Our new apartment...

So, even though blogger is being stupid again, I figured out how to do this, I just can't format at all, so, bear with me... a quick tour of our new apartment with crappy pictures that I took this afternoon.

First, the living/dining room as seen from the front door through which you might enter the apartment if we had the key to that door.

And here is the view of same room as seen from the hallway (which you can see on the right in the above photo)

Now here is the kitchen which is right off the living room- you can see how big it is. Nice. We have a kitchen table and a dining room table. It's nice to be able to eat in the kitchen at the table, totally away from any other distractions (like the tv, which we struggled sometimes to turn off during dinner, even though we both agree it should be off...)

Now we have another door to the outside off the kitchen, which is where I took this picture from. You can see through the kitchen to the laundry room (right now just a washer and a sink area- but we are SERIOUSLY contemplating shelling out for a dryer out of pocket. I for one think it would make life like, much, much better.)

Here is the study that is just off the laundry room. Because Joel is the one working on his masters now, and because he has football scarves that need displaying somewhere, the office has officially been deemed his space. Opposite this study, on the other side of the laundry room is actually also a maid's bathroom, which has a toilet and a shower. You know, cause, you wouldn't want your maid using yours! Of course, we don't even have a maid anymore this year...

Now as you head down the hallway, the first door you come to on the left is a bedroom. It has two twin beds in it, and as you can, right now is functioning as our junk room. Actually, at the end of last school year when we had to move all our stuff into this apartment, this was the room that a lot of it got shoved into- so, we're slowly getting everything out again. It's a work in progress- in fact, I think Joel is in there working on it right now, even as I sit here! :) Anyway, this is one place we have room for guests!

Nearly across the hall from the first bedroom is the hall bathroom, which has been deemed, Joel's bathroom. Hey if you have more bathrooms than people living in a place, you might as well each claim one right? :)

Further down the hallway on the right is a second bedroom. This one is a bit smaller, and only has one twin bed. More room for guests. The last couple that lived here used this room as the baby's room- we liked that idea, and are of course, working on it. :) As you can see in the picture though, right now we're just using it for drying clothes out of sight. :)

Across the hallway from the baby's room, uh, I mean the second bedroom is the master suite. When you walk in, immediately on the right is the bathroom, which has been deemed my bathroom. None of the bathrooms actually have baths (though three of them have showers), which of course is disappointing.

So then finally you reach the master bedroom, which of course, is our space. When I took this picture, Joel still had crap all over the floor... oh well. :)

As you can see we have a nice big bed. Not quite as big as the king's we slept in most of the summer in all our hotels, but, I think it's a queen, so it's a bit bigger than what we had in our last apartment.

And now a shot of the closets in our bedroom. In this picture I've opened one door on each of the four closets. Yeah, dude. Nice. The best part is, all three bedrooms have one entire wall of closets- the other two rooms only have three closets a piece I think, simply because they are smaller- but, basically, we're not running out of closet space any time soon. I feel like Carrie Bradshaw! Oh, and I know the closets look empty in the pic, but, as I said, Joel is working on all this stuff RIGHT NOW (cause he went surfing on Sunday when I put all my stuff away, so he's just doing it now) so it'll look full by the time I'm done posting, but, you won't see that picture!

Now back to the living/dining room and out onto the balcony. No more porch for us with a little square of green grass, but, oh well- I didn't get that far with growing stuff anyway. So this is our dusty, dusty balcony. We don't have any furniture for it yet (yes that is a dining room chair out there now...). I hope the school provides some eventually...

Here is a shot of the street to the left- this is the way we walk to school. We only have to walk about 50 meters to the gate to the school (which is at the back of the school grounds). So, our walk to work just went from like 30 seconds last year to about 2-3 minutes this year. Man, life is tough.

Here is the view to the right. This is a rather busy street. In fact, the last couple that lived here (the one with the baby) chose to move just across the hall when the apartments were being swapped around at the end of last school year, saying that they needed a quieter place for the baby. Their apartment across the hall faces the back of our building, which essentially looks over the school, so it doesn't get the street noise. After hearing the noise the last couple of nights, I no longer blame them. There must be a make shift bar of some sort right across the street and they were blasting music until about 11:30 last night. And it was loud enough that inside, even with all the windows closed, it was as loud as I would have had music if I had put it on for my own enjoyment. Of course, the big difference is that, they didn't choose the kind of music that I would!

