Una semana

So....it's been a while since I've last blogged and quite a lot has happened in one month. I will get into why I posted in Spanish at the end....

Holidays in Nebraska were frigidly cold, in the teens. Of course, it was great to catch up with family and eat and talk, etc. Although it did not snow on Christmas day, I still say we had a white Christmas as there was plenty of the white stuff as ground cover. Some highlights: I danced to the Trans-Siberian orchestra soundtrack and cracked my family up; helped prepare Christmas dinner with my Mom for my grandparents, aunt, and a couple friend of my parents'; shopped some--Steve and Barry's carries Sarah Jessica Parker's new line, Bitten, I bought jeans for $8.95!; and had long conversations with family--especially my Dad as the other members of the family gambled away their money, we just talked; and went to the bar with my brother.

After Nebraska, we flew to San Jose, CA to visit friends from Guam now living in Monterey over New Years'. We sure planned that well, the weather couldn't be better: sunny and in the 60s during the day. We soaked up the sun at the beach in Carmel-by-the-sea (although too cold to swim), drove through a bit of Big Sur, did the scenic 17-mile drive, and visited the Monterey Bay aquarium. All this with Christy 8 months pregnant. So we got to spend lots of time with our godson, Aiden, and what a smart kid! When they picked us up at the airport, Aiden had earphones on and was watching a documentary: Deep Ocean or the like, he's totally into marine life! At the aquarium, he was pointing out the 7 gilled shark and striped bass!! Now, I'd be saying look at that fish and shark. This is definitely a future marine biologist!! Christy might kill me for saying this but I even helped Aiden after an accident: wiping a kid's butt and it did not phase me, well it did smell. Maybe I could handle this mom stuff.....someday....far off.....

Since our arrival back to Seattle, I've been busy working and working on the house. It's been quite the chore to paint the bedrooms. I just finished priming the master bedroom walls with a second coat. The texture of the walls is rough so I needed the expert advice of Lowe's on which roller to use. I'm happy to report that with the correct equipment painting is much easier! Now if I could just figure out how to clean everything (paintbrushes and roller) I'll be set. Also found a desk last weekend for free on the corner and preceded to stain it without knowing what I was doing. Well, it still smells of the stain and probably requires a lot more work. This house stuff sure does take up a lot of time!

So....on to my use of Spanish for the title of this post....is that even how you say one month? I don't know and that's what I hope to find out. Anyway, my intention was to say one month in Spanish and update you all quickly on what I've been up to this past month and share my big news:

I'm going to Guatemala for 2 months on my own to learn Spanish!!!!

Here's the dirt on why I'm doing this. Uno, I've always wanted to study abroad and as I've missed that chance as a traditional student, I am entirely too young to have a big regret like this already. Dos, I've always wanted to be an ex-pat....somewhere. So, here's my chance to see if it's all that. By going for an extended time, (and if I had my way, I'd be there for much longer but I am married and I plan to stay that way) I'll have a better chance to live like a local and feel the frustration of being a foreigner as well. As a tourist, I've never been able to get a feel for what it would really be like to live in that place. Tres, one of my life goals is to be fluent in many languages and at 31, I came to the realization that I'm not getting very far on this goal. So, I narrowed down my search of countries and even languages to Central America and Spanish, then considered cost and safety and Antigua, Guatemala is what I came up with!!! One major consideration: the dollar is weak in so many parts of the world but not Central America. For one days' pay at my hospital job, I can attend language courses and live with a host family in Guatemala, including meals, for a week.

My next step is to enroll in a language school in Antigua, which seems to be the epicenter of language immersion courses. Courses are individualized and intense running 4 hours minimum per day Monday-Friday. There are also other fun options such as cooking, dancing, and lectures about the culture. I plan to take full advantage of the hiking opportunities as well as visiting the Mayan ruins, another life's goal. I will be living with a host family (speaking only Spanish) and they provide me with guidance and 3 meals per day plus typical outings they do such as going to the market, etc,. Thus, I won't be hearing much, if any, English and should in theory learn Spanish much faster.

Although Ryan's not thrilled about my leaving he understands I have major wanderlust and hopes this will do the trick to get it out of me!!! Also, I'm up to date on my immunizations and will exercise extreme caution in all circumstances, so please, don't worry about me. As my Dr. said (who also spent 2 months in Antigua), living with a host family and taking courses provides safety and structure. She said her host family was wonderful and even provided her with safe water. Internet access is everywhere...including the schools so I plan to be in full contact via the web.

So....here's an open invite for anyone to join me. I'll be there from Feb. 22 through April 26th. You can take courses or not. I plan to travel around on the weekends, if not a week out of my two months there. I've been reading up on Guatemala and the Mayan ruins, they sound amazing! If you know of anyone who's done this sort of thing, I'd love to hear it....

