Hurricane Irene

Supposedly Hurricane Irene is on it’s way to Maryland.  We are in a state of emergency.  It is only raining right now though.

However, Ivan is quite worried.  His only experience with hurricanes was Hurricane Mitch in 1998 – the most deadliest hurricanes to ever hit Honduras with over 9000 deaths.  When I was living there in 2005 people still talked about the destruction caused by this hurricane.  This photo is from the area near where my husband is from:

Yeah, quite serious.

So, because of this, we are overly prepared for Hurricane Irene (in some ways – I mean we haven’t evacuated or put plywood on our windows, but this was not suggested).  This is what we have done:

• filled the bathtub with water, in case something happens to the water and we can’t flush the toilet (I’m not sure what would happen to the water though, but just in case)
• filled every bottle, thermos, jug, and cooler with water to drink (again, if the tap water is compromised)
• filled our cabinets with non-perishable foods (which turned out to be Tostitos, pringles, pretzels, powdered milk, cookies, and cornflakes – I guess we are planning to survive on junk food)
• bought flashlights (ok, so there were no flashlights to be found so we had to buy headlamps instead – yup, we’ll be sporting headlamps if the power goes out)
• washed all our clothes (in case the lights go out all week, at least we’ll have clean clothes)
• moved our bikes inside
• parked our car under a small tree instead of a large tree (we looked for tree-less spots but they didn’t exist)

That is the sum of our preparations.  I think we’re pretty prepared.  Oh, and I set up a meeting place in case things get serious and our homes are destroyed.  At least my sister and I will know where to meet and find each other.  Except I’m not sure she took my suggest seriously.  So, I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that!

If you are on the East Coast – be safe!!  An earthquake and now a hurricane – what is going on!!

A washing he will do

I have made some serious progress.  I’m not sure how long it will last but I will enjoy it while it does.  What is the progress???

IVAN IS WASHING THE DISHES!!!!

Yes, you read that right.  For two days Ivan and I have had a new schedule.  I come home from work, run, cook dinner and then Ivan washes the dishes while I watch TV.  Yup, I have now watched NCIS two days in a row.  And it’s been great.

Ok, so I had actually seen both episodes already but I sure wasn’t going to tell him that – I kept watching while he kept washing.  I even got to change the channel while we were eating dinner.  This is big people, really big.

Our deal?  As long as we are done eating and he has time to wash the dishes before his favorite novela comes on at 9pm I am golden.  I am totally enjoying my new found TV time and reconnecting with the bean bag.

It’s been lovely.

I wanted to document this with a photo but I thought that that would draw too much attention to his dish washing…so I didn’t.  Maybe one day.  As for today, I am turning into a couch potato and loving it.  I did not even mention the egg still left on the frying pan.  There will no critiquing his dish washing skills – a little dried egg never hurt anyone!

A Healthy Diet

 

           vs.     

I have come to discover that what I think is a healthy diet is not what Ivan thinks is a healthy diet.  And even though I’ve taken nutrition, read a bunch of nutrition articles related to running, and studied public health, my husband refuses to believe me.  Apparently he is a nutrition expert.  Here is an example of his expertise:

Him: “Honey, I think I’m going to stop drinking Pepsi and Coke because it is making me fat.”

Me: “That’s probably true because Pepsi and Coke are not the healthiest drinks in the world".”

Him: “I think I should drink Fanta instead.  When you go grocery shopping, can you buy Fanta instead of Pepsi.”

Me: “Umm, Fanta is just as bad as Pepsi is.”

Him: “No, Fanta is much healthier.  Fanta and grape soda are much better for you than Pepsi or Coke.”

Me: “No, they are the same.  If you want to drink something healthy, you should drink water or flavored seltzer water or something.  Anything with less sugar.”

Him: “No, Fanta is healthy.  Can you just buy me Fanta?”

Me: “Ok, whatever, I’ll get you Fanta.  But it’s not healthier.”

 

Yeah, that was our conversation.  So, instead of Pepsi, I bought Fanta.  I also bought soy meat and turkey bacon – real healthy food.  He is a funny guy.  It’s amazing what he learned as a kid – and still believes.  And what he refuses to believe.  I told him if he is worried about getting fat there are MANY other foods he should eliminate from his diet starting with buffalo wings, hot dogs, bags of chips, etc.  He’s apparently only ready to change from Pepsi to Fanta.

Small steps right?  I’m hoping he makes a small step toward washing the dishes too….

