Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Power of Words

You would think I'd be running out of oddities to write about, but you would be wrong.  Today JoAnn and I were riding along, chatting while we were going to the fabric store.  As we rode, I innocently said, "There are so many crazy motorcyclists around here - I really hope I can make it through my time here without seeing one crash."  10 minutes later, as we are stopped in traffic, we suddenly hear a loud 'thump' and feel the car shake.  A guy on a motorcycle crashed into the car!  He seemed okay - he got up and rode off, but JoAnn and I were stunned.  I'm having a hard time deciding what I should wish for next, because apparently I am pretty darn powerful!

This and That

I haven't posted in such a long time - partly because we were on vacation, and partly because I couldn't figure out how to make my blog page NOT appear in German.  Somehow our internet links to Germany, so all of the headings for my blog, when I log in, are in German.  Perfect!

Our trip to Mauritius was fabulous.  I was able to spend a little quality time with my husband, and the kids had a blast.  My favorite parts were snorkeling with the older two (amazing fish in the coral + warm Indian Ocean = super snorkeling), and taking each kid separately for a special dinner with us.  It was very relaxing, and we were able to see the entire island.  I'm starting to feel very comfortable with going to new places.  Each place we go, we learn so much that we never would have known otherwise, and it's lovely to see how many friendly, kind people there are all over the world.

Adam put a ton of pictures in albums here: Horton Pictures

I don't quite feel as refreshed as I did after our Cape Town trip, but I think that's because we're in the home stretch before going back to CA this summer.  I've been pushing thoughts of home to the back of my mind for the past 6 months, knowing that I had to get through....but now it's all I can think about!  I know we are so blessed here, and have a million and one things to be thankful for - and I am.  But it's still a struggle to keep my sense of humor about the things that are ridiculously hard about living here!  Example - our remote control for the tv.  It stopped working about 2 months ago.  So - in the US, that would mean we'd drive ourselves to the store and get a new one.  Here - not so easy.  I called the maintenance supervisor, and was told that I had to send an email to maintenance.  Ok, sent an email and got no response.  Adam got tired of waiting, and had our driver take him to some back alley store where he purchased a 'new' remote.  (I say 'new' because it was clearly not, but that's not even surprising anymore!)  That worked for a few weeks, until suddenly one day, the remote inexplicably got burning hot when no one was using it. I popped it open, and the batteries were melting together!  So back to the maintenance - I thought maybe since we'd given them 2 months, they'd have a remote for us?  No - I still was told to send another email, and when they got back to me, I was promised a different remote within the next few days.  It's not such a big deal, considering there's nothing on tv worth watching anyway - but all of these tiny things that consume most of my day, and are just SO complicated....they wear on me.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, and I will attempt to brush up on my German so that I can post more often!