they round on the international patients, they need people there that speak English, and it sounds like they don't have many nurses that round with them. So I might do that two mornings a week! I am excited about this because I can't imagine how I would feel being admitted in the hospital and not being able to understand what is going on. Definitely more to come on that!

It rained last night! It was the first rain since we got here! But it didn't do too much for cooling it down in here :( So far it just feels stickier. Ugh. but the air is still really thick, so maybe one all the fog burns off, it will be cooler. I hope so! We are going to the farm today anyway, so we will get some nice cool breezes up there!

Tomorrow we are going out for lunch with a friend of Carlos' and we are so excited! This place is outside the city, and it is like a huge play area for kids! All I had to hear was, "be ready, because its much cooler up there"! I will post pictures of it after we go! The kids are excited to play somewhere new!

Calling in sick? Not in Colombia

I learned something new about Colombian culture yesterday. People do not call in sick. Johana came in yesterday with what she assumed was food poisoning. If you know me, you know that I catch just about any stomach thing in the air. So I wasn't super excited that she was potentially spreading germs around the house. When she said that she wasn't feeling that well I asked if she just wanted to get home, and she was so fast to say, no no- i'm ok! it's fine! I gave her some advil, and she kept working. By 10, she was looking terrible, and said that she thought she would leave after she made lunch. I told her not to wait- just go.. I can cook lunch. No problem! She said that in her house they told her that you CAN'T leave before making lunch. It's the most important job of the day. I said, "Johana- in the US, I make all the meals myself. I can do it today, go home!!!" She maintained the position that she needed to prepare the lunch, and finally I got her to agree to leave after starting the rice, and putting the broccoli in the oven. (Since those things would be cooked at high temperatures and anything possibly there would be killed, I let her do it :) Then as she was leaving, she said that her mom was taking her to the clinic and then should would come back. I said NOOO NOOO NO NO! Go home and rest! I told her not to even bother with going to the doctor since they can't do anything for it anyway- Just go home, lay down, drink gatorade, and let it run it's course. Well she called last night to ask if she can stay home today. Of course we said yes! But she was so afraid to call and ask. Also, her mom sounded like she was in the back trying to help her build her case. She said that the doctor did a lot of tests and then determined that she had gastroenteritis. Um, obviously! You don't need tests to tell that you have an irritated, inflamed GI tract.

I can't believe that here you can have a a GI issue, and still be expected to go to work! People don't want to catch that!! I was talking to Carlos about that and he said that people here don't really think about the spreading of germs, it's not really the culture for a lot of people. I can't believe that people here don't get sick all the time! I am always surprised about how things work here. People work less hours, gets tons of holidays, but no sick days? Maybe the shortened hours help people stay healthier?

So what are we up to today? Not too much. I made breakfast (and actually did a good job if I do say so myself :) This is saying something not because I am a bad cook (i'm not!) but because everything here is gas, and I am used to everything electric. I constantly burn things, or dry them out since I don't get a lot of practice using the equipment here :) So while I work on trying to be a little like Johana, the kids are chilling out!

Now I am sitting down to watch Life of Pi that I bought pirated from the street... This copy is bad. It isn't in English and the only subtitles available are Spanish. And I keep hearing someone cough. We have had good luck with movies lately, so I guess it was time to get a bad one. When you buy pirated movies, you run the risk of hearing the people eating popcorn, babies crying, and as I am hearing now, coughing. Ugh. The lady I bought them from told me all of them are in English. Oh well, that's what I get for buying pirated movies.

Both kids are going to school!

Before we left her last time Carlos tried to convince me to send Charlie to preschool with Emma this year (the school year is Feb 1-Nov30). I was 100% against it, and actually thought it was funny that he would even joke about it. Well, we signed him up last night. My stance has always been this: I don't want my 16 month old in "school". You Colombians are so fast to send kids to school. It isn't even school, it's daycare. And I don't work so why send him to daycare??? All he needs to learn is how to play. And he can do that with me. I made a point not to work so that I could be with my kids. Well yesterday my opinion changed! While we were in the US, I would take the kids to the gym every day and they would spend 2 hours in the gym playroom so they could get energy out. I got to thinking, they both loved going there.. So what's the big difference doing it here? The only difference is that it is a little longer, and he will be supervised by actual teachers. For the Caminadores (the class he's in, 'walkers') they 'learn' about music and dancing, and do a ton of playing. The big thing that changed my mind was when Charlie walked into the school, his eyes lit up and he went running for the slide! He was even climbing the stairs of the slide by himself! He played and played and didn't want to leave! He flirted with the teachers, waved and smiled at the little girls, and overall had a great time!

