The sound of our toilet flushing is sweet music to my ears! There are few occasions in a person’s life that warrant a photo of a toilet for a post image, and this is one of them.
Next up, the fridge. Then, washing machine. And after that, internet. Unfortunately, the 3-5 day timeline for getting WiFi has morphed into something like a 3-5 week timeline.
Alrighty then.
Needless to say, we’re finding new ways to have fun in our refrigeraterless, internetless, and washingmachineless life. I guess the washing machine wasn’t that fun to begin with, so that helps. As Bjork noted last night, “If nothing else, we’re going to get really good at talking to each other.”
I mean, we do fun things sometimes. For example, we can check the balance on our matching prepaid Nokia phones, which sends us a text and makes us feel cool. Or there’s always the classic Photo Booth pictures and videos on the MacBook, too. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but they have some sweet new effects like Chipmunk and Blockhead. Hours of fun.
And if all else fails, I could pretend I know how to wash clothes by hand.
Um, the likelihood that I will die in the next 3 weeks from internet withdrawal is medium-high to high. The likelihood that it won’t matter because I’ll be comatose from fresh juicy mangoes is higher.
This week we had some small victories, including our first homemade cafe con leches (sweetened condensed milk in your coffee is not a bad deal, folks), a successful taxi ride home even though we don’t know the name of our street, an ant-free snack cabinet as of today, and a newly purchased fan that doubles as a blowdryer.
Small victories that we have yet to experience are dry laundry (which will hopefully be sometime within the next year thanks to the humidity), clean laundry considering my inexperience with hand washing, unmelted makeup, the luxury of cold foods –please go stick your head in refrigerator for me, and the courage to ask our neighbor to stop singing karaoke.
Let’s talk about cooking. I cooked once this week and it was almost enough to melt the skin right off my face. There were about 1,000 times that I wanted to bail and just eat coconut ice cream for dinner. In the end we enjoyed a plate of homemade fried rice and sweated through every bite. I can’t decide if that’s a victory or not.
So the cooking-for-the-blog will have to wait yet another week. Please and thanks.
School starts next week and I can’t wait to share pictures of my students with you! Did I mention that they are all girls? Heyo!
As always, thanks for being awesome. Until next time…
Wow now that is an official welcome to the Philippines! Sorry to hear about the long wait for the Internet though. I can’t imagine being without WiFi either but if there’s one thing you have to know, the people here move in a, uh, leisurely pace. I was born, raised here and have lived here nearly all my life and yet I’ve never gotten used to that bit. Maybe I move too fast for my own good? I dunno.
But I am used to the heat, cooking in that heat, and also the karaoke and roosters. I don’t think any of those will go away… Ever. Hahaha! Anyways, I really hope you find other silver linings living here, aside from your students of course. I guess it’s not so bad once you’re used to it. Good luck resisting the mangoes! 🙂
In the meantime, maybe you could get your clothes to a nearby laundry shop? That is if you don’t mind having other people washing and drying your clothes for you. It’s kind of hard not having clean clothes.
Love hearing about your adventures, I can identify with you! We have been married for a year and we just got a washing machine two weeks ago.
Wow, sounds like such an adventure! 🙂
Coffee + condensed milk is the best…can’t wait to hear more!
I don’t know if this will cheer you up or depress you, but I have been doing some research on my ancestry. My gggrandmother left France with her husband and six children. The oldest, my ggrandmother was 8, the youngest were 1 year old twins. They left Le Havre France and sailed to New Orleans, then a steamboat to St. Louis. I can’t imagine the difficulties. I am pretty wimpy myself. I have a difficult time just driving to the next city over. Thank you for sharing your trials and joys. Oh, and I do so sympathize with the hair issue.
Is that pineapple juice Bjork is drinking!?!
Heck yes.
Love the pics! Can’t wait to see what you create when you get a cold place to store your food! 🙂
Wow the Phillippines. What an adventure you will have. Cannot wait for all the posts.
Speaking of sweetened condensed milk has me thinking of your creamy lemon pie recipe. I don’t know if they have Cool Whip in Cebu, but if the do, you could make the filling and eat it with a spoon. That might cool you down. 🙂
How about subbing real whipped cream? That’s the closest thing I’ve seen to Cool Whip and I wouldn’t mind that… 🙂
So glad that you’re sharing all your adventures!
ok so.. i’ve been following your blog for a while now- LOVE it!!
the fact that you are making the difference in the lives of others, one little life at a time is truly amazing!
praying for you and your journey- loving the updates!
xo- the lane
Thank you so much! We appreciate all the love and support. 🙂
Awesome. It’s such fun following along as you settle in. Brings back nostalgic memories of moving to Vietnam for a year when my husband was posted there to service.