Uruguayan Idol

No Foreign Service or Uruguay info in this long overdue update.  Simply a dad who likes to listen to his little girl's voice.  What can I say?  The girl likes to sing...

We'll start with a classic, sung Eddie Murphy "BuWheat" style.

Next, we have an original piece.  This is a song about rain jackets, because sometimes it rains outside.

And finally, a holiday jingle.  Her personal favorite.

No audio, but instrumentals will come soon.

Winter in Uruguay

Time to update the ol' blog for posterity and to keep the fans satisfied. (Hi you two!) It's now September in "The Uruguay," as they sometimes say. The mythical and mystical "Santa Rosa wind" (an exceptionally windy storm that traditionally hits in the last week of August) came and went, signaling the coming spring. But I don't feel like winter ever began. If it did, winter in the southern hemisphere is a pleasure. It was shorts-weather ten days ago. We've been eating ice cream in Buenos Aires and shopping for flowers at the farmers market.

And we've been climbing outdoors at our personal playground down the street. I'd complain about the height of the routes, but the rock is solid (a bonus in climbing), the routes are challenging and it's a short walk from home. The ducks and geese add charm and entertainment for a two-year old who gets tired of cheering her old parents up the walls.

 

La Copa Mundial en Uruguay

World Cup fever is sweeping Uruguay. Or at least it was until their star player, Luis Suarez, again bit an opponent on the field. Not sure what ailment he's infected with. I think Ryan's caught it too.

Alas, FIFA suspended Suarez for nine games and Uruguay, without their dangerous and hungry star, promptly lost in the knockout stage. President Mujica weighed in as well, calling FIFA officials a gang of bastards. Pretty normal commentary from El Presidente. The U.S. is also gone, though they made it through the "group of death," something to be proud of. The World Cup certainly affects daily life here. You can hear screams of joy and groans of agony from surrounding apartments. Streets are eerily quiet during big matches, in particular those featuring (obviously) Uruguay, but also Argentina and Brazil, who have both advanced to the semis. Our embassy broadcasts the Uruguay and U.S. games on a big screen, and makes all games available on office computers. It's been a lot of fun and we'll miss it when it's over. Viva el futbol!

Eight Months in Review

Shortbus is sleeping so I'm going to quickly post a review of the last eight months since we went off line. I enjoy many aspects of the foreign service lifestyle: travel, immersion in foreign cultures, new languages, different foods, etc. But one big drawback is "PCS," or permanent change of station; i.e. the process of moving from one post to another. We move every two to three years. And this isn't a UHaul across town. It includes staged packing of belongings we'll need in carry-on and checked luggage, stuff we'll get in a few weeks ("unaccompanied air baggage"), and the rest of our "household effects" which me don't see again for months. It's like planning a phased military invasion. A mentor once told me he and his wife simply agreed not to talk during pack-out. He was joking. I think. It's a stressful time. It hasn't been that bad, but that's probably because Elyse does all the logistics and planning.

Anyway, that is my long excuse as to why we haven't posted for so long. First we had to say good by to our wonderful friends and enjoyable life in Kathmandu. That was in August, 2013. What a great first tour. Nepal is an amazing country and professionally it was a fun and rewarding job. I couldn't have asked for a better consular tour or better co-workers. It was Ryan's first real home, where she learned to walk, do "prayer hands" and say "namaste." And due to certain privations that come with the territory, Elyse can now bake various breads, brew an array of beers, make several cheeses and even whip up some big, soft pretzels if I get a hankering. And before we knew it, the two years had passed. Pheri betaula (see you later) Nepal.

We moved back to DC for six months of training. Elyse and I learned Spanish. Ryan hung out at a bacteria factory called day care. Before we knew it, it was March and time to move again. But first...a mandated "home leave" where we must reacquaint ourselves with the US of A. (How else could I credibly represent Amurka while overseas? Never mind we'd been living there for half a year.) We made the most of it and visited family and friends in New Jersey, New York, Idaho, Florida, Washington, Oregon and California. We saw the last three states from the comfort of an RV as we drove from Seattle to San Fran and "camped" in some of the country's greatest parks. (If you haven't yet, go to the Red Woods.) Then it was back across the country to Florida. Ryan's 20th flight (or so) by the age of two. A few more days with family and we were off to our new home: Montevideo, Uruguay. And here we are. Post number two. Seems great so far. Ocean breezes, sunset views and lots of good wine and beef. We'll make it somehow.

