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12 January 2008
We are so glad we got the Internet service before tonight! We're amazed that we are able to watch the Packer game live on the Internet!!! Wahoo! We are seven hours ahead of Central Standard Time, so it's a 10:30 PM kick-off for us! (You can find it at http://www.myp2p.eu/ if you're interested! dg) Isabelle, a New England Patriots fan, is planning to stay up for the next game as well. (Starting at 1:30 AM here.) I'm hoping I can stay awake for the entire Packer game. It's exciting enough so far, I don't think I'll have much trouble. Today, Dave went shopping in Qormi (pronounced Cor-mee) at a larger grocery. Joanna's husband picked him up in their car, and he returned a couple hours later with mass quantities of food and diapers. Our pantry is now full as is the fridge and freezer. Prices were much better away from the city, as we expected. The boys went outside to play this afternoon, and they met a friend. They had met this boy on a walk with Dave a couple days ago, and so today they were excited to see him again. Nimanya (not sure how he spells it, but that's my guess based on phonetics), age 10, showed the boys some of his 29 forts around the track. Apparently, the boys even helped him decorate by taking some chairs they found in the bushes for some of his nicer hide-outs. I will have to take more photos of the shrubs and plant-life down the street. There are gigantic cactus (prickly pear-like) plants, and we've seen many cats hiding out under them. We've sadly seen a few dead kittens as well. We are guessing they've been hit by cars and then crawled under the trees to die. Dave went down and met Nimanya's father, Zoran, who was working on a Yugo (small automobile) in the parking lot near the track. Zoran is Serbian, and he shared with Dave that he is basically a refugee, having left his homeland because of the turmoil there. One other person we met after our first night was the lady in the apartment below us. DeDe was stopped as she followed the gang outside for our first walk. The woman was very upset, and shared that we were far too noisy “all day and all night” (we had arrived at 5:30 PM the previous day, having had little sleep on the flights...kids were excited about exploring the apartment, and then many were up in the middle of the night because of the time difference and jet-lag. I don't think they were all that noisy then, as they were very sleepy, but who knows?) DeDe tried to explain, but she could hardly get a word in. When she said we had flown in from the US, she said, “Fine, fine. US --Okay. I am Bulgarian, I like kids, but this is too much noise.” DeDe did her best to apologize, but the woman just got red in the face and closed her door. Oh well. We're conscious of ourselves now, and Dave and DeDe both get a little stressed when Nathan drops things on the floor, or the kids run down the hallway. The tile tends to echo sound. And DeDe has sore muscles in her legs from trying to tip-toe down the long hallway every day. Small problem, but the kids are learning to be more considerate. We had three good mornings of home-schooling here at the dining table this past week. The other two were spent in Valletta, exploring the fort city. The kids sit well and do their work as directed. DeDe gave them all the same words on their first spelling test. Words like: Malta, Msida, mediterranean, futbol, etc... and then they had to use the fifteen words to write an essay telling about their first week here. They did a great job. Isabelle has been a great help with the school time. She is impressed with how well the kids stay at their work. (DeDe's praying this kind of focus will continue.) Packers are trouncing the Seahawks! We called Grandma Shirley at halftime, on Skype. (A free call!) And we had to laugh when she yelled out “Touchdown!” But because of the delay, we were about two plays behind! DeDe reported to Isabelle and Dave that there was a touchdown coming. They were like, “What? Are you prophetic?” (smile) Looks like Bill and Shirley will book a flight for the end of the month. They have found a timeshare available in Sliema, a twenty minute walk from here. It's a great hotel. DeDe walked down to check it out today, and it is right on the harbor along the promenade. A very elegant place, too, with a pool on the roof! Our eyes are getting droopy as it's going on 1:15 AM and there's still 9 minutes left in the game. Can't imagine we can lose at this point. It's 42 to 20! So excited for the Packers, KGB and our boy, Brett! We finally had some rain tonight. Nathan enjoyed looking out the front window, with Rachel standing next to him. She opened the window, so they could see out and the lightning was pretty intense and the boomers loud. Nathan is tall enough that his chin rests on the window sill. Glad he's not any taller, as we're up two floors, and there are no screens on these windows. Wouldn't want him falling out! Dave spent time today getting the web blog set up. Our apologies for the delays. We'll try to continue to keep posting daily reports, and we will continue to include many photos, so you can share this amazing experience with us. Send us an email about this post! dgibbs at uwsp dot edu or dedegibbs at gmail dot com |
