It's been over a month........

Hi all:

Welcome to our blog and life.  Jackie R finally convinced me to start a blog of our lives here in Venezuela.  This way you can check in anytime you feel like it and not get HUGE emails about what is up with us.

So, I will start from the beginning.  Moving on your own without a huge company supporting you in every aspect of adjustment in a new country is definately not for everyone. It can be extremely frustrating but we finally got settled in.  I think our previous experiences living experiences and even getting married in Latin America helped us tremendously.  It has been very stressful for Victor, as he goes to work everyday, yet had to deal with all the translations, contracts, negociations etc.  One of our biggest obstacles was getting an apartment that would accept "independents" (people who are not here with a major company who will sign off the rental contract).   We managed to get a friend of Victor's to have his company sign a contract for us.  The real estate business here is very corrupt and is called "the mafia" so that was our second obstacle.  We were asked at one point to put up nearly 40k upfront to get an apartment.  We ended up losing about $1300 on that deal which eventually fell through due to the lies and misrepresentation on the part of the real estate agent and the owner.  We are hoping the company that represents Victor, their lawyer, will be able to get that back for us.  It took over 3 weeks to finally get out of the hotel, which is actually a pretty good time frame. 

We are on the 6th floor of a nice building over looking the sea,  Mochima National Park and PLC.  There is another family that are temporarily living in our building, in a Chevron provided apt, while their house is getting ready for their move in.  They have kids Xela's age, who,  have become very very good friends.  .   They are really nice and the mom has become a social savior for me, introducing me around, helping out and very friendly.  They move soon into another neighborhood with large/mansion homes where most of the kids from school live.  The reason we did not choose that neighborhood is because we need a furnished and already secure place.  The companies that move their employees in those places create incredible security systems for them and allow them to ship all of their personal effects.    But, there are many expats in our building and some kids and we really like the views and sea breeze which you don't get in that gated neighborhood. There are several teachers and the superintendent also live in this or nearby buildings which is nice.   We like our apt and the amenities of tennis, bball courts, pools, iguanas, bunnies, gardens and quiet nice atmosphere.

School:  Isabella  is the only non- native Spanish speaker in her class but she is thriving.  It was a difficult transistion not only with the culture shock, looking for a place to live, the heat, etc but to fit in socially where the first language is Spanish.  She did great her first month, and has managed to have sleepovers every weekend, trips on friend's boats/yachts, made the "A" volleyball team and starts scuba classes this week. whew.  She went to see Venezuela vs Colombia with Victor and a bunch of their Colombian friends Friday night and had a blast.  They had assigned seat tickets, but when they arrived to their seats, there were a bunch of drinking guys who laughed and said "that's not how it works here, we got here first".  It was fine, they managed to do the same thing near all their Colombian friends and enjoy the game (not the drinking part).  Colombia won, so there. :)
Isabella had only 2 choices for Spanish class.  Her teacher decided on the native speaker class as he  felt the other class would be too easy for her. He is grading her on a curve since it would be like taking 8th grade LA at Ophir in Spanish.  Her most difficult class is English. The teacher is the MOST loved teacher here, but the one with the highest expectations.  Kids jump with joy when they get a 74 on their progress report.  Isabella is hanging in there with a 87 (second highest grade).  He is from Ireland and is also their social studies teacher.  "Isabella says it is funny when he says  "write the bloody hell sentence correctly."

Xela has more native English speakers in her class of 19. They have a nice young teacher from Mass.  Xela is playing coed basketball and doing art classes.  we just had her first orthodontist appt. which was about as hard to get to as getting to bozeman.  we can't do any appts during school hours because the make up work is simply just too much.  She has sleepovers and good friends and seems to go to a party every weekend.  The latins send out invitations to parties the day before so it is always a scramble.  Xela and her good friend are going to split their party in October here at our place: a pool and bbq party.  We laugh about the idea of sending out invitations a week before, because we imagine the latin families looking at it and wondering "what are we suppose to do with this?" or maybe they will show up the next day instead of the party day.   
School is very demanding for both of the girls. They were shocked their first two weeks with the amount of homework and expectations.  They both recovered from the shock and have managed to recover their grades.   Whew. Although Chevron is represented strongly at the school, their classmates are Venezuelan, Colombian, Brazilian, Australian, British, Trinidadian, etc.  A hue of colors, accents and cultures.   Finally, they are both taking tennis lessons as well and loving that too.  We are trying to take advantage of living in the tropics as much as possible.

They miss Big Sky and their friends tremendously.  Xela took about 12 hours to recover from talking to Howie via skype about 2 weeks ago.  But, they are having a great time, ask so many questions about politics, poverty, cultural differences etc.  They are really observant. 