Also across the street we have a police post. Joel actually saw a huge car crash today that happened directly outside our compound- in fact one of the cars actually smashed through the metal fence and into the guard house of our compound. Joel was only like not far away when it happened. He later told me he nearly pooped his pants. Suck. Surprisingly, everyone walked away from the crash, although I doubt the cars had such luck. Anyway, my point is that, Joel watched the police watch the crash. And, only after they had stood and watched for a good few moments did they look at each other and seem to think,"Huh, maybe we should go check if anyone is hurt?" So, yeah, that is the police post across the street, but, I'm not really sure what they do there...

So, that is the story of our new apartment. Oh but wait, I forgot to tell you that actually, there is one more bathroom in the house, which is also not pictured here which is right next to the front door off the living room. The last couple before us used it as a storage space/mud room, and we are following suit. So it's got our luggage, shoes and sporting equipment in it. How many toilets can two people use afterall? We still have three to choose from...

So, bit of an upgrade from last year right? This is why we were excited to move.

Good news/Bad news

Good news is, we're back in Luanda safe and sound.  We arrived mid-afternoon Saturday- to find work done on the airport which meant that the immigration lines which used to be in a very hot, very humid, very stuffy, very full of mosquitoes room were now in a new, air conditioned, somewhat spacious room. :) That was nice. Then we had to wait for our baggage for 1.5 hours, but hey- it can't all be perfect hey? At least it all showed up!

So we got back, and started the moving-in/unpacking.  By now (Sunday evening) we're mostly unpacked and most of our things have found a new home.  There is one bedroom (one of the three!) that we're keeping the door closed to for now, because well, there's still a pretty big mess in there.  But the general living space- taken care of.  Now we need to work on getting all our pictures, wall hangings, and art up on the walls to really make it feel like home.  Of course, the kitchen was the first thing I unpacked and got settled, and felt better right away! :)  We love our new apartment and well, we have lots of room for guests now, if um, anyone is interested! :)

Anyway, so the bad news, is that as soon as we got back to Africa my blog started acting up again, and now that we're back in Angola, I can't post to it properly again, which may or may not make it very hard to post in general- but especially to post pictures.

I will work on it, and hopefully maybe, the new tech guy can figure something out and we'll have all good news soon.

We start work tomorrow, and the kids start school next Monday... is it really that time again?  Where did the summer go???   Is that good news or bad news? :)

What, you think I have nothing to do???

OK, so according to the "countdown" to the left, it's been 12 days since our wedding. Does that mean that I should take the counter down? Does that mean it's time for a new post?

Well, people, we're busy. We're napping, and having massages and honeymooner dinners and sleeping in the sun.

Ah yes, the stressed out life of newlyweds, especially newlywed teachers with the summer off. :)

So a short update... we're in Mauritius. We've been here since Saturday, and it's nice. Unfortunately weather wise, and hotel package wise, it's not quite as good as Mexico was. The weather is hardly bad enough to complain about, but, I am wearing a very light sweater as I write this. I have been able to lounge in the sun by the pool every day, and it does get hot then, but once I'm out of the sun, it's pretty normal (not so hot). And the resort here is lovely- the deco and all is very Indian with pinks and yellows and oranges- it's lovely. But they haven't really figured out the whole "all inclusive" thing like the place in Mexico had. We have the all inclusive package, but, we only get to choose certain stuff of the menus to be included in the all inclusive- and it doesn't include room service of any sort! Bummer. Also, no swim up pool. Double bummer. But that might be because they have the single coldest pool I have EVER been in. In fact, I tried to get in one day, got in as far as my knees and gave up. But, like I said, it's not really hot enough to necessitate getting in the pool, so it's ok.

The beach is lovely, except it has beautiful white, but ouchy sand- walking on it for a while leaves you feet feeling like they've been pumiced to within an inch of their lives. We walked along it one morning, and have pretty much stayed away since. Lame huh?

