Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I'm in shock!
Precisely at 9am the porteiro called to tell me that the moving company was here with our air freight. Now I know we were scheduled for a 9am delivery, but I wasn't expecting punctuality. I'm beginning to think we're less in Latin America and more in Germany or Switzerland. I love it when a plan goes off as actually planned.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
we are cooking with gas in Bogota
Mac and I just returned from the movies (more on that in a second) to find out that our 600 pounds of air freight are being delivered in the morning at 9am. Can you say "hurray"? Pretty sure we've never gotten air freight so quickly but I'm not complaining. There's nothing terribly exciting in the air freight, but it means we can use our own sheets and towels and have more clothes and some of our own kitchen supplies including my beloved coffeemaker. Throw in a few toys for the Mac-man and everybody will be thrilled!
Now on to those movies. I'm pretty proud of myself because I managed to look up the movies online to verify the showtime as well as whether the movie was dubbed in Spanish or merely subtitled. Then I noticed that they had something like a frequent flyer membership so I joined that online as well. Hurray for me and my espanol. We got to the movies and after telling/pantomiming that I am a Gold Elite Member (HA!), I paid my membership fee of about $3.50 and bought our two tickets (as a Gold Elite Member, for the month of August, the ticket price is about $4.50 a ticket) and away we went.
Then we stopped at McD's so Mac could get a sundae. I ordered in my best espanol and the attendant was clearly not expecting that, so she immediately called somebody else over to help without even listening to me. So I ordered the sundae with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup from the second girl, who repeated it almost exactly like I said to the first girl, who appeared dumbfounded and admitted that she didn't think I could speak in Spanish. So DOUBLE HA! to her and DOUBLE HURRAY! to me!
Clearly I'm all about the little victories right now.
Now on to those movies. I'm pretty proud of myself because I managed to look up the movies online to verify the showtime as well as whether the movie was dubbed in Spanish or merely subtitled. Then I noticed that they had something like a frequent flyer membership so I joined that online as well. Hurray for me and my espanol. We got to the movies and after telling/pantomiming that I am a Gold Elite Member (HA!), I paid my membership fee of about $3.50 and bought our two tickets (as a Gold Elite Member, for the month of August, the ticket price is about $4.50 a ticket) and away we went.
Then we stopped at McD's so Mac could get a sundae. I ordered in my best espanol and the attendant was clearly not expecting that, so she immediately called somebody else over to help without even listening to me. So I ordered the sundae with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup from the second girl, who repeated it almost exactly like I said to the first girl, who appeared dumbfounded and admitted that she didn't think I could speak in Spanish. So DOUBLE HA! to her and DOUBLE HURRAY! to me!
Clearly I'm all about the little victories right now.
i love internet
The internet connection guy was supposed to be here between 7am and 1pm today. At exactly 8am, the porteiro called up to tell me he was here. And by 9:30, I was a fully functioning human being again. I'm even on hold on my Vonage line as I type this. Today is a very good day!
top 10 things I love about our apartment (in no particular order)
1. It’s close enough to walk just about everywhere I need or want to go.
2. The furniture is just about all brand new. The fabric is hideous and needs to be slipcovered but new furniture in the foreign service is a novelty to me.
3. For the first time in my entire life (and I’m not exaggerating), I have use of 1) a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer and 2) a freezer that spits out crunchy ice from the dispenser on the front. If I can’t have a Zaxby’s Coca-Cola for the next two years, I can just make my own Coke with not-quite-Zaxby’s crunchy ice.
4. The apartment is big enough for all of us to spread out and have some space. My favorite Khalil Gibran quote is “let there be spaces in our togetherness” and in this apartment, we can have our spaces.
5. We have three doormen. One of them seems like a grump, the other has been pleasant enough, and the third asked us if we liked coffee and when we said yes, he started to run off to get us some. I love that man.
6. We have a bathtub, which apparently is not common in Bogota. I’m more of a shower kind of girl, but it’s nice to know there’s a bathtub for the odd occasion when I want to take a bath.
7. Our new rugs from the Middle East look amazing against the dark hardwood floors.
8. There is wonderful morning light that just fills the apartment up with sunshine and warmth.
9. I love storage spaces, like closets and cubbies and nooks and crannies. There is no shortage of all those spaces in this apartment.
10. Although we haven’t used it yet, I think I’m going to love the solarium. There’s a great view of a mountain from there and the terrace, and I think either of those spots would be a perfect place to have coffee in the morning or dinner at night. Now we just need some furniture for both spots!
2. The furniture is just about all brand new. The fabric is hideous and needs to be slipcovered but new furniture in the foreign service is a novelty to me.
