8600 Feet

We made the big move and we now we live in Bogota, Colombia. On the agenda this week? Try to catch our breath! We arrived five days ago and we are adjusting to a new city and a new life, and to living eight-thousand six hundred feet above sea level. I'm definitely feeling the altitude! It's crazy. Just walking up the stairs gets me seriously winded. Hopefully we'll acclimate soon. Of course it's hard to know what day to day life will really be like since we are still in a hotel and have no idea when we might get into our apartment. Unfortunately the housing office at the embassy is kind of a pain. We pretty much have no say in where we live - they pick the apartment for us before we even get to see it! Sure, we give them a few of our "preferences" but ultimately they and the housing board decide. We are going to hold out until we at least get a bathtub, 4 bedrooms and to live in Chico (one of the two areas embassy families are allowed to live in). The good thing is all the apartments we've seen other families in have been really nice. I'm sure everything will turn out well and for now the kids and I just get to pretend we're on vacation! Hopefully that vacation won't last 6 weeks ;)

I really like Bogota so far. Everyone is SO friendly. The kids and I walked to the park today and met a woman there with her daughter and after talking for about 2 minutes she invited us over to have lunch and suggested we have a joint birthday party for our daughters since their birthdays are 2 days apart! Haha, she was so nice. We have already made some friends too. We met a really nice American Mormon family. They have a 5 year old daughter and almost 2 year old girl. Jay and Mika get along really well. I think we will be good friends! The weather is awesome. It hovers around 75 degrees and sunny until about 2 or 3 when it rains for a little while. It's beautiful! The rain is nice too since it clears out all the city air. There are a ridiculous amount of cars here. People are only allowed to drive every other day (we can drive every day since we have diplomat plates). They drive CrAZy!!! You have to be super careful crossing the street because they don't watch for pedestrians. I have hardly seen any of the city so far but it's a very vibrant place. Every Sunday they close down a huge section of the city to allow walking, biking, running etc. in the main streets. It's cool to see all the families out and about.

I know we will like it here. It has a good vibe. Right now things are still a little hard because we aren't settled. Being stuck in a hotel room isn't great - luckily it's 2 bedrooms and there is a pool here - but it's still  not the same as having your own house and your own things. Plus we can't get Jay into a preschool until we know where we're going to be. Once we get into a routine I know we will love it here. Hopefully that will happen soon!