The "Todd and Erin Have 10 Friends Party"

What have we been doing? I know, I know, it's been a quiet time for all our blog readers out there. Well, to fill you in on what we've been doing, it'll be pretty quick. Not much. I suppose the right word would be nesting. We haven't really left the apartment too much, just to get some supplies so that we don't have to leave again for awhile. Lame, I know, but hey, that's where we are right now, so we're trying to enjoy it. Just the idea of having some permanence is strange enough to get used to. It becomes difficult to figure out what to do with our time.

Our previous lives on the road included such things as getting up and finding breakfast. This was normally followed by doing something that our guidebook/friend told us was fun, or walking around whatever city in which we happened to find ourselves. Then it was back to the hotel, where we would either find people hanging out and talk to them, or cook some dinner while fighting for pots and pans (do you really need 4 cutting boards and the only pasta pot?), or going out with some random people we found along the way. It's almost like trying to find knick-knacks at a garage sale. Random people to spend your time with are a dime a dozen. You're not really sure you want to hold onto all of them forever, but while you're there at that time, it seems like a good idea to put them in your pocket until you lose them in the car seat. Then, of course, there are the treasures you find at the garage sale that you later take to The Antique Roadshow and find out are truly valuable. We've found a number of these as well, but unfortunately they aren't here with us. They've mostly returned to their countries or continued on their voyages.

So, now it's Erin and I, finding ourselves with tons of times in a somewhat tight space. It's OUR tight space, which it great, but it's still a tight space and we're occasionally bumping elbows in the kitchen or nudging our way onto the computer. It'll certainly take some getting used to. We've determined that making a schedule will really help us to get some type of sanity into our lives. Here is the schedule I made for today:

11:00 : Go Running
12:00 : Lunch
13:00 : Wait for cable to get fixed
14:00 : Do things on the list
19:00 : Walk to climbing club

As you can see, I think my schedule-making ability needs some polishing. Or maybe it's the talent of finding more things to do. We've actually written up a large list of things that need to be done, but it's got some BIG things on it, like "Taxes" or "Find Jobs" or "Figure out where to live in the USA." Those are some pretty big things to just put on a to-do list, but they're on there all the same.

So, things are moving forward well, I'm pretty happy with it. On Friday we were invited to the expat happy hour, which was fun. It was a little awkward, clearly, to walk in and say, "Hello, we're also strangers here," but everyone was very nice, open to conversation and it made it a lot of fun. We actually ran into Manuela, who we met in San Pedro on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. It was a bit of a surprise, clearly, and then the whole, "Could it be her? Is it? It couldn't be. Could it?" But luckily it was, so that's someone right there that we know in town.

After the expat happy hour, we had a meeting setup with our real estate agent's son, Martin. So he picked us up in his car and we went out to a bar close to our apartment. It was certainly a bit odd, but it worked out well. He seems like a nice guy, so that's two people. Then there's a swedish guy named Dan who we're in contact with. So you can start counting. We have 3 friends. When we need two hands to count on, we'll buy a nice bottle of wine to celebrate. No telling what'll happen if we find more than 10 friends, but I can guarantee they'll all be invited to a small apartment for the "Todd and Erin Have 10 Friends Party."