Last night we were invited to enjoy a special "honeymooner's dinner" on the resort. It was very nice, except that I had suddenly come down with a low fever and was feeling pretty awful. IN fact, I had lost my appetite! Anyone who knows me, knows that this is well, pretty much unheard of, I can usually eat through anything! But there I was, at my honeymooner's dinner, barely able to eat at all. The chef must have thought I hated all the food. I didn't- it was really quite lovely, but I just couldn't get anything down. Ah well.

Being somewhat sick helped up sleep in later (6:45) today than we have since we got here- we've been waking up every morning right around a quarter to 6. And of course, then passing out as though we've been drugged somewhere around 3pm. Jet lag is a bitch.

So yeah... honeymoon... that is pretty much all I can report on here, because let's face it, this is mostly a pretty not X-rated blog, so I won't go into what else we've been doing most of the time. Though, let me extend a grand thank you again to all the ladies who gifted so generously at my bridal shower. ;)

Of course, lest I seem the constant complainer, the upside of being here in Mauritius vs Mexico is that we're married. I love waking up next to my husband every morning. The new weight of the wedding ring is a lovely feeling. And, even as we enjoy every moment of what we're doing right now, it's also fun to dream about what might be coming next... ;)

More updates, possibly including pictures might come soon- first I would have to take some of this place. :) I'll try to get on that today. Tomorrow we're supposed to go see, if not swim with, dolphins. Then we transfer to another resort where we will engage in such activities as snorkeling (I'm really looking forward to that) and going in a submarine. Should be good! We'll be back to Angola somewhere around the 8th I believe. We have to head through FREEZING cold Joburg on the way (literally, 1C/32F)- SO COLD- especially when you are not anywhere near being appropriatly dressed. Anyway... we've already decided we'll do lots of room service and movies while we're there. :) Ok, so, yeah, there you go... see you on the flip side!

7 days...

7 days!!!!

WHAT???

Big party tomorrow... will try to post pics on Sunday. Busy...trying to get things done... details still to take care of... going to get there (or so I'm told...).

Pretties

It's been raining a fair bit in Michigan since we got here. It's not all that nice, especially since it's cold, but, at least it makes for GREEN, GREEN, GREEN surroundings and lots of pretty flowers to look at!

My step mom planted these around the mailbox. I think they are really lovely. :)

More cuteness...

I wanted to post these pictures the other day as well, but didn't have access to them on the non-usb camera card. So, we bought a card reader today, and I can show off my the cutest little girl in the world some more. :)

Brenna has a thing about hair. Apparently, she likes it. She holds and plays with her mom's hair all the time, and although I didn't see it, I heard she does the same with her dad's hair (even though it's short). So imagine my surprise and delight when on my first day there, she happily grabbed hold of my hair in the car. :)

(and, yeah, that is how we rode for well, the whole car trip- she just sucked her thumb and held my hair! My neck had a little crick by the end!)

The next day while mom was in the shower, we watched some tv together. And I made Joel take some pics. :)

She's just so darn cute. :)

And of course, she took to Joel quickly as well- as most children do. :)
Here they surfed the net a bit. :)

A day at Garezers

On Sunday, the day after my shower, we headed out to "Little Latvia" right here in southwest Michigan- Garezers. This is where I grew up- spent my summers, ALL OF THEM, from age 6-20 there. Good times. Joel is really in love with the place, and jealous that Australian Dutchies haven't created such a place for themselves.

My dad and stepmom have a trailer there. My uncle and aunt have one too. On Sunday we went down to visit with them. I actually started by going for a run around the lake- 4 miles! I did it in 50 minutes, with a lot of walking. Let me tell you- running on the road in the midday sun is way different than inside, in air conditioning on a treadmill! But the dog came with me, and she loved it. In fact, she's been sidling up to me every day clearly asking for more.

By the time I got back from my run, Joel, my step-mom and my aunt and uncle had already finished one go out on the boat. Joel had his first-in-five-years go at wakeboarding. After hanging out at my uncles and aunt's trailer and having lunch and a few drinks, we went out on the boat again, and I got to snap a few pics and videos of Joel doing his thang.

Here we are on the deck of my uncle's trailer. In the background you see a swamp. Yeah, it's actually really nice though. :)

Joel's got his life-vest on (it's the law in Michigan!) and is getting ready to go!