Living in PLC:  This once resort town is now simply another place that went downhill the last 10 years.  We live in El Morro/Lecheria. So, if you googleearth PLC look to the west of the bay, we live on the end of the pennisula U shape.  We are at the base of a cliff, so our cell phones don't always work.  We say on the phone, " ahhhh, I'm in the canyon, losing you" . Those of you from Big Sky will get the joke.  I use to walk alexa up to the top of the pennisula. There is actually a huge group of people who cycle, mt bike, walk and run up there as the local gov't  ACTUALLY created a bike path on the road.  But, for me AND Alexa, there are two feral dog packs (perritos del calle) we have to get by.  Victor seems to have no problem with throwing rocks at them, but they really smell my fear (they want Alexa not me, they are afraid of humans).  People don't walk outside their compounds with their dogs, so those things get pretty close to us and it freaks me out as they would kill Alexa.  They are protecting their turf and see her as an intruder.  Victor now runs w/ Alexa the same route about 5am.  He avoids one pack and the other pack...well, he has pretty good aim, so they are learning to stay clear.   We all get up around 5:45 as the bus comes at 6:50.  Alexa's other walks are on our grounds and does she LOVE the iguanas.  If I could let her off the leash, she would be climbing up trees in order to get one.  They are all over the tennis courts as well, pooping everywhere.  

I have managed to go with friends to the local fish mercado, where the freshest of fresh fish are brought to. Basically,  a shack next to the water.   For a tip, they fillet the fish (after you pick out the one you want, still breathing, yes, your  fingers in the gills and bring to the wooden table surrounded by begging pelicans.   Also found a couple of great little fruit stands.  There is poverty and falling down infrastructure everywhere, in the midst of incredible beauty.  One of the good things about PLC is we are closer to getting to some of the best parts of Venezuela.  We will do the jungle and Angel Falls, Orinoco River Basin (one of the most important river basins in the world with incredible wildlife and indiginous tribes) and climb a tepui mountain (7 day climb) over the course of the coming year.  Just think of the movie UP and that is where most of these trips/mountains-called Tepuies)  will look like just without the animation and talking dogs.

Our first big trip though, is the Galapogos Islands in October. (we have a week off).  Then for Christmas, we changed from Patagonia (as it was going to be too crowded and expensive) for seeing victor's family in Guatemala and do some traveling there, and then CUBA for 10 days.   I told the girls they will have been to one and a half communist countries.  I think they will wear their Venezuelan soccer jerseys...we will be well received.  Actually, thousands of Americans go to Cuba each year and it really is not such a big deal anymore.

My life has quieted down a bit.  Everything takes a lot of time to do things.  I have finally found everything we need to live here, the places to find some import food, fans, extension cords, groceries, how to order meat at the meat market. etc.  Victor has a bunch of friends who want English lessons but i am still waitng for them to organize themselves. I take tennis lessons twice a week and learning how to improve my nonexistent top- spin.   I an attempting to go to the gym and get myself a membership by myself tomorrow...should be interesting. Not many people speak English in this town.   i make a fool out of myself  when ordering  in stores, etc. Have met a few other mothers.  I am getting my refresher course for scuba this week as I have not dived in 8 years. So, Isabella and I can start diving together as the school has a diving club.   Otherwise, my life is kinda quiet.  But, we are together as a family.  Dinner together every night. Two parents helping with homework and doing things together.   It is exciting and very, very interesting to now see/experience this all through the eyes of inquisitive 13 and 11 year old.   The questions can go on forever.  :)

Extension Cords:  We have electrical shortages and occasionally water outages as well.  Our building has a generator for security lights, hallway lights and elevators. So, we snake the electrical cords out the front door to the outlet near the elevator (there are only 2 apts per level) and plug in the frig, fans and or computers.  When apt owners  have paid up the HOA dues we are getting an electrical plant for the whole building and won't have to deal with outages anymore.  Yup, owners just don't pay their HOA because they don't feel like it even though most of them are extremely wealthy.  So, the latest is, the plant is ordered and hopefully installed within the next 3 months.  There are so many political things i would like to say right now, but can't or shouldn't.  haha.  Lets just say gracias to the presidente because things are soooooooooooooo much better than 10 years ago.

I will start posting pictures and will be shorter in my writng.  we miss everybody in Big Sky.  We would love visitors and would plan some cool side trips during your stay.  There is diving, incredible caves 3 hours away, beaches minutes away, and seeing a world very different from the States.   This week the Patron Saint of this area is the Virgin Mary, so of course.....how is that celebrated????  With a day or two off, huge crowdes, traffic, fireworks galore and huge Salsa concerts.   A little different from the sedate Catholic services of my youth.