Moving Day #2!

We are moving to our 3rd apartment today!  We have enjoyed our current apartment as we really like the location and love having the grocery store next door and being between both malls.  We are only moving across the street and down a few buildings so will only have ~1 block extra to walk to all of our regular hang outs.  Also, our new apartment has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms so will be much more accomodating when my parents visit in a week.  Gustavo is excited to have a pool again and will also have a playground and some open green space to play.  The weather seems to be changing here as we have had quite a few very sunny days with rain only in the evening and/or early morning.  I have a feeling we'll be able to spend a lot of time hanging out by the pool and playing outside.  There are also walking paths right behind our building.

It is amazing that we have been here 7 weeks already and our on our 3rd apartment.  We are lucky to have found such nice apartments that are so close to everything so we don't have to rely on taxis on a daily basis.  We are also fortunate that the apartments are very inexpensive.  We are paying less for 11 weeks in all of our apartments than what we would have paid for 1 month at the hotel that most families stay at.  We have missed out on the social aspects of staying on our own but have now made some friends from Denmark that we enjoy spending time with.  I do enjoy being able to cook our own meals so that when we go out a few times a week, it's a nice treat for all of us.  We eat a lot of ham sandwiches for lunch since other deli meats are very expensive.  At least Tavo and I both love ham and cheese sandwiches!

So, we received some good news this morning.  Our attorney called from the court and the judge has finally started working on our case.  She said the judge will start looking at all of our documents, the documents from Casa de Maria and ICBF.  After she's looked through everything, she'll involve the Procolor (sp?) in the process.  There is no estimate on how long any of this will take.  Our new Danish friends have been here 2 weeks longer than us and every time they think their case is done, the judge and/or procolor asks for more paperwork.  Much of the paperwork they are asking for are documents that have never been needed or asked for before so it's been very frustrating for them.  I am assuming we'll be dealing with the same stuff but hopefully our attorney has been keeping up with their attorney and has been submitting some of these same documents.  So, now we wait but should at least get more updates on a weekly basis.

I still need to finish the blog post on the last part of Sanaya's visit but will do that later today or tomorrow.  Last week after Sanaya left, it was pretty lonely around here.  It is so great to have company but it was difficult to say good bye.  It was so nice to have an extra set of hands to help with the kids and help when we were out and about.  The grocery store is always a pain because I have the stroller to push as well as carry or push all of the groceries.  We end up going to the grocery store almost daily because everything we buy needs to fit in the stroller.  When Sanaya was here, we were able to stock up a little more.

On Monday, we decided to just have an apartment day.  Tuesday, we were headed to Santa Fe to play at Happy City but Gustavo decided he would rather go to the large bookstore (Panamericana).  We found books for both David and Gustavo and read some books there.  Then we headed to Santa Fe for ice-cream cones and Crepes and Waffles.  Wednesday, we decided to check out one of the apartments another family had emailed me about.  The apartment was located behind Santa Fe.  To get to the apartment, we had to walk up a huge hill in addition to the other hills and ramps we normally walk on to get to the mall.  Gustavo asked to take many breaks.  It would have been convenient for going to Santa Fe but to go to Oviedo mall or the grocery store, Carulla, it would have been quite the hike, especially with a stroller full of groceries.  I am glad we have chosen a different apartment.  Afterwards, we walked all around the mall and headed to Oviedo.  I bought tickets and tokens this time because Gustavo wanted to go on some of the motorized little rides.  David even went on a few rides with him.  As we were leaving, I discovered an awesome massage chair that cost me 60 cents for 4 minutes!  Wow, I can't wait to go back there again.  What a deal!

Thursday, we headed back to Oviedo, played at the park and had more ice-cream.  Then on Friday, we went apartment shopping with Lilliana.  After seeing the 1st apartment, I decided that it was almost perfect so we didn't even look any other apartments.  The other apartments that we were going to see did not have a pool or playground and we really need a place to just hang out without having to run to a mall every day for entertainment.  There are also supposed to be a lot of kids so hopefully Gustavo can make some friends, even with the language barrier:)  Afterwards, Lilliana said she would take us to El Tesoro mall.  We used to hang out there when Sohrab was here but haven't been there since he left.  This mall has the amusement park in the middle of the mall.  The park was open so Lilliana took David with her shopping and Gustavo and I were able to go on rides together.  We decided to stay at the mall and took a taxi home when we were done.  We were going to get ice-cream but as we were walking through the food court at 3:30, Gustavo says "or we could just eat here".  I asked what he wanted to eat and he said McDonalds.  Besides ice-cream treats, we have only eaten at McDonalds once to decided to let him have a special treat..  It was kids' day here so they were giving out balloons and he was excited to get the toy in his happy meal. I also caved and decided to eat there.  I had a Big Mac which was ok but the condiment bar was really good.  After adding extra pickles and jalapenos, the Big Mac was pretty tasty!  So, by 4PM we were already done with dinner.  I had to exchange a bunch of money to pay for our new apartment so did that and then we headed home.  It was scary carrying so much money but was happy to get home and get it in the safe.

Saturday was a great day as we met our new friends (Danish family) at Santa Fe.  We had a nice lunch at Crepes and Waffles.  They have been here 9 weeks and have never eaten at Crepes and Waffles so I was happy to introduce them to the experience.  I struggle so much here with communication but have actually been doing a lot better and understand a lot more than I did 7 weeks ago.  I feel bad for Rikke and Thomas as they know English but no Spanish so really struggle to communicate.  I was able to help them order and with some other things throughout the day.  We headed to Happy City afterwards and the boys had a blast playing games and playing the jumper and play structures.  We left the mall ~4:30 and hope to meet up again this week!  It was so nice to have other people to talk to again!

Sunday is my favorite day in Medellin!!  I am so grateful that we always have great weather on Sundays as it is so nice to go walking on the closed street and be among so many people also out enjoying the weather.  It reminds me of the lakes in Minneapolis where everyone is out walking, running, biking, walking their dogs, rollerblading, etc.  This was the 2nd week that I was able to join the Zumba class at Santa Fe.  The classes are all outside and free!  I wish they had classes like this more days a week.  After Zumba, we headed down the street one direction to get our yummy fruit cup.  We were able to get the same one we got last week which is a cup full of cut up fruit and juices, with some yummy cream and a cookie for a straw.  For all of this, we paid $1 and it is so good!  Afterwards, we headed back the other direction towards Juan Veldez coffee shop.  Gustavo always gets an ice-cream treat from the Postobon guys and then we hang out at the coffee shop while I enjoy my latest coffee treat, Granizald (I think that's how it is spelled.  It's a iced coffee drink with ice-cream I think, very yummy and very popular).  Then we continue walking a ways more, turn around and head home.  We were out for 3 hours!  I thought I could get David to take a nap but he was being stubborn so after relaxing a bit, we headed out again.  We went to Hard Rock Cafe for a really late lunch/early dinner.  They had advertised activities for kids and also kids eat free on Sundays.  We had a great table outside and hung out for 2 hours.  Our waiter spoke English which was so nice.  It was nice to listen to the music and just relax.  The kids' play area was a joke but Gustavo had fun there anyways and also enjoyed jumping around our huge table and couches.  We ended the meal with the kid's dessert which was a brownie with ice-cream and whipped cream.  I thought we were going to share it but Gustavo liked it so much, he ate it all.  So, I got a quick bite dessert of creme brulee, yum!!

I'll post more about Sanaya's visit later as well as a ton of pictures.  Just wanted to catch up from last week and share some of our good news.  We hope the good news keeps coming!!