In the water ready for one of a few tries at getting up...

Up!

Showing off his skills...

He got a couple really good runs in

It almost looks easy no? Almost...

It was nearly sunset...my camera would have gotten some great shots, but as it was, even Joel's point and shoot got some good ones.

And finally, here is a video of Joel wakeboarding. He really did a great job. And never mind that he can barely move today. :)

My Bridal Shower in South Haven

Yesterday I had a truly, truly lovely day! Goodness knows, I love being the center of attention, and I got it yesterday. Between my wonderful friend Ang, my mom and our friend Mary, a fabulous event came together. A review in pictures....

We set a beautiful spread- we all ate way too much!

Cake- from a bakery whose motto is, "Butter makes it better!" It was good. :)

The beautiful flowers that Mary brought for me.

Because I had the nicest handwriting, I wrote my own sign! But Ang gave everyone chocolate goody bags! :)

Ang and me- she's my matron of honor and the best friend a girl could ask for!

Mom and Mary

Doing my best to break some ribbons!

Mary and Clare having a great time...

Kat and Malda listening to one of the great stories told that day...

It was a lingerie shower... so all the presents were...you guessed it!

In this picture I have just found out that my friend Clare is going to be Kat's
"plus one" in Mexico. Yay! Another single girl at the wedding...

Here we all are then... a small group, but, as my step-dad said, "If an event can be judged by the amount of laughter it generates, then, this party was tops!" (He did not attend the party, but was banished to his bedroom upstairs!)

My step-sister's baby Christian- the only boy who was allowed at the party. :)

Finale!

It really was a great day, and ended wonderfully just hanging out with the girls. The next two weeks will hopefully be fairly low key as we simply finish up gathering bits and pieces for the wedding and just relaxing. Before the wedding, we still have the big pre-party here.

Quick update

I know it's been forever since I wrote a post... but we've been busy. Our week in NYC was lovely. Althouh it rained a lot. And we got caught in it. That part was not nice. But seeing sights and meeting some of Joel's friends and spending time with them was lovely. Meeting one of my friends was great too!

Now we're back in Michigan for nearly a week already. The highlight so far for me is definitely what we're doing right now- hanging out with my best friend Ang and her family. Last time I saw her daughter she was 6 weeks old- and now she's 16 mos! Big changes. Luckily, she's taken to me very well- she clearly knows I'm good people and good friends with her mom. :) And maybe she can pick up on the fact that I might like little people like her. Also, she likes Joel too. :)

Anyway, so here are a few pics... unfortunately neither of us are in any of them- those pics were taken with Joel's camera which we don't have a cord/card reader for, so we can't GET to the pictures. But these ones I took with my camera. So enjoy. :)

Angel face

They like to dance together- this was a slow dance

Here she is sporting the shirt I gifted her (brought from Africa) with a monkey on it (her nickname is monkey face and she has all kinds of moneky stuff) which she loved. She is also getting all dressed up to go out in this pic as you can see, she's got all her bags and everything...

Mother and daughter- doing the hair. :)

It is absolutely fabulous to spend time with people you love so much. :) Warms my heart.

Home is where the...

kitchen is?

I didn't give it much thought last time we moved (that would have been packing up our stuff in Riga, selling off/giving away lots, and taking only two suitcases of stuff each)- but this time, this move, I've been made to think about it, because, well, everything we have, we're taking with us! 

We've only been in Luanda 10 months, not even a full year, and yet, tonight I packed up 5 boxes and 1 bag of kitchen stuff.  Yes, some of it was food, but largely, it was bowls, pans, measuring utensils, mugs, bread pans, other baking supplies and lots and lots of spices.  Luckily, we get to keep it all this time (I still haven't fully gotten over leaving a huge bag of nutritional yeast behind in Latvia, which most likely didn't get used by anyone).  Oh, and wait- I still have a sink full of dishes, two cupboards full of teas/coffees and oils and vinegars and some dry goods (crackers, cereals, etc).  So, basically, it'll be another box or two of kitchen stuff going over tomorrow. 

So, I guess, for me, home is where the kitchen is. I gotta have a stocked kitchen (both utensil and food wise) to feel at home.  Of course, home is also where Joel is, duh, but, after that... it's all about the kitchen. 