Shortbus Conquers this Blog

This is Shortbus. I'm a cat. And I'm in charge now. The blog title Serenity Now was lame, so I changed it. Deal. I am originally from Cape Verde. I now live in Uruguay. Before this I lived in Kathmandu (no lame puns). Remember how I conquered it? No? Read here. Those were good times. Besides my life abroad, I've also stray cat-strutted around Florida, Georgia, Rhode Island and Washington DC. You could say I'm a rambling cat. I've been around. In my spare time I do a little math and physics. I'm working with some Cartan matrices right now. Anyway, it's about time I get my dues. So here you are. Enjoy. Now I'm off to conquer the Spanish language. In Uruguay the cats say "miau." Weird.

Yo necesito una cerveza.

It's been a while, but...

We'll be back in a moment.

Babies and Booze

For the ideal aperetif, mix the following ingredients:

- Monday yoga night in apartment 2W for the ladies

- Two dads with toddlers and some time to kill

- A childless friend who likes to beat a bongo drum

- "The Bartender's Guide for Dummies"

- Three apartments' liquor collections

We call the concoction, Babies and Booze. Bottoms up.

 

Notice the family resemblance between dad and son?

 

BFFs

Kids say the most unintelligible things

15 days until wheels up. I've been really busy with work and Elyse has been busy caring for the kid and getting our house in order for pack out.  It's hard to find time, and a topic, for a blog.  So much of what I find interesting I simply hesitate to post on-line. I have many interesting stories or my own opinions about things like Nepali culture, Nepali government, U.S. immigration law, funny visa cases, strange Americans wandering the globe...but it can be pretty sensitive stuff not for mass consumption. I guess it's the cautious diplomat in me.  We call it "sensitive but unclassified."  The only 100% safe topic, in my opinion, is baby stories. Personally, I find parents' constant baby stories monotonous.  Also, she broke our camera. I could tell stories and weave a tapestry with my words, but it's so labor intensive. Ahh, what the heck.  She's worth it.  Here's one nugget I'll want for posterity.. 

We've taught Ryan a lot of sign language.  If I had to guess, she probably knows 60 or more signs.  Mostly animals, which isn't really helpful.  It is, however, entertaining.  Take a kid who can sign sheep to New Zealand and they'll never stop shearing the imaginary wool on their arm. She also knows a lot of useful stuff for parents like milk, yes, please, more, all done, food, etc.  But she's beginning to speak as well now.  Her spoken vocabulary now consists of the following words (actual pronunciation in parentheses): daddy (daddieeee), mommy (mommiemommiemommiemommiemommie), me (ME!), ouch (oush), couch (coush), pool (poow), motor boat (mow bow), back pack (back pi), jelly (blblblbl), bubble (lblblblb) and bow (pronounced perfectly).

It's the final countdown

We now have only two months left on our first foreign service tour. The time has flown by, just like my two years in Peace Corps. Upon arrival it seems like two years is a long time. But at the end, you feel like you are just getting to know the place and your job. There will be time at the end to recognize and celebrate what an amazing country Nepal is, but for now I just wanted to note the time we have left. I can't help starting to look ahead. I've been watching videos about Uruguay on You Tube and studying the map of Montevideo. I really like what I see so far. It will be SO different from Kathmandu and Nepal, for better and worse. But that is the nature of this gig and why I like it. Every few years a new culture, language, city, work environment, job description. It's not for everyone, and maybe not even more me forever, but for now it is very exciting. Though, I am perhaps most excited about the rock climbing gym that is only blocks away from where we will likely live in Montevideo. I've also been pleased to see that I've maintained a lot of my Spanish. I've read a few news articles and understood narration on You Tube videos. And yet the Foreign Service language institute believes I'm a "0/0" in Spanish, meaning I know nothing, because I've never tested in Spanish. But seven years of Spanish between high school and a minor in college, combined with a summer in Costa Rica and learning Portuguese, means I know un pocito. It should come pretty easily. But back to the present. Two more months in Kathmandu. Not bad. Not bad at all.

