This is How You Pack

How hard can it be to move when the State Department sends movers to pack all your stuff, anyway?

Hard.

I've talked about the logistics before. If you have read my blog, you will have become familiar with HHE, UAB, POV...it is all there. So, dear reader, what is it that you could possibly be missing? The movers come, they take your stuff, it is all good, right?

But before the movers come, you need to sort, and you need to pack your checked luggage.

What? But I'm sending my HHE and UAB out two weeks before I move. Why would I pack my checked luggage first?

Because, dear reader, you don't know how much stuff is going to fit in your checked luggage until you actually pack it. If you send away your HHE and UAB shipments, and not everything fits into your two checked suitcases, one carry-on suitcase, and personal item (in my family, it is a backpack), you will have to decide whether to sell what is left, mail it home, or pay for extra luggage on the airplane.

In addition, if your suitcases have all of the stuff you don't want packed by the movers in them, and you lock them all away in one room, the movers won't take the stuff you want to keep. Make sure your purse, wallet, laptop, etc., all make it into that locked room. Keep your phone in your pocket if you need it, and don't even THINK of leaving it on your kitchen counter. Take all of the keys from the entire house and put them in that room. Except for the one to that room, of course, which you are going to attach to yourself.

Also, take out the trash. You don't want the movers to pack that. And they will, if you don't throw it out.

In addition to the things you want to take on the plane, you will also need to hide away your welcome kit. That's the linens and kitchen stuff, broom, mop and and maybe even a vacuum, that your post or extended stay place lent you (some posts make you keep it the whole time you are there - if not, you can ask for it to be delivered after you pack out, I would think). You will also want some basic cleaning supplies, so don't send them all away. Keep some dish soap, dishwasher detergent, sponges, laundry detergent, toilet cleaner and all-purpose cleaner locked away, or you will have to go shopping for some to replace it.

Any other items, like furniture and lamps, need to be marked or separated by whether they are yours or post's. I like little round stickers. Red is Don't Touch, green is UAB, yellow is HHE, and blue is Storage. I start marking things a couple of weeks in advance, and then I move all of my UAB into one room (not a bedroom, you'll see why later) before the pack-out, and all of my stuff going to storage in another room.

Sometimes, movers tell you they are going to pack out your HHE first, then your UAB. Oh, no, they will not. You are the boss, and your UAB gets packed first, so tell them so. You want to use all of your UAB weight allocation before you start packing HHE, and this is how you will do it:

As I said, you put your UAB all in one room. The living room would be great for this. You put the things you want most in the area of the room that is where boxes will most easily be loaded. You then place your stuff in order by how much you want it in UAB behind the box-loading area. You explain it to the movers, and then you check on them to make sure they are doing it your way every five minutes while they pack. Then, know what you might want if you happen to have extra space available for UAB.

HHE going back to storage (all of those wrong voltage appliances that you don't want to run on transformers, and clothing inappropriate for the ongoing post) get to go into another room with space for packing. If you have any furniture going back to storage, maybe it would be good to put this stuff near or on that furniture. For us, we have a loft with a dining set that will go back to storage, as we won't have room for it next post. Stuff going to storage will go on that table. I'll put all of my appliances in their boxes, which I saved, so they don't get broken. Then, I'll ask my mover to pack the appliances together with "110v appliances" listed on the outside of the box. I'll ask him to keep the clothing together in another box. I'll ask him not to combine them, no matter how much he wants to pad one appliance that doesn't have a box with my clothing. I may not want that 110v crock pot in the same country as my snowpants, so I certainly don't want them packed together, or in order to get one, I'll have to take the other (I may have learned this because of the snowboard sitting here in my storage room in Brasilia, that came boxed with the Rollerblades from MN).

HHE going to post, on the other hand, is best left in the corresponding room that it should go in when you arrive at post. That way, it can be boxed up together and labeled appropriately. When we left MN, we had emptied our house out and put things in storage rooms, so when we received all of our stuff, it was all labled "storage" and was all mixed together. As the boxes were unloaded, those of us at home had to run everything to its proper place. It was tiring. It is better to have the boxes go to their proper rooms, then be unpacked. You don't want to use a bedroom for separating your UAB or storage things, because the stuff in the bedrooms should be packed out from the bedrooms, and could get mixed up with the UAB or shipped off to the warehouse.

Don't forget to clean each room thoroughly before packing out, and making sure everything in each room belongs in that room.

One tip for when you receive your shipment at post - the movers are paid to unpack your boxes and take the empty boxes and paper away with them. Sometimes, they will try to leave after unloading it all, but all you have to do is smile and tell them it is time to start unpacking, and they will know they have been caught and will be very helpful. Figure out how to say that in the language of the country you are living in before they arrive, or have someone write it down for you.

I may not have a lot of experience with moves yet, but I have done it twice in the past two and a half years. I know what has worked and not worked from that, and from reading Trailing Houses, the private diplomat Facebook page. This is the wisdom that comes from the whole community, for those people who like to organize and be in control. I hope it helps!

Baking in Brasilia

A recent Facebook post asking about baking supplies reminded me of a few things I struggled with when I first arrived in Brasilia, so I thought a few tips with pictures might help some new people. I posted this information on Diplomatic Baggage in Brasilia, but figured this would be a good place for it, too.

#1. Flour - There are many brands, and I normally just buy the cheapest "farinha de trigo" on the shelf. I haven't noticed a difference between brands. I was looking for 5lb bags when I got here, and was surprised at how tiny they are in their little 1Kg bags (I didn't find them until I asked a friend, after trying at several stores)! Look in or near the dried bean aisle, near the farofa. You'll find it on the lower half of the shelves. (Storage tip: Put in your deep freezer. You have room in there anyway, and it will keep the bugs out.)

#2. Baking Powder - There are some people here that will tell you that this isn't available on the local market, but that is far from the truth! You can find it in any grocery store, and it is cheap. It is called "fermento em pó quimico." It is normally in the same aisle as the flour, and comes in either a blue or red container, depending on the brand. It is really cheap, and works just like back home. For some reason, the commissary has stocked up on this, but it is way cheaper at the store.

#3. Yeast - There are some people who get yeast confused with baking powder, as they are both called fermento, but this one is "fermento biológico." This one is instant dry yeast, also found in the flour aisle.

#4. Sugar - Your basic granulated sugar is just "açúcar cristal." It is a little less white here than in the U.S., but it works the same. I wanted so badly to find it in the same aisle as the flour, but alas, it was in a completely different area. If you can't find it, look in an aisle near the coffee aisle. As for brown sugar, if you are desperate, you can get it on the local market, but it is crumbly and not quite the same. Buy it from the commissary or bring some with you. (Again, store it in your freezer to keep the ants from finding it.)

#5. Where is the shortening? Not in a canister on a shelf, that's for sure! You'll find it in plastic bags in the refrigerated section. It is called "gordura vegetal." It isn't quite the same consistency as back home (it gets really soft at room temp.), so you may have to experiment a little if you plan to bake with it. I don't use it in my baking much - just for greasing pans and making pie crusts. For those purposes, it works just fine.

#6. Why do my cookies taste funny and set up differently? After experimenting for a while and getting advice from others, we realized that there is a lot of salt in the butter here. Also, the stuff in the big tubs is not good for baking unless you are in a pinch. It is too oily, as well as salty. So, buy "manteiga extra sem sal" in block form, and you will find that your cookies turn out much better. If you can't find it "sem sal," just skip adding salt in the recipe. The stores do run out of this frequently, so I stick a supply of it in my freezer whenever it is a good price. Remember that the block of butter is not equivalent to one or even two sticks. The conversion is 200g=1.76 sticks=.88 cups. In other words, if you need a cup of butter, you'll need just over one of their little blocks. I use a kitchen scale, myself.

