DING DING DING We have a winner!

On the family side of things, my son is apparently a HUGE flirt. I had to take him with me to the school today to turn in some forms, and on the way out there was a group of girls in a circle (probably 2nd or 3rd grade) who saw Micah. They immediately asked if he was Alexis’ brother (so apparently people know Alex already) and started to say how cute he was. My son then proceeded to walk up to the circle of females and give each one of them a kiss. They all instantly fell in love, and my son is going to be dangerous… lol.

On the administrative side of things, drum roll, please…

We have a place to live.

HOORAY!

I really couldn’t have asked for a better place. Here are the details:
- 20 minute walk to the office for Jason (and that’s a little farther because when he measured it, he went by his favorite coffee shop)
- 4th floor, so it has a view, but there’s an ELEVATOR!
- very, very, very safe (along with everything else, it’s next door to the Belgian embassy)
- on a quiet block that is close to everything but also quiet; a small park with playgrounds on each side of the block
- electric gate (I don’t have to get in and out to open the gate whenever I go anywhere) and an extra storage space, too
- huge kitchen with lots of counter space and (hopefully) a place for a small table
- place for washing laundry and hanging it up, attached to maid’s quarters (small room with bathroom)
- large living/dining area
- huge master bedroom with walk-in closet and full bath, also space for office in there (oh, and did I mention that both bathtubs are Jacuzzi tubs? that is apparently a big thing here)
- two smaller rooms for the kids (one doesn’t have a closet, but we’ll use it as a bedroom), and they're not actually small; they're bigger than the kids' roooms at home
- another full bath in hall (although with a hugely awkward toilet that you can barely sit on because the shower is two inches from the front)
- huge other room with walk-in closet and full bath – we’ll use as a play room, for the kids main bathroom, and as a guest room when needed (this currently has navy blue teddy bear wallpaper in the entire room, but we can strip that and paint it for about $100)
- carpet in all the bedrooms
- already has overhead lighting everywhere and neutral curtains (this is actually really important because that saves us money to spend on other things that we need, including a range hood, which is probably going to cost us about $300 – crazy, huh?)

Overall, this place is everything we could ask for, and we think we’re going to be really happy here and won’t feel cramped or like we’ll need to move after a year. It’s been a little bit of a difficult month living in transition, but we should begin our lease on Dec. 1, and we think that we might be able to start moving some things next Monday (and possibly as early as Saturday; we’ll see about that.) It’s a great price for the location, and we’re all very happy. We just went to take another look at it and take some measurements, and both of the kids seemed very happy about moving there.

So city won. Kind of. It’s like a little oasis in the middle of the city.

Things will start moving very quickly now. Because SP takes care of a lot of things, things are slightly more difficult. (This isn’t anything bad; it just means that buying things for the home will take a bit longer.) However, tomorrow morning we’re going to go look at furniture and probably place a very large order. We are most likely going to buy most things at a place that makes very cool, simple wooden furniture. I was there on Saturday and like all the stuff, so almost all of the furniture except the couch will probably come from there. Hopefully Jason will be able to go with us for that, but we’ll see. In the afternoon I’ll probably head into downtown La Paz to get some household things like basic kitchen supplies, possibly a few nightstand lights, etc. We’ll also need to buy a refrigerator and oven because those don’t come with rentals here. (And of course, the range hood. Sadness due to it being so much money.) However, we’re going to get a gas stove (hooray) and might actually be able to take the refrigerator that’s in the house we’re currently living in. (We already have a washing machine.) Things are going to start being a lot busier around here, but that’s great because it means that we’re actually going to be in a place of our own, which will be wonderful.

Pictures

Alexis' first progress report.

This might be the most disturbing assignment ever for a four-year-old. The frogs look way too friendly.


Micah has a need to close ALL doors. He doesn't like the fact that some of them don't stay closed here.

They got new chairs and LOVE them!

These will be my downfall. About a dollar for this box of bite-sized pastries. This is bad news for me.

Random Updates

1. I just heard my son count to five in Spanish while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Maybe we'll get cable after all...

2. I made homemade tomoto sauce yesterday. I didn't have the ingredients I really wanted, but I tomatoes, oil, and onion powder. For only those three, it turned out really, really good. I guess it's kind of Italian style: fairly chunky and you're supposed to just coat the noodles in it. I think I'm going to make more today with better ingredients.

3. I saw a house the other day that could be really great for us. It's farther away than we wanted, but it looks like there's publich transportaion nearby and a place to park our car. The drawbacks (other than distance): spiral staircase, which I worry about with the kids, at least one kid would be on a different floor from us (this would make going to the bathroom in the middle of the night a little weird for Alex because she'd have to go up a flight of stairs if she was on a different floor), and it's actually pretty big, probably bigger than we need, making cleaning a potential challenge. (I'm still hoping for a maid, but the bigger the house, the more expensive that becomes.) Part of me is still really hoping that we can get that one apartment within walking distance. It would be so great in so many ways...

