I drove on my own! And wine is too expensive here.

I drove by myself for the first time!!!!!!! This morning Carlos took a taxi to work, and the kids, Johana and I went to the grocery! Johana isn't from this part of the city, so she didn't necessarily know where we were going, and since she doesn't speak English anyway, I count that as going alone :) It went well, and Johana was surprised at how good of a driver I am! She kept saying, you have only practiced a short time, and you aren't bad! You are very good!! Granted, we stayed here in our area which isn't super busy, and I have a lot of practice here. It is once we get into the city that I have issues. But I did it by myself! I even got my parking validated, and took the highway home!

Well I am officially becoming too pampered and used to this life. Last night, when it was getting close to dinner time, I had a serious feeling of "Ugh, we are going to have to pick up food for dinner, but I am so not in the mood for restaurant food... Johana didn't make anything to eat, so I guess we don't have a choice.." I was in that funk for about 15 minutes before I realized that, in fact, I am capable of whipping up a light meal. After I snapped out of it, I couldn't even believe what had happened! I loved cooking at home, so why doesn't it even occur to me to do it here?? I guess it is because I usually feel like a guest in my own kitchen.

Emma starts school on the 15th. What does she do with her mornings you ask? But of course the answer is help Johana clean. All I need to say if she's mid meltdown? "Emma- I need help!" She is OBSESSED with helping these days!

And what does Charlie do all day? TCB, naturally.

Today, I have a cooking experiment! We are baking a beer bread! I got the recipe from my friend, Allison, on her blog, and I can't wait to do it! When I told Johana about it, she thought she was hearing me wrong. She has never heard of anything like that, but I assured her that it should be delicious. So we are doing that later today! (This way, we can have bread and cheese for dinner, and I won't be put in a spot to panic about what do :)


One last thing- I have been joking here that I need to change my name because no one understands me when I say my name is "Katie". I get " kye-dee" "key-dee" "key-lee" "jay-dee" I always have to pronounce my name a million times, but yesterday was too much! Johana ordered me some wine to be delivered from the clubhouse, and she had to repeat my name to the person on the phone like 5 times. then this is what they took from it- Jeidy I think.

Wine here is SO expensive. The bottle I bought cost more than what our ironing lady makes in a day, and more than what Johana makes in 2 days. I asked Carlos how do people afford to buy wine?? His very simple answer- "They don't" It is true I guess. Wine here is known to be very expensive. Gato Negro, something I always turned up my nose at in the US is about $14 a bottle here. Oddly enough, Martini & Rossi is only $15. I don't get it.

The prices of things here are weird. You easily pay $20 for a mediocre bottle of wine, but hiring people do do stuff for you is so cheap. To have a carpenter come to our house on a Sunday and install this lock on the kitchen door cost us $7. I am never (or always?) surprised by the cost of things here. It doesn't seem right to pay $8 for a mani/pedi, then turn around and spend $4 on a single bag of Act II popcorn!