3. For the first time in my entire life (and I’m not exaggerating), I have use of 1) a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer and 2) a freezer that spits out crunchy ice from the dispenser on the front. If I can’t have a Zaxby’s Coca-Cola for the next two years, I can just make my own Coke with not-quite-Zaxby’s crunchy ice.
4. The apartment is big enough for all of us to spread out and have some space. My favorite Khalil Gibran quote is “let there be spaces in our togetherness” and in this apartment, we can have our spaces.
5. We have three doormen. One of them seems like a grump, the other has been pleasant enough, and the third asked us if we liked coffee and when we said yes, he started to run off to get us some. I love that man.
6. We have a bathtub, which apparently is not common in Bogota. I’m more of a shower kind of girl, but it’s nice to know there’s a bathtub for the odd occasion when I want to take a bath.
7. Our new rugs from the Middle East look amazing against the dark hardwood floors.
8. There is wonderful morning light that just fills the apartment up with sunshine and warmth.
9. I love storage spaces, like closets and cubbies and nooks and crannies. There is no shortage of all those spaces in this apartment.
10. Although we haven’t used it yet, I think I’m going to love the solarium. There’s a great view of a mountain from there and the terrace, and I think either of those spots would be a perfect place to have coffee in the morning or dinner at night. Now we just need some furniture for both spots!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
week one in Bogota
I feel like we’ve been little hamsters on that exercise wheel during our first week here. I’m quite sure we’ve never gotten as much accomplished in one week at other posts. There’s been the usual embassy housekeeping stuff that always has to be done, but they've been so efficient here as to be relatively painless. The other big issues in our life were housing and schooling for Mac.
Housing
We were placed in a temporary apartment when we got here. It really was fine and the location was decent enough that I knew we could survive until our permanent housing was ready. The embassy originally said the new apartment would be ready on Friday, August 13, but let’s be honest: if you’re reading this and you’re State Department, how many times has housing actually been ready when promised?
Well let it be said that Bogota’s GSO delivered. We were moved yesterday morning into a fabulous apartment in the exact location that I wanted. None of our stuff, including air freight, is here yet but as the embassy provides all the furniture for our tour here and we have loaner linens and kitchen stuff, we are content.
The apartment is more than we could have ever dreamed of. It’s an older apartment but it’s got character and is in very good shape. And it’s completely humongous and too big for the three of us. We have 4 bedrooms, 3 ½ bathrooms, kitchen, laundry room, maid’s quarters (which will be storage for us), living room, dining room, office, den, playroom, terrace, and solarium. We also have 3 parking spaces in the garage (for our tiny little Corolla) and a storage room in the garage. Every room has got more built-ins and closet space than we have stuff for (maybe!), and the master bedroom walk-in closet is beyond belief. And it’ll be the only time in our lives that we live in a penthouse apartment (and it’s a two-story penthouse to boot). We have tons of enormous windows so the apartment is really nice and airy and light. We obviously don’t have our stuff to make it our home yet, but we have put out all those gorgeous rugs Jimmy bought in Afghanistan so we’ve added a little character for the time being.
We are located in the Chicó neighborhood which is the “trendy” area of the city with a ton of great restaurants, shopping, etc. We are 3 doors down from a small, but nicely stocked grocery store, 2 doors down from a fresh pasta store, about 3 blocks from a big mall, and 5 blocks from the most magnificent fruit and vegetable store I’ve ever seen. Within about 5 blocks, we’ve eaten at a delicious Peruvian restaurant, an okay Mexican restaurant, the most divine Italian restaurant, an international restaurant called 1492 that was very good, and a very ordinary but Mac favorite, Subway. (As an aside, the Italian restaurant here is called De Lucca. If you’re a faithful Story Tales follower, you may remember that we ate in Charleston a couple weeks ago at another extraordinary Italian restaurant called Lucca. Is it a coincidence that two of the best Italian restaurants are named the same thing??) (As another aside, we have eaten at all those restaurants since we arrived last Sunday and not since we moved into the apartment yesterday!)
In short, I think we’re going to be very, very happy at this apartment.
Schooling
You may recall that school for Mac has been a thorn in my side for about 4 or 5 months now. I am at least 50% grayer than I was in January for the worry over schools in Bogota. We went to the “American” school (although it’s an international school and not American in name) on Tuesday for his testing. Let me tell you that this was a process. Mac got a checklist on a lanyard around his neck that included a reading test, English and Spanish writing tests, DRA, an interview with the counselor, and an interview with the principal. Jimmy and I had to interview with the principal as well. You don’t even have to jump through these many hoops to go to college!!
