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Friday, 16 October 2009

Monday, 24 August 2009

  • Driving in Puerto Rico

    In many ways being in Puerto Rico is just like being in America, but in Spanish. Driving, however, is not one of them. When it comes to behavior on the road, Puerto Rico is much closer to the third world.

    Red lights are mere stop signs. Running the red is so common because apparently there is no prohibition against it. At least, the other day I saw four cars run a red light right in front of a police car without any repercussions. In and of itself, this would not be amazing, I suppose. What does amaze me is when I see people make a right turn from the left turn lane, across two lanes of traffic while running a red light. Or a right turn from the left lane across two lanes of traffic. It's not an uncommon occurrence.

    You have to push yourself in to make turns a lot of places because there's tons of traffic, especially when getting out of parking spaces (unless you just park in the middle of the road and block traffic.) For some reason this pushing out makes certain persons extremely irate, which is completely incomprehensible to me as it's just such a common occurrence. But they'll be flipping people off for doing what everyone does, and what everyone has to do in order to keep moving.

    The roads are terrible and full of potholes. In many places the markings have been obliterated. There are storm drains which are set very low. This all has the very welcome effect of at least keeping people from driving too fast.

    So far, wherever I've had to drive, there is actually enough room for two cars to pass each other on the road. And they drive on the right side of the road.  After two years of not driving much at all I am so thrilled to be mobile once again, who cares what the driving is like!

Sunday, 02 August 2009

  • Sending the kids to school

    As I mentioned before, we are sending Conall, Aidan, Aine and Mairead to school so that, hopefully, they will learn Spanish. I do not know if we'll do it for the entire time we're here in Puerto Rico. We'll just have to see how it goes.

    Kevin and I had to endure the mind-numbing parents orientation, in Spanish, yesterday. It gave me a headache. It might not have given me a headache in English, but going over calendars, payment procedures, uniform dress codes and policies for dealing with H1N1 is hardly scintillating in any language.

    The school we have chosen uses the ACE curriculum. It's an independent study course where the children work through their workbooks at their own pace. It's bilingual in the lower grades, but Conall's will all be in English. I think Mairead, Aine and Aidan will all do fine, both academically and socially. Conall, on the other hand, being a little older, and kind of nerdy space cadet, I'm not so sure about. I hope and pray he'll do well.

    There's so much to do to get kids ready for school, and so many things to buy! They all need uniforms (and PE uniforms, even though they only get PE on Fridays.) I hope two sets will get them through the year if I make sure they have a little room for growth. At least they don't need both winter and summer uniforms. And there the lists of books and supplies. They each (except Mairead) need a Spanish-Spanish dictionary, English-English dictionary and Spanish-English dictionary. Of course, they could share those, and their scissors, colored pencils, glue and other supplies as well if they were still at home. And I could just buy things as needed throughout the year, instead of all at once.

    Expenses aside, there's the issue of handing over my responsibilities to other people. On the whole, I'm glad to do it for a bit, since it gives me a chance to concentrate on Brendan and Fiona for a while. If I weren't homeschooling anyone, it might be a little harder. While I love teaching all my children, keeping up with them all is a challenge (which certain children know how to take advantage of.) It will be nice to have only two, who are going through the same material, to keep up with.

    The first day of school is August 11th, which is now only nine days away! If you think of us, we'd appreciate your prayers that the transition goes smoothly!

Thursday, 23 July 2009

  • Greetings from Puerto Rico

    We've been here in Puerto Rico for just a little over three weeks now. It's great! Hot, but hey, after Ireland, a different kind of discomfort is at least a change.

    We arrived the 30th of June and spent the first night at the Holiday Inn in Isla Verde. It felt like a vacation for a bit, but the next day the real work began. Our container arrived the next afternoon and we had the joy of unloading it and carrying everything up to the third floor in ninety-four degree heat. Everyone worked really hard, but if it weren't for the hard work of Conall, Aidan and Aine, it would have been impossible. The three of them made about forty trips apiece, carrying even the heavy loads of books! (A monetary incentive was a big motivating factor here.) We were all really glad that we had gotten rid of so much stuff before we came!