#7. I don't have a picture of baking soda, but I'll tell you about it anyway. Look in the spices aisle, not the flour aisle. At Carrefour in Lago Sul, it is by the vinegar and oil and fruit juices. At other stores, it is in other places. There are also fresh spices in the produce sections of some stores, but you won't find baking soda there. What you are looking for is a tiny, clear plastic baggie, hanging around with all the spices in baggies. I happen to use baking soda for cleaning, as well as for baking, so I just buy it in big bags from Amazon. It is way cheaper that way. But if you just need a little to tie you over, look for "bicarbonato de sódio."

Living Amongst Monkeys

I love the wildlife here in Brasilia. I am always excited to find monkeys, however. They are a little more like squirrels than I had expected. However, they can be quite tame, as evidenced by the monkeys in my friend's back yard. My kids are hoping that they will be able to make friends with the monkeys that come to our yard this summer.

Second Tour Bidding

Second tour bidding is a bit more complicated than first tour bidding. Instead of approximately the same number of jobs on the bid list as the number of members of the officer's A-100 class, there are several hundred jobs on your bid list, and it is your responsibility to read all of the rules your CDO (Career Development Officer) emails to you and try to find 30 bids that match these qualifications to fill out your list. Below is a summary of the rules that most affected DH.

Time in Training: Because of the World Cup being held in Brazil right about the time we were supposed to arrive, we were delayed getting to post until after it was over. What we didn't realize until the bidding instructions came out was that this made it nearly impossible for DH to bid on jobs with language training this time around. There is a maximum amount of "Time in Training" for a Junior Officer before it starts to mess with being tenured within the allowed time (FSO's have an "up or out" policy), so DH was only allowed two bids on his list that went over Time in Training. The likelihood that a CDO would give him one of these bids was extremely low. Also, there were very few bids on the list that DH would consider awesome enough to jeopardize his ability to tenure. In short, DH had to bid either English-speaking or Portuguese-speaking jobs, other than two jobs.

Get out of the Country: Say goodbye to most of the Portuguese-speaking jobs, because you can't serve in the same country you are currently in.

Consular/In Cone Bids: DH did his in-cone assignment this time around, so he had to focus on making sure all of his bids had at least one year of Consular duties in them. There were very few qualifying bids on his list that were not Consular, so this was not difficult. There were a few rotations, but most of them had language training or had bad timing.

Differential: Because we were at a low differential post this time (read: not terribly different lifestyle than in the U.S., not very dangerous, either), DH would be able to look over the whole list, but wouldn't get to bid on it until everyone with high differentials had received their assignments from it. So, we got to research everything, make a preliminary list, then watch posts get removed from the list and try to come up with different bids. Or so we thought. (More on that later.) Also, because of our low differential this time, 20 of our 30 bids had to have a 15% or higher differential. Not terribly difficult to do with this bid list.

ETA: There is an extraordinary amount of math to be done when working on bid lists. This is because the bids all come with an arrival date, and you have to figure out how much training time you have to do between your TED (date you can leave post) and the arrival date to come up with an acceptable ETA. This ETA can wiggle by one month of the date on the bid list, creating Perfect (same month) and Imperfect (one month difference) bids. The math part comes up because of Home Leave, Position Training, Language Training, and Consultations. Home leave has to be no fewer than 20 business days, and no more than 45 business days. Position Training isn't necessarily going to start at the optimal time (except Consular, luckily, which starts a new class every Monday). Language Training is the sticky one. They start at only a few different times per year. Then, add in up to five Consultation days to fill in any gaps (and actually do some consultations), and you have your schedule. Now do this for each different language/position combination on the list. That's what I had to do over and over again until I discovered there was no way DH was going to fit in language training and stay under his Time in Training allowance. Also, there was only one non-Brazil Portuguese-speaking job on the list, and it was way later on the ETA. So, we were down to English only.

Perfect/Imperfect: You must bid at least 20 Perfect bids. Yeah, right. After removing from the list anything that was absolutely impossible for DH to do because of the ETA, Time in Training, and Consular requirements, we came up with exactly 32 possible bids. However, there were fewer than 20 that were Perfect bids. By the time DH was allowed to submit his bid list, there were only 24 possible bids left on the list, and only 13 were Perfect. Among the Imperfects were two that went beyond Time in Training, just to add some things to the list. The CDO had a timely vacation during the final week of bidding, so the question of "what to do now" was never answered. DH submitted the bid list as it was, and I guess that was the right thing to do, because we got our #1 bid.

Rank Order List: Unlike the A-100 "high, mid, low" ranking system, this list gets rank ordered from 1-30. They also had the officer list reasons for why they put the job on the list, and explain the math that gets them there by their ETA. About half of DH's list said that the schools looked good, about 8-10 said he had some interest in that country, and the rest that didn't say either of those basically said that there was low interest in the jobs or the schools weren't accredited, so we'd rather not, thank you! Most of the time, jobs where you really don't want to go don't go on the list, so we were a little worried about their presence on the list at all, but not too much. We had heard that normally, people get a job in their top 5. 

The Results: We heard back in about two weeks from submitting the list. In case you didn't get the importance of the flag at the top of the screen, we are going to India (specifically, Chennai), in September of 2016, where DH will be a Consular Officer. Luckily, India was a place DH wanted to go, anyway, and would have been on the list, even if the list hadn't been decimated by his Time in Training restrictions. I have always been fascinated by books I read about India, so it wasn't hard for me to get on board. DH probably would have chosen a language-designated position in India over English-speaking, though. Why Chennai over New Delhi or Mumbai? Mainly because of its better air quality, the timing of arrival, and something about it just felt right. I'm happy that we will be getting to our next post without transferring schools twice, even though the kids will be getting there about 6 weeks after school starts. I'm sure I'll be dedicating a post to that issue sometime in the future! 

Flowers

Here is a picture of our DD and some flowers at Jardim Botanico that I took on Labor Day (which is in May for most of the world, not September - extra holiday for us, yay!).

There is something about more temperate climates than MN that I just love. It is more colorful. In MN, there are about 4 months where there are flowers in bloom. Fall is absolutely lovely, with the change from greens to oranges and reds on the leaves. And yes, I do also see beauty in snow (that first hour before the auto exhaust hits it all and it turns black). An ice storm is a lovely thing to behold if the next morning is sunny. But the window for each event is so short, and they can be few and far between, leaving you in a grey, dismal world for long stretches of time. But in VA, the cold season was shorter, and there were bushes brilliant with colorful flowers I had never seen before that would never have survived a MN winter. Here in Brasilia, there are always new varieties of bushes and trees flowering, year around. This picture is just one small example. And look how it sports not only one, but two different colors on the same bush. Next time, I need to discuss birds. Or bugs. The colors here are really amazing, guys.

Traveling Teams - Softball

One of the interesting parts about going to high school overseas is that the sports teams and clubs travel for tournaments and conferences. DS2 recently flew with his softball team to the Big Four tournament in São Paulo. Our #10 was the starting pitcher, pitching all but one inning, and outfielding that inning. While the outcomes of the games weren't great, he did a great job.

We are proud of his efforts, especially as he has never been on a sports team, other than cross country running, until this school year. 

DS2 received two sportsmanship nominations from the opposing teams this tournament. 

What's Up?

I wrote an email to a friend from VA this morning, and I realized it is all stuff that could easily make up a blog post.

DS1 is enjoying missionary work. He is getting better at Spanish and is a senior companion now with his first transfer. It seems he is enjoying working with this companion more than the last, as they have similar feelings about how to work, so they are finding more people to teach.