4. Alexis got her first progress report the other day and did EXCELLENTLY. I was so proud. She got goods in all of her "extras" like gym, etc., except for in art, where she got an excellent! And all of her "academic" stuff was perfect. I'll take a picture and post it if I get it back today.

5. Have I mentioned that I feel like my entire face has broken out during this process? I shouldn't have to battle zits and wrinkles and the same time; it's really not fair. On the flip side, though, my hair looks A-MA-ZING in this country. Low humidity I guess.

The Eternal Quest?

Okay, so maybe that's me speaking a bit hyperbolically, but what can I say? It feels like we've been househunting for a long, long, long time. In reality, we've only been here a little over two weeks, and we didn't even see our first apartments until a few days after we arrived. It really hasn't been that long. I think we're just a bit disappointed in the dearth of options near the office where Jason is working. We'd really love for him to be able to walk to work, but we're not quite sure if that's going to happen.

There are two opposing viewpoints here. ONE: LIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY!!! Okay, so we could live in the middle of the south zone of the city, which has a neighborhood called San Miguel, whichis right next to Calacoto, where the office is. The benefit is that we would be close to everything. We could walk out of an apartment building and go a block to our favorite ice cream place, walk to get saltenas (my new favorite food - a slightly sweet, baked pastry dough filled with chicken or beef, potatoes, veggies, and spices), and basically have close access to everything. However, it would be like living in the middle of a city, constantly noisy, and we don't know if that would get old. On the flip side, we could live in the burbs, have less access to transportation (possibly having to take Jason to work every day or give him the car), and live in a tranquil setting, possibly with a view, and maybe even a house with a bit of green space. Oh, the dilemna. Oh wait: there's not much of a dilemna because there's NOTHING FOR US TO SEE! (We've had a few showings cancel on us.)

In reality, we have a good place to stay until we find where we want to move, and we can be here as long as we'd like to be, which takes the stress away. However, we're all ready to find a home, but we don't want to just move into something that's not going to good for us and we'll have to move out of a year later. So city or country? VOTE NOW!!!! (Not that we'll take into account your votes, but vote anyway!)

Micah is finally over his cold. He went on antibiotics to get rid of a cough, which was the only symptom of his cold. The cough wouldn't go away, so we spent 18 bucks on medicine. (Yikes, right?) The pricing thing is interesting here. TO give you a rundown of a few grocery store prices:

1 liter milk: $.90
1 pounf of chicken or beef: $3
1 box of Cheerios: $4
1 box of about a dozen small pastries of various types from Ketal, a grocery store here: $1 (These will be my downfall. They're bad, I tell you. BAD! But oh so good...)
six kiwis: $1 (this is at the grocery store; they're apparently a lot cheaper in the market, which I haven't been to yet)
1 saltena: $.65 (Now I want to go get these for lunch.)

Groceries aren't really cheaper for the most part, except for fruits and veggies. Some things are more expensive and we'll still buy sometimes (like CHeerios for the kids - I haven't found a generic version yet), but other things we'll give up completely. (I don't think I'll be buying any Nutella here.) Part of the experience though, right? One of the things that always cracks me up is when I'll see an import of something, like beverage sweetener, that in the states I woudl buy at the dollar store and here costs about four bucks. Always interesting, right?

Now let's review some of the differences:

1. I can take out my trash any day of the week. All I do is put in in a bag and take it to the curb outside of my house. How awesome is that?

2. There are no driving rules here. I mean, I know there ARE some rules, but there aren't many as far as I can tell. If you try to take a left turn, be prepared for cars to pull up on your left and your right and take the turn before you if you're not aggressive enough. I'm working on my agressive behavior. Honestly. Take THAT, PUNK DRIVERS! I'LL PASS YOU IF YOU'RE GOING SLOW!

3. They have this thing called your NIT, which took me a while to figure out. Whenever you buy something, you're supposed to either give your NIT number, which is your tax id number, or save your receipt. This is because sales tax isn't added, and the citizen is supposed to keep an account of all purchases so that they can pay the government the appropriate sales tax. I wonder how many people actually do this...

4. Milk comes in bags, just like in Managua. You can buy it in a box, but it's more expensive. It seems like I am constantly opening up bags of milk due to the two rugrats I have at home.