    Unpacking half the stuff also took a lot less time than previous moves, another plus. In a matter of days we had made big strides in setting things up, to the point that we felt pretty settled. We also bought a minivan the first weekend, so we were able to get to church on Sunday.

    We love our new church! Our pastor is not only a good teacher, but he's also really interested in health and nutrition. When on the first Sunday he asked me if I knew how to make kefir, I knew that God had sent us to the right place. Sometime I'm supposed to teach them all how to make kefir! The pastor's wife is from New York, so she, and some of the other people speak English, but mostly we're trying to get along in Spanish. I understand the sermons pretty well, and some of the people. Others just talk too fast. And I'm still not very good at speaking, but I'm trying. I suppose three weeks isn't enough to achieve fluency, though I wish it were.

    We've also decided to put Conall, Aidan, Aine and Mairead into school so that they can learn Spanish. It seems the best way for them to take advantage of the opportunity of being in a different country. There's a small Christian school close-by that uses the ACE curriculum, which seems like a good fit. Next week they're supposed to take placement exams to see where they should start.

    Brendan and Fiona are still going to be homeschooled. They both want to go to school in Northern Ireland so we are preparing them to take the AP exams, which the universities there look at as equivalent to A levels. I don't know how much Spanish they'll pick up, but hopefully they'll be able to get along. They went on an outing with the church youth group last weekend and had a good time.

    Kevin starts school the third of August. He's spent most of his time trying to get ahead in his studies and trying to tie up all sorts of loose ends with taxes and health care and other icky things that I am thankful that he's dealing with and not me!

    I have been hanging pictures and curtains, taking the kids to the gym and the pool, going to Costco and trying to learn as much Spanish as I can. I'm on my second time through "The Hobbit" in Spanish, though maybe I ought to get some other books. Now that I've got internet I guess I have to start working on a curriculum for Brendan and Fiona. I'm enjoying having only 1300 square feet to clean, no outside maintenance and other benefits of condo living and I'm excited to see how our time in Puerto Rico goes.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

  • Questions for Hanleys

    Since people seem to never know where we are living, where we are moving and what we’re doing. Some people thought we had already moved to Costa Rica (no, we’re not going to Costa Rica.)

    Where are you living? For the moment, Galway, Ireland.

    How long have you been there? About seven months.

    How much longer will you be there? Until the middle of May.

    Where are you going next? Puerto Rico.

    Why? For Kevin to attend medical school.

    Do you have a place in Puerto Rico? No, not yet.

    How long will your goods be in transit? About six or seven weeks.

    When will you get to Puerto Rico? At the beginning of July.

    How firm are these plans? Hanley plans are always subject to change until the very last minute.

    What are your plans for the six or seven weeks while your goods are in transit? Brendan, Fiona and I are hoping to take Chem 101 at NVCC and stay at my parents’. Kevin is planning on staying up in New Jersey with the other children.

    Do you speak Spanish? I took two years of Spanish in college. I read it well, but my brain still tends to freeze when I’m trying to speak. Kevin speaks very well, as he has worked in Latin America and with Spanish customers. The kids are just beginning to learn.

    Is the instruction at the school in Spanish? Yes, the instruction at the school is in Spanish, but I think the tests and textbooks are in English as the course is geared toward the US Medical Leaving Exam.

    Any other questions?

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About Me

  • Married since '92, with seven wonderful children, three boys,four girls, ages 15 to baby, INFJ, Reformed Christian, Homeschooler, I started this blog to keep in touch with my sisters-in-law and vent my off the wall opinions every once in a while. It has always been my policy not to go out to find new friends, but to be content with whomever God brings my way. Maiden Name: Danielle Cour