So allow me to share the rules of driving here: there aren't any. The more I drive, the more I am getting a hang of the style of driving here. The big obstacle for me was letting go of the notion that we all need to abide by the boundaries of civility. Here there are no boundaries. You do whatever works for YOU. You need to pull over your car on the side of a 1 lane busy road to chat with someone on the street? Ok. You need to switch lanes? Cut someone off. You don't want to drive behind an unpredictable motorcycle, but you also want to drive slow? Switch to the fast lane. A lot of roads aren't marked for lanes, so they turn into just masses of cars that you have no idea who has the right of way, and who goes where. This used to induce a large amount of stress on my part. Now I just push through like everyone else. (I try at least :)If you worry about other people, you get honked at. The main principle in driving, is get where you need to go, and don't worry about anyone but yourself. If you find yourself in a situation, where the person in front of you has parked his or her car in the lane and left it there, you will be required to cut someone off yourself. No one will let you in. On top of that, motorcycles will be sliding through traffic and as you poke your nose out in front of someone most likely one will zoom past you and you will come within inches of hitting them. Weirdly enough, if you cut someone off and slide in where you weren't invited no one will honk at you or be upset. You will however be on the receiving end of some serious wrath if you pause to avoid hitting a pedestrian. I am becoming a more COlombian driver though. I finally started to realize that there aren't rules. I hated driving this way because it went against the grain of how one should behave while behind the wheel. Now that I really learned that you need to be ruthless, and people won't be mad about it, and in fact expect it, I am getting much less stressed.

As you can see, I am parked here in a no parking zone. And i'm not the only one either. Everyone has to go around me, and this is NORMAL! Why am I parked in a no parking zone you ask? Carlos is getting our YogenFruz and why should we go park in the garage when there is a "space" right in front? This sounds so selfish and wrong to me, even writing it.. But this is just how everyone does it here. Not one person honked at me for stopping in the middle of the road. No one cared in the least.

So today is actually a cooler day here! Unfortunately there isn't a lot of wind, so the cool air has a knack for staying outside. But it's overcast, so the sun isn't beating down making everything hot.

A Day in the Life

Today I thought I would do something a little different. I am going to go through our usual daily routine. It is a lot different from how things are at home, so I thought I would talk about it.

Around 6:30, we all wake up. The sun comes up before 6, so it seems natural to wake up early, not at all like how it is in the winter in Cincinnati! Usually Charlie wakes up first, and while I am trying to ignore him, and sleep a little longer, Emma wakes up to come tell me that Charlie wants to get out. By the time we are all getting out of bed, Johana gets here, and starts making coffee and breakfast. About 75% of the time we eat arepas and eggs. An arepa is a corn based thing that is a staple here. People eat them for breakfast, occasionally with lunch, and in the late afternoon/early evening with hot chocolate. It is not at all unusual here to not eat dinner, do just snack on cheese, arepas and hot chocolate.

I like mine made out of sweet corn with cheese in the middle :) I also like an egg on top. Sunny side up of course! It is amazing that I actually lose weight here. I guess it is because I don't eat much for dinner :)
Carlos leaves for work at around 7:30. Once he leaves, the kids and I finish eating breakfast, they play a little, I catch up on what's going on on Facebook, and check my email, and Johana cleans the kitchen, and starts picking up around the rest of the house, and collects the trash and laundry. Around 8:30 or 9 we decide what we will have for lunch, and go to our market to buy whatever we need for it.

Between 10 and 12 is basically just free time. I might go for a run, get a pedicure, or go to the pool while Charlie naps. (I haven't really done this since we have been back because Emma hasn't gone back to school yet.) So I usually just hang out with the kids and play, watch some tv, or write a blog entry. We sometimes go to the pool at this time too. Meanwhile, Johana is a cleaning machine. She finishes getting rid of all the toy clutter, and as you can see- there is a LOT of clutter.