5. The dogs. The stupid, stupid dogs in our current neighborhood. I promise you it sounds like the beginning of a West Side Story rumble outside of our window at two in the morning. Maybe we can move somewhere without so many dogs that want to join gangs and disturb the peace of slumbering humans.

6. The playgrounds. When I asked Alexis what her favorite part of Bolivia was, she said school, and then she said playgrounds. Because almost everywhere you go out to eat, there's a playground. It's very nice for the adults.

7. The bathtubs. I know this isn't an across the board kind of thing, but every place that we've looked at (and some have been nice and some not so nice) had jacuzzi tubs in the bathrooms. Our hotel had it. Our current house has them. I never expected this to be a norm here considering Jason didn't even know if we were going to get a regular bathtub.

8. There's no sandwich bread. Not that there's any lunch meat or peanut butter anyway, but the sandwich bread that's available is all really tough. I have found some rolls that we're using for sandwiches and cooked a bunch of chicken and sliced it thinly for sandwiches, and I found some reasonable cheese. Put that on a roll with some avacado, and WALA! You have a sandwich.

Those are some of my observations thus far.

Jason is on his first trip to see one of the SP project locations. He'll be back tomorrow. While there's a lot involved (he is the "boss" after all), he's really enjoying his job so far, and the people are great. I'm trying to put myself out there with my Spanish and simply with trying to get stuff done, but I feel a bit in limbo until we get a home. The good news, though, is that there have been no problems with me working for Smarthinking while I've been here, so I can still continue with them. I'll have to figure out next semester's schedule soon, but it seems like it will still be a good fit. Especially if I can get Alex to always take an afternoon nap after school. (You're getting very sleepy, Alexis. You want to take a nap.)

Finally Some Pictures

Yes, we finally have some pictures. The first two are pictures from the baclony of our hotel. Stunning, huh? The others are pictures of the SP house (including Jason's new office) and the views from there, and then we have a few of us just hanging around, including Alex and her first day of school. She was so excited to wear her Highlands t-shirt!The house only has the beds and the table for furniture right now, so we're hoping not to stay here for long. Yes, we do have some pictures of Micah, but Blogger kept failing on me. (I am remembering why I stopped publishing pictures here; it's way too complicated and time-consuming. I think the pictures are going to remain on Facebook for the most part!)

Alexis' First Day

You know how I wrote that Alex was pretty shy when we went to go visit her classroom? Well, when I dropped her off at school yesterday, she greeted her teacher with a huge smile and went right in. She apaprently had a great day and really enjoyed herself, and we're really glad that we're sending her. It's just weird to have her gone every morning. We signed her up for the bus yesterday morning, and I was told that bus service would start on Thursday. (Wednesday is a holiday.) However, when I got to school, the classroom was empty. Everyone apparently thought that she was going to get on the bus. (I was also about five minutes late because the guy who was picking me up only thinks it takes five minutes to get to the school.) Anyway, we called Jason, who was there to greet Alexis at the door, and everything was fine. Her teacher said she had a perfect day and was really happy, so that made me really proud. She played in the sandbox and with playdough and house and other things and said she didn't learn anything because she already knew what they were learning. We also did her homework yesterday, and she got to go to the library, which was exciting for her. She REALLY wanted to get a book for Micah, which was sweet.

We also looked at another apartment yesterday, which was great in a lot of ways but was only two bedrooms, and we decided that we really want the kids to have their own rooms. It's going to be worth it to us for them to each have private space when they want it. The search continues! There's one place that might be coming available sometime soon, but we'll have to see. Apparently it's a little dumpy at the moment but will be fixed up, and it's in the middle of everything, which is good and bad. It's supposed to get a ton of light, which helps keep the apartment warm, and it's the perfect location for Jason walking to work. It is, however, just like being in the middle of a city, which is a little crazy.

We went out for dinner and ice cream last night and had lomo saltado, a very typical dish of grilled beef, tomoatoes, and onions over french fries and served with rice. It was awesome. And, of course, there was a playground for the kids, which they love. Then we went out for more ice cream (not as good as Sunday, but it was two for one day). It was the first time I think I really got a feel for living in a city, though. Walking around at twilight and then when it was dark made me think of being in New York with tons of people around and everything open and tiny stores and massive traffic. Not everything in our area is like that, but there's this oval inside of a street called Montenegro that makes you feel like you're in downtown La Paz. (Not that I've been to downtown La Paz yet... It's just how I imagine it would feel. We're in Zona Sur, the southern area.) Being able to walk to stuff is very cool except that the kids keep wanting us to carry them, which gets pretty old.

Today is a holiday - Day of the Dead - so there's barely any traffic and the office is closed, so it's probably going to be a great day for us to get in teh car as a family and do a little bit of exploring while the roads are fairly empty. To the grocery store!