He had starting dating a girl just a month or so before his mission, and doesn't understand now why, even though he prayed about it, he has still gotten hurt, as she quit writing to him a few months ago. We have been helping him understand that God doesn't keep us from pain, even when we make choices that He is okay with us making. The gospel is there to help us grow and give us peace, and sometimes that growth comes with a little pain.

The other kids are learning Portuguese. They had a month-long holiday break and return to school on Monday, but they have had language, math and music lessons to do each day. Changing math programs to Common Core was a little rough on them, as everything is out of order. During first semester, some units they already knew, and others needed information they hadn't learned yet. So, we use the break to fill in the gaps. Hopefully, when they return, they will only be ahead.

DH loves his job! He helped facilitate Joe Biden's trip here for Dilma's inauguration over the holidays, which was a lot of extra work, but his day-to-day job has been fulfilling for him.

DH and I were both part of a small vocal ensemble that gave a couple of Christmas concerts. It was made up of people from the UK and US embassies. We had a lot of fun!

Along with Portuguese studies for me, as well, I have been trying to clean up my diet. I seem to catch every bug that comes my way lately, so I cut out sugary snacks for the last two weeks and am feeling better. One more week to go without any for this challenge I'm doing with a friend from MN, and then I can ease back into the occasional piece of chocolate or dessert after dinner; not the daily overdose of processed sugar I was hooked on. I'm also trying to put more fresh veggies in our diet. I was really used to preparing frozen veggies in MN and VA, but they are terribly expensive here, while fresh veggies are cheap. It takes a lot more planning and preparation to buy the right amount and the right ones for meals without letting any go bad, so I have to get better at meal planning, as well. Lots to learn when you move to a new country, for the whole family!

Spread Across the Western Hemisphere

My family is spread across the Western Hemisphere this week. DS1 is in Riverside, CA, on a 2-year mission for our church, as I may have mentioned at some point. DS4 is in Pantanal, Brazil, and DS5 is in Minas Gerais. Both of them are on week-long school trips. DS3 will be leaving on Friday for the weekend to attend SPMUN, which is being held (as the first two letters indicate) in São Paulo. So, we look like this (or will on Friday, at least):

You can see what kinds of cool things DS4 and DS5 are doing on the school website, here: https://sites.google.com/a/eabdf.br/middle-school-trips/home/2014-pantanal

But I will mention that DS4 has already been piranha fishing and on a nighttime safari, just to get you interested. There is also snorkeling down a river in his future. Apparently, some of the kids on the trip have been a little unruly at times. DS4 assures me that he was in the other group. DS5's trip has been more of an historical adventure. I don't have a child on the Amazon trip, but DS5 should be going on that one next year, so you can see what is in store for him in the future, if you want to.

So, the house is a little quieter here this week. Today, DD & I walked to the produce stand after she got off the school bus. After we made our purchases, I saw the pile of coconuts the gal was selling, and asked how she opens them. She showed me a cool tool, similar to an apple corer, but with a sharper point. She said they cost around R$20 (about USD $9). She proceeded to open the coconut with it at the core and stick a straw in the hole she created. She gave it to me, and said we didn't have to pay for this one. I'd say that was a good move. She will have a return customer. I found coconut water to be pretty gross when I tried it from a container in the grocery store, but DD and I liked it fresh. As I understand it, we can open up the coconut and eat the flesh when we are done drinking it. We'll see if we have a knife sharp enough to handle the job.

We still await our HHE shipment. It has been at the 8 days to delivery stage for a week and a half now, so hopefully we are getting close. DH's boss was supposed to be getting hers this week, but was just told that isn't happening. She has been here for five months, and has been at the 8 days to delivery stage for over a month. I'll chalk up some of her delay to the World Cup, but it really isn't looking so good for us right now, is it? I guess I can hope for sometime in October.

***Update***

I just looked at Find My Friends, now that it is evening and DS4&5 should be in their hotel rooms for the night. This is cooler than the earlier map I made, even though it doesn't have DS1 on it, and DS3 hasn't left for São Paulo yet.

How do I Organize a Pack-Out?

It has occurred to me that there are a lot of things a new FSO family doesn't think about when packing for the first move to DC. I believe I described the allowances for HHE and UAB and airline baggage elsewhere, so I will leave that for you to find elsewhere on my blog. Here are some tips I just gave a newbie on Facebook:

If you don't know where you are going, that can make this more difficult. You want to consider what electronics you would and wouldn't be willing to run from a transformer if at a 220 post (things with heating elements should go in boxes marked to stay behind at a 220 post, and make sure the movers don't mix in anything else). Try to make sure those things you might want to leave behind are in boxes separate from other things. We lucked out because in Brasilia they converted many houses to 110, and we got one of them, because our movers packed things together that otherwise we would have wanted to leave in storage. Ice skates packed with rollerblades is fine if you are in a cold climate, but not in Brazil...Also consider if you get assigned to an apartment, will you want your gardening supplies and snow shovels? Make sure they don't pack them with your standard tool set, or you will have to take it all when the time comes. Also, confirm in advance a second HHE shipment on your orders for when you leave DC, as you are bringing stuff in your minivan, or else you will have too much stuff to go in UAB. Sometimes I hear that it is tricky to convince them to do it if you have only a short stay in DC. We had 11 months, so it wasn't a problem for us. Finally, watch your packers! Insist on a small crew so you can see what they are packing and make your own inventory list, as theirs won't be nearly detailed enough. Set your pack-out date for at least 2 weeks before your move so you have time to put your foot down and reschedule if they don't want to cooperate with agreed terms. If you feel rushed by them, you will cave, and then you will regret it for years when you discover stuff is in storage that ought to be at post. (End of FB post)

I have been thinking a lot about things I wish had come in our UAB and didn't, due to our rush at our last move, as well as due to the fact that we were moving into an apartment initially. Here are things I want to remember next time.

Laundry baskets

Small rugs

Trash pails

Panty liners

Crock pot (or buy one immediately if at a 220 post, but if shipping, make sure it is in its original box)

Shark

Sandwich baggies

Ziplock bags

Get Out of Town!

Last night, we took the kids to the embassy for happy hour. I had read in a recent CLO (Community Liason Officer) email that there would be a happy hour, but I had ignored it. I'm a Minnesotan; happy hour is where single adults go to drink and meet people where I am from. But when the kids came home from school, most of them (without even hearing the others tell me) told me that their friends were all going to happy hour, and could we go, too? After our youngest daughter, age 6, asked, we finally realized that there must be more to happy hour than drinking.

Sure enough, the soccer and basketball courts and the playground were full of kids, so we stayed a couple of hours and let the kids have fun. DH and I talked to other parents, and while we were there, I received an invitation to go shopping to a market out of town with another EFM (Eligible Family Member - what all of us spouses and children of people in the mission are called). So, this morning, we took off at 9am and arrived in Paranoá about 20 minutes later.

I finally felt like I was in another country. The town looked a lot more like what I had seen in Santiago, Chile, a couple of years ago. The stores we went two were little, crowded shops, with incredible pricing. I spent the equivalent of $35 USD on groceries that would have cost double or triple if I had gone to one of the local grocery stores. I'd say that the prices were even better than in the U.S. I got 8.25 lbs of apples, 2.25 lbs of bananas, one large avocado, three ripe tomatoes, and several pounds of baking potatoes at the produce market. From the butcher, I got 4.4 lbs of ground beef, and on the street there was a rotisserie chicken vendor, and I got one large chicken from him. $35 total. I'm going back every Saturday, now that I know about it.

