The reading part,,,

So my blog is entitled Reading Running and Raising Kids. It was named after my interests. I love to read. I have been doing more reading than running here in Nicaragua (which isn't saying much about my reading). I never really intended to do book reviews on my blog but since I am here with 9 months worth of my Book Club books and I intend to read them along with my Book Club friends back home, it seems reasonable that I should jot down some thoughts about what I have read. Please do not expect deep analysis or startling revelations (who are we kidding, I know you didn't expect that?) just a few thoughts on why I did or did not like the book.

Our Book Club pick for August was Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. I read the book reluctantly as it did not seem to be an uplifting theme. It's basically a book about a bad marriage. My initial thoughts on the book were that the characters were very self focused. They thought way too much about what they thought. The characters seemed lost. When I read the beginning of the book we had just landed in Nicaragua after a very stressful trip to Costa Rica and then from CR to Nicaragua via bus. I was feeling isolated from my friends, my routine, and my language. I was in a bit of a funk. To read this book about this couple who doesn't seem to have any real problems causing them stress but they are creating problems and issues for themselves was challenging. The couple decides to pack up the family and move to France so that Frank can "find himself". It was a little too close to home for me. It was funny to read the reactions of their friends in the book. We have had lots of different reactions to our trip to Nicaragua from friends and family. It did make me think about my marriage and relationship to my family. The book is about a couple living in the suburbs and the sheltered life they lead outside of the city. I lived in the suburbs before I came to Nicaragua. Was my existence sheltered? No. Life is what you make it (just ask Hannah Montana).

I did not care for this book. I did not feel compassion for the characters. I thought they were self absorbed and not particularly interesting. The book was depressing. I did "like" the contrast between the beginning and the end of the book. The beginning starts with a community play that the wife is acting in and she bombs. The end of the book ends with her acting like the perfect wife so convincingly for her husband that he thinks everything is fine when it's not. I guess she found her motivation.

I told Joe about half way through the book that someone better die in this book or I would be mad. In that regard it did not disappoint.

So there are my rambling thoughts on Revolutionary Road. Next month's pick....The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. Very interesting book!

A Quick Video Post

So we had an uninvited visitor come to our house last night. We had just returned from an evening down by the beach and met a woman who moved down here from Portland 8 years ago. I was asking her questions about Nica things (like "Do you soak your beans in tap water or bottled water?") and she advised me to invest in overpriced plastic wear to keep the critters out. She said it will cost more than your food but it's necessary. Well when we got back from the beach the kids were playing in another room and I saw a mouse crawling up the wall. I HATE rodents! Joe is also not a big fan of rodents. The video you are about to watch is not for rodent lovers....but it is hilarious! I think Bridget may be gearing up for a role in a horror movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSXSgUk_r34

Here's a super long catch up post for the last week.

Leaving Costa Rica by bus. Monday August 16, 2010

We are on our way to Nicaragua. We got up this morning at our hostel, Vida Tropical, and had breakfast and repacked our bags (9 of them, plus the kids each have a backpack and Joe and I each have a bike messanger bag, or satchel, if you will). A taxi bus picked us up and took us to the bus stop in Alejuela (about 5 minutes from our hostel) our English speaking driver was very helpful waiting with us and making sure we got our bags loaded on the bus and telling us it would be $10 more dollars since we had so much luggage. That seemed pretty reasonable to me since we really do have a lot.

We each had reserved seats on the bus (seats 25-29) and when we got on there were 2 people sitting in 2 of our seats but they got up for us without much communication needed. The bus is currently showing the A-Team movie in Enlish with Spanish subtitles so they boys are pretty happy. The bus stops a few times so that we can get food. We are still not sure how long we will be on the bus as the full trip from San Jose to Managua is about 8 hours but we got on at Alejela about a half an hour after the bus left San Jose.

