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10 January 2008
The baby is getting fat! Seriously! He just wants to eat all the time. It's crazy. And he is often getting his way, because we just don't want to listen to his cry, since it tends to echo within these stone walls. So...we have one fat Bobby. For now, he's the only one getting fat around here. The cost of living here is steep, and we are laughing at how empty our tiny, little fridge is all the time. At home, we have the maximum size refrigerator possible, and it is always full, so that we seldom have room for our leftovers. Here, in Malta, it is quite different. We are learning the European way of going for groceries daily. The good news is, the veggies and bread are always very fresh and flavorful. The bad news: everything costs about 40% more on average. Some things are even higher than that...like Diet Coke is almost four times the US cost. We're already cured of our addiction to soda. And somehow the recipe is different too - much "sweeter" here. We brought our own coffee, so for now, we're enjoying our daily dose, but even that is lighter due to the method of preparation. Dave heats the water in an electric pot, then uses our filter we use when camping, (we packed that along, too) to pour it into a tiny teapot. Instead of our usual American-size (12 oz) mugs filled 3-4 times...it's a 6 oz tea cup, filled 2-3 times. Breakfasts have been strange as well. With the cost of milk twice what it is at home, we are not having cereal every morning. Dave makes oatmeal every three days, so we have been on a three-day rotation with toast and eggs followed by a cereal day, followed by an oatmeal day. We bought sugar and cinnamon, so we can sweeten the deal. Pasta, pasta, pasta, is the word for the day on the dinner menu...everyday. Tonight I was trying to figure a way to avoid a red sauce plan, so I went for the stroganoff. It was at least a little variety, but still served over egg-noodles. We had some dynamite fresh broccoli and cauliflower from the truck, and a nice loaf of fresh Malta bread. Today, we made no plans because we were expecting the internet guy to come hook us up. He arrived in the morning and we were SO excited. He left saying we had to wait a half hour before trying to hook it up. So we waited...impatiently, we watched the clock...tick, tick, tick...then Dave had taken two boys to visit the neighborhood school, so while he was gone, DeDe and Isabelle decided to attempt to hook that baby up. Well, they sadly came to a snag in the instructions. The serial number it asked for didn't work. So Dave came in to find us messing with it, and he wasn't too happy. But then he gave it his best shot, too, and he struck out as well. Then we got a call from the internet company saying it won't be hooked up for a day or two more. Some problem on their end. HELP!!!!!! We are going CRAZY, wanting to be connected with our world!!! Errrrrr! So, tonight Isabelle and I are contemplating going and spending a few dollars, uh, euros, at the internet cafe on the next block. Meanwhile, our apologies for the delayed blog postings. Dave goes to work each day, and he could do some of that, but he seems to get busy over there, and doesn't have the time. I guess we just keep thinking we can do it from here soon enough...but it hasn't been soon enough. So the day was shot – we were depressed – Isabelle says “read: miserable.” DeDe took the kids down to the track and we played soccer on the gravel in-field...(first we stole about a half-hour on the “real field”...we snuck in through an opening in the fence. DeDe timed the kids as they ran across the field and back. The record, by Ian, 15 seconds. DeDe had to see what she could do. Her time was 13 seconds.) Then on the gravel infield of the nearby track, DeDe challenged Ian and Addison to a soccer game. We moved one of the many netless goal frames that are strewn along the sides of the field, so that we had a short field of play. Sometimes Bobby played on DeDe's team; he did an excellent job blocking out the boys while riding in the stroller! :) We really had the moves going on. DeDe and Bobby won 7-3. Rachel played with David and Nathan in the center of our field. They found a cone left behind by one of the soccer coaches, and they filled it with gravel. It was like playing on the beach, only there was no water, and the sand was white gravel stones. They get an A for innovation anyway. Now it is the evening. Once the kids were all in bed, Isabelle and DeDe went for a walk to a nearby internet cafe and sent a few emails. Isabelle's still up the street taking her turn. DeDe walked to another internet cafe, down the block, that actually has a cafe. She's enjoying a little time out of the apartment. It is a beautiful night, and you would never know it was January 10th! The temp has to be around 60 right now. It's 11:30 pm locally. This helps remind us that we're truly living at some seriously different latitude.
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