UAB Arrived! HHE and POV at Port (I think)

Our UAB arrived just over a week ago. It took seven weeks from our arrival date, and that is really good for Brasilia (in most of the world, I hear it is normally two weeks). I may have mentioned how messed up our pack-out was. The movers' late arrival, and subsequent haste to get packed quickly, led to only the first two boxes containing what we really wanted in our UAB. The other four boxes were a jumbled mix of stuff.

Next move, I will not only put colored stickers on everything, but I will also divide up each room into piles. That way, if push comes to shove, we won't just give up and let the movers load up whatever they touch first into the UAB.

Things I will never allow to be shipped in UAB again: ceramic dishes and pictures. The packers actually put six of my small plates in a stack with only one sheet of paper in between them. Guess how many pieces they were in when they arrived? Your guess is as good as mine...I can't count that high. I also lost a large plate and several bowls and mugs. Luckily, it was just my cheap IKEA set, so it wasn't a big financial loss. Unfortunately, IKEA doesn't sell my set online, so I can't replace them unless I get a family member to go shopping, wrap them up really well, and send them to me (any volunteers?). DS1's Cross Country photo frame glass was the other major casualty. There is really no good reason for DS1's stuff to be in our UAB, since he isn't even here with us, but we have a cupboard full of his stuff already. It was definitely marked yellow for HHE.

Things I wish were in my UAB: laundry baskets and trash pails. I only brought two laundry baskets to VA with us, and they didn't make it here in the UAB. I will definitely want laundry baskets next time around. I miss them very much. Really. Okay, throwing laundry over the banister down to the main floor is kind of fun, but then I have to pick it all up, and...well, you can't throw laundry back up the stairs. Trash pails would also be nice. I did get one in the UAB, which happened to be my bedroom pail. I appreciate it very much, and wish all the children had their trash pails, too. Today I swept up a pile of pencil shavings off my younger boys' bedroom floor. Maybe I am completely wrong here, but I imagine my children actually using the trash pail if there is one. *Dreams*

We are told our HHE and POV are in Rio. That means that they might be in Brasilia by the end of the month! However...I am a little concerned by the email we were copied in on the other day. It was from the guy in charge of shipments on this end asking the guy on the D.C. end for the bill of lading for our second HHE shipment. My thought is that if they didn't get that along with the other one, we may find out that there is only one shipment at the port, not two. Let's cross our fingers that it isn't so. It has been over a year since we have seen the bulk of our HHE, and our kids, especially, miss their stuff. There are a few things in there that I'd like to see, as well.

As for the POV, I am hoping for speedy travels. Once it gets here, it can be a couple of months, still, before it gets plates and we can drive it. I am starting to go a little bonkers without a car. We have a minivan from the motor pool on weekends, which is wonderful, but it was a little disconcerting when we had to have our kids call a taxi to get home from their basketball game the other night. They had never been in a taxi before, and their first time was in a foreign language. At least there is an app for that.

What to Expect in Brasilia (Focusing on Prices)

I was told several things about Brasilia that I didn't find to be accurate once I got here. The first was that everything is 3x the cost here compared to the U.S. This is not true. There are things that cost 3x as much as in the U.S., but it is far from everything.

We went shoe shopping for our kids' athletic activities last weekend. Athletic shoes cost exactly the same here as they do in the U.S. if you go to the right store. I had been warned that shoes would cost more, but having bought shoes for growing boys a lot in the past year, I knew what current prices were.

Food might cost 3x as much as in the U.S. if you are accustomed to buying prepared foods. Breakfast cereal is terribly expensive. Ice cream is really that expensive. Oats are nearly impossible to find, and when you do find them, they are expensive. Peanut butter is crazy expensive - around $10/lb (one small jar). However, some of these items can be purchased at the commissary, if you are with the embassy. Peanut butter is still more expensive there than back home, but I can handle $3.74/lb, as the cost is seriously offset by produce prices. I was also warned about olive oil, but haven't noticed the price or quality issues I had heard described.

If you normally shop around the outside edges of the supermarket (produce, dairy, deli, meat), you will find that most foods you buy are at or below the prices you will find in D.C., with the exception of milk. Milk is more expensive, but not as bad as I was thinking it might be. I was also told that it was hard to find, but it is everywhere. Maybe it is harder to find in Asa Sul or Asa Norte, but in Lago Sul, I have seen it at every grocery store. It is in 1 liter bottles or bags. The bags are cheaper, and for those of you in the upper midwest, they resemble the bagged milk at Kwik Trip, but are half the size. One bag of milk will cost somewhere between $.75 and $2 USD. Different stores seem to have widely varying prices, and there are frequent sales at some stores. The bottled milk tends to be about $.50 USD higher than bagged. It is certainly more convenient, but the quantity we go through has made me a fan of the bags. Chicken and beef are the meats of choice here for our family. We tried sausage once and didn't like it, but maybe we need to experiment with more varieties before we make a decision on it. Beef is pretty cheap here. Ground beef is about the same price as back home, but steaks are a fantastic price here, and the cuts are high quality. Chicken is about the same price as back home, but not as well-cut. We can even get rotisserie chickens from a nearby grocery store, and they cost about what they did back home...maybe a little more than Costco, but about the same as a regular grocery store.

The difficulty buying oats surprised me, but I had to laugh when I finally found the flour after searching the grain aisle for 10 minutes. They put it in 1 Kilo bags. That's about 8 cups of flour per bag. I'm used to dealing with 25 lb. bags of flour at a time, so I bought about 10 to satisfy my cookie-making sons. As for the price, I think it was a little higher than back home, but don't quote me on that one. I was in a hurry and didn't calculate it out fully. That's one thing about this new lifestyle...we get a COLA adjustment, and it means that I don't have to be as careful with our grocery budget. It is there to make up for the areas where things cost more.

The other items in Brasilia that are seriously expensive are housewares. Some things line up with prices back home, but then other things don't. For example, pillows. I figured we would buy pillows here, as we threw ours out in MN and used the ones that came with our furnished apartment in VA. We have pillows in our welcome kit, but ought to buy our own. Pillows that look like cheap Target pillows back home cost about $15 or $20 USD. I'm thinking I'll see whether I can order vacuum-sealed pillows on Amazon so they don't constitute a bulk shipment.

I'm not sure why so many people told us that prices were so high here. One guess is they haven't lived in the U.S. for a while. Milk used to be $1/gallon in the States not that long ago. Now, it is $2.50-$3.50 per gallon, depending on the state. I can also remember when I could get cereal for $1/box without going coupon-crazy. Nowadays it isn't uncommon for it to be upwards of $4/box. But I can see where if someone lived outside of the U.S. for the past decade, they might not have a good basis for comparison. Food prices really inflated after corn started being used for Ethanol production.

I am really glad we have the commissary, though! There are certain items you just can't get here. Salsa, certain chips, cake mixes, syrup, peanut butter, jam...I love the commissary. In fact, I think I will go there now.

Catching Up: POV, HHE, UAB and Luggage

My last two posts were separated by a large gap, during which life was really busy with getting ready for our move. Since one of my purposes of this blog is to help new FSOs with exactly those things that went on during those last months in D.C., I had better do a little catching up.

The Test:

First, I should mention that my husband passed his Portuguese exam with flying colors. He got the examiner he was afraid to get (he had her as a substitute in class and she was rude, mean and scary), and someone who didn't even speak Portuguese was the assistant examiner (I think there is a term for that person, but I can't recall it at the moment). DH says that this most likely resulted in the lowering of his score by a half point on the speaking portion. At one point, he gave him something extremely convoluted to translate to the examiner (translation isn't even supposed to be part of the test), and since the examiner herself didn't exactly know English enough to be able to make the leap between both languages and understand what the other guy had him translate, she thought DH made a big mistake, which he knows he didn't. Ugh. But he did get the highest score of anyone in his section - tied with one of his classmates, who got a half point higher on speaking than reading, the opposite of his.