That said, I do wish our lounge room and our bedroom felt a bit more homey, had some more personal touches- but, it seems I can live without all that stuff.  Our new apartment though, is definitely a new chance for decorating and putting together a nice look.  Now that Joel will have his own office to decorate with all of his football scarves, we can have the rest of our house looking a bit more grown up.  :) I gotta admit, I'm looking forward to it.

So yeah, tomorrow, on my 29th birthday, I'll spend the day just finishing up a little bit at school, and then moving the rest of our stuff over to the new place. Now, we took some stuff over tonight, and stuck it in one of the bedrooms.  But, I have to say, the people (also teachers at our school) that are moving out of our apartment and into the one next door did not appear to be anywhere near even having begun packing.  So, that does mean for us that tomorrow, even when we get all of our stuff over there, we'll just be throwing it all into the bedroom, which means we'll leaving the unpacking and real "moving in" until August.  Which I actually think is kind of nice, because we'll be moving into a new place to start our "new life" as a married couple.  We won't exactly be able to paint the walls whatever color we want, or be able to go out and buy our own furniture or even knick knacks to make it really our own- but, it will be a clean new start, in a nice new apartment, with lots of space for growth...if you catch my drift. :)

So yeah, one more time...home is where the kitchen is... but, I am excited to say that next week, home is where I come from- and we'll be back there again!  We hit Michigan on June 21!  Can't wait! :)            

 

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It's been an emotional few days...

This week a dear, old friend of mine lost her fiance to his battle with cancer. She is 12 days younger than me, he was a year younger. We all worked together in Shanghai, so I knew him as well. I haven't seen either of them since I left China, and yet, because of the unique circumstances that compromise international school teaching, we'd kept in touch, and as I said, having been one of my best friends in China, she is certainly still a friend today.

Kristin and Andrew were engaged, and had set two wedding dates, neither of which they reached together. Being a bride-to-be myself, my heart absolutely breaks for them, that they were not able to reach this milestone. It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. I cannot, for anything, imagine losing Joel, and I cannot fathom what Kristin is going through.

Here is what I remember of Andrew:

He was the kind of guy that made you laugh. He always had some witty thing to say, some silly joke. He was tall, and frankly, good-looking. The boy was a Harvard graduate, who taught PE and Technology in the years that I knew him. My favorite memory of him is him telling me and some other teachers about how much he loved teaching the 3 year old preschoolers. He raved about the girl who was a genius, because she could skip. :) He once told us about how a PE class with preschoolers is just a free for all- getting them all to do the same thing at once a success in and of itself. He once told a story that I possibly dare not believe about using a preschooler as a back scratcher- it went something like, "Let's pretend to be tigers! Show me your claws!" And then, he says he grabbed one by the ankles, and raised the kid above his head upside down, and well, used the "tiger claws" as a back scratcher! Lord, I would pay to see it. :)

From what I remember, Andrew was always up for a night out. Andrew ate cheap Chinese food. Andrew loved Kristin. When Andrew and Kristin were together the first time around, there was a time when he first stayed the night at her place, and telling us about his weekend, he mentioned that he had pancakes with Kristin out in Pudong on Sunday morning. We were in the staff room at lunch time, and I replied, "Gee, you must have gotten up early on Sunday to have breakfast in Pudong!" Oh how we laughed. It was real even then, it just needed the right time.

I never actually saw Kristin and Andrew as a couple in person because they only got together again after I left China. I only ever saw it in pictures. But even from their pictures, I saw a connection that I knew I wanted. You could see that they had "it".

I can't imagine that Andrew is gone. I can't imagine that he and Kristin won't get to live out their dreams together. I have no idea how to support Kristin, especially from a million miles away. It all seems way too much to handle, not right at this young age, impossible to believe that this bright, energetic, vibrant young man has taken his leave of this world.

So, it's been an emotional few days. Memorial services are planned for the 10th, which means there is no chance of attending, since we'll still be here. If you believe in such a thing, and are willing to do so, please keep my friend Kristin in your prayers, as she naviagtes this, surely one of the toughest times of her life.

Rest in peace, Andrew.