Maybe there are some good things

On Sunday I made a quick call to Honduras to wish my host mom, Alba, a Happy Birthday.  Her birthday was actually Saturday, but I was so busy on Saturday that I remembered in the morning but forgot to actually call her.  I’m a bad host daughter.  That’s her on the right – she’s super sweet!

Anyway, after a short time she asked how Ivan was so I passed the phone to him.  As I was washing up the dishes I heard him talking to her, and it made me smile.

He talked about our new apartment, how we’re trying to buy a new sofa, that I changed my last name, that we’re trying to save for a vacation, how I start classes at the end of the month, how he’s starting English classes this month, about our trip to Minnesota for my Uncle’s funeral, etc. 

Why is this significant?  Well, because I would venture to say that about 60% of the time hubs misses home.  Although he’s been here over a year, everything is still a mystery.  I know that often he doesn’t feel comfortable, he doesn’t have a place to “hang out” where he can go to and expect to run into a bunch of friends, he doesn’t have family, he doesn’t have the same type of friends he has in Honduras, he doesn’t speak the language well, he still can’t drive, and many other things.  To those who don’t know, it is HARD to adjust to a new place.  Many people move from say Boston to San Diego and have a hard time adjusting – and he was moving from the rural areas of Honduras to suburban DC. 

Quite a big change.

And I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t worry about him every single day.  It wasn’t made apparent to me until we went back to Honduras for a visit and the Ivan I knew and fell in love with emerged again (and according to him, the Kattrina he knew and loved re-emerged too – apparently we are both more relaxed and fun in Honduras).  He was smiling all the time, in a great mood, and genuinely happy.  I only see that person every once in a while – usually in the US he is more subdued, has lots of headaches, is tired, and way less sociable.  I know it’s hard for him and I know he came here because he loves me.  However, every once in a while I wonder if he thinks it’s worth it or if he would do it again given the choice.  I wouldn’t say that he doesn’t have fun and we don’t enjoy our life together here – we do – but he still feels the pull of his old life.

Plus, I remember how it was when I was there.  A lot of times I wanted to just hang out in my house all by myself and not have to talk to someone in Spanish or sit around feeling like an outsider.  It is exhausting trying to fit into a foreign culture!

So, just listening to him talk about our life here and talking about the future and things we’re working towards made me so happy.  There are things that he’s excited about here and there are things he looks forward to and ultimately, maybe there is hope that he’ll adjust and learn to like it here.

I know that the US will probably never really be his home, but I really hope that one day he sees it as one of his homes.  And of course, I want him to be happy here so badly.  And that little glimpse into his mind makes me hope that maybe things are changing slowly.  Very slowly, but slowly all the same.

And either way – I still love him lots – cultural differences and all!!!

Moving Day

Did I tell you that hubs and I moved?  Yup - it totally snuck up on me and I realized afterward that I hardly mentioned it to anyone.  We are officially in our own apartment.  No more living with my sister and her family.  We are on our own - with bigger bills and smaller wallets.  Haha!!  I already miss my sister though.  And the cutie-pie nieces.

It's exciting - having a little place all of our own (well, as much as you can own an apartment).  I have finally got to unpack our wedding gifts and USE them!!  It was like wedding day all over again. 

Our apartment is tiny (770sq feet) and we don't have a lot of furniture, but we'll survive.  It's an adjustment because my sister's place was so nice - three floors, HUGE kitchen, big deck, large living/dining room, nice furniture, over-sized TVs with a million channels, etc., and now we are in an apartment that would fit on their first floor.  However, it's ours and we really don't need/want that much space (or want to clean that much space).  I mean, this was my place in Honduras where I lived for two years:

Living room/kitchen/dining room

My study/book room/food storage room

My bedroom, complete with a nifty mosquito net

So, if I can survive that, I am sure my apartment will be a step up.  Here are some {bad} photos I took before we moved our stuff in:

Living room and balcony with a fireplace

Part of the kitchen (left), the bathroom, and the door to the bedroom

The bedroom with bay windows

See, it's not so bad.  I actually like it a lot and find that such a small space shaves about ten minutes off my morning routine since I don't have to run up and down stairs all the time.  Four steps and I'm in the kitchen; two steps gets me to the bathroom!  And as we put stuff away it starts to look nicer and homier.  And although we've seen a few ants in the bathroom, I doubt we'll run into anything like this:

An ant colony moving their eggs across my living room floor -
pretty much an ant nightmare

And I doubt we'll run into any bugs like this scary thing:

Scary bug I found in my bathroom

So, we have nothing to worry about. 

