Happy Thanksgiving everyone! What a wonderful day we had. I have to be honest and say that I never imagined our first Thanksgiving overseas could be as fantastic as today was. Brian and I have been in Caracas just over a month now, and I am amazed at the wonderful friends we have made here. As I have mentioned before, I am blown away every day by the generosity and kindness of the embassy community here.
Today started as a lazy morning. Brian used his creative cooking skills once again to whip up sweet potato pancakes and bacon in the kitchen. It was really nice to be able to just hang out and visit and enjoy our coffee. It really felt like the weekend. Around 3:00ish, we headed to our new friends' house. It still didn't really feel like Thanksgiving. Several embassy families were in attendance and the hostess had prepared a traditional turkey along with several side dishes (mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mushroom and potato gratin, lentils). The food was great and the company was outstanding. I really enjoyed getting to know some of Brian's colleagues better. As the sun faded and the city grew dark, we sat with our cups of coffee and pumpkin pie and suddenly it felt like Thanksgiving. I looked around the table and realized just how lucky we are. Today I feel so blessed, blessed to have family that is so caring you can feel their love from afar, to have new friends here that already feel a bit like family, to have friends from different stages in our life that are thinking of us and wishing us well, to have a beautiful place to live and an opportunity to explore a new place with my best friend. I am truly blessed.
So, yes, for those of you out there wondering what it's like to be in a foreign country for Thanksgiving, it's a bit strange. We missed being with our families and I don't think that's something that ever goes away. It was always hard even when we were in the states. What I can say, however, is that being with people who share lots of the same traditions and who can come together to share those in a place that feels foreign is a really neat experience. Someone once told me that we're the most patriotic when we're away from the US and I definitely think that's true for me. It was almost like we had this great secret today when we walked into the street all dressed up to head to dinner in the middle of a Thursday. Venezuelans looked at us strangely and I felt like we had this insider secret about our own traditions and our own special holiday. The few people I did talk to about it were really interested in hearing about our traditions and the history of the holiday. It was fun to share something that is special to us and is truly American.
Well, I have lots more to share about things we've done since I last blogged, but today was so wonderful and feels so very American that I think I'll leave it at that tonight. To all of you who are a part of our lives, thank you! Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
He Said: Food Glorious Food
It has been quite a while since I last posted on the blog. I guess it goes to show how I've been entrenched with life at the embassy and getting used to the new job. I'm thankful that Steph has been able to post on occasion to keep you all up to date, and I think she's starting to feel a little more settled.
Work has definitely been keeping me busy since we landed a month ago, yesterday. It's very strange to think that 9 months have passed since I started A-100 and an entire month has gone by since we first landed in Caracas. Time has definitely flown by, and I think for the most part we have been having fun.
One thing that has really kept Steph and I sane since we've arrived is cooking and exploring the culinary side of Caracas and Venezuela. Without any of our stuff our apartment does feel quite empty. Additionally, with security restrictions and the lack of a car, life in the apartment can make you feel a little captive at times. We have really tried to battle these feelings through our weekly trip to Chacao Market, bumming a ride from someone at the embassy each week. Chacao has exposed us to new fruits, vegetables, seasonings, and cooking methods. The vendors as we've gotten to know them have become very open in sharing tips and telling us what they'd be doing with our purchases for the week. Our little adventures out have opened our eyes to new things and I think have sparked a little extra imagination with our inner chefs.
Over the past couple of weeks Steph and I have had some difficulty just spending time together. With work, embassy events, adjusting to all the new things, and just sheer exhaustion we find ourselves going to bed early and also trying to find some quiet time for ourselves. One thing that has brought us together is the kitchen. During these past two weeks Steph and I have been working our way through some of the basics of Latin American cooking... which also means we have been... (gasp) frying. Last week we braved "tostones" which are fried, mashed, plantains. Plantains are a little like bananas, but more starchy. The end product comes out somewhere between a big flat french fry and a donut. A little sweet, a little starchy. After reading this I realize my description kind of stinks, but you'll just have to come and visit us to try them out as I think we're now getting the hang of it. Other attempts have been made at making fried Yuca (another potato like product that I think turns out better than french fries... now if I only had a chocolate malt to dip them in) and Tequeños. Tequeños are white cheese that is wrapped in a bready wrapper (almost like an eggroll wrapper, but more bready) and deep fried. They're kind of like mozzarella sticks but with bread, not bread crumbs, and no tomato dipping sauce. You can buy them pretty much anywhere, including the baseball stadium. We have been taking pictures of all of our wonderful kitchen creations and we'll be sure to share them with you all...that is as soon as our newly ordered camera cord arrives.
