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!