lots of random stuff

I think my life has lots of bonuses that come with living over here - and two of them are 1) we save a lot of time because we don't watch too much TV, and 2) there are so few foreigners here that you usually just focus on what you are doing and not everyone else. ah yes, but oh how my life is changing!

In regards to the first bonus: we have this friend - who shall remain nameless - who bought this little contraption called a slingbox. So he sets it up on his tv, and then we downloaded this program on our computer, and we can watch live tv from america. Anytime. And anything he has tivoed (which includes Amazing Race episodes) are fair game too. So where we used to spend our evenings doing loads of productive things - like studying, scrapbooking, reading, talking, whatever - now, we are starting to say those famous American words: "hey, let's see what's on tv..."

Fortunately, we can only watch live tv, so usually when we say those famous last words, it's like 8am in america and you get reruns, dora the explorer, or the morning news. So, our tv viewing times don't last so long, but the nasty american habit is threating to return. Yikes!! But it has been fun watching the amazing race real-time (or at least the day after). We still swear to ourselves that if we ever had the opportunity to do it, we would, but...

In regard to bonus #2 - a new family has moved into our city, and after a busy week of working (ok, mostly josh working) they are starting to make some progress on getting settled in a place here. It's been interesting to have a new perspective, because after living here for over three years, you sort of forget what it's like to be new, to enjoy people saying hi and taking your picture, to have things happen for the first time, to need help (though you never seem to forget jet-lag!). Anyway, I've noticed about myself that if I lived in america, I would totally have a tendency to "keep up with the joneses", so I guess it's good that I have relatively few opportunities to compare myself to other people. For example, our new freinds just bought a fab refrigerator. Ok, yeah, so you think a fridge is not such a big deal...but it's not that simple. 99.99975% of everyone who lives in this country has a fridge the size of, hmmm...I can't even think of anything that is that size. [Just take your fridge/freezer thing and divide by 3 or 4, and that's probably close.] So when they bought their normal american-sized, side-by-side, two-door fridge, my eyes got a little green (ok, well they're green already, but this green had a tiny bit of envy in them...) No matter that a fridge that size wouldn't fit in my kitchen. No matter that I wouldn't have enough stuff to put in a fridge that size. No matter that I don't actually need a fridge that size...but it just seemed cool. Like, you know, if I somehow needed to feed the entire city block that I live on, or if there was a famine in the land, or something. Surely I could find some use for it. I could even use it as extra storage! And if they had one, I should have one too, right? :) Sheesh, sometimes I feel so immature! So, like I said, with all my friends in america buying houses and doing cool things, it's a good thing I can tuck myself away over here and bury my nose in my own life.

in other news, in a tribute to my sisters, today I french-braided emma's hair. The background of the story is that when my sisters were young, I subjected them to all sorts of beauty-shop games wherein they must sit very still and not move a muscle while I outfitted them with all manner of hot rollers, pony tails, ribbons, braids and whatever else I might be able to come up with. I have very clear memories of taking this role very seriously - and the fact that my glasses at that time were so think only added to the seriousness and importance of my job. I have no idea if my sisters willingly allowed this to happen, but they were always very kind to me while I pretended to make them beautiful -as if they somehow needed my help, the little beauties. Anyway, so tonight I gave it a whirl, and for taking a 15-year absence on french braiding, I'm surprised it came back to me so quickly. Of course, emma looks cute no matter what I do, but I thought she looked especially cute with her little braids. maybe it's because she reminded me of holly and katie, who are supposed to agree to come out and visit me pretty soon...

Moving along to last weekend, which I totally meant to blog about before the weekend vibe had passed me...We had a totally fun saturday. We checked out this new bird-and-flower market (you can guess what they sell there...) that's near our house, and then walked down to another area of the city that had this cool basket store I'd been wanting to check out. THEN...we stumbled upon this great place that had a fab playground (where you had to pay to enter...the BEST kind here because that drastically reduces the number of children who play there!) and a children's activity center next door. We weren't on a time crunch, so we went in to check it out and found that they had weekly play-and-song classes for kids that are two to three years old. Where the mom attends. Once a week. Where they all speak asianese. Where emma can make friends. And have fun. Yippee! Just what we'd been looking for. We even got to sit in on a class since there was one going on at that time. They sang little songs and did motions for all sorts of little animals. The setting was fun, clean, and orderly. The class was not too big, not too small.

I felt so jazzed that we just happened upon this place and it turned out to be exactly the kind of thing we'd been wanting for emma and me. So because of a big holiday coming up, we'll start the first week in may! Woo-hoo!

Then, after naps, we went back outside and down to pick up some butter at the store, where we just happened to come across avacadoes! Our avacado drought has officially ended! We had been giving avacado to samantha almost every day to help out her weight gain, but about three weeks or a month ago, we ran out and couldn't find them anywhere. So saturday, we bought like, $30 worth of avacadoes, which was actually only like 16 avacadoes. We came home and chopped and mashed them, and then froze them, so as long as samantha can ration herself, she should be ok.

Another great thing that happened on saturday was that we took samantha to get weighed. [I am, of course, assuming that all of you want to read about the amazingly boring details of my life. Feel free to move away from this exceedingly mundane post at any time.] Three weeks ago, her weight was 7.65 kilos, and had been that way for a very long time. After a pumped up diet, adding formula (sigh), and lots of carbs and proteins, we saw her weight go up to 7.88 kilos! yay mantha! I wish you all could see her. One of the bonuses to her being so small is that she's really cute. A sort of lanky, snuggly, still-fits-in-the-cradle-of-your-arms kind of cute. Maybe you all should come see her. She's great. Anyway, we were really happy that she gained some weight.

Is there anything else I could possibly ramble on and on about? Yes. Since I have a sort-of captive audience, here's my thoughts/picks for the finish of the amazing race:

dustin/kandice - ok, first of all I couldn't believe they lied to eric and danielle at the pit stop. Apart from that, I thought they have played fairly and honestly - yield included, because their yields were done out of healthy respect for the competition. They've been positive, kind to each other and locals, and have played with a lot of energy. Why can't more teams be like them? Perhaps one of my all-time favorite teams now, except of course, for the lie. Sheesh. I'd love to see them win it all.

Charla/mirna - can someone please, please drive them off the road? Their wild mood swing make me think they must have hormone imbalances or are bi-polar. They freak out at the slightest difficulty and start moaning about how awful their life is and how they can't believe it and on and on. they make me want to destroy my computer. and also, never watch the amazing race. and also throw up. Bug-a-boo. end of story.

eric and danielle - I hope if they win she buys more clothes. obviously her current wardrobe needs, um, more. If he wasn't so rude to her all the time, I just might like them more, but as it stands, I think he is nasty to her and I get tired of hearing them complain about what awful luck they had. Did anyone hear rob and amber complain that some of the reasons they were the last team to arrive was because their cameraman got stuck going through customs? or that their boat to the detour was loaded with extra equipment and slowed it down? no. and yet, all eric seems to do is complain.

oswald/danny - so, I don't dislike them as much as I thought I would at the beginning. they seem to generally have a good time, and that's a good thing. Sheesh, though, some of the gay comments get old.

ok, really...i've got to go to bed. More later. happpy monday everyone.