Well, life has definitely been an adventure since our arrival, and there has easily been a lot of adjusting to do. Life is simply... different. We are of course heading in a new direction and are at the beginning of our own little journey. As you've probably gathered from some of the stories that Steph has been able to share, we have definitely had our share of "adventures" since we arrived. I am confident in time that things will settle, but until then, I guess we'll just have to confide in filling our stomachs with good food and discovering Venezuela, one bite at a time.
Work has definitely been keeping me busy since we landed a month ago, yesterday. It's very strange to think that 9 months have passed since I started A-100 and an entire month has gone by since we first landed in Caracas. Time has definitely flown by, and I think for the most part we have been having fun.
One thing that has really kept Steph and I sane since we've arrived is cooking and exploring the culinary side of Caracas and Venezuela. Without any of our stuff our apartment does feel quite empty. Additionally, with security restrictions and the lack of a car, life in the apartment can make you feel a little captive at times. We have really tried to battle these feelings through our weekly trip to Chacao Market, bumming a ride from someone at the embassy each week. Chacao has exposed us to new fruits, vegetables, seasonings, and cooking methods. The vendors as we've gotten to know them have become very open in sharing tips and telling us what they'd be doing with our purchases for the week. Our little adventures out have opened our eyes to new things and I think have sparked a little extra imagination with our inner chefs.
Over the past couple of weeks Steph and I have had some difficulty just spending time together. With work, embassy events, adjusting to all the new things, and just sheer exhaustion we find ourselves going to bed early and also trying to find some quiet time for ourselves. One thing that has brought us together is the kitchen. During these past two weeks Steph and I have been working our way through some of the basics of Latin American cooking... which also means we have been... (gasp) frying. Last week we braved "tostones" which are fried, mashed, plantains. Plantains are a little like bananas, but more starchy. The end product comes out somewhere between a big flat french fry and a donut. A little sweet, a little starchy. After reading this I realize my description kind of stinks, but you'll just have to come and visit us to try them out as I think we're now getting the hang of it. Other attempts have been made at making fried Yuca (another potato like product that I think turns out better than french fries... now if I only had a chocolate malt to dip them in) and Tequeños. Tequeños are white cheese that is wrapped in a bready wrapper (almost like an eggroll wrapper, but more bready) and deep fried. They're kind of like mozzarella sticks but with bread, not bread crumbs, and no tomato dipping sauce. You can buy them pretty much anywhere, including the baseball stadium. We have been taking pictures of all of our wonderful kitchen creations and we'll be sure to share them with you all...that is as soon as our newly ordered camera cord arrives.
Well, life has definitely been an adventure since our arrival, and there has easily been a lot of adjusting to do. Life is simply... different. We are of course heading in a new direction and are at the beginning of our own little journey. As you've probably gathered from some of the stories that Steph has been able to share, we have definitely had our share of "adventures" since we arrived. I am confident in time that things will settle, but until then, I guess we'll just have to confide in filling our stomachs with good food and discovering Venezuela, one bite at a time.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
She Said: Turkeys and Sandy Water
Well, the last couple of days have been very up and down for me. Yesterday, unfortunately, I was very down. I definitely feel a bit homesick and I'm missing all of you. I also really miss Target. It was a hard adjustment in DC to adjust to not working, but this is a really difficult adjustment. I miss the target culture, the people, the challenging work, etc. It's hard to start a new life where you feel like people just don't understand where you came from and who you are. So I spent a good part of yesterday morning at home crying.
