Hola! Well I "graduated" from school yesterday (Spanish class)! I can't really say I'm fluent but I was able to go to the farmer's market this morning and realize that one of the guys selling his veggies was trying to rip me off!!! I just stood there and waited for my change!! I was with a friend who speaks Spanish very well so that helped! The classes really kicked my butt (4 hours a day, 5 days a week!) Thus - not much blogging goin' on! Not only that but - did I mention that we're in the rainy season??? OMG - it's like monsoon rain here every afternoon for about 4 to 5 hours. It is incredible! Never really wanted a rain gauge until now - I have to know how much we get here every day - ya'll won't believe it - especially anyone reading this in Texas!!!! By the time I get home from "la escuella" every afternoon it starts raining like crazy - sometimes with thunder and lightening! Needless to say, we have to unplug "la computadora"and when the rain is over I try to get on but the service here is just not that good or the wires are too wet or whatever - All I know is - it makes it very difficult to stay connected for more than a few minutes at a time... very frustrating!!
While I was going to class Tommy's "peeps" created a garden for me! It's huge - pics to follow!!! The first day we (Fabian and I) - I'll tell you more about him later - took a few seed packets of flowers and some veggies and herbs out there to plant. Well - next thing we know Tommy is driving up with a "few" more plants from the nursery. Then he went back and got more and more!!!!! Let me just say that it was about noon time and about 120 degrees in a garden that is covered with this white plastic material so you get plenty of sun and not much air!!!! It felt like a sauna - thought I was gonna die!!! Fabian used to work in the botanical gardens in Hamburg, Germany and is doing volunteer work here on the farm and he loves it!!! Tommy lives and breathes to grow/garden/plant!!! Pardy on the other hand has never done this in her life!!!! Fabian tried to teach me how to stand over the prepared rows with legs spread so as not to stand on the plants and just keep walking and planting.....OK - I was not good at this maneuver!! I chose to squat and just keep working in my own style - NOT a good idea!!! When I stood up I thought I was going to faint and my back and my knees hurt like never before!!!!! That was the end of my first day in the garden. I went back out a few days later to "finish" planting and it was a little better (I waited until evening time). I worked until I couldn't work any more and told Fabian that I was done for the day. He said, "but look at that! You have 4 more plants to plant! You can't quit!!" I was so pissed but I knew he was right so I got those planted - I mean after all he had planted 2 rows of plants and I had done maybe half a row!!! I completed my chore and now all I have to do is weed and water everyday - or so I thought!!! Tommy informed me this morning that "You have plenty of space left in your garden - you can plant whatever you want!" OMG - help me!!!!
I love my new life so far! I'm driving now and that in itself is exciting. The streets are VERY narrow and curvy with open drainage ditches on both sides (need I say why?) so you have to be very careful when another car is on the road with you. There are no street signs so you have to remember to "turn left at the white fence" or use other landmarks to get anywhere!! The potholes are incredible - so you really have to watch for those and I don't know why but people steal manhole covers so that can be very dangerous also!! People put umbrellas or any kind of pole with a flag on it to mark these spots (if you're lucky) but you really have to watch what you're doing while driving !!! It's LOCO!!!!
Well so much for my "update"... I'll try to get pics posted soon... Love and peace to all reading this!!!!