We all obviously passed our respective tests because we got an email the next night (Wednesday) that said he’d been accepted so we at least knew he was going to school somewhere. The problem was that we had to notify the school in writing by Thursday if he was accepting the spot and he wasn’t even testing at the British School until Thursday morning.
The three of us went for testing at the British School on Thursday morning. The only drawback to this school is that it’s way out of town (but after the car bombing in town on Thursday morning (!), I decided that the school being out of town might be a positive). The British School is much smaller in enrollment (500 versus 2000) and that appeals to me enormously. The British School is also much more diverse in terms of nationality of students: no one nationality can represent more than 50% of the student body so unlike the “American” school which is anywhere from 70-85% Colombian according to who gives you the statistic, the British School is this great hodgepodge of cultures and nationalities. I love, love, love this.
Mac was taken away to do some testing for about 1.5 hours, during which time Jimmy and I had our interview with the school psychologist. This was no fluff interview. She asked questions like what is the best and worst thing that Mac inherited from each of you and if Mac were sitting here, what would he say he likes most and least about each of you. YIKES! We should've had a mock interview before we went in. (Mac also said his testing was much harder than the American school, which seems to be an underlying principle of why the British school was even started here, which is another thing I love, love, love about the school.)
The facilities at the American school are far nicer and more extensive than at the British school, but I was sold on everything about the British school from the moment we entered the grounds. The garden alone was enough to sell me, but Jimmy wouldn’t let me make a decision based on flowers alone. Jimmy was very much in favor of the American school because of its sports opportunities, but even he walked away from our morning at the British school believing that Mac would get the best education at the British school. We can supplement baseball training at home but we most certainly cannot supplement an entire education every night!
We got the call from the British school that afternoon that Mac had been accepted, and although Mac wasn’t entirely convinced that’s where he wanted to go, we were entirely convinced that’s where he needed to go, so we informed both schools on Thursday afternoon of our decision. I am so excited about this decision and can’t wait for him to start week after next.
I’ve bored you enough for now so I’ll close but there’s more to come, especially after our internet is set up on Tuesday (supposedly) and I don’t have to “borrow” the internet from some dear soul in close vicinity who has an unsecured network!!
Housing
We were placed in a temporary apartment when we got here. It really was fine and the location was decent enough that I knew we could survive until our permanent housing was ready. The embassy originally said the new apartment would be ready on Friday, August 13, but let’s be honest: if you’re reading this and you’re State Department, how many times has housing actually been ready when promised?
Well let it be said that Bogota’s GSO delivered. We were moved yesterday morning into a fabulous apartment in the exact location that I wanted. None of our stuff, including air freight, is here yet but as the embassy provides all the furniture for our tour here and we have loaner linens and kitchen stuff, we are content.
The apartment is more than we could have ever dreamed of. It’s an older apartment but it’s got character and is in very good shape. And it’s completely humongous and too big for the three of us. We have 4 bedrooms, 3 ½ bathrooms, kitchen, laundry room, maid’s quarters (which will be storage for us), living room, dining room, office, den, playroom, terrace, and solarium. We also have 3 parking spaces in the garage (for our tiny little Corolla) and a storage room in the garage. Every room has got more built-ins and closet space than we have stuff for (maybe!), and the master bedroom walk-in closet is beyond belief. And it’ll be the only time in our lives that we live in a penthouse apartment (and it’s a two-story penthouse to boot). We have tons of enormous windows so the apartment is really nice and airy and light. We obviously don’t have our stuff to make it our home yet, but we have put out all those gorgeous rugs Jimmy bought in Afghanistan so we’ve added a little character for the time being.
We are located in the Chicó neighborhood which is the “trendy” area of the city with a ton of great restaurants, shopping, etc. We are 3 doors down from a small, but nicely stocked grocery store, 2 doors down from a fresh pasta store, about 3 blocks from a big mall, and 5 blocks from the most magnificent fruit and vegetable store I’ve ever seen. Within about 5 blocks, we’ve eaten at a delicious Peruvian restaurant, an okay Mexican restaurant, the most divine Italian restaurant, an international restaurant called 1492 that was very good, and a very ordinary but Mac favorite, Subway. (As an aside, the Italian restaurant here is called De Lucca. If you’re a faithful Story Tales follower, you may remember that we ate in Charleston a couple weeks ago at another extraordinary Italian restaurant called Lucca. Is it a coincidence that two of the best Italian restaurants are named the same thing??) (As another aside, we have eaten at all those restaurants since we arrived last Sunday and not since we moved into the apartment yesterday!)
In short, I think we’re going to be very, very happy at this apartment.
