The Fair's in Town!

Every year around this time I find myself getting nostalgic for things I have no business being nostalgic for. Since Rob and I have been married (right at six years now), we have never celebrated Christmas in the same house more than once. That means we have moved to a different house at least once a year every year. But sometimes I imagine us being in our house of many years, the snow falling lightly outside, Rascal Flats’ Christmas album on in the background, Logan and Rob putting a train around the Christmas tree, Abby and I making sugar cookies with red sprinkles on them, and logs on the fire with stockings hung with care on the mantel. This is the part I miss. But there is so much more I enjoy about living in a foreign country. The sights, smells, and sounds are completely new each day. With my pudgy gordita baby, I feel like a celebrity because every time we go anywhere, there isn’t one person who doesn’t point, stare, and smile at me her. 

It’s great here. I mean, where else can you see four nuns in the back of a pickup truck weaving Christmas wreaths with pine tree branches? (I SO wish I had my camera for that one). Where else can you ride a ride at the fair made of old Power Wheels cars nailed to a turning metal plate? A fair came to town two weeks ago, and has yet to leave. We ventured out there the other night.

 Every ride was just one dollar, but half of the rides were being worked on by mechanics. Logan wanted to jump in the ball pit. He disappeared for a second, and I thought of all of those urban legends about… I’ll let you fill in the blank there.

After about thirty minutes in the influenza pit, Logan wanted to play a game of foosball for fifty cents, and then we tried our hand at a game where you throw money on a table and if the spinning rod lands on your coin, you get the amount of money it lands on. #Ecuavegas.

 I love how tall Rob is in this picture compared to everyone else. 

Not owning a car has been nice because no car payment, no gas budget needed, no car insurance, no upkeep, but relying on a taxi isn’t always easy. We have enrolled Logan in a weekly art and fitness class, and on the way there last week our taxi just broke down in the middle of rush hour traffic. Catching a taxi isn’t always easy either. After half an hour of sitting in the sun today trying to flag one down, we decided to just ride the crowded 25 cent bus with our car seat and stroller in tow. Logan and Rob got to sit on the floor by the door because there was nowhere else to sit. Thankfully, ladies with babies always get a seat. I swear our bus driver was auditioning for a role in the Speed sequel. It wasn’t just us gringos who thought we were going to die. The girls in the seat across from me screamed a few times too. See, the buses here sometimes play who’s got more cahones? I guess they race to see who can change lanes faster or better. I have no idea. But at one point (or more) the two buses were maybe an inch apart, barreling parallel down the hill. I think that’s all for now, just loving this adventure!

Some more pics:

Bucket List

Let's take the bus, he said. It’ll be fun, he said. We decided to go on a very short trip into town this weekend to walk around the shops, but it is a $2 taxi ride every time we want to go. So Rob thought he would show me how awesome the 25 cent bus was. Of course the one time he gets me to get on the thing, there are literally over 100 people crammed on. We got off at the first stop and walked the rest of the way. He also wants us to save about $150 at Christmas and take the 4 hour bus ride to a town called Baños- yes, there is a town named bathroom. That will be our Christmas destination. I am not excited at all about this 4 hour ride, but I suppose saving money is good. 

I love seeing the news about everyone being cold back home. Every day is still the most perfect weather here – usually around 75 degrees. It does rain almost every afternoon though, and about once a week the power goes out for a few hours. It is a little difficult to explain to my four year old who is terrified of the dark why this happens sometimes, and why the shower is lukewarm instead of hot. But I think it is great that he is getting exposed to so many new things. Speaking of the rain, these little spiders come in the windows after every rain, and they bite! I already hate spiders, but the bites are so annoying. 

Speaking of annoying, getting a visa in any country can be a little challenging. We had to get our visas before we left the U.S., but Abby was not born when we got our visas, and Rob had to be with her in order for her to get a dependent visa, so we had to wait until we got here to get her visa. Unfortunately, the school isn’t sure how to process the paperwork for her yet so we have about 50 days left until her tourist visa expires. But we still had to register my visa and Logan’s visa. This process shouldn’t be as difficult as it was. We had to take a $12 taxi into the city, go to immigration, get a number, wait for our number to be called, go to a booth, give them our passports with the visas, and the school’s paperwork, and… wait. What’s that? The customs agent at the airport messed up his stamp in my passport? That doesn’t even make sense. So in my very limited (okay, none) Spanish, I got from the immigration visa dude that we had to leave and go to the police immigration office, tell them my stamp was done incorrectly, then come back and go through the process again. Get this- the airport agent wrote in my stamp 12VII, but he should have written 12VIII. It was missing ONE line with a black pen. If I had any cahones I would have just walked out the door, waited ten minutes, taken a black pen, and put the mark there myself. Instead, we took another taxi to the policia place, watched the lady write another line in my passport, went back to immigration, waited in line again, and two hours later took a $15 taxi back home. 

In other news, Halloween was a lot of fun. I won’t go into too much detail because Rob wrote about it in his blog too, but I am glad that my kids got to experience trick or treating here. I’m still having such a great time being a mom all day. I know my time is limited until I have to go back to work (9 months), so I am soaking up every single toothless grin from Abby and every sweet hug from Logan; even if those hugs are at times a bit forced. Tonight I tousled Rob’s hair as he sat at the counter eating, and he said, “What was that for?” Because I love you, Rob. I sometimes get so wrapped up in the what’s wrong, and don’t look enough at the what’s phenomenally, jaw droppingly amazing in my life. Riding in a taxi today through this town called Guapalo, we were going over a rickety one and a half lane bridge (but somehow it has turned into a two laner), and I looked down into the abyss below – hundreds of feet down – and I started thinking, what if this bridge started collapsing right now? Now, I know I just gave a speech about looking on the bright side, so hear me out. For a brief second, I thought about the fact that in that moment, I was beyond happy. I had those I love the most right next to me. The sun was shining perfectly, not to the point of making me hot, but just enough to kiss my cheeks. If the bridge had collapsed in that moment, I realized that I have done everything on my bucket list. Because a bucket list isn’t just about seeing all of the wonders of the world, or learning more languages, or even getting in a shark tank.

 My bucket list:

1.      Love and be loved. 

Done.  Not once, but three times. 

And each day that I am allowed to fall in love with them all over again is a gift.

 I am blessed.