Winter Solstice

So it's the longest day of the year today and never have I lived in a place with such little sunshine/daylight so the worst is over!

About the above pictures, the first is proof that I actually skiied. Well, skiied is really a loose term. After failing to get off the lift the first time around, I managed to hop off, falling flat on my butt with the lift nearly hitting me in the head! It would have been very comical....if I weren't in tears. Do they teach you how to get off those things in ski school? Poor Ryan had to coach me down a small hill, which was Mt. Fuji to me but that's beside the point. I actually enjoyed myself once I figured out how to turn and stop without falling. However, I did not get back on that lift. Learning to ski at my age is a very humbling experience! I think I'll stick to cross-country skiing and snow-shoeiing after this....unless anyone wants to volunteer to give me ski lessons.

Lake Tahoe was really beautiful...but much colder and windier than Seattle. We stayed in South Lake Tahoe in Stateline, NV, home of tacky casinos and didn't even realize it until the next day that we walked to the California side to check out the gondola to the ski lift without knowing it. I got to play when Ryan was at his conference but Mother Nature had other plans....the gondola was closed due to high winds so I found other ways to occupy my time and it didn't include gambling....wish Ryan could say the same. Art galleries, shopping, eating with a view, walks along the beach covered in snow, and a movie theatre still showing Bee Movie, so cute. The plane ride home was interesting...in a propeller plane, haven't been in one of those since flying space-A in Guam.

Since I didn't get around to sending out Christmas cards, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Ours will be spent in Nebraska visiting both sides of my family. The weather forecast is for a low of 9 and snow...hopefully we get in ok, our flight lands late Sat. night around midnight. I'll need to pack my warmest gear! Happy Holidays!!

Snow, snow and more snow

Here's our house, both the front and back, covered in the powdery stuff. We were told it never snows in Seattle!! It actually lasted the whole night turning into rain mixed with snow, then just boring rain by Sunday afternoon causing flooding in the area and some in our basement too. Not a lot, though, most of our stuff is up on crates due to the potential for flooding. Seattle hasn't had the horrible flooding that areas south of us have: I-5 has been closed to Portland, Oregon.

Work has been slow-going. I've been called to stay home 4 times so far in the past 2 weeks. Can't say I'm complaining too much, however, if this keeps up I might just have to find something else to keep me occupied and out of trouble:-) Due to this trend and the fact that I am not one to pass up any sort of travel opportunity, I persuaded my boss to allow me to take off all next week to accompany Ryan on a business trip....to Lake Tahoe!! I can be persuasive as hell when it comes to traveling!! We'll be staying for four days at a 4 star hotel on the Nevada side, where many of the casinos are (our hotel being one of them) as well as ski resorts. So, maybe I will get the chance to snow-shoe or at least ski a bit. Ryan's conference is on the California side which is more into outdoor adventures, it's too bad we couldn't stay there as it sounds more my style but Ryan's Vegas eyes will be happy in Nevada!

On to sadder news, all of my family and friends have been accounted for and were not involved or victims in the shooting at one of Omaha's malls. Please keep the families involved in your prayers. Super scary and upsetting; I found all of this out as I was in one of the malls north of Seattle. Have to say I'm not a big fan of the chaos and pushy sales people trying to cash in on the holiday season. Arrghh! Am I grinch or what?!

It's snowing! A weather post....

And it's gorgeous....from inside anyway. Driving is another matter as snow is so infrequent the city of Seattle does not own snow plows or salt for the streets and I plan to stay off the roads as much as possible as these people don't know how to drive in it....including me! We took some pictures of the house with snow which I will share....soon. I forgot how magical snow is! The mountains in the distance are snow-covered, it's really breathtaking. Have I mentioned my obsession with snow-shoeiing (?sp)? I am going somewhere somehow this season....Ryan doesn't understand my interest...he's a downhill skiier.

Hope your Thanksgivings were as fun as mine! I went to San Antonio and was looking forward to the sun and warmth....which only lasted 1 day! The weather was cold and rainy one of the days...just like Seattle, which made it easier to come home to. The trip made me really appreciate Seattle, not in a bad way towards San Antonio but I realized we hadn't left Seattle since we moved here in early August, rare...I normally love to explore other areas and was always doing that in MS but there is so much to do just in Seattle I hadn't felt that need to flee.

Family was so fun to be around, as always. Jack, my 2 year old nephew, is SO much fun and cute, I don't think I'm biased at all:-) He is amazingly always so aware of his surroundings and where everyone is....and who's paying attention to him, it's adorable. We ate such good food as always: neapolitan pizza, good Mexican and margaritas and an awesome traditional turkey spread. The best turkey I've ever had actually, courtesy of the family chef, Johnny. We played games. A new one for me: apples to apples and Socca! with Erin too and her Italian fiance, Pietro. Wow, did we ever learn some interesting stuff about them! Meatloaf!!!!