One thing to understand about language learning at the FSI is that each department is a little different. Some departments try hard to work spouses into the full classes, and other departments try really hard not to. Some have extremely high failure rates, despite being fairly easy languages, and other departments have higher pass rates. Occasionally, a department gets so puffed up with how hard a language they are that other departments start failing more people just to show that they are a tough language, too.  This is what we get when we have foreign nationals in charge of teaching languages. On the positive side, native speakers are better teachers of their languages because they understand their own languages better than non-native speakers. It is also easier to pick up a native accent when you learn from a native, and the opportunity to learn about the culture and nuances of the language is invaluable. On the negative side, natives have pride issues; it is to be expected. I am sure if this sort of institution exists in other countries where Americans are teaching alongside other foreign nationals, they suffer from the same malady.

The Move:

I don't know how well everything went yet, as we have only been in Brazil for a month and don't have our stuff yet, but this is what we know...

I scheduled the POV shipment well in advance, and completed all of the required paperwork, both for the transportation coordinator and for post. I got a little nervous when, the day before it was scheduled to be picked up, the transportation company didn't call to confirm. I shot an email over to our transportation coordinator, and he confirmed it for us. (I have to say that the transportation guys are awesome. They answer questions quickly and get stuff done in a hurry.)

Since we have a large family, we have a large van. When I say large, I mean 12-passenger E-350. The State Department will pay for normal-sized vehicles to be shipped (up to 800 Cubic Feet), but ours was 833 cubic feet, so we had to pay for the overage, which amounted to around $900. We considered selling it and buying something once we got here, but after looking at the prices in the newsletters from post, we decided that we would have to spend three to five times what we would get for our van in D.C. on a vehicle in Brasilia, so we shipped it. We hear it is likely to take between 3-5 months to get here. Yes, even after paying for rental cars and the like, we will do better just shipping it. Our post is unusual in how long things are transported to post, by the way. Most places don't have such long wait times.

I also scheduled the pack-out of our HHE and UAB well in advance. I missed the part where the Transition Center moving guide suggested scheduling the pack-out 2 weeks in advance, in case issues arose, and scheduled it for the Thursday before the move. We had to be out of our apartment on Monday by noon, and we were to leave for post on Wednesday. On Wednesday, we got a call confirming our pack-out for between 2-5pm on Thursday. On Thursday, DH had the day off to help sort HHE and UAB and help with the move. The movers called at 4pm and said they were running late. At 7:00pm I started getting nervous and started calling and emailing all of our contacts. No response. At 7:30pm the movers arrived, to my relief and annoyance. Only two men showed up to start. They didn't have all of the right boxes, but started on the UAB, with a box that I learned after the second team of two arrived was smaller than they ought to be using, which probably decreased the amount we could have packed into UAB. They weighed UAB as they went...I never heard what the HHE weighed in the end, although they promised to email me the next day and let me know. Hopefully we won't be surprised in the end. By the end of the night, there were six or eight movers. I was so tired I don't remember exactly.

Since I heard on the boards that UAB and HHE typically arrive within a week or two of each other in Brasilia (again, not typical of other posts across the globe), we had them pile clothing and other items that didn't need wrapping and really filled space in the UAB to maximize our weight allowance. All weights include packaging materials. UAB's weight also includes crates, so packing them full of items that filled the boxes made sense to me. That way, there would be fewer boxes, packed more densely. They typically add 10 pounds to each box to account for crating. HHE weights don't include any crates, so putting items that needed wrapping or were awkwarly-shaped automatically qualified for HHE, since we aren't working with shipments that will arrive months apart. Of course, as soon as the second team of workers arrived, they just started putting whatever they wanted into the UAB and my instructions went unheeded for the last couple of boxes. Hopefully that didn't mess up my carefully-devised plan.

The movers were at our apartment until after 12:30am. When the movers hadn't yet arrived at 7pm, I had gone online to figure out what to do, and one thing I read was that we could turn away movers after 5:30pm. While I could have refused them, I didn't feel I really had that option. The movers already had jobs scheduled for the next day, and I seriously doubted that they would come back first thing in the morning. Since we had to be out by Monday, we let them in and let them stay, while our children fell asleep on couches. It was not ideal, but I did not feel we had a choice. Next time, we will schedule our pack-out for two weeks ahead of our move.

Traveling:

Brasilia may have some long waits for UAB and HHE, but one advantage to all of Brazil is the two bag/70 lbs. per bag allowance on planes. All State Department moves get two bags, but they are normally just 50 lbs. each. What this means is that each of our family members could have two checked suitcases (totaling 140 lbs), one carry-on suitcase, and one backpack. Have I mentioned we have a family of 8? Yeah, we could have had 32 pieces of luggage. We had 31, due to a miscalculation on my part. See, before you leave D.C., you can ask to see your HHE at the warehouse in Haggerstown. You can even pull a few boxes. There was this one box that said "suitcase" on the inventory list, and I knew we didn't have our large red suitcase with us, so I figured that was what was in that box.When I got home with that box that said "suitcase" on it, I found it was my scrapbooking tote. This was not useful, and got packed back into HHE from the apartment. I subsequently forgot to purchase one last suitcase. Thus, 31 instead of 32.

One good reason not to have too many packers pack your house is so that you can try to do a little bit of inventory on your own as they work. Supposedly, we can tell moving companies that we want fewer packers. As I have figured out that you never really get a choice in any of this, I think that next time, I will label all items (or at least groups of items) and ask the movers to use my labels as their inventory descriptions. 

Anyway, I forgot to buy another suitcase, so we ended up with 31 instead of 32. Also...make sure you check over all of the suitcases and instruments/instrument cases when you are still in your destination airport. We discovered after we got home that our son's French Horn case was cracked open and the horn has a weld that is broken. This is a super-cheap horn, luckily, but we don't know whether this happened on the plane or in the parking lot when DH tipped over an entire cart full of luggage. If we knew it happened on the plane, we could have filed a claim, but we were tired and were not as observant as we should have been.

DH just told me that our UAB is being cleared through diplomatic customs right now, and that he was told that it typically takes 3 days, but not to hold my breath. It has only been a month since we arrived, and I was told to expect about two months, but we have recently heard of some coming through in six weeks, so it could be sometime soon. POV and HHE are on the ship, expected to hit the port close to September. Customs normally delays things for quite a while after that, so I won't hold my breath on those, either. However, things are sounding better than I had been told to expect.

Speaking of that, my next post will be on the difference between what I had been told to expect and how I perceive things to actually be.

A Minha Vida no Brasil

Swimming in the Backyard

I forgot to make an update on our arrival time to post. We actually got moved up to July 17th in the end, so we have now been here for almost three weeks. We moved right into our house, which normally doesn't happen at this post. However, our sponsor is in charge of housing, and they had an interest in not putting a family of 8 in temporary housing, so they made it work.

I love Brasilia! I don't know where to begin, so I will just make a list of the things I love, followed by the things that are a little weird or I don't love so much.

Love:

The weather! It is winter here, and winter is almost perfect. It is between 73 and 80 during the days. There is rarely rain; it rained twice, briefly, a week or so ago when it got a little cooler than normal. The is such low humidity here that the rain dried up in no time flat.