We don't have much storage here, and our apartment is about 1,000 square feet. So the kids don't have a "play room" or any real place to hide their stuff. (Look for the tour of our apartment at the end!) So first Johana picks up, then she sweeps through the whole house, then she mops everything. It is really important to mop at least once a day because we get ants here like nobody's business. Since there isn't winter to kill them off they get everywhere. The rain helps to kill some of them during the rainy season, but it's been really dry, so we haven't had any drowned ants lately. During and after the cleaning, Johana works on making lunch.

Here is where things get really different from the US: Carlos comes home for lunch! At around noon, Carlos gets home and we sit down to eat lunch. Lunch here is the biggest meal of the day. We usually have either steak or chicken. Most days we have rice too. People here eat a TON of rice. Then we will have some sort of vegetable, and grilled plantains.

The plantains come from the farm, and they taste much better than any that I have ever had in the US. We also have fresh juice. Johana used to make lots of varieties, but my faves are limonada (lime-ade) and madarinada (orange-ade). I tried to make these when I was home, and they didn't taste nearly as good. Probably because these limes and oranges are freshly picked, and driven just a few miles before they get on our table! After lunch we sit back, and wait for our coffee. Usually Carlos leaves at around 1:30 to go back to work.

The afternoon is a toss up. From 2-4 Johana cleans up from lunch, mops in the dining room if the kids were especially messy eaters :) , and finishes the laundry. Depending on how busy we are during the day, sometimes the kids nap, sometimes we go out to get frozen yogurt, sometimes we go to the pool after lunch, or go for a walk, or go to the swing sets here. Johana leaves at 4, so after that we start gearing up for Carlos to get home. Since dinner is usually really light here, I will sometimes feed the kids something at around 5:30, and then give them their baths. Our new fave thing to do after Carlos gets home is go out so I can get some driving practice and then we stop for frozen yogurt! Usually when we get home, the kids are ready to go to bed, and me and Carlos have the rest of the night to relax! We either watch a movie, or a tv show, or Carlos works, and I read. I do a ton of reading here. I don't have too much other stuff to do :) I really need a hobby.. But so far no luck :) I am still kind of in vacation made and not really trying to hard to find something to do. Maybe once Emma goes back to school next week :)

Ok: so for a tour of the house! When you go in there is a big room. It has the dining room table, a sofa area, and then another area that we use for the kids to play. Just to the left is the door to the kitchen, and on the other end of the room is a hallway that leads to all the rooms. On the left is first a bathroom, and then the master bedroom, and on the right is a tv room, and the kids room. The left side of the apartment overlooks the mountains and a lot of green areas which is amazing. The right side just looks at another building.

This is the kitchen, and if you walk to the left past the oven, the laundry room is there.

The great room.

Looking at the front door from the end of the hallway.

Master bedroom, and bath

The kids' room

The TV room

So there's a little bit of context! Oh, and as a final comment, my mother in law painted all the paintings in here (except the fruit one in the great room)! She is so talented! I wish that I was half as creative as she is!

It's too hot.. Cold showers for everyone!

I am so sick and tired of not being able to watch things here because they are only available to US viewers. I am a US viewer! OK, technically, I am not physically in the US now. But I do have a permanent address there. AND I pay for cable service there. I just cannot understand why I am not able to watch American things. I got fired up and all poor me during the Olympics when I wasn't able to watch gymnastics, or American competitors in general. Now, I am fired up again because I can't watch the Golden Globes. This also means that I won't be able to watch the Oscars, the Emmys, or any other award show that might strike my fancy. If I were at home I probably wouldn't care to watch these so much, but I am feeling very nostalgic about all things American. I almost feels like everyone I know is at a party I wasn't invited to. I feel left out. I just can't understand how being overseas automatically means that you are refused the opportunity to watch good TV. Is it because of the commercials? The advertisers can't make money on people overseas?? I beg to differ. I will be back in a few months, and ready and willing to drop tons of money on whatever I have been deprived of while overseas. And guess what US broadcasters?? The only people overseas who care about most American TV shows? AMERICANS!! Although, I did get a message from a friend in a similar predicament, and she told me that she uses a VPN to connect to the internet, and tricks the websites to thinking that she is in the US instead of the Dominican Republic. I think this should work, and I am just SO excited to try it out!