It is very stressful to be traveling and at the mercy of strangers as we try to communicate. I couldn't imagine being an immigrant not speaking the language and coming to the US with my family and trying to get by without help. Even this morning I tried to order my breakast en Espanol, "gallo pinto, heuveos y no jamon (ham) vegetariano". But then the cook kept asking me questions that I didn't understand that were apparently important for her to have answered before she could make my breakfast. I had to ask Norman, the hostel owner, to translate. It was "scrambled or fried?" I am going to have to learn the word for scrambled as that is the only way I will eat eggs. So much to think about and so many choices. While on the subject of heuvos, they are not refrigerated and they are fresh and they taste very different from US refrigerated eggs. I remember my mom telling me that when I was about 3 or 4 I would eat eggs from our chickens but then we got rid of most of our chickens because the racoons were using the chicken coop as a snack box, and my mom started buying store bought eggs to supplement the eggs we got from my 2 pet chickens (Emily Elizabeth and Amy, in case you are wondering what their names were). My mom would make me store bought eggs and I wouldn't eat them but if they were from my chickens I would. I could tell even if she was trying to trick me and after eating Costa Rican eggs for a couple days I can definitely tell why.

We have emailed the San Juan del Sur Spanish School about starting classes tomorrow but as of this morning (Monday) when we checked email at the hostel we had not heard back yet. We are not sure if we are going to start classes tomorrow and we don't know where we are staying tonight but we do have the name of a clean reasonable hotel in SJDS that we got from a friend of the hostel owner who has traveled extensively in Nicaragua although she is originally from Alabama.

The owners of Vida Tropical are Norman and Isabel. The are both Columbian but Norman and his family moved to New York when he was in 6th grade. He sounds very New York, which was funny to hear when we ate at his restauant (our first Costa Rican meal). Isabel and Norman were so helpful in getting our tickets and having our room ready at 6 AM and connecting us with their friend who could answer questions about travel to Nicaragua. We also met Jenny from Yakima who was staying at the hostel with her 2 kids. They have been attending a local private school for the past month and learning Spanish. Both Jenny, who is Bolivian (but US born) and her husband who is a gringo who grew up in Othello, WA speak fluent Spanish and are considering a move to Costa Rica. So Jenny decided to spend 2 months down here with her kids in school so that they could learn Spanish. I couldn't imagine selling that one to the kids. "OK kids, now it's summer, let's move to another country without Daddy so that you can spend your summer break in school and learning Spanish, and we'll come home just in time so that you can start school in Yakima with your friends!" My kids wouldn't go for it. This was a hard enough sell. I did offer our kids the opportunity to go to school down here, which I think would be a great experience for them but they decided moving, leaving their friends, learning Spanish and moving to another country was enough of a stretch for them so I didn't push it.

I am going to try to upload some pictures to this post (if they aren't currently here, check back). Some of the things we noticed in Alejuela, Costa Rica were the sidewalks are all in disrepair. Imagine the worst section of side walk in your city and it is like that everywhere if not worse. I took a picture and I am hoping to post it. You have to be very vigilant when walking because there could be a big hole in the middle of the sidewalk 6" in diameter. The drivers are crazy and cars have the right away. I would never want to drive there, walking is scary enough. I will not run there as I would probably break my neck. I am really hoping to find a route in Nicaragua (where ever we land) where I can run.

The bus ride out of Costa Rica is pleasant so far but the bus bathroom is pretty bad, no toilet paper, no soap and the toilet seat is spring loaded to stay up (visualize that for a moment) but there is hot water but no paper towels. I am going to limit my water intake today and hope the kids do too. The view from the bus is amazing. There is so much green. Before we left Washington we had several trips east to Spokane, Couer d'Alene and Missoula and I paid attention to the greenery on the side of 1-90 which is beautiful in Northwest sort of way. We see those trees all the time and I think it's going to be weird to come back to the Northwest after seeing tropical greenery for so long.

I am optimistic about our trip but a little afraid of the effort it may require to learn Spanish. I haven't been a student for so long, can I really do this? Do I have a choice? Not really.

