Nope, not manic, just promised to write a post about things we do like around here!!

Here are a few things we like about Bogota….

1. friends

we have started a tradition with our friends Nick and Kima of them coming over most Friday nights and ordering in dinner. Jackson usually gets a little visit before bed!

2. it’s beautiful..year round..except for when it rains off and on every day! No really, it is the same temperature all year and because it rains frequently we  have beautiful flowers and plants all year!

3. we can afford to have our house full of flowers because they are so darn cheap!!

these are the weekly picks!

4. fruits and veggies- cheap and abundant.  We particularly love the fresh juices!

I worry that Jackson might think every child gets to eat strawberries, avocados and kiwis everyday. Life after Colombia is going to be apples and bananas for him! I am going to let him enjoy while he can!

5. restaurants here are plentiful and generally reasonable.  when we say reasonable we mean that for the price of dinner at a Chili’s-type restaurant you can get a steak dinner. So when we do go out we can get more for our money.

you might remember these pictures…the first is of the cookie and hot chocolate from our favorite bakery. The European influence here means wonderful baguette’s, croissants with chocolate, etc.  The second is of Graham’s steak when he came to visit. For about $14 this was the amount of meat he got at dinner! He had meat sweats halfway through!

6. domicilios- delivery. for everything.  medicine, food, framed pictures, paper, you name it and it will likely be able to be delivered.

7. the dollar is getting stronger and the peso is weakening..not sure if that is a good thing about Bogota or the US, but it benefits us here!

I am having one of those “longing for the USA” days. ( I wrote this on Friday but just now got around to posting it, I got stalled on adding pictures. )

This morning I went to the dentist. For the first time since DC. ouch. It was a long time coming for a cleaning but it took us a while to find a dentist. Seth went a couple of weeks ago which was a bad idea on my part. He came home complaining about how their cleaning method was painful. Hmmmm. I should have backed out then. When I arrived, the dentist took a look and immediately wanted to replace my one grey filling with a white filling so it would look nicer. Not really important since it will never be seen by anyone but a dentist. Once I said that I didn’t really think it was necessary if it was for looks he proceeded to poke it and yanked it so hard that I asked him to stop because I had a sneaky suspicion that he was going to make it fall out. He was trying to make it loose so that it had to be replaced.  I stopped him and called Seth so that Seth could hear about the necessary work and talk to the dentist with his fluent Spanish.  In the end I kept my non- aesthetically pleasing silver American filling and got another small filling. The next step was cleaning. Seth had warned me it might be bad. He used a water pick. A high intensity water pick with baking soda. He didn’t block my face so I got sprayed with baking soda for 30 mins. After I had survived it I explained that in the US my dentist did it by hand and that the water pick was not very gentle!!!! I asked if I could eat or drink. He said anything but chocolate, wine or coffee. And he didn’t even have toothbrushes with his name on them! Grr.

We blogged a few weeks ago about our bedroom set that we got made. I will post a picture below. We really like how it turned out overall! We asked the carpenter if he would trade our night tables for a smaller version because they are gigantic! He happily agreed.  That was weeks ago. We actually had one of Seth’s fraud investigators call for us because one day I called to ask him where they were andhe hung up on me. FYI- in Colombian culture it is perfectly acceptable to hang up on someone if you hear their voice and don’t want to talk. After weeks of the run around with him we finally got him to answer the phone and give us an answer. The answer is that he isn’t making them, never was, never is. Just flat out decided not to do them, but was saying all along that he was, they were in process, they would be at the store the next day, that they were getting finished…. We think that he made enough money off our bedroom set to feel financially secure for a while and decided the work of the tables was inconvenient. Smart guy!  Not a friend of mine for sure! Grrr.

Our Colombian “Pottery Barn” bedroom set..minus a few pillows and a bed skirt. We got the bed made taller so we could have more storage in Europe. Our dresser in our room..the second one didn’t fit since they were much larger than we expected so the second is in our entry way…as seen in the 3rd picture.

I have been trying to plan my “escape” for a few days now. Not from Seth and Jackson but with Seth and Jackson. Seth is going for a conference in DC and we were trying to figure out a way for Jackson and I to join him. The prices of tickets spiked significantly since last week so we decided to pass. I was very excited to be with Ryan and Stephanie and the girls for a few days as well as spend some time with our small group back home!!! We miss everyone! We are still investigating and hoping something amazing will pop up. If not Seth will have to eat double at On the Border, check out our next home for me, and go to Target to do the “must have’s” list.

Enough grrrs for today.  I will do a “things we appreciate about Colombia” post soon, I promise!

It’s been a while since I (Seth) have posted, mainly because so much of my Colombian stories are work-related, and probably shouldn’t be shared.  But I do have a few quick stories from the past month or so that I thought I’d share.

We were watching American Idol through our slingbox last week and right after the show was over it went into a new show (at least for us) called Lie to Me.  We were slightly intrigued because the commercials were talking about a murder at a diplomat’s wedding and something to do with an ambassador.  (Since we’ve been to a diplomat’s wedding, we quickly realized that the story was overdramatized.)  Anyway, the opening scene showed a hispanic man shooting another one in the chest.  Then in the corner the location of the murder popped up.  Cali, Columbia.  The only thing is that Colombia isn’t spelled Columbia.  It’s a common mistake, but it was especially embarrassing we thought because here is a show on Fox and they don’t know how to spell the name of the country.  I told my co-workers the next day, and we all got a good laught out of it.