Don't Love: 

Dryness. It is around 10-15% humidity here during the winter. I was warned, and I brought a humidifier for my bedroom, which was great until I was woken up by a "drip, drip, drip" one morning this week. The float had malfunctioned, and the entire contents of the holding tank were spilling onto my dresser and floor. No damage, luckily, but I am afraid to use it again, and by the time I get another one, winter will almost be over and I can expect rain for an hour each day to keep the air moist.

Love: 

Our house! This house is amazing. It has four large bedrooms, and each has plentiful closet space and its own bathroom. Three of the bathrooms have showers and jacuzzi tubs. They are all on the upper level. The master also has a sunroom, complete with hammock hooks. I haven't bought a hammock yet, but it is in my poans. I need to work on that, because there are also hammock hooks in the sunroom off the loft, in the front yard on the porch and in the back yard on the porch and by the churrasqueira. If we tried to fill all the hammock hooks, we could probably have a hammock for each family member.

Anyway, the upper level houses our bedrooms, a sunroom, and a loft area, which is our family room. The main level has our living room, dining room, den, kitchen, T.V. room, weird room that looks like it may have once housed a hot tub (in the middle there is a hole where you can sit down in a square - I need some throw pillows to put in there for the kids), and finally, the servant's quarters, complete with laundry room, pantry, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a "drive room." The drive room is a room right off the driveway where we can put shelving and keep car-related stuff, as there is no garage. There is also a small basement storage room, which is kind of musty-smelling, but clean. I may put potatoes in there during the summer to keep them fresh longer.

In the back yard, there is a churrasqueira, which I mentioned previously. That is a brick barbecue. It has a counter and lots of cupboards next to it. Behind it are a sauna and bathroom with shower. The pool is right across from it. The pool is very nice, and has a nice fence around it to keep little kids out.  My kids can all unlock the gate, but understand the rules and don't go in without me watching. There is also an outdoor shower, for those who would rather shower outside in cold water instead of walking five feet to the bathroom behind the churrasqueira where there is hot water. They have only swum twice, as it is a little on the cool side yet (overnight temps get into the 50s at times).

Behind the pool is a beautiful garden, complete with fruit trees, flowers, a fire pit, and raised pathways, which I imagine will be nice when the rainy season hits. Two duplex doghouses and a storage room (for garden tools, lawn mower, etc.) are just off the garden. One of the doghouses will be put to use in a few weeks when the kids dog-sit for someone at the embassy. There is even a doggie shower and basin on the side of the shed.

Behind the garden is a soccer field. It isn't quite regulation size, but is about the size of a basketball court or maybe a little bigger. 

All of this comes fenced in with a tall, decorative-spiked fence, enclosing the whole property. The back of the house also has an additional set of floor-to-ceiling gates along the back porch of the house. Nobody is cracking into this place.

Don't love: 

The security system. I have set it off a few times and had embassy security come by to check on us. Oops! But I am getting the hang of it. The driveway gate is also a problem. It came off its track and isn't functioning right now, but when it works and when I remember to close it so I don't get a visit from the security detail who drives by regularly, it is fine. But, the top rail is probably the exact height of our van, which means we may have to park on the street when it gets here. No big deal, as it is an old van, but we will have to make sure not to leave anything in it that someone would want to steal, like cell phone chargers and the GPS. It is just a minor annoyance, not a major sacrifice.

Love:

The embassy. The family is welcome to utilize the facilities any time, and the kids can even get dropped off here instead of at home after school. There is a cyber cafe for lounging around. There are exercise rooms, a swimming pool, a brand new playground, tennis courts, soccer fields, a sand volleyball pit, medical unit, cafeteria, commissary, and there are language classes, which I am starting today.

Don't Love:

The continual transportation anxiety. Our van will not be here for 2-4 months, so until then, we have limited options. The kids and DH have busses to take them to school and work that are provided by the embassy. But grocery shopping and getting to church are up to us. We depended on our sponsors the first week. They have been truely amazing! Last week, we rented a car. We totally ignored all of my ingrained rules for seat belts and double-buckled and went without the booster seats when we drove to the school for admissions testing and to church for meetings. We thought we would be without a car for a while, but my husband's boss went on vacation today and gave him her car for the duration of her trip, so I have a way to grocery shop and get to the school if I end up with a sick kid. After that, we will probably rent a motor pool minivan, which is available on the weekends, to do our shopping, and I will just have to use taxis if I need to go anywhere else.

I really do love it here. I am sure I could go on about church here and school, but I think that will have to wait for another day, as I need to go deal with returning the rental car (harder than it sounds). I will also quickly mention that DH got to spend his birthday in the Amazon. He had a really nice trip.

Tchau!

DH's Birthday, our Anniversary, our Brazil date...

For my DH, life began August 1st. We became a family on August 1st. Now, our new lives as expats are scheduled to begin on August 1st! While that is what the official paperwork says, it can move a little bit when we work out the details. I have heard that they like Thursday arrivals at posts, so we can probably count on that being moved up a day. Of course, if they can take us a week or two earlier, I wouldn't mind...

Since last I wrote, we finished up DS1's mission paperwork and doctor/dentist visits and he had an interview with the bishop. After the bishop receives a completed copy of the medical form (the doctor forgot to fill out a section and has re-sent one), DS1 will just have an interview with the stake president and his papers will go to Salt Lake. It shouldn't take too long for us to hear back after that.

I was wrong about that groundhog thing. I will admit that Phil may have been right this year. I thought that I had seen my last snowfall for two years two weeks ago, but there have been a few since, and there is still a chance of snow in the 10-day forecast. I think the coats will have to last another few weeks yet. March is supposed to start out in the 40s and 50s, but after a couple of days we are back to highs in the 30s. Yuck. I can hear my Minnesota friends offering me their sincerest condolences right about now. Let me remind them that I lived there for 38 YEARS and I deserve warmth. 'Cause I do. 'Cause I said so.

I am pleased to report that I have discovered a few second-hand stores that I am in love with. Unique is huge and I knew the chain already. It seems to have a steady turn-around of stock. There is also a little shop that is run by a local hospital system close by, a Goodwill not too far away, and another Goodwill right next to the FSI. So far, I have found a really durable, humongous duffel bag for $12 that will be perfect for checked baggage, as well as the two remaining carry-on suitcases that we needed. I have been looking for alternatives to capris for Brazil. I know some Mormon women are able to pull of shorts, but with my long legs, I haven't found any that are long enough. While we will have A/C in our bedrooms, common rooms won't have it at all. I have found a cute skirt and a dress so far that will do for casual wear. I also found a really nice dress that would work for a more formal brunch. I wish my sewing machine weren't in storage. I suppose I can put some material and patterns in my luggage and make some skirts when I get there. But, in the meantime, I will keep scoping out the thrift shops. I have to keep looking for duffel bags, anyway.

DH and I both took some tests this week. Mine was just the ACT Business Writing test. If I ever want to work at post, this test may help me get a job. It was easy. After passing the English Composition CLEP test a few years ago, I wasn't expecting it to be too hard, but after taking it, I have to say that it was a breeze. DH's test was more important and more difficult. He had his last formal assessment before his big Portuguese test in April. They do these every 8 weeks throughout the course to make sure they are keeping up. His came in at at least a 2+/2+. The examiner said she figures he is at a 3 in reading, but their informal test only goes up to 2+, so she couldn't tell. He needs a 3/3 to pass the test, so he is in really good shape! He mainly needs to eradicate a little more Spanish from his vocabulary. We don't anticipate anything but an examiner's bad day to get in the way of him passing the test. I'm really proud of him!