Tuesday August 17, 2010

We are in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua which is a small beach town. We got off the Transnica bus in Rivas and took 2 taxis from Rivas to the beach. That was very stressful to be alone in the taxi with Bridget and Gus while Joe and Joey were in another car. The taxi driver of the car I was riding in spoke a little English along with my little Espanol and we were able to communicate on a basic level. Joe's taxi driver tried to charge him $5 more than agreed because he has air conditioning but Joe said no and he left it off. It was raining when we arrived and not welcoming. We found a hotel which had air conditioning for $94 a night but it was about half the size of a US hotel room with 2 double beds and 1 twin and the "air conditioning" did not work. A fan would have been much more useful. There was no ventilation. Bridget had a Coke with dinner and couldn't sleep so I stayed up with her sitting outside the room until mosqitos got us. I had to sleep with Gus because he and Joey were not cohabitating well and Gus woke up too hot to sleep at about 2 AM and was up for about an hour.

I am blogging this difficult first days honestly with the hope that we will have something to look back on with how far we have come. The kids did not enjoy last night. We went to the Spanish school today to find out about the homestay as it is $300 for the week including 3 meals a day for all of us. Between last night's dinner and hotel it was about $150 so the homestay was very important to stretching our budget. We are thinking that we will try to rent a house in SJDS for 1 month after our homestay if we can find something suitable. The kids are already much happier about the homestay accommodations than the hotel. The accommodations are still a bit rustic (no AC or hot water) but we have space and people to practice our limited Spanish with. There are 3 kids here a girl, Kaylee, who is 10 (yeah for Bridget) and boy, William who is 5 and a little baby (no se nombre).

So we are getting ready for lunch and then we will go to the Spanish school for 3 hours of classes this afternoon. The school is right on the beach so it is pretty although the water is of questionable cleanliness so I don't know if we will allow the kids to swim.

Friday August 20, 2010

This has been a busy week and we haven't had much time to blog or get online. We went to the Spanish school on Tuesday AM and spoke with the director. They got a driver to take us (all 5) to look at 2 possible homestays. We chose the house that had all the rooms we needed available right away. The family we are staying with is very nice. There is the mom/grandma, Susanna and her daughter, Chilo who lives here with her husband, William and 3 children. Keyline is 10, William(cito) is 5 and Andru is 2 months. Susanna makes us desayuno (breakfast), almuerzo (lunch) and cena (dinner) every day. We have had Gallo Pinto (Nicaragua's red beans and rice, also popular in Costa Rica) most days although sometimes just rice and just red beans and we have to combine them ourselves. There has been chicken for the kids and she has made me a vegetarian option for every meal. The first few days I was so nervous from the stress of traveling (that bus ride from Costa Rica to Nicaragua was very stressful) that I found it hard to eat very much. That combined with the heat or humidity and I wasn't eating very much. Now I am eating better and feeling better but still eating less than at home, which is a good thing. I have not attempted to run yet. I would like to run at about 6:00 AM but the house that we are staying in has a gate that locks us in at night and I don't want to ask them to wake up early so I hope to try running next week. I am having a difficult time getting to sleep at night with the sounds from the street (the house is on a major road) and in Nicaragua (and Costa Rica) it is customary to honk when you are at an intersection, driving past a car going the opposite direction, when passing a bike, when pulling over...pretty much a lot of honking. And the cars here are very noisey. So sleep doesn't come quickly. I am hoping the house we rent in San Juan del Sur is much quieter. So no running yet for me but we are walking quite a bit. Each trip into town is about a mile (more if we don't make it a straight shot) and we go into town at least twice a day, sometimes three times. Today we went into town twice but we walked as far as we could on the beach and then ventured back through the streets seeing other parts of SJDS that we hadn't seen before. We all got to see our first nude surfer today too. We think he is a local who is "loco" (after discussing the incident, en Espanol, with my teacher) and we learned that there are no nudist beaches in all of Nicaragua so if the police found him, they'd bust him. Good to know.