Today, I woke up and decided I had the choice of either being at home and crying, or enjoying the day. I chose the latter and I've had a really great day. I ventured out to the gym for the first time today. It's a nice little gym at the embassy. So far I don't know of any personal trainers here, which is really what I need, but one step at a time. For now I just want to commit to going at least three times a week. It's about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, so it's definitely doable.
You're probably wondering about the title of the post. Well, yesterday I had quite the surprise at the bottom of my water glass. I was really thirsty having arrived from my walk to the embassy and I chugged my glass of water and got a mouthful of sand. Yuck! I was so grossed out. We just found out that we need to wipe off the bottles that arrive with bottled water with bleach water before we load them. I also took the bottle off the tank only to discover that the tank for the water was also lined with sand. It was gross, but everything is disinfected and ready to go now. No sand in your water if you come to visit :-).
We've decided to hire someone to help out in the apartment a couple of times a week. This will also allow me to be on my own schedule and not to have to be home for water delivery, repairs, etc. It's our first time ever doing this, so we're definitely learning from others. We'll let you know how it goes.
The most exciting news of today is that our turkeys arrived. Every year the embassy offers employees the option to order turkeys. They are really nice turkeys and I think they may ship them in from the states. In our typical overzealous fashion, we ordered 3. Now we have them all sitting our freezer. Hopefully we will get our stuff by Thanksgiving so we can enjoy the turkey, the stuffing and all of our favorites for the holidays. Off to pick up the apartment...Brian informed me packages have arrived from Target which means our new bedding is here. Yeah!!!!!
Today, I woke up and decided I had the choice of either being at home and crying, or enjoying the day. I chose the latter and I've had a really great day. I ventured out to the gym for the first time today. It's a nice little gym at the embassy. So far I don't know of any personal trainers here, which is really what I need, but one step at a time. For now I just want to commit to going at least three times a week. It's about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, so it's definitely doable.
You're probably wondering about the title of the post. Well, yesterday I had quite the surprise at the bottom of my water glass. I was really thirsty having arrived from my walk to the embassy and I chugged my glass of water and got a mouthful of sand. Yuck! I was so grossed out. We just found out that we need to wipe off the bottles that arrive with bottled water with bleach water before we load them. I also took the bottle off the tank only to discover that the tank for the water was also lined with sand. It was gross, but everything is disinfected and ready to go now. No sand in your water if you come to visit :-).
We've decided to hire someone to help out in the apartment a couple of times a week. This will also allow me to be on my own schedule and not to have to be home for water delivery, repairs, etc. It's our first time ever doing this, so we're definitely learning from others. We'll let you know how it goes.
The most exciting news of today is that our turkeys arrived. Every year the embassy offers employees the option to order turkeys. They are really nice turkeys and I think they may ship them in from the states. In our typical overzealous fashion, we ordered 3. Now we have them all sitting our freezer. Hopefully we will get our stuff by Thanksgiving so we can enjoy the turkey, the stuffing and all of our favorites for the holidays. Off to pick up the apartment...Brian informed me packages have arrived from Target which means our new bedding is here. Yeah!!!!!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
She Said: Caracas Crud
Wow, sorry to be so silent. Both of us have been really laid up the last week or so with what they call the Caracas crud. I'll spare you the details of how fun it has been, but suffice it to say it could also be known as The Revenge of Caracas, "turista" and a number of other names. Not fun. On top of that, I seem to have gotten H1N1 or some variety of influenza last week. On Friday I got a nasty cough which developed into something that sounded like pneumonia and I had a terrible fever Saturday and Sunday. It has been absolutely miserable, but I'm happy to say that I'm on the mend. Hopefully by the end of this week, I should be back at 100%.
A lot has happened here since we first wrote upon arrival, but I am going to try and keep this as concise as possible so that I don't bore you. I am currently not working, so until I find a position, I will try to keep the blog up to date on a pretty regular basis. Some of you probably noticed Brian's wonderful handiwork at the top of the blog. Don't you love it? I do!!! We (he) added clocks for Venezuela, MN and DC so it's easier to keep track. You guys all went off of daylight savings, but we stayed the same, so now we're 1 1/2 hours ahead of MN and 30 minutes ahead of DC....weird.