Daydreams

We are somewhere between four and six months from leaving for Brazil. The logistics are a little overwhelming, especially since we don't yet know when we are leaving, which means we can't get our housing assignment yet, which further means we can't do certain things, like buy small appliances that we will need if we get a house that has 220V electricity (homes owned by the U.S. in Brasilia were once re-wired to 110V, but they quit that practice and we could end up with either type). We still have to make a decision as to whether to sell our cars here and buy either one or two there, or possibly one here and one there. While these cause a little stress, I have one little bit of logistics that has a happy place in my daydreams. Wardrobes.

While chatting with DS6 before school today, I could barely focus on what he was saying. All I could think was how happy I would be to throw away his coat. Its zipper is broken, it has stains on it, and he is my youngest son. Easy decision - it goes. Folding laundry allows my daydreams to go wild. Frayed cuffs make me wonder whether the owner could get away with one fewer pair of pants now, or whether I need to hold onto them for just a little bit longer. Long-sleeved shirts in the possession of my three youngest children get mentally marked for the charity box, and I count down the days until Spring (the groundhog may think it is another 6 weeks, but I am pretty sure they won't last through the end of the month).

I am pretty sure my own closet will be nearly empty when I remove my winter wardrobe. When I look at what I have for Spring/Summer, I see 4 blouses, two skirts, two pairs of light slacks and the formal gown I bought for next year's Marine Ball. My dresser contains a half-dozen t-shirts and two pairs of capris. The shoe rack is only sporting one pair of flip-flops, some hiking sandals and a pair of Converse that are heavily grass-stained. I need to go shopping. In the meantime, what of the winter clothes will I keep in HHE, what will I bring with me in case of a visit to a cold climate, and what will go to charity? Decisions, decisions.

DH's wardrobe is pretty easy. He will be wearing suits to work and on Sundays to church in Brazil. He needs a few outfits for evenings, Saturdays and holidays, and he needs a tux for special events, like the Marine Ball. One of his suits has a shine to it, so if we buy two, he should be good to go. Maybe another pair or two of dress shoes is in order, as well.

Then, of course, there is DS1. He will submit his mission papers in about 2 weeks, after his final doctor's appointment. Who knows when he will be leaving? If sooner, we can pack him up and load him off before we leave for Brazil, and the wardrobe choices will be pretty obvious. If later, we take him to Brazil with us and send him off from there. Will he need another suit? He seems to have stopped growing, so he has one that should work for him. Anything in his wardrobe that is decent can be saved for his younger siblings, so making decisions as to what to do with his clothes won't be tough.

The middle children will be the toughest to make decisions about. What clothing is worth saving for younger siblings? What size is the smallest I will need in the future? Should I bother taking some winter clothes with us to Brazil in case of a visit to a cold climate? I imagine our R&R will be in the summer, but what if something else comes up? Is there room in our 7,000 lb shipment for even a set of winter clothes for each child? If I give up bringing something else and have to buy it for 3x the U.S. price, would the just-in-case mentality be worth it? Maybe buying new stuff in said cold climate if we happen upon one would make more sense. The kids' coats are all worn out. I knew it could be our last year with them, so I didn't buy any new ones this year (other than for DD), as they each had one that fit, even if they were a little worse for the wear. DD's won't fit her in another year, anyway, so what's the point of keeping that? I certainly won't buy her a new one on the off-chance she will need it.

I will continue daydreaming. If you have any advice, please be free with it. I like to think of every scenario, and when I miss something obvious, I kick myself. For example, when we packed for VA, we thought, "We won't need transformers and plug adapters until we get to wherever we are going, so they go in HHE." Newsflash - HHE doesn't arrive in the new country for 2-6 months, during which time, we will need those. I have no idea which box they are in, so I don't think we will be getting them before we leave unless they happen to be in another box we remove before we go. Drat!

Radio Silence e eu falo português

I am sorry that I haven't posted in a while. Between Portuguese classes and the holidays, I haven't had a chance. I just realized that, although I posted on Facebook, I never posted here that we are going to Brasilia, Brazil sometime around June. I started Portuguese classes and time flew! DH is enrolled in a 24-week course, but they didn't have room for me in it, so I got to take just the 8-week FAST course.

We both went to classes from 8:30am-5:30pm, Monday through Friday. My course ended the Friday before Christmas. It was pretty intense. In just 8 weeks, I exceeded where I ever was in either German or Spanish from high school and self-study. The Spanish helped, of course. Portuguese has a lot of cognates and similar grammatical rules, so I was able to catch on quickly. I am able to speak (or at least read and write) in the present, imperfect, preterit, present continuous, imperative and future (the vou/vai/vamos/vão + infinitive kind of future) forms. I have fairly good pronunciation. Unfortunately, my old brain isn't doing very well at processing what other people are saying very quickly. I can understand anything thrown at me by Pimsleur or Mango, but when it comes to having a conversation with a native speaker, I need to tell them, "Você poderia falar mais devagar, por favor!" or else I get lost. Okay, I still get lost, even then, sometimes. But I am determined to succeed.  

The good news is that I get to start a distance course later this month. I will get to pick up where I left off in an online format, and each week I will get a 45-minute call from a native Brazilian mentor. I'm not going to progress like DH is, but at least it is something. Living in almost any other country, one can find English speakers and get by, but that isn't the case in Brazil. In order to run my household, I will need to be able to buy groceries and clothes, connect internet service, and do just about everything else in Portuguese. 

DH gave me a gift certificate to a Brazilian salon in MD for Christmas (mani-pedi time!). They don't speak English there. I am going to have to get brave and make an appointment after the kids go back to school next week. Speaking on the phone is the worst for me. Having no body language to clue me in just makes the whole experience worse. Oh, well, what do I have to lose?

DH, the kids, and I all got diplomatic passports, and we also got the kids tourist passports (we already had them). DH is working on visas, and I have gotten the kids' school application paperwork turned in. That was a project! There are still two school counselors who have not completed their part of the paperwork and turned it in, but they have promised to do it next week. I hope we won't have any problems getting into the school. We felt pretty good about the school we decided on. We had multiple choices, and it was a hard decision. I don't want to have to re-make it if something doesn't work out. There is a waiting list, so we will see...

The holidays went well. My in-laws came for Thanksgiving, and we enjoyed spending time with them. We visited the National Zoo with them, which was really enjoyable. There is an Amazon area there, which has all sorts of monkeys. We saw some of the kinds that we can expect to see in our own back yards there. We are all excited about monkeys! Also, we can expect to have some kind of cool trees in our yard, like avocado, banana, lemon, lime or cocoa. That will be cool! There is also a good likelihood that we will have a backyard pool, as well as a brick barbecue. We will find all of that out closer to our move date, of course. 

DH and I did our Christmas shopping on date nights, as well as another extra Saturday or two, and utilized Amazon.com a bit, as well. I think the kids appreciated our efforts. We went pretty small this year, as we have limited space in our little apartment, and considering that we have a weight limit for our shipment to Brazil. We didn't do all that weeding out of our stuff back home just so that we could replace it with more junk. The highlights were DS1's pottery classes, DS3's piccolo, three mini quad copters for DS2, 4 & 5, electronics kits for DS6, and a princess castle that makes Play-Doh dresses and princes to go along with three Disney Princesses for DD. It even squirts out Rapunzel hair from the top of the tower. 

I should mention that, although DD, DS5 & DS6 had a lot of fun mixing all of the Play-Doh colors together so that they could make the aforementioned hair stretch nearly all the way across the living room, the Doodle Car that we got her was more of a hit with her. Have you seen these? 

You can either draw or print out a track, and the car will follow the line. DD gave one to a friend for his birthday in November, and she has been begging for one ever since. She and DS6 played with it a ton on Christmas Day. We let them draw all over the backs of the remnants of the Christmas wrapping paper (they got a good 20 feet off of those rolls, I'd say). Then, they printed out and taped together a bunch more from the Doodle Car website.