Today was a very rainy afternoon. We go to school from 2-5 Pm each day and then walk back to the house for dinner at 6:00. Today we got stuck in a major downpour. It really knows how to rain in Nicaragua. Joey pointed out that it sounded like home, the sound of the cars driving through the rain. We opted to stay in for the evening and play a rousing game of Skipbo until the mosquitoes decided it was a buffet and were chowing down on our legs and feet under the table. Joe had to call it a night early and we all had to take a break and put bug repellant on and "afterbite". It was pretty miserable. When we were walking to school today we saw a woman who looked American, with about 30 giant bites on both legs. She was walking on the opposite side of the street and that was what we saw. I told Joe to take me home if I looked like that!! I hope to get a handle on what works to keep the bites at bay. At first it was just Bridget and I but Joe got attacked pretty good tonight.

We hope to look at houses to rent tomorrow, Saturday. The director is trying to line up some to look at but she is in Managua on Sunday so if we want to look with her, we need to look tomorrow. There is also a Saturday Market that we are going to try to go to. They sell fruit and vegetables as well as craft items and natural remedies. The "natural remedies" are sold by some expats and I read about them on the Nicaragua expat forum so I hope to check them out as Gus has had a cough since we were back home that I would like to get licked. Joe, or Jose as he is called here, has a Spanish test tomorrow as it is his last day of school. The kids' teachers aren't available on Saturday so we will all have our last day of school (and testing) on Monday (I get the whole weekend to cram!).

I understand that there is an "evangelica" church in town and I think we will try to go to service on Sunday. My teacher, Margarita, and her family attend there. There is also a Catholic church nearby.

We are learning so much about Nicaragua and hope to fit in soon. We have seen several people who might be English speakers but we don't really reach out to each other. We did run into some 20-something guys at the ice cream shop who are from California but one guy has a house here. We went to El Gato Negro today. It is a coffee shop/used book store run by an expat couple in their 30's. They have lots of books (and signs that say this is not a library, please don't take the books to a table and read them) which are very expensive ($12 for most used books). We didn't particularly like the feel of the place so not sure if we will be back.

I am really looking forward having a house to spread out in and drawers for our clothes and shelves for our things as well as internet access all day long. I have enjoyed the food that we have eaten here so I hope to learn some Nicaraguan cooking. I thought it would be difficult to eat a vegetarian diet here but most restaurants seem to have several options. The family we are staying with does homestays for many students so they are very willing and understanding of vegetarian needs. I have made it clear that I am not a vegetarian but I prefer to eat vegetarian. There is a difference, especially when communicating in Spanish. We are at our homestay until Tuesday morning and will continue to have very limited internet access.

My esposo quiere dormir.... buenos noches!

Saturday August 21, 2010

Today was our first Saturday in town. We went to a local "Saturday Market" which was about 8 small tables set up in a local expat owned bar. Didn't see anything worth buying though. We stopped by a local bakery run by a young guy from Chicago and bought chocolate chip cookies for $.75 each. They are not big cookies but homemade cookies are not seen in the local stores or bakeries. About 2 blocks from our homestay there is a local "Supermercado" which is owned by Walmart. They sell apples (I bought a bag of 4 small apples for about $1.50) and other produce (about $.45 for an avocado). They also sell packaged cookies like the Shrek Oreos with green filling that I bought so the kids Spanish teachers could "motivate" them (we are talking about Gus in case you didn't get that). We have been getting ice cream or ice cream sandwiches about twice a day here but we are walking about 4-6 miles a day and the kids have been in Spanish school for 3 hours a day.