Since we last wrote I think one of our biggest highlights in Caracas has been Chacao market. The past two weekends we have gotten up early to go to Chacao market with friends and buy fresh produce, chicken and some things that can be difficult to find at the regular supermarket here. It is a fantastic experience. If you have ever been to a Latin American market, this one is probably pretty similar...lots of smells, easily overwhelming with lots of vendors in your face right away trying to sell you things. Our second weekend was much easier to navigate and we have already found our favorite vegetable stand. The seller remembered us the second week and he has quite the sense of humor. I was able to find the final ingredients I needed to make a couple of kringles which I've been wanting to make for people who have been so helpful to us since we arrived. The almond flavoring, powdered sugar and whipping cream were hard to find, but I got them at Chacao. I look forward to sharing more with you about our chacao purchases. Last week I think Brian had the best find in locating the cheese/bacon vendor.
We were so excited after we got back from Chacao that we were able to cook our own food. Brian even made our version of a local avocado and onion sauce called guasacaca. I was so proud of our first meal I took a picture. One thing it would have been nice to know beforehand was that we are supposed to bleach all of our vegetables. It might seem strange to some of you to be ingesting bleach, but it's only about 1 tablespoon per gallon of water and they say it's the best thing to do to kill anything that might be on the veggies or in the water.
We were also warned about eating raw veggies at restaurants when we go out. We were aware of this, but I guess you sort of get in a comfort zone. We have eaten at two really good restaurants in our neighborhood. The first is a sushi place, which was some of the best sushi I've ever had and the prices were really reasonable. The second place is called Rey David. It is a really interesting restaurant/shop that is considered to be amongst the nicest in the area. They also carry imported products that are hard to find other places (for example sour cream can't be found anywhere else in the city). It's a really great place! After we ate there, however, we warned by someone not to eat the apples served with their sandwiches...perhaps that was the beginning of our being ill. Anyway, it has been fun to discover the new places close by particularly being that Brian and I are such foodies.
I have made several friends since we arrived. I have to say that the best part about this post is the community. There are so many wonderful people here who have had me over for coffee, taken me all over the city, invited me into their homes, their families and I could go on and on and on. It's fantastic. The job situation is still very much up in the air for me, but only time will help that.
I will spare you all the details of what has been happening since our last post, but what is exciting is that we got internet in the apartment and we just found out recently that we will be able to attend the marine ball. Two tickets opened up. I'm really excited. A friend took me to the dress shop today to rent a dress for the event because I didn't pack one in my suitcase. The prices were very reasonable (ranging from 50-90 per dress). I picked out a blue one for this year. It should be a fun event. Can't wait to share pictures.
On that note, some of you are probably wondering why we haven't shared any pictures. Well, it turns out we forgot to pack our camera cord to upload pictures to the computer in our suitcase, so we're stuck until we can order one. Hopefully it won't be too long.
Finally, I hope any of you who take a nice relaxing bath or a lovely long, hot shower on Friday or Saturday will think of us. Caracas is currently in the midst of a terrible drought. That coupled with lack of maintenance on the current system has led to the government declaring all Caracas residents to be 2 days a week without water. We will be ok. Our building has a holding tank and the water should last enough for basic things for 2 days, but it still strikes me how real the water shortage is and how difficult conservation efforts can be. As with many others in the city, we will be filling our tub on Thursday to be sure we make it through the weekend without a hitch. If you're interested, here's an article with a bit more info. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8339247.stm. I also highly recommend searching for the Chavez speech on 3 minute showers on You Tube for those of you who speak Spanish.
Again, sorry we've been out of touch. I think we're back up and running and you can count on hearing from us on a pretty regular basis. Take care!