Ok, so enough about that, on to another topic. The rainy season really needs to start here. It is just too hot. I am ready for a cool down that will come with the rain. Now now, before you get all angsty, imagine yourself in early summer. Its not too hot, about 80, but it sure is humid. Definitely a day for A/C. Now imagine that you don't have central air, and in fact the only air conditioned room is your dining room. Now think about sleeping. It's sticky and warm, and you wake up with your hair plastered to your face with sweat. Still jealous? Ugh I am so over it! It is great during the day, I won't lie, it's paradise, but at night is when it is getting a little old! We have the A/C on here all day lately and before, when it rained, we could keep it off until evening, then use it for a couple hours and be done. I think the main problem is that it hasn't been that breezy. So the air in here is just still and hot. That is another reason I LOVE spending time at the farm. It is so cool and breezy up there. When you wake up in the morning, pants and long sleeves are almost a must until the sun gets hot!

This weekend we also went to the botanical gardens here in Floridablanca. It was fun, peaceful, and beautiful. Until Charlie tripped on the stone path and hit his cheek.

And then we saw these on a school right near the park. I thought they looked really cool!

So today we are doing our homemade Chipotle for the first time since we have been back! I was able to get most of the ingredients we need, but there is one main player that is absent. Sour cream. It is surprisingly hard to find here. There is only one store that carries it, and it is super sporadic. I was so upset that I couldn't find any, and I sent a desperate text to Carlos' mom, asking where oh where I could find some. She said the same thing I had already learned- it's hard to find. Ugh. BUT - she had a recipe for making it at home.

There were only 4 ingredients needed, and we (happily) had all of them at home! Queso Crema (one of my favorite things ever.. Kind of like cream cheese, but more the consistency of sour cream.) pepper, vinegar, and lime juice. We tried it, albeit very hesitantly. It was a success!!! I couldn't believe it! It tastes a little different, but it will work! It's actually a good twist on sour cream, because it tastes like my beloved queso crema :) I'll take it! We are also switching our choice of steak for in our burrito bowls. I have basically gone on a chatas boycott. We are making chipotle with filet mignon. Hey- its $7 a pound here! Why not?? I was telling Carlos- why don't people eat more of this, it's so much better! He said, "SHhhhh.. Don't talk too much about it or people will start wanting it!" haha

Last night we went to the grocery. Emma was a bundle of drama. We woke her up from a nap to go in, and she wasn't happy about it. She wanted to pull the basket (At stores here, they have big baskets with wheels that you pull like rolling luggage). She couldn't get her hands on one fast enough, so there were tears. Then she couldn't maneuver it around a corner. Tears. Then daddy helped and she wanted mommy to help. Tears. Then mommy tried to help but she wanted to do it alone. Tears. Then while trying to pull it around a corner, it flipped on it's side. Tears. Then daddy tried to hold her hand. Tears. Then mommy walked to fast. Tears. Then a guy looked at her wrong. Tears. Then an elderly lady tried to say hi. Tears. Then we finally finish and get to the car (with a few episodes of unexplained tears on the way). Carlos and I are so relieved that it's finally over, and Emma, still breathing jaggedly after sobbing most of the way through the store, says, "Emma had fun at the store mommy." As Johana would say, "Ay Senor!"

On a final note- We LOVE YogenFruz. It is pretty much the best thing ever. Last night I got lime and it was so delicious. In case anyone is unfamiliar, it is frozen chunks of fruit or cubes of juice that they blend up and mix with vanilla frozen yogurt.

It is complete bliss. And I don't know if it is the same in the US or not. When we went at the Houston airport they had the soft serve and then you topped it however you want. But here it is primarily the flavor of whatever you pick. I had been getting orange every time, but I have recently learned that that is a big mistake. Every flavor I get is better than the one before. But anyway, to get to the point of the story.. The last time I went there, they stumbled over my name, I had to repeat it a million times. That along with my broken Spanish, yikes. So last night I went and ordered, and it usually takes a little while for them to make it. So since I needed to run into the grocery across the street (to look for the elusive sour cream) I told them I would be right back after I buy something in Carrefour. As I was walking back up to the register, I realized that I never gave them my name this time. I walked up and when I got up there, I realized that they didn't need my name. They gave me one: Nina Americana (American girl). Carlos and I got a good laugh about that, and so did Johana when I told her about it this morning! It is accurate, and also much easier than trying to take my unfamiliar gringa name!