Updated house video...nope, it was too big

Well, we are still working on getting things organized here. As you can see, our house is pretty much set up how we would like it. I have bought some canvas to paint on once I get the inspiration... I may have to take them to a beach sometime soon. I would like to get some fun paintings up. We also went to a flee market today (Andrea, Barbra (Barbara is a new teacher that came in the other day... she is 63 years old and has lived and taught in about 13 different contries over the last 22 years. She is super funny and carefree) and I) and I bought some pepper plants and seeds. There is a place in our back yard that I would like to start a little garden. Food is actually quite expensive here and as long as we have the space and time and long growing seasons.... why not try to grow our own. I'll let you know how that works out. So far, it isn't working so hot because the only small shovel that I could find at WalMart today was a plastic toy alligator shovel... yeah, I am going to have to purchase the real thing. I'll use the alligator at the beach some day though!
Today we went to get a new air conditioner thingy put in. It was expensive but SO worth it. After having scrubbed the entire inside out (seats, floors, dash, everything), Jon could still not get rid of the "dog poop" smell from the car. (Yeah, what were we thinking paying them without seeing the car - oh well, lesson learned) Anyway, we took Andrea's car to get an oil change this morning and the guy there told us a good place to take our car for the air. So, even though the situation seemed a little shady, we gave our car to this man who did not speak English and who was in the back of this lot with a bunch of broken down cars (he must have a lot of business). I was trying to explain to him what needed to be fixed only I couldn't remember how to say "it smells" in Spanish... so I said, "es possible que hay un animal muerte en el frente del carro porque (and then I plugged my nose and made a scrunched up face). I guess he understood because now it smells great and even blows cold air. We did notice that there was an empty vanilla air freshener in our middle console... we are thinking that he may have shoved and air freshener in our engine just to make us happy. I don't know but ...totally worth it. It was amazing though because when he took the old thingy out.... Jon smelled it and it was terrible. I don't know. Strange things happen in Puerto Rico.
We tried to get cable and internet today... turns out that only the cable is working, we must need to exchange our internet modem for a working one.... that might be a week. So, I am still using Andrea's internet. She is great.
School starts on Monday. I think that everyone is a little anxious and nervous. I am ready to just get a feel for it myself instead of listening to everyone's stories. We'll see. It might be a challenge. Jenni, if you are reading... we need to get in touch again!
Hope all is well with anyone reading this!
.... I don't know how hard it is going to be for you to watch this video... it is taking forever to download. If you are unable to watch it because of a slow connection, let me know and I will make a shorter video next time. This is a learning process! But, thanks for the comments, those are great to read!
Okay, the video didn't load because it was too big. We are going to have to make a shorter version tomorrow. We'll let you know! :)

The beach!

Still, we can not believe that we live here, in Puerto Rico. We look out our window and see tall mountains covered in trees and we take a 15 minute drive and arrive at a beach (I think that there are closer ones, but people are spoiled here and want to drive to get to their favorites). Anyway, on Wednesday we were planning to pick up our car from the auto body shop and take off and get some things for our house (bath mats, rugs, FOOD, sheets, cleaning supplies, etc) ... well, we are finding out that it never really works the way that you have planned here in Puerto Rico. So instead, Andrea (our neighbor friend), Tom (an American that is on his 2nd year here), and Mendez (a Puerto Rican teacher) came to pick us up in the morning and we went.... to the beach! Mendez had a couple kayaks and we brought our snorkeling gear, cooler, chairs and towels and we made a day of it. It was beautiful. There were mangroves growing all around the shores and on the islands that we snorkeled to. (Mangroves, I guess, are trees that grow in saltwater and have big roots that dive deap into the ground. Most of the roots are above ground... hard to explain)

Here are some pictures of our time. Jon is holding a "sea cucumber" if you were wondering! We are tasting some mangos in the first picture.

WE MADE IT!

We finally made it here after a number of delayed flights and and unexpected over night stay in Denver on Sunday night. Luckly, as we were sitting in the Denver airport at midnight... we just looked up and there was Andrew Campbell (a good friend of Jon's from college). He was there with Fisher (another guy that went to college with us) and they were trying to figure out a way for Fisher and his fiance to get back to Phoenix that night... turns out that we weren't going to leave Denver until 8:30 am on Monday so we ended up driving back to Boulder with Campbell and sleeping in Big Brad's bed that night (he was not there... again, lucky! :) just kidding). Anyway, after a dramatic transfer in Boston, we ended up making our San Juan flight and arrived in Puerto Rico at about 7:30 pm on Monday night (8 hours later than expected). We were missing 4 of the 5 bags we had checked, but at least we were here!

Tuesday, we ended up getting our bags brought to us that afternoon. We took our Rodeo (that we purchased without seeing) to the shop to get the oilpan fixed (actually, it still leaks... oh well). And we met our neighbor (Andrea, another American teacher at Guamani) and she took us in her car to go shopping and out to dinner.

Here are some pictures of our place so far. As you can see we are not unpacked yet (that is the plan for today). We are thinking of painting a wall or two in our living room (you can't have plain white walls in Puerto Rico... especially with a couch like THAT!). We will post a more updated video when we are all set up.

You may confuse our house with a bird cage, but that is the way that most houses look here. I suppose that it has a dual purpose. First, protection against hurricanes (the real purpose) and second, protection against theives (it makes me feel better).

We have a master bedroom and two guest rooms. (So book your stay soon!) Two rooms with full beds and the other with bunk beds. We have a back porch (also inclosed in bars), a view of the ocean out our back yard (barely, but it is there!), a nice bathroom, a canepa and mango tree in our backyard, and "good enough" kitchen.

Let's try some video

Packing up for Puerto Rico

5 checked bags later, 4 carry ons and hopefully a lot of people to help carry the bags... we are getting closer to our departure date. TWO DAYS!!