The nice thing about living in Colombia is Valentine’s Day.  Mainly because the “holiday” hasn’t caught on here yet.  I remember last year we were driving to a restaurant for VD and at the stoplight there was a guy selling roses.  I bought some for Kristen thinking I was being all romantic.  And then I told Kristen how cool I thought it was that they actually were selling roses on VD.  Then Kristen reminded me that they always sell roses at stoplights and it had nothing to do with VD.  Which brings me to why VD is nice in Colombia.  One, it’s super easy to get a reservation for VD since no one else is wanting one.  Two, roses are super cheap.  On any given day, you can get a dozen for like 3 bucks.  And Kristen said she’s seen a truck that drives around selling 2 dozen for 75 cents!!!  Remember, all the flowers you buy from your local florist come from Colombia.  Three, there are no Hallmark cards in Colombia, so you don’t get ripped off buying those.  Instead, you can write something on your own…from the heart.

The traffic here can be horrendous.  The other day we were driving 3 miles each way.  It took us 45 minutes to get there and 45 minutes to get back.  Unbelievable.  They’ve tried reducing some of the traffic by institutuing “pico y placa” which means that if your license plate ends in a certain digit, you can’t drive on that day.  Up until a month ago, “pico y placa” was just from 6-9 AM and 4-7 PM.  But they are doing major construction around town starting in a couple of weeks, so “pico y placa” is now extended to 6 AM until 8 PM.  Thankfully as diplomats with diplomatic license plates, we aren’t affected.  But I will say, we haven’t seen a dramatic decrease in traffic despite these new rules.

A few weeks ago, a bomb went off at a Blockbuster about 7 or 8 blocks from our house.  We have friends who live about 1/2 block from the explosion.  And my boss was at that exact Blockbuster only 45 minutes before.  Thankfully, no Americans were hurt, although 2 people did die.  Needless to say, things were quite tense around here for several days following the explosion.  The next night, Kristen and I heard three explosions, and immediately called the embassy.  Turns out they were only fireworks.  Which led us to think that fireworks should be banned for at least 48 hours after a bomb goes off.

And the biggest highlight of all.  McDonald’s is looking at building a restaurant at the embassy in the coming months.  I am quite pumped, although Kristen has said I’m going to have a monthly quota on Big Macs.  Before we got married, I average meat on a bun at least 3 times a week (Justin can attest to that).  We are now down to about once a month.  McDonald’s won’t be as good as Whataburger coming, but with only about 7 months remaining, it’ll suffice.

So like living anywhere there are good days and bad days. There are days when I love that Colombia has no seasons and days when I need a new spring day. Just like what many of you experience wherever you are. There are a couple things about this place that I will never adjust to…

the honesty policy here just does not exist!!! You are told what you want to hear! A promise is a hopeful thought that something might occur.  It is perfectly acceptable to say you are going to do something and never follow through. Thus the phrase “que pena” like “my bad”. I was a bit overambitious over the past month and scheduled for furniture delivery, rug cleaning and 5 interviews with maids. If I had been wise I would have scheduled 1 of these numberous things so that I would not have the constant reminder that things do not work on a time system here.   We attempted to hire 2 different maids,  neither showed up on their start date. There was no confusion with time, they just didn’t feel like calling when they decided they didn’t want to work. Our carpet guy for 3 weeks now has not shown up. He showed up yesterday 2 hours late. When I asked what happened he said “oh Senora, que pena. The traffic was a little bad”.

Kids are constantly sick here. Jackson has had congestion since we got back from the US over 6 weeks ago. If he hasn’t been totally sick he has had a constant runny nose. Yesterday I noticed he kind of had faint black eyes, by this  morning he looked like he had been in a lively fist fight! The doctor said this is perfectly common when infection festers quietly and then gets trapped! We finally have an antibiotic. It is not unusual when someone gets pneumonia here for us to say “you have a Bogota cold”.  The “common cold” is just not so common to us. The altitude and pollution just make things horrible for health!

A praise after venting….Most of you know that Sonia our previous maid decided to stay home with her baby. After our new helper didn’t show up for her first day yesterday Seth had to come home so I could work with my patients. We had already interviewed 5 people and experienced another no show so I was pretty upset with another no-show.  I called another maid to come for an interview last night and she miraculously was able to start this morning.  In her interview she said she was happy to do whatever because first and foremost she was serving the Lord.  So, I believe she is a Christian which is a rare find here. She will be Jackson’s caretaker when I am working which is why it is so critical that she be good! She is on a 1 month trial so we will keep you posted . We are so thankful something worked out after much stress!

Sonia brought Santiago for the day on Friday while she helped do her final day. Jackson and Santiago “helped” . Santiago is wrapped up in true Colombian fashion…they are heading outside but he was dressed like this in our house all day! Poor little guy!

My conclusion after the past week here is that I can’t wait for our move to DC in Sept!! I am trying to stay plugged in but with each honking horn, puff of pollution and no-show appt I am having an increasing excitement for the US! We will miss Colombia but at this point we have had our fill!