Hi folks.
It’s been over two months since I’ve posted, and a lot has happened.
The large apartment we were going to rent fell through when our landlady found out that the place where her family is living will be razed next year, so they will need to move into the apartment they were going to rent us. That meant we had to find a new place. After a long, frustrating look, we ended up getting a much smaller apartment for the same price, but it’s already fixed up. We’re just going to have to repaint the walls and buy furniture, etc. We hope to move in there either Monday or Tuesday, and my 30 boxes of books will soon be unpacked for the first time in 4 years.
In CZ, we were the only foreigners. Here, we’re the latest addition to about 450 foreigners. We’ve met quite a few of them, and they are a great group of people. Because of the number of foreigners here, there’s a couple of import stores where we can get American hot dogs and chicken nuggets, plus mac and cheese, cereal, cake mixes, pancake mix, taco fixings, canned veggies, and various foreign snacks such as Reese’s and Twix.
Not only that, but there are also a few coffee shops and cafes in town, owned by foreigners, so when we feel in the mood to spend a little extra money, we can get some good western food. Then there’s also the Italian restaurant. If ever you go, you’ll more than likely bump into other foreigners there.
The boys are loving it here much more than CZ. The place is cleaner, the people are friendly, and there are other (lots!) of foreign kids they can play with. EC and N played soccer for the last 4 weeks of the season, which ended last week with a mini World Cup. EC’s team won their first game, but lost the next two. One consolation was the hot dogs from T-Fusion Cafe.
On Friday mornings, JP and EJ have been going to a little Mom’s Group, where 5 and under’s sing, listen to a story, and make a craft, and mommies get to meet with other mommies. Both of them are really enjoying their Friday outings.
After supper, we usually go outside, and the boys play soccer, run around, and since last Saturday, EC now rollerblades. We met a few of the neighbors, and the boys play with some of the bigger boys in the neighborhood. EJ’s favorite thing is a puppy named Lele. The owner has asked us to take the puppy when we move, because her mother-in-law doesn’t like a dog in the house. The boys are pretty excited about it, and EC says he’s going to rename the dog Tintin.
JP’s tummy is getting bigger with boy #4. We’re still trying to figure out a name him. I’m going back to my old joke when she was pregnant with EJ. “I want to name the boy Moe, because we have 3 sons, now we’ll have one mo’.” JP still disagrees with the name.
I’ll try to be better about updating this. After I edit some pictures, I’ll post them here.
cya