2 month check-in

So as of today Melissa and I have lived in Santa Fe for 2 months.

TIME FLIES! I can barely believe it, but I wanted to provide you all with more impressions from my time here.

Food Yes, it`s different. There are many food that still gross me out (like the common chicken feet people eat off the bone), but I think it`s a whole nother level of not wasting. My stomach is still adjusting, but overall I feel like I`m doing pretty well.

It has been a little difficult as a vegetarian, but not awful.

Toilet Paper It`s amazing how fast you can adjust to throwing your toilet paper into the trash can instead of the toilet (their water system can`t handle the waste). The first week I thought I would never get used to it and had to be very intentional, but I`ve got it now.

Things like gas and trash The gas men and trash men come down the street every morning. How do you know they`re coming? Well, the gas men yell "GAS" so we basically hear it for 3ish hours every morning. Trash is a little more difficult and can be a frustration for our house. The trash man comes every morning around 10ish (i think). Melissa & I are always at work and it`s hard for one of the girls to catch them. So no setting your trash on the curb. You hear a bell and have to run out to the street and cross and hope you got there before the truck pulls away.

Spanish (I know you all are wondering) Yeah, it`s not great, but it`s better. I try to learn something everyday. Somedays are better than others and somedays I get more frustrated than others, but all in all, it`s better, but I have a long way to go.

Mail I think I just figured out mailing (literally). It`s more difficult here. There isn`t a post office in Santa Fe and the boxes are hard to find, BUT we found one last night so that is VERY exciting. Then the post office`s hours are different and etc. It`s just difficult.

Work So when the inspectors came to the Guarderia they made a lot of changes necessary. (Including making Lulu leave) I don`t agree with all of them (making their recess basically non-existent. If these kids need one thing here it`s recess), but I`m working on making the best of them.

I feel like Lucy leaves me alone with the kids almost everyday, which can be challenging for me, but I think at the end of the day it`s good for me....

Cars walk with care here. From many of the two way streets being about as wide as a one-way in the states (the main road is wide) to not having many sidewalks it can make walking challenging. There`s nothing like Melissa & I walking out the door in the morning and getting so excited there`s a red light so we can cross and we`re half-way across the street when a motorcycle or car that doesn`t want to wait zips by all the stopped cars on the wrong side of the road. That`ll wake you up and we always have both eyes peeled and one arm available to grab the other person.

Money so we receive a monthly stipend from the program (about $80 US dollars a month), which is plenty for me (so far). I`m generally a frugal person anyway. Last Wednesday one of our new friends asked me to be a madrina for her qinceañera. Besides not knowing what it entailed and not understanding why she asked me when I met her 2 months ago I had to find out what this all involved for me. I talked with Isaac and he explained there are all kinds-of madrinas for qinceañeras. Apparently I was asked for the salsa dress (they do costume changes). I found these can be quite expensive, which made me start to worry. Then after some thinking I decided if I save as much of my stipend as I can every month I`ll be able to buy this dress. (For October I saved half so that`s a good start.) The fiesta is in May. I feel like I`m very lucky that I`ve never really had to think about money like this before and the people I`m living with do all the time so I think all in all it`s a good experience I`m just going to need to be more frugal than usual and I`m sure everything will work out in the end.

Exercising I was making the best of the exercising situation: exercise on the roof with routines I plan out in my head (yoga or kickboxing) during the week and running on the weekends. As of last week I am so excited because Isaac and I started running in the mornings together. Yes, it`s early, but that`s what I used to do in Chicago so I`m happy. The only thing I worry about is waking the girls up as I leave every morning and come back and shower. It`s so wonderful and I don`t have to think about the next step in the routine, etc. I get to just run. AND we get to see the stars (you definitely don`t see stars at night...polution) and the sunrise. What a wonderful start to the day.

So there you go 2 month check-in.

I`m super excited for the Halloween party at work on Friday. I didn`t know there was going to be one, but Adiana told Melissa who told me today. Woo hoo!