Schooling
You may recall that school for Mac has been a thorn in my side for about 4 or 5 months now. I am at least 50% grayer than I was in January for the worry over schools in Bogota. We went to the “American” school (although it’s an international school and not American in name) on Tuesday for his testing. Let me tell you that this was a process. Mac got a checklist on a lanyard around his neck that included a reading test, English and Spanish writing tests, DRA, an interview with the counselor, and an interview with the principal. Jimmy and I had to interview with the principal as well. You don’t even have to jump through these many hoops to go to college!!
We all obviously passed our respective tests because we got an email the next night (Wednesday) that said he’d been accepted so we at least knew he was going to school somewhere. The problem was that we had to notify the school in writing by Thursday if he was accepting the spot and he wasn’t even testing at the British School until Thursday morning.
The three of us went for testing at the British School on Thursday morning. The only drawback to this school is that it’s way out of town (but after the car bombing in town on Thursday morning (!), I decided that the school being out of town might be a positive). The British School is much smaller in enrollment (500 versus 2000) and that appeals to me enormously. The British School is also much more diverse in terms of nationality of students: no one nationality can represent more than 50% of the student body so unlike the “American” school which is anywhere from 70-85% Colombian according to who gives you the statistic, the British School is this great hodgepodge of cultures and nationalities. I love, love, love this.
Mac was taken away to do some testing for about 1.5 hours, during which time Jimmy and I had our interview with the school psychologist. This was no fluff interview. She asked questions like what is the best and worst thing that Mac inherited from each of you and if Mac were sitting here, what would he say he likes most and least about each of you. YIKES! We should've had a mock interview before we went in. (Mac also said his testing was much harder than the American school, which seems to be an underlying principle of why the British school was even started here, which is another thing I love, love, love about the school.)
The facilities at the American school are far nicer and more extensive than at the British school, but I was sold on everything about the British school from the moment we entered the grounds. The garden alone was enough to sell me, but Jimmy wouldn’t let me make a decision based on flowers alone. Jimmy was very much in favor of the American school because of its sports opportunities, but even he walked away from our morning at the British school believing that Mac would get the best education at the British school. We can supplement baseball training at home but we most certainly cannot supplement an entire education every night!
We got the call from the British school that afternoon that Mac had been accepted, and although Mac wasn’t entirely convinced that’s where he wanted to go, we were entirely convinced that’s where he needed to go, so we informed both schools on Thursday afternoon of our decision. I am so excited about this decision and can’t wait for him to start week after next.
I’ve bored you enough for now so I’ll close but there’s more to come, especially after our internet is set up on Tuesday (supposedly) and I don’t have to “borrow” the internet from some dear soul in close vicinity who has an unsecured network!!
Friday, July 30, 2010
a foodie recommendation for you foodies in and around Charleston
Last night Jimmy and I went out to eat with one of our very oldest friends in the world, Jeremy; his brother Matthew (who happens to be my brother-in-law because that's how we do things in Moncks Corner); their sister Lindsay (a musical artist that you should take note of and go hear should you be in the area); and Jeremy's friend who we'd met when Mac was a baby in Baltimore.
Jeremy and Lindsay chose Lucca based on a great experience they'd had some months ago. Let me tell you that this restaurant does not disappoint. It is Italian food like you can maybe only get in Italy. The menu changes just about everyday according to our waitress so I hesitate to even tell you about my main course because I don't want you to be disappointed when you can't order it.
But because I want to relive it, I'll tell you anyway. I had agnolotti (fancy word for ravioli stuffed with the most divine ricotta known to the modern world), topped with oyster mushrooms, the most delectable veal and the most luscious browned butter sauce you can imagine. Totally Decadent with a capital D.
So if you're in the Charleston area, you should run, not walk, to Lucca. And take me with you when you go. Even if I'm in Bogota, Colombia. It's that good.
Jeremy and Lindsay chose Lucca based on a great experience they'd had some months ago. Let me tell you that this restaurant does not disappoint. It is Italian food like you can maybe only get in Italy. The menu changes just about everyday according to our waitress so I hesitate to even tell you about my main course because I don't want you to be disappointed when you can't order it.
But because I want to relive it, I'll tell you anyway. I had agnolotti (fancy word for ravioli stuffed with the most divine ricotta known to the modern world), topped with oyster mushrooms, the most delectable veal and the most luscious browned butter sauce you can imagine. Totally Decadent with a capital D.
So if you're in the Charleston area, you should run, not walk, to Lucca. And take me with you when you go. Even if I'm in Bogota, Colombia. It's that good.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Dear 7 loyal readers and the rest of you lurkers who don't want to tell me who you are,
I just wanted to touch base to say hi and to tell you I've missed you. Life has been a whirlwind and there's so much I want to share with you.