Last night, for New Year's Eve, DH and I played Settlers of Catan with the younger kids while the older three went to the church dance. We all stayed up late and slept in this morning. I think most of us are up now (due to loud music at 6am, DH woke up and woke me up, and although we both tried, we only got a few catnaps before giving up at 9:30am and just getting up). We don't have much planned for today. Several of us have head colds and are trying to recover, so we will probably just take it easy. 

I get to go back to being home alone after this week. I have a lot of cleaning to catch up on, and plan to sleep a lot before I start up with the distance learning course again. Between taking the kids to seminary and going to classes, I ended my 2 month course pretty tired. Hopefully, I will recover quickly and be full of energy before it is time to pack us all up and move again!

By the way, in my last post, two months ago, I mentioned that we were supposed to get our car back after a month of being in the shop. We finally got it back on Monday. Yes, Monday. Between the insurance company and the shop's ordering errors and mis-handling of diagnostics, it took over 3.5 months to get the repairs from the accident done. It took another couple of days, due to Christmas, to get a worn CV boot replaced at another shop (no chance we were taking it back to the VW dealership for that one). We are now convinced that we don't really need a second car, and plan to sell the Jetta. It would have been nice to have it when the van's alternator died two weeks ago, though...but at least Ford can turn one of those around in less than 24 hours.

Things We Cannot Confirm or Deny...

Being a diplomat means that you can't say a lot - especially online. For example, if you want to know whether DH has been furloughed, you won't see an answer to that here. But if you know me, you will know that I will have thought out what to do if DH is/will be furloughed or has to go without a pay check for a while.

The great news is that, even if he is/will be without a pay check for a while, we have things covered. We have some cash on hand to cover this month. Plus, our house sells on the 23rd, and the buyers don't have an FHA loan, so everything is expected to go through smoothly. We will have a little cash coming in from that. While we were hoping to use it for some other things (for one, paying off the VW, which, by the way, we are supposed to be getting back from the shop today after a full month of repairs), we can use it to cover our expenses, instead, if need be.

Even if the sale were to fall through, we are members of the SDFCU now, which means are eligible for a 0% interest rate credit card for 6 months, which should be plenty of time to get back pay, were DH to have to go without a pay check for a while. If you are in a similar situation, check to see if your credit union has some sort of benefit designed to help you out during the shutdown.

Still planning on finding out where we will be posted on Friday!

Fairfax

A few weeks before A-100 started, the mentor group for DH's class put out an email with helpful tips. On it, someone wrote that Fairfax was too far away, and that you shouldn't try doing A-100 from here. While living closer in would have been wonderful (especially in one of the Oakwoods), that wasn't an option for us, and we had already secured this apartment. Do I regret it? Absolutely not. If we lived away from the metro line and had to drive to it, it would be too far away, but right on the line, it isn't a bad commute at all. Plus, we get the advantage of having the kids in an amazing school system. I am really happy with it. Of course, it does have its ups and downs...

Driving in Fairfax can be a challenge. During non-rush hours, the only thing to watch out for is the lane size. In MN, we are used to really big lanes. Here, they are a bit smaller. I have done more "curb checks" here in the last two weeks than I have in the last 5 years. And, they don't trim trees and bushes so that a large vehicle doesn't hit them while sticking to their side of the road. There are a couple of places that I always swipe tree branches if there are cars coming in the opposite direction. But on the up side, everything we need is sooo close. I can live my life in a 3-mile radius (other than going to classes/meetings at the FSI or Main State). I suppose some day I will venture out to Costco, which is 8 miles away (still in Fairfax), but until then, I have what I need right here in my own little bubble.

During rush hour, that 3-mile radius may as well be 30 miles. The roads are full to the brim, and any amount of rain will make the whole city come to a grinding halt. Stop light cycles are approximately 5 minutes each, making every red light something to be avoided at all costs. If your light turns green, you must look both ways really carefully, because it is likely that two or three cars more than should will go through that "orange" light. But never fear that you will miss that green light by daydreaming; the car behind you will honk their horn the second that light turns green, regardless of whether you were daydreaming or not.

Parking spaces are hard to get into with our Ford E-350 if there are cars on both sides. We have learned to love the back of the grocery store parking lot.

There are an amazing number of grocery stores within my 3-mile bubble. I can go to Safeway, which is right in my neighborhood. I can go to Giant, which is north of us next to our church (and which I have decided has better prices and produce, and is a time-efficient way to kill off the grocery task while waiting for youth activities). Walmart is only a couple of miles away to our west, and Target is only a couple of miles away to our east. There are also a CVS and a Walgreens next to Safeway, and a CVS next to Giant, in case convenience is an issue. Grocery prices here are terrible. Think Mackenthun's (my Waconia friends will get this), but with double the dairy prices. Milk is $4 or more per gallon. Eggs are $2.50/dozen, and butter is $4/lb. Ouch.

I have been to Target and Walmart, but they are both inconvenient to my normal driving patterns, so I mostly go to Safeway and Giant, unless there are household things I need that I can't get from the grocery store. There are also office supply stores all over the place. If I need something I can't get from CVS or Walgreen's, Staples and Office Max are both within a mile. Hardware stores are a little farther away. I would love to get to one so that I can make copies of the apartment keys, but I never find myself in that direction, so I will have to just make a point of it soon. I believe Home Depot is right by Costco, so I'll have to plan a combined trip.

Of course, I must also compliment the weather here. It has been gorgeous every day. When it is hot, it is not as humid as MN. When it is cool, it is not too cool. It is sunny most days. I am not thinking Fall yet, and that is a wonderful thing! The landscaping here is also gorgeous. For such a busy city, it has a lot of green in it.

Church is good in Fairfax, but keeps us way too busy with our big family. Youth activities are not all on the same night of the week. Mondays at 4pm we have Wolf den meeting every other week. Wednesdays at 7:30pm is Webelos. Thursdays at 7:30pm is Mutual. I am getting worn out from all the driving. I think DS1 will be ready to do the Thursday drive soon. This week, I started having him drive whenever he is in the car. It was time to get back on the horse, and now that I know the area well, I am comfortable navigating him around. He is being much more cautious, which I appreciate. If our post assignment is one that keeps us here through the school year, then once we have the VW back from the shop (no, we don't have it back yet), we will buy him a parking pass for school and have him start driving to seminary. If it is closer in, I'll just keep doing it, since we'll be selling a vehicle and wouldn't want to pay for the parking pass. I'm exhausted, but I hope to adjust to the schedule soon. Maybe once daylight savings time ends...

Oh, did I forget to complete that sentence? I think I fell asleep.

Okay, maybe I should tell you a little about our bid list before I take a mid-morning nap. I'd love to tell you where we would like to go, but apparently we aren't allowed to mention which countries are on the bid list online. There are over 30 posts in our top picks list at the moment. Basically, if it doesn't have accredited schools for our kids, it went to the bottom of the list. If it has good schools and the housing situation is good, it went to the top of the list. There are some posts in the mid section that just didn't excite us, like one country where the commute is long and the housing is rumored to be "depressing." We really took the commute into account for both DH and the kids. There is so much on this list that looks wonderful. It was hard to decide what factors would determine between high and medium, after the posts with no decent schools were trimmed out. DH really doesn't know whether he'd rather get his Consular assignment out of the way first, learn all about the workings of the embassy as an HRO (Human Resources Officer) or get a position in his Econ cone. I think he would optimally take a combination assignment, where he gets to share or rotate Consular and Econ or Consular and Political duties. But, it matters so little, because he has to do the Consular assignment at some point, so it may as well be now. We can't wait until October 11th!