The girls and I are getting used to CGB. We are all liking it and making new friends. We are also enjoying making new friends through the embassy, as well as being reunited with old friends from Thailand who have come here as well. It's nice to feel like we already have a social group. Vivian has even gone to her first birthday party (a major social landmark), and the mom was kind enough to send me pictures of my goofy kid.
Our sea freight arrived a little over a week ago, and we are finally making this apartment into our home. We still need to hang the pictures on the walls, but things are definitely starting to look homey.
Jeff has gotten his NFL subscription set up, and Sunday is football day once again. On our inaugural football day we had six adults and three kids over. Everyone had a lot of fun, so we're planning to continue the open invite. We also got some nice balcony furniture from the embassy, so we're trying to figure out how to make use of the outdoor space for things besides weekend breakfast.
Vivian made her stage debut at CGB in the Year 5 adaptation of Aesop's fables. She played a gossiping bird. The hat didn't make the final costume cut, but she and I had a lot of fun putting the outfit together.
We found the accessories at Cachivaches, a local chain store that is kind of like Williams-Sonoma crossed with Party City. The first floor has beautiful (and expensive!) home goods, and then there are two stories of themed goods. At this time of year it's Halloween heaven. I'm curious to see what it looks like the rest of the year. We first went in because they had big cat eyes in the upstairs windows and a sign that said Halloween in big letters. We figured that was worth checking out. The second floor had one section of women's costumes, one section of men's costumes, plus Halloween decorations, and every type of costume prop and accessory you could think of. That's where we found the hat, the boa, and the yellow tights. The top floor had kid costumes. That's where Elena found her PJ Masks Gecko costume. She was THRILLED.
The girls are getting into their routines. One of our top priorities was figuring out swim lessons for both of them. One weekend we took a family walk down to Gimnasio Moderno which has a great reputation for swimming. The pool was very nice, but we were told that they only hold evaluations once a month, so we had to wait for that date for Vivian to get evaluated and start. We were a little bummed, but the girls enjoyed the sidewalk obstacle course on the way, so it was a fun outing overall.
We got Elena's lessons sorted out a bit more easily. She is having private lessons once a week in the little pool in our building.
I'm hoping that she'll figure it the whole swimming thing quickly, but I know you can't rush it. She likes her teacher, and he said she thinks she has a good attitude towards the water, so hopefully she'll figure it out sooner, rather than later. Gimnasio Moderno starts their swim lessons at 4, so it would be awesome if she could swim well enough to transition to group lessons.
After much "que pena"ing, Vivian finally got to do her swim evaluation. Apparently, Gimnasio Moderno was having trouble with their water heater, so the evaluation kept getting postponed. When the day finally came, Vivian had to wait on the bench for her turn for quite a while. I could tell she was nervous, and she mouthed to me, "Why are you making me do this?" I felt bad, but not bad enough to pull her. I was justified when she finally got in the water, and her whole face lit up. She remembered how much she loves it, and she was super excited when they put her in the same group as her friend Emma.
So, we're getting settled into our routines. I've been to PriceSmart (aka Colombian Costco) several times now.
We also go to Kayser regularly. I mean, who wouldn't if it was just down the street?
But we've also had our little excitements. The first was "Pope Day" when the Pope came to visit Bogota, and the school and embassy were closed for the day.
We're also waiting to see if Colombia will qualify for the World Cup this year. When there's a game on, it's a big deal. We even had the Colombia v. Brazil game on the bus on the way home.
It ended in a tie, but when Colombia scored, all the cars around us started honking like crazy.
At work, I had my first in-service day. Instead of just hanging out at the school, we went to a beautiful country club with gorgeous views and delicious food.
Our most recent adventure has been Elena's first major illness since we got here. She had a cold for a few days, but on Monday she had a fever and was completely listles. We decided to do medical care the Bogota way, with a house call. The embassy recommended a lovely doctor who spoke fluent English and came to the house. She gave Elena a quick check up and diagnosed tonsillitis. She then proceeded to call a nearby pharmacy and order antibiotics to be delivered to the house. It was fantastic, but we had a moment when the amoxicillin was delivered in powder form. Luckily, my new doctor friend is now available to me on WhatsApp, and she explained that there is a fill line on the bottle to tell you how much water to add. After that it was easy and Elena took her medicine like a champ.
I stayed home with Elena today, and she is already on the mend and playing math card games.
So far life in Bogota is pretty darn good.
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