We're famous!

Only 15 months after the fact, I finally got around to editing Ryan's birth story.  It was just published in Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine! Check it out here.

Road Trip

You can always rely on sleepy Pokhara for some quality R&R time away from chaotic Kathmandu. With Memorial Day on Monday and a local holiday on Wednesday, we decided to take one day off for a nice five-day weekend. The original plan was to go to nearby Bhutan, but the first class airfare, nationally mandated $250/day tourist fee (each!) and geographical similarities to Nepal made us reconsider. After much deliberation, we next decided on Oman. That's definitely different. But when I saw the temperatures hitting 120 F (plus I think there are like seven shade trees in the country) and Elyse read about the coronavirus on the Arabian Peninsula, we again changed our minds. With little time or energy for more planning, we settled on tried and true Pokhara. Sure we'd been there before, but it's a great little town surrounded by traditional Nepal. To make it at least a little different, though, we agreed to stay in new (to us) and more upscale lodgings. As one can see below, this really is a beautiful country well worth a visit.

Ryan's got her road trippin' pig tails in and is ready to roll.

 

The Old Bandipur Inn was so old fashioned even the photos came out in sepia tones.

Panorama from the Barahi Hotel, downtown Pokhara. Machapuchare (Fish Tail) is the pointy one in the center.

Night #2: Fish Tail Lodge

View during breakfast. More Fish Tail!

Last stop, Tiger Mountain Lodge. Ten km from Pokhara and on a quiet hillside, we had our own bungalow.

Ryan, "exploring the space." She needs more cowbell.

We had the whole resort to ourselves, including the hillside pool. Himalayas behind the clouds.

Last Batch

We brewed our last beer in Kathmandu this weekend. I think we'll have to name this one Pheri Bethaula Brew, or "See You Again."  We're not leaving yet, but we're almost under the three month mark. This beer should have been completed a few weeks ago, but there were was a bug infestation in our specialty grains. Such is life as a home brewer in Kathmandu. This one is a pale ale and if it's as hoppy as I hope, I'll be happy.

Elyse and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary a few days ago with a "staycation" in the Hyatt near Boudhanath. Just one night, but their pool, food and ambiance (read "cleanliness") is more than worth it. We had dinner at The Rox, their in-house Italian restaurant.The food was expensive, but good. (It cost as much for a dinner for two as the room rate.) The most memorable part, though, was simply leaving the restaurant. Ryan, like all children in Nepal, especially Western kids, receives a lot of attention. Even though it is just a reflection of Nepali warmth and communal nature of the society, the stares, "clucks", and cheek pinches when simply passing a stranger can get old. But when we were walking out of this restaurant and the entire kitchen staff (4 cooks), two bartenders, two servers, and the manager stopped what they were doing to wave goodbye to her and blow her kisses in return I was struck again by how lovely everyone here is. When was the last time you've seen that happen in the U.S., or anywhere else? All things considered, I'm gonna miss this place.

Four Months in Review

Wait, what happened? It's May?! The last blog post was January? Holy smokes. I'm gonna have to change the blog name to Sereni-zzzzzzz.  But the Rip Van Winkle spell is over. There is much to report. So much that it will come in bullet points.

- The fam and I spent three blissful weeks in New Zealand. That place is awesome. Remind me to serve there one day. I could handle two or three years on an island with more sheep than people, good food, better wine, rock climbing and considerate drivers.

Bouldering in the sheep filled hills overlooking Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown

Ryan camping with Mt. Cook in the background

- Ryan had her first birthday in Milford Sound, New Zealand. Pretty exotic. If we'd been at home she'd have turned one in Kathmandu. Borrrinngggg.
 

Fortunately the only shop in the park had cake

Happy birthday! We got you a ferry ride through Milford Sound

 - Our truck saga (last blog entry) came to a merciful and unexpectedly positive end. We managed to sell it for a small loss. Although we're still trying to recoup our money from the jerk in the UK who sold us a bum part. Sometimes "returns accepted" apparently means something else.