Joe had class today (his final day) and scored a 94% on his test, so even though he says he isn't doing very well on his Spanish but I would beg to differ. The kids and I will complete our last class on Monday afternoon. It was a bit challenging for me with the kids today. Joe decided to stay in town and study and have lunch while I took the kids back to the house for lunch. We were without him from about 12-5:30. I read about 4 chapters of the Percy Jackson book we are reading to the kids and the power went out so we had to swelter while I read since there was no fan. Then I took the kids to the Playa (beach) so they could play, but not before the afternoon ice cream stop. They played in the waves for a full hour and a half. I was a bit grouchy with them though because I told them at 20 min to 5:00 that we would leave in a few minutes and then they all went way out in the waves and couldn't hear my call them and I had to be angry mommy to get them to come in. We are definitely going to need to come up with a better system for leaving the beach as I thought I left angry mommy in Los Estados Unidos.

There was another downpour tonight and it really makes a lot of noise on the parts of the house with a tin roof (the kitchen and dining room). Gus was very proud of himself tonight as he came in to tell me "I know how to say downpour in Spanish! lluvien!" I asked how he figure it out and he asked Keyling "Como se dice rain?" and when that didn't get an answer he started miming rain and saying "agua". I am not sure if lluvien is downpour but I am super proud of my reluctant Spanish speaker taking some initiative and learning new words!

Joey had a chance to Skype with the Wesleys today and that was reallly fun to watch. 11-13 year old boys are funny and talk about funny things but it was good for Joey to have a chance to connect. I really think he is doing the best here. Surprisingly he is very eager to learn Spanish and has been working the hardest to ask questions and use the Spanish he knows. Si has become his new favorite word and I NEVER thought that would be the case with him. He is really adapting well. Oh and today I discovered that his forarm is longer than mine now. Bridget has had some challenges with missing her friends. She had a great time playing with her friend Faith at the hostel but she is having a harder time playing with Keyling because of the language barrier. I am hoping that they will continue to learn more Spanish after we leave because it is going to be so important. Everyone told us that they would learn faster than we do so I hope that is the case. Gus is still Gus and continues have similar challenges in Nicaragua as he does at home, mostly about being the youngest, most sensitive and hungriest member of our family.

Another quick update

Sorry we don't have pictures yet. The flight last night from Denver to San Jose was fairly uneventful. We stocked up on snacks before we left because Gus' need to eat every 20 minutes has not been stifled with travel and paying for airplane snacks is not advisable. We landed in San Jose at about 5:15AM and fortunately our room was ready at about 6:15 when we got to our hostel. I thought we would nap for a while and head down for breakfast (served from 7-10) but we didn't wake up till 11 AM and that was fine with me!

We got a recommendation for lunch at a Tex-Mex place called Jalepenos. It was a little hole in the wall place but we all found something that we thought we would like. Joey ordered a pork chop (yep, that's it) Bridget went with her standard chicken burrito and Gus ordered the buffalo chicken which was chicken in a soupy red sauce that had a hint of buffalo chicken flavor but was different. The owner asked if he was sure he would like it because it was spicy but Gus was sure. He ate almost all of it and asked if he could take the rest back to our hostel. He did require ranch for dipping (which was provided) and lots of extra water. Joe stuck with a burrito and seemed pleased and I decided to go with the quesedilla hold the meat. The menu said it came with onions and bell peppers but when I ordered it vegetarian they added broccoli and some other veggies. It was the best quesedilla I have ever had. I am not a huge quesedilla fan to begin with so I was so surprised at how good it was. The cheese was amazing and I think it made the meal. The restaurant owner is the wife of Isabel at our hostel and he was really nice. He is Columbian but moved to New York when he was in 6th grade. He sounds totally New York, which was kind of funny to hear. We stopped at McDonald's to use the bano (Gus' water consumption during lunch required it).

We walked around the city which is Alejuela, which is where the airport is, not in San Jose but close by. Joe referred to it as being like Seatac. It's a bit more urban than I am comfortable with but we are getting by. I definitely don't want to be in a big city in Nicaragua. I am getting a little nervous about traveling to Nicaragua and then trying to take local buses to get around before we do our Spanish classes. In Costa Rica everyone speaks English so it isn't an issue. Everyone seems to try to talk to Joe in Spanish first though.

