July 23, 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.

  • 11:10 am
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