- Ryan learned to walk. It was a progression, but she went from dizzy zombie to drunk chimpanzee to human toddler in just a few weeks. Somewhere in there she learned to stand up on her own. However, if music was playing sometimes she would start dancing half way up, which made her look disturbingly like an exotic dancer. I've posted video of one of her other styles in another post immediately preceding this one.


- We have less than four months left at post. We'll leave Kathmandu in the end of August. It is incredible how fast the time has gone. So I'll try to be relatively consistent with posts from here out to capture our final days in Nepal. 

Flash Dancer

P1010151 a video by ekatz on Flickr.

Dancing to her favorite music by the "gypsy punk" band Gogol Bordello.

Car Talk

Foreign Service life is full of pros and cons. I'm reminded of some now as we struggle with our out-of-commission vehicle. Our Landcruiser has been sitting inert at "County Motors" for a couple of months now. Hazzard County? I don't know, but it's been a real saga, so I'll stick to the essentials.

The diagnosis by the folks at County is a malfunctioning "fuel pump assembly." Are they right? Who knows? It's tough to take it anywhere else for a second opinion as I've never seen a tow truck in this country. Just a bigger car and some rope. Anyway, I'm told that normally a fuel pump assembly could be fixed for a few (several?) hundred bucks in the U.S. Probably in a matter of days. In Nepal...not so much. First County tried to repair it. The test drive was a failure. Then we took the fuel pump assembly to the one Toyota dealership in town. I'm not sure if they even looked at the old one, but they said they could order a new one...for $8,000. I'm not exaggerating. So back to County. Elyse found a used version of this very particular Landcruiser fuel pump assembly on E-Bay for around $500.  (Most on-line were actually about $2,000.)  We waited 3 weeks for delivery from the UK, via Dulles, VA. It looked old and busted. County installed it. It doesn't work. (We asked the E-bay seller how to return it. He said it wouldn't be necessary as "It works." I beg to differ...my Nepali mechanic says it doesn't. And I have complete confidence in him.) Meanwhile County tells us the original fuel pump, unlike the E-bay one, "passes fuel."  So if the fuel pump is pumping fuel, why doesn't my car run?!?! No answer. They want to send the pump to Singapore for "servicing." How much will that cost and how long will it take? That brain teaser was made 6 days ago. No response has been forthcoming.  

Where, you might ask, are the "pros" in this story full of "cons"? Well, they are in our foreign service community. Over these many frustrating weeks, we have never been without wheels. At some point, someone is always out of the country, either for a training or well-deserved R&R. And without solicitation, someone has always offered their keys while away. Also, we live in the Embassy's apartment building, so our awesome neighbors have basically made their cars available. We have the pick of the litter. "Hmm, honey, should we drive the Nissan SUV, the Toyota hatchback, or the tiny Hyundai Santro? I think the Hyundai makes sense for that part of town, don't you?" Where else, and in what other lifestyle, can you do that? We look out for each other and depend on each other. We are each others' home away from home.

So wish us luck in this ordeal. We've heard of another good mechanic. It's the garage the Embassy uses across town, "Leon's Garage"...run by Prakash.  We've been calling them for 3 days. One day they'll answer the phone, right? Right?

Momo on the gogo

This kid really gets around. In one week she rode on...

planes,

trains, and...

long tail boats.

Then we stayed in the penthouseth in Krabi Town.