Work has been NOT been keeping me busy. I've been sick so called in a few days and the other days the census was low so they asked me to stay home. Highly doubtful I'll work all the hours I'm scheduled for which is fine with me. I've found so much to keep me occupied. I do miss the going to work routine though, the bus commute has been somewhat surprisingly, extremely tolerable. I'm still so new to the neighborhoods, etc. that I'm just in awe of everything, especially loving the ride home through downtown. It gets dark so early here that the holiday lights in the downtown area and Pike Place Market are on, I love it! Can't wait to have visitors to show this unique city off!!!!!

Whirlwind of a week

I almost have to go backwards to remember everything. I'll start with today and the 3 hours we spent in IKEA!! I thought Ryan would die, we came out with $240 worth of stuff and not a ton to show for it. Ryan is maddeningly trying to put together a file cabinet, so far has been 3 hours into the project. Why does furniture assembly have to take so long? Something tells me we won't be going back there anytime soon.... At least we ate Swedish meatballs!

Although I only was called in twice to work this week--once as a diet tech, the time just flow with stuff going on every night. I haven't been this busy socially since, well, I can't remember. I went to a book club which was held at a bookstore in a quirky area called Queen Anne. It was only an hour and unlike any other book club experience I've ever had--it actually stayed on topic. Ok, but that might have been its downfall as well. No time to get to know the others or talk of other books. The oddest thing was there were 2 dogs in attendance!! Am I living in Europe or the US??!!

On to some dangerous notes: I went to 2 DiscoverU classes: one on travel writing and the other on supporting your wanderlust. Which as you all know, I have been majorly bitten by the traveling bug and cannot and do not wish to get it out of my system. In fact, the more I travel, the more I want, it's truly an insatiable quest for me. So am thinking what better way to include this love than to try to make it happen as a career. More on this as I figure it out..... My research has begun!

The house has been given a facelift with much-needed curtains and furniture rearrangement! We've made the step tansu/entertainment center into a half-wall which opens up the living room tremendously, it's amazing what a few well-placed items can do for the space. Next up: getting rid of the beloved comfy couch and recliner!!!

Another close call

I have to find a new hobby! The Texas Longhorns are about to kill me!! Another too close game, with us down by 21 points most of it. They only played well in the 4th quarter, this is 2 weeks in a row. I don't know how they managed to win the game with a field goal as time expired. I screamed so loud and my face got so red, I have a headache from it all! Twice I had to go to my room I couldn't stand to watch. Please no more close games!!! My heart can't take it.

I am beginning to find a life (aside from college football) here. Have you ever heard of meet-ups? Check out http://www.meetup.com/ if you want to meet people that share your interest in anything in any city. There's a group here that gets together to try out different ethnic restaurants, that's next on my list to check out:-). So I've started doing The Artist's Way and I met with a group today going through the exercises from Julia Cameron's book. I am attempting to unleash my inner writer. So I find out it is national novel writing month (NaNoWriMo). The goal is to complete a novel by November 30th with at least 50,000 words!! That's only 1,667 words per day with the goal of quantity over quality. I figure I'm only 3,334 words behind if I begin tonight. So I'm going for it! What do I have to lose?!

Today has been full of plumbing fun in our house. We came home from dinner (Polynesian!) to find a stream of water coming from the kitchen sink. What a lovely smell it emitted. So everything under the sink is wet and Ryan seems to think it's been this way for a week. Oh, the joy of being a homeowner! And earlier this morning, he disassembled the washer and dryer the sellers left to see if our washer and dryer work. So far so good. So now we have to decide which set to sell on craigslist..... The best is our breakfast nook has finally emerged from behind the appliances! About time we've reclaimed this space....

Dia de los Muertos

Hope you all had a spooky Halloween! We had a much different one than last year....we actually got some kids who dressed up and said trick or treat! Well...only 4 of them before we went out. The kids we did get were cute. I asked them what their names were and one kid said: I don't know how to say it but I can spell it. Of course, I had to urge him on further: C-A-R-T-E-R. Oh, Carter, what a good speller you are, I say! Too precious!!

Bought tickets to the Rodrigo y Gabriela concert that day on Craigslist. Our seats were standing room only but right up front. Which was awesome to literally see their fingers flying across their guitars using them as drums as well. If you haven't heard them, they are great and if you get the chance to see them live...DO IT! They're strictly instrumental with a slight heavy metal edge...every now and then they'll thrown in strains from Stairway to Heaven. Heavy on the Spanish accent....but oh so funny when they do talk, dropping F-bombs quite frequently.

Happy Day of the Dead!!