A lot has happened here since we first wrote upon arrival, but I am going to try and keep this as concise as possible so that I don't bore you. I am currently not working, so until I find a position, I will try to keep the blog up to date on a pretty regular basis. Some of you probably noticed Brian's wonderful handiwork at the top of the blog. Don't you love it? I do!!! We (he) added clocks for Venezuela, MN and DC so it's easier to keep track. You guys all went off of daylight savings, but we stayed the same, so now we're 1 1/2 hours ahead of MN and 30 minutes ahead of DC....weird.
Since we last wrote I think one of our biggest highlights in Caracas has been Chacao market. The past two weekends we have gotten up early to go to Chacao market with friends and buy fresh produce, chicken and some things that can be difficult to find at the regular supermarket here. It is a fantastic experience. If you have ever been to a Latin American market, this one is probably pretty similar...lots of smells, easily overwhelming with lots of vendors in your face right away trying to sell you things. Our second weekend was much easier to navigate and we have already found our favorite vegetable stand. The seller remembered us the second week and he has quite the sense of humor. I was able to find the final ingredients I needed to make a couple of kringles which I've been wanting to make for people who have been so helpful to us since we arrived. The almond flavoring, powdered sugar and whipping cream were hard to find, but I got them at Chacao. I look forward to sharing more with you about our chacao purchases. Last week I think Brian had the best find in locating the cheese/bacon vendor.
We were so excited after we got back from Chacao that we were able to cook our own food. Brian even made our version of a local avocado and onion sauce called guasacaca. I was so proud of our first meal I took a picture. One thing it would have been nice to know beforehand was that we are supposed to bleach all of our vegetables. It might seem strange to some of you to be ingesting bleach, but it's only about 1 tablespoon per gallon of water and they say it's the best thing to do to kill anything that might be on the veggies or in the water.
We were also warned about eating raw veggies at restaurants when we go out. We were aware of this, but I guess you sort of get in a comfort zone. We have eaten at two really good restaurants in our neighborhood. The first is a sushi place, which was some of the best sushi I've ever had and the prices were really reasonable. The second place is called Rey David. It is a really interesting restaurant/shop that is considered to be amongst the nicest in the area. They also carry imported products that are hard to find other places (for example sour cream can't be found anywhere else in the city). It's a really great place! After we ate there, however, we warned by someone not to eat the apples served with their sandwiches...perhaps that was the beginning of our being ill. Anyway, it has been fun to discover the new places close by particularly being that Brian and I are such foodies.
I have made several friends since we arrived. I have to say that the best part about this post is the community. There are so many wonderful people here who have had me over for coffee, taken me all over the city, invited me into their homes, their families and I could go on and on and on. It's fantastic. The job situation is still very much up in the air for me, but only time will help that.
I will spare you all the details of what has been happening since our last post, but what is exciting is that we got internet in the apartment and we just found out recently that we will be able to attend the marine ball. Two tickets opened up. I'm really excited. A friend took me to the dress shop today to rent a dress for the event because I didn't pack one in my suitcase. The prices were very reasonable (ranging from 50-90 per dress). I picked out a blue one for this year. It should be a fun event. Can't wait to share pictures.
On that note, some of you are probably wondering why we haven't shared any pictures. Well, it turns out we forgot to pack our camera cord to upload pictures to the computer in our suitcase, so we're stuck until we can order one. Hopefully it won't be too long.
Finally, I hope any of you who take a nice relaxing bath or a lovely long, hot shower on Friday or Saturday will think of us. Caracas is currently in the midst of a terrible drought. That coupled with lack of maintenance on the current system has led to the government declaring all Caracas residents to be 2 days a week without water. We will be ok. Our building has a holding tank and the water should last enough for basic things for 2 days, but it still strikes me how real the water shortage is and how difficult conservation efforts can be. As with many others in the city, we will be filling our tub on Thursday to be sure we make it through the weekend without a hitch. If you're interested, here's an article with a bit more info. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8339247.stm. I also highly recommend searching for the Chavez speech on 3 minute showers on You Tube for those of you who speak Spanish.
Again, sorry we've been out of touch. I think we're back up and running and you can count on hearing from us on a pretty regular basis. Take care!
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