3 Nights in Bangkok

Elyse, Ryan, and I had a very nice week-long holiday in Thailand. What a great country. I'm not sure I can truly make that pronouncement since we really only saw Bangkok, Krabi Town, and Railay Peninsula.  But if those places are representative of the country as a whole, it's a real gem. In Bangkok we loved the, how should I put this? Development. Organization. Efficiency. Sanitation. Cow-free roads. Non-honkingness. All the things Kathmandu lacks. (Of course Kathmandu has other worthy attributes...just not these.) And on Railay, we loved everything. Picture a small peninsula with only foot paths, three top notch beaches, and limestone karst cliffs jutting from the sea. In the distance are more islands. And you...you just sit and drink pina coladas as the sun sets. That's Railay. The best thing about Railay for us is the climbing. After all, what is my pigment-challenged self going to do, sit on the beach?! This is a world class climbing destination. Momo has seriously cramped our climbing style. So we chose this as a holiday destination and simply hired a belayer so we could take turns climbing and watching her. It worked out great. I also now know Thai is hands down my favorite type of food. If you love coconut, pineapple, and nuts, this is the food for you. We were in the country for 7 days and I ate Thai for every meal but one. Delicious. Now, enjoy some envy-inducing photos.

Didn't those people realize I was using the panaroma setting?

"Nice holiday choice mom and dad!"

Long tail boats dropping off tourists.

Mom takes Momo for a dip.

RyRy's stoked about her new beach outfit.

That's just cool.

We decided not to stay in the $10, no A/C bungalows. Right choice.

Even when it rained it was great.

Still got the skills.

How high? My 60 meter rope almost ran out.

Nothing to add.

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

Randomly throughout a normal day in Kathmandu, I think about what I would do if there were suddenly an earthquake.  We are due for a big one any day now.  Would I stay put and cover my head, run for the door, hunker down next to a heavy dresser so debris would fall on it and not me?  What if Ryan was in another room, would I be able to get to her?  I come up with all sorts of plans for how to get down the fire escape with Ryan if one of our carriers weren't close by.  I think about what I would break a window with if I couldn't get it open.  I ponder different scenarios under which I would or would not grab the cats and the "go" bag.  Then I wonder, would I really DO anything that I planned?  Would I be able to think straight, would I be able to physically or mentally go anywhere?  Well tonight I got my answer.  I was nursing Ryan to sleep in her room around 7pm when the bed and everything else began to shake.  I immediately scooped her up and ran for the door.  Keith met me in under the door frame of Ryan's room, where we stayed for a few minutes to assess the situation.  Everything seemed to be ok.  It turned out that I did not think about any previous plans I had made and my instincts to grab my baby and run completely took over.  It ended up being a very short, small (4.6) earthquake centered just over the border in China.  No damage was done to our apartment that we could see.   As Keith says, nothing really moved, even a birthday card on a bookshelf in the living room stayed put.  Although, I think my heart rate did budge a bit.  It felt like a test.  A reminder that a big one could hit at anytime.  At least now I know what to do if that happens.  Trust my instincts, as if I have a choice.

8 Months Old?!?!

So, I've been a major slacker with these blog posts.  As the cliche goes, time is going by so fast.  It seems like as soon as I get ready to do a monthly update another month has gone by. Before that happens again, I'm determined to get something down on paper, err, screen.  Here we go...

In the last 4 months you've gone from an adorable little lump that sits in the corner of the couch to a little lump on the move!  You haven't crawled "properly" yet, but you're getting mighty fast at the army crawl.

You're getting more chatty in a babbling sort of way.  Here's a video of you chatting and crawling at the same time! So far you've mastered the mamama, bababa, and dadada sounds, but I don't think you've attached any meaning to those sounds.  We're betting your first real word will actually be cat.  You love those cats (unfortunately, they don't love you as much back)!

You got your first 2 teeth in (finally!) around 7 months and we think the next 2 are on their way!  You started off slowly with eating solid foods, liking everything we've given you, but not getting all that excited about meal time.  Now you eat with more enthusiasm, opening wide for each bite.  You still don't have any favorites, but pears, apples, and raisins are all a bit hit.

You are a well traveled baby, that's for sure.  A trend that I'm sure will continue.  Right around the 1 year anniversary of our being in Nepal, we visited some sites that you had been to before as a wee little baby in my tummy.  Here we are at Bouda 1 yr ago and today. 

We also took trips to Shivapuri....

 

  

Swayam Bhunath (the monkey temple)...

Pokhara...

And Haatiban...

You also were a big help with our first attempt at beer brewing.  You were so helpful, in fact, that we named the beer 'Baby's First Brew.'

Can't wait for more traveling, brewing, and to see what you come up with next!