1. Jimmy got home safe and sound and his year in Afghanistan is officially O-V-E-R! Hurray for prayers answered.
2. Mac, my mom, and I had a great trip to Las Vegas with the extra-special and extraordinary BB(razilian)FFs, which we then followed up with a side jaunt to the Grand Canyon. I have some photos I want to share but they're on my laptop and now that we're at my mom's and she doesn't have wireless, it's just too time-consuming to move them to her desktop. So that will have to wait.
3. We picked up Jimmy in Washington, DC last Monday and had a few days there as a family doing some State Department housekeeping as well as sightseeing. Other than it being about 112 degrees and that one pesky parking ticket (that I am fighting because the machine was broken and I left a note in the car window explaining this), it was a great trip. We got to visit with newer friends from Afghanistan, old State Department friends, even older Georgetown grad school friends and practically antique USC friends. (Obviously new and old are used in terms of length of friendship and not actual age.)
4. We've spent the last week here in Moncks Corner, visiting with friends, eating lots of good food, running errands, etc.
5. The newer Mexican restaurant in Moncks Corner, Cinco de Mayo, is very good. Just in case you happen to be in Moncks Corner sometime and you've got a hankering for Mexican food. The carnitas are almost as good as the ones Jimmy used to buy at a roadside stand between Guadalajara and the town of Tequila. Just fyi.
6. Our family beach week starts Friday and I hope for a nice ocean breeze to combat this horrible heat. I either am unable to take the heat and humidity in my dotage or I'm suffering from hot (or sweat) flashes. The 60-degree temperatures of Bogota are never going to be as inviting as they will be when we land there.
7. Speaking of Bogota, we fly out on August 8.
8. Speaking of Bogota, we found out some details on our apartment and good news! It's big enough for any of you to come visit. Maybe just not all at once. And it's in the neighborhood I wanted - walking distance to restaurants, movies, grocery store, etc. Hurray for more prayers answered.
9. Speaking of Bogota and because some of you have asked, Mac will have testing at the American School on August 10 and at the British School on August 12. Jimmy and I will also have our "testing" with the school psychologist at the British School on the same day. I hope we have the right answers.
I feel like there should be a #10 but I really can't think of anything, so I'll close for now. More to come!
I just wanted to touch base to say hi and to tell you I've missed you. Life has been a whirlwind and there's so much I want to share with you.
1. Jimmy got home safe and sound and his year in Afghanistan is officially O-V-E-R! Hurray for prayers answered.
2. Mac, my mom, and I had a great trip to Las Vegas with the extra-special and extraordinary BB(razilian)FFs, which we then followed up with a side jaunt to the Grand Canyon. I have some photos I want to share but they're on my laptop and now that we're at my mom's and she doesn't have wireless, it's just too time-consuming to move them to her desktop. So that will have to wait.
3. We picked up Jimmy in Washington, DC last Monday and had a few days there as a family doing some State Department housekeeping as well as sightseeing. Other than it being about 112 degrees and that one pesky parking ticket (that I am fighting because the machine was broken and I left a note in the car window explaining this), it was a great trip. We got to visit with newer friends from Afghanistan, old State Department friends, even older Georgetown grad school friends and practically antique USC friends. (Obviously new and old are used in terms of length of friendship and not actual age.)
4. We've spent the last week here in Moncks Corner, visiting with friends, eating lots of good food, running errands, etc.
5. The newer Mexican restaurant in Moncks Corner, Cinco de Mayo, is very good. Just in case you happen to be in Moncks Corner sometime and you've got a hankering for Mexican food. The carnitas are almost as good as the ones Jimmy used to buy at a roadside stand between Guadalajara and the town of Tequila. Just fyi.
6. Our family beach week starts Friday and I hope for a nice ocean breeze to combat this horrible heat. I either am unable to take the heat and humidity in my dotage or I'm suffering from hot (or sweat) flashes. The 60-degree temperatures of Bogota are never going to be as inviting as they will be when we land there.
7. Speaking of Bogota, we fly out on August 8.
8. Speaking of Bogota, we found out some details on our apartment and good news! It's big enough for any of you to come visit. Maybe just not all at once. And it's in the neighborhood I wanted - walking distance to restaurants, movies, grocery store, etc. Hurray for more prayers answered.
9. Speaking of Bogota and because some of you have asked, Mac will have testing at the American School on August 10 and at the British School on August 12. Jimmy and I will also have our "testing" with the school psychologist at the British School on the same day. I hope we have the right answers.
I feel like there should be a #10 but I really can't think of anything, so I'll close for now. More to come!
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