Just this mess to unpack:

Piles of our crap

We are enjoying our new place and I think Ivan will enjoy it even more when we get TV.  And I'll enjoy it when we get internet.  And everything is unpacked.  Moving is HORRIBLE!!!

So, if you wonder where we've disappeared to, it's most likely the world of no internet and lots of boxes to empty.  I'm hoping to make a huge dent this weekend!

Crabby Crabby

My first crab - you're a goner pal

 
Hubs and I had our first crab experience yesterday.  Actually, I had my first crab experience and Ivan just had some crabs.  He said he'd never had a crab before but when he saw the crabs he said that he had had them before and that they were not called "cangrejos", they were called some other word I have never heard of...and I can't remember.

[An aside:  I am constantly finding out that Honduras has words for foods that are different than any other country.  Another example?  In Honduras the word for starfruit is albaricoque, which is actually the world for apricot if you look it up in the dictionary (or ask any other Spanish speaker).  Most people will say starfruit in Spanish is carabola.  However, Hondurans have never heard of the world carabola and insist that albaricoque is the correct word.  Yes, so you see how confusing my Spanish brain is!!!]

Anyway, we headed over to our friends how to celebrate a birthday will a few bushels of crabs.  And boy were they yummy.  Kind of.  It's obvious I was not born and raised in Maryland because a true Marylander LOVES crabs with all their heart and looks forward to them every year.  There are so many crab shacks and Old Bay seasoning around here it's crazy.  I had avoided the whole crab thing for so long because the idea of cracking open a crustacean and scooping its guts out and digging its lungs out and then eating it did not sound appatizing.

However, after eating things like beef tongue and other odd foods in Honduras, I figured I could totally handle a crab.  And I could.

I will eat you Mr. Crab.

As you can tell, dead sea creatures do not frighten me.  Hubs and I had a blast pounding away at crabs and shoveling crab meet into our mouths.  I used a mallet and knife while Ivan used his teeth.  Seriously, to see him eat chicken and sea food it is very reminiscent of Madison (the mermaid) in Splash eating a lobster (if you watch the video below, the scene is in minute 5:36).  




I made some yummy pina colada cupcakes that went over well.  And I even decorated them with little golf characters that I had found at the grocery store for $1.  They were decorations that the bakery uses but they must have over-ordered or something because they had a basket full of them.  I also snagged a Harry Potter package too.  Can't wait to use that!

Pile of crab guts...

And here was trash pile after I finished.  I was quite proud of myself.  I finally learned how to eat crabs and enjoy them.  I was a dirty mess afterwords though and my hands smelled like crabs all night!

Good times with good people!

Have you had crabs before?  Do you like them?  Did this post gross you out????

Our First Big Purchase

Over the weekend hubs and I made our first big purchase.  Yup, we've been married for over a year and the only "big purchase" we made together was plane tickets to Honduras.  Yes, I realize that that is a big purchase, but it's not really something tangible.

What did we buy?

A television. 

That might not be the exact one but they all seem to look the same to me.

My sister's TV had been broken but they have one in their bedroom so they were content to use that one.  There is also a TV in the basement, but on the day that my hubs decided we needed our own TV, my sister and the kiddos were all downstairs so there was no TV for him to watch (he's not comfortable watching TV in their room for obvious reasons).  So, the second I returned home from work he stated that he was buying a TV the next day.

And we did.

We looked like TV fools though.  I haven't ever bought a TV, as ridiculous as that sounds.  In collage we didn't have a TV in our dorm, when I got my apartment someone bought me one of those mini-TVs that had a VCR on the bottom.  I took that to grad school and used that there.  Then in Honduras, of course I didn't own a TV, and then when I moved back here my sister already had three TVs and I didn't need/want one for my bedroom. 

And boy have TVs changed since those mini-TV/VCRs.  I didn't even know what I was looking for - I had to ask the guy what LED and LCD and all that crap was.  So we wondered around for like an hour looking at the quality of TVs and the color and a bunch of other stuff we didn't understand and then we settled on one.  Since hubsters was paying for this our of his bank account (I could care less about having a TV), we ran to the bank, withdrew the cash, and then paid for it.

In cash.

Yeah, we're those people. 

And now we have a TV and the hubsters is happy.  Which makes me happy.

And we successfully bought something that was worth more than $10. 

We're almost adults!!!