feels like home

Wow, so I've had a lot of changes in the last week and a half. Sorry to have waited so long to post. I had very limited access to internet over the last week, as I had a house guest and only a one-computer device for internet use. About 10 days ago I was as stressed out as I have been since I got here. I was frustrated about waiting 3 weeks and my internet STILL not working (and no plan for how to get it working). To add to it, my home phone line was suspended due to no good reason, but I was not allowed to restart it. I had a friend coming whose week I had to make plans for, but I would not have any vacation time while he was here, and I still had no way to get around other than taxis and asking friends for rides.

Thankfully, things have slowly come together, and just in the last three days I feel like I've gotten solutions to a lot of things. On Wednesday I was reunited with the CR-V I bought back in June! It had no trouble with the battery or tires, so I was able to put on my dip(lomatic) plates start driving! The tank was empty, so I had to drive to the nearest gas station (about 1 mile from my apartment) to fill up. The line was out into the street for gas, and when I finally reached the front after waiting about 15 minutes they announced they were out of gas and we had to leave. I drove to the next nearest station, about 2-3 miles from there (or a 30 minute drive), and sat again in line for another 10 minutes before filling my 13 gallon tank for the equivalent of about $.70! So, there are plusses and minuses.

I was also told last week that there has been a problem with my shipment of household effects, and even though it's been in Venezuela for 4 weeks, they will be sending it back to Miami, redo the bill of lading, re-ship to Venezuela, and wait the obligatory 3-4 weeks again before trying to bring it through customs. So what I have now is what I've got until next year most likely. Hello Amazon Prime. The sheets that come in our welcome kit are about 150-thread count, so I've been doing some ordering on Amazon. There is no comforter at all, so even though I'm more settled in, some things are make-shift at this point, and will be until my HHE shipment arrives.

Chris, a friend from Washington who did me the favor of keeping my car for me in Washington until my shipping company would take possession of it (on Sept 30), came to visit the Friday before Thanksgiving, to stay a week. It was nice to have company again, but a little difficult to know what to offer him to do, since I didn't have vacation time to take, and Caracas is not a place that has touristy things to do, or the safety on the streets to send a newcomer out on his own. I was able to set up some day tours for him with a man who owns a taxi service that's heavily utilized by the embassy. Overall he had a good time.

Thursday I invited over several coworkers, most of whom are new, for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great time. I roasted the turkey and made the sweet potato casserole and muffins. We also had veggies, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a traditional latin-american holiday bread, Panetone. It was nice to be able to use my dining table and enjoy my balcony and new hammock with friends! We played a couple games and had coffee, and that part was really fun and relaxing.

Chris and I woke up early for his 5:00 taxi yesterday, then I cleaned up the kitchen from Thanksgiving before I had to be at work. I had a full day of work, then came back home to find my internet signal on! I was able to finish the installation that hasn't worked for the last 3 weeks and finally get Vonage up and running!!! Now anyone can call me on a 217 area code number and it rings here in my apartment! My phone number is 217-239-2363. I've already been using it a ton to catch up with my family and Wayne.

I'm headed off to play in the semi-final of the soccer league I'm in, then plan to enjoy the rest of my weekend resting up. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

you win some, you lose some...

Hi all, I've had trouble staying on top of everything lately, so I have not kept my blog up to date the way I'd like. I'm hoping that sometime this week or next I'll be able to get my permanent internet connection set up, and at that time I'm hoping I'll get better at writing.

I have had some ups and downs lately, been a bit frustrated by how difficult it is to get things done, both within the embassy and outside. I did finally get a shipment, which included the things I had with me in Washington and the consumables I bought there. It has been great to get those things and feel a little more settled. Unfortunately, yesterday I received notice that they messed up the bill of lading when my things were sent from Illinois, so even though they've been sitting in Venezuela for 4 weeks now, they will be shipped back to Miami so they can prepare a new bill of lading, and will have to sit in customs another 3 weeks after it arrives back in Venezuela. So if I am lucky (which I probably won't be) I could see my books, kitchen items, furniture, TV, etc. before Christmas.

I have a friend from Washington coming in next week. I wasn't able to take any time off work, since I'm so new and haven't accumulated much vacation time yet. So I've been working to try to arrange things for him to do while I'm working next week. He'll arrive Friday and stay for a week, so he'll be here for Thanksgiving.

I've invited several new single officers over for Thanksgiving dinner, so we'll be working creatively with limited kitchen stuff, but I think it will be fun. I am also hoping to get my car before too long, or at the very least be allowed to borrow one of the limited vehicles available to officers who haven't received theirs yet (I've been on the waiting list since September 20).

I'm feeling better today than I was a few days ago, and I hope to try to maintain a positive attitude through the frustrations.

a whole new world

I feel like I've been adjusting to an entirely new life this week! Not only am I back at work, departing from my new apartment (which means I don't take the motorpool shuttle to work anymore, but instead walk), but I also started in a new section this week. I'll be doing a 6 month rotation in ACS (American Citizen Services), which I just started on Tuesday.

I have a temporary fix for internet at home while I keep waiting for the government-run company to respond to my requests for technical support...

It was so nice to have Wayne visit. We did some of the typical tourist (which is not very big here) activities that exist here. One is el Teleférico, a cable car that goes all the way up the mountain called el Ávila, which separates Caracas from the coast. It is about a 20 minute ride to get to the top, and the view is amazing. There are a few restaurants and places to walk around at the top. That was a fun trip.

We also went to the tiny area of the city that could be considered colonial, called el Hatillo. There is a great chocolate shop there as well as a large craft store where typical Venezuelan things can be bought. We visited a couple of the many malls of Caracas, in search of the modem I needed in order to contract internet service. We sampled a few different restaurants, making sure that Wayne got to sample the most typical Venezuelan foods: arepas, cachapas, and pabellon.

Arepas are corn cakes, about the size of an english muffin. They're cut in half, but not all the way through, and the filling of your choice is put inside the arepa. They're usually filled with different kinds of beef, chicken, pork, or even eggs. Cachapas are like a large sweet corn pancake. They are filled with anything from cheese to meat to just plain butter. Pabellon is a plate full of shredded seasoned beef, fried sweet plantains, black beans, rice, and fried Venezuelan cheese. This is one of my favorites, though the plate always has about twice as much food on it as I can finish in one sitting.

I ended up with a bad cold, and by today I had no voice at all. I couldn't do any interviews, but mostly did observing, since I'm still training in ACS. Tomorrow there is a Marine Ball, which is sponsored by the Marine Guard that works at the embassy. It is a formal event which some people refer to as the event of the year. I asked my sponsor to get me a ticket before I got to post since they went on sale back in July. I'm hoping to be able to go and to be able to talk!

back to reality

Hi everyone, sorry it's been so long since I've posted. As I wrote over a week ago, I was able to move in to my permanent housing on Wednesday (not last, but the one before). I've thoroughly gotten used to sleeping in my new bedroom now :)

I had a great visit from Wayne over the past 9 days. He just left at 5:00 this morning, and I'm back at work. I have been trying unsuccessfully to get the internet connected in my apartment. Unfortunately, the sense of urgency is not great on the part of the government-run telephone and internet company here, so I'm not sure when I'll be back online at home. I'm back at work, though, so I can now use the internet here when I get a spare chance.

I'll write more about what's been going on a little later, but just wanted to say hi after such a long time of being out of touch!