We are staying Saturday night and Sunday night here and then getting on the bus on Monday morning to Nicaragua. It sounds like the bus will stop in Granada before heading to Managua so I am hoping we can stop there and and stay a night before we bus ahead to San Juan Del Sur.

I am trying to be fun loving and adventurous but walking around Alejuela is so different from what I am used to and not relaxing. I am hoping that being further out in Nicaragua will be different. But I know that we have made it this far and God is still with us so it's bound to get better. I didn't realize how much I need some space of my own and order. That is very much lacking when trying to travel with 5 people and 15 or so bags!

So I am hoping to post some pictures when it is beautiful, but here, not so much. There are cool flowers and birds but mostly a lot of cement and people. It does appear that Bridget has made a friend in the hostel who speaks English. Off to clear off the bed so I can feel good about heading out to dinner for the night.

Peace out.....

The Adventure Starts Early...

So we made it to the airport yesterday without as much "margin" as I had hoped for but thankfully Joe's mom and step dad were there to keep the kids happy and supervised (you know so no one asked them to "hold" their bag which may have had a bomb in it or something). Also Aunt Joyce and Uncle Gary were there to pick up friends from their flight and they came bearing flight distractions so that was very helpful too.

We ate dinner on the other side of security so I wasn't stressed about how long the security line might be getting while we ate. Bridget and I ate at Qdoba ($12) while Joe and the boys ate at Ivar's (fish and chips and bottled water) for $35!! From now on I will be supervising all airport meals!

Getting on the flight to Denver went very smoothly despite a woman having words with the flight attendant and then "flipping her the bird" (overheard the flight attendant telling another attendant) but nothing seemed to come of that situation so everything was smooth. The kids had free TV so they got to watch Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Boomerang while I watched House Hunters International. I sat next to Gus and Bridget and they were sooooo good. I also wore my compression socks for the flight and I had no swelling issues with my ankles and feet so I will definitely wear them again.

We arrived in Denver and were required to submit proof that we were not staying in CR longer than 90 days (our return tickets are for 9 months out). Our travel books said it wasn't a big deal but apparently things have been tightened in the last couple of years. So they gave us some options. We could buy a JetBlue ticket that is 100% refundable and then cancel it for about $2500 but we didn't have a card to put that on and doing it would have been very complicated and cost us money to get our money back out of the US (it's complicated and not really worthy of an explanation). So basically we didn't get on the flight to Costa Rica and found a shuttle to a hotel where we stayed the night last night. Heads hit the pillows @ 1:30AM Denver time.

We emailed the hostel owner who got back to us and told us that if we emailed copies of all 5 passports that she could pay someone $10 to go to San Jose (10 min from the hostel) and buy 5 Ticabus tickets to Managua for us and then scan then and we could print them off and take them to the airport. This hostel doesn't have a way to accept credit cards or paypal so she is paying with her own money trusting that we will show up (I guess we seem genuinely desperate). So right now we are waiting for our tickets to be purchased and scanned so that we can prove we aren't planning to stay there forever. Our tickets to Nica will be for Monday so we will have two nights in Costa Rica and then we will take the bus to Managua and then we will get on a local bus to San Juan del Sur for our Spanish classes. Wow, this isn't easy but I will feel better once we get out of the US. I am so amazed at the kindness of this woman who is going to pay money out of her pocket for people she has never met. She even proposed the plan over email before we even talked to her.

The hotel has been very accommodating as well. They gave us a late check out at 2:00 and then when Joe asked they told us we could just stay in the room until we need to leave for the airport and they told us they have a free shuttle that will take us to Walmart so that we can buy snacks to eat on the plane. Gus eats so much and is starving all the time. Normally I would make him suck it up and deal but we are trying to make this as pleasant as possible for everyone. So we will endure Walmart Supercenter for the sake of family harmony (or at least less discord).

So that is where we are today. Sorry my post isn't particularly clever or edited but I am just trying to get the info down. Hopefully the next post will be in Costa Rica!!!

Coveting your prayers.....