Stay awhile and listen.

 If you know me personally, or you have read any or all of my previous posts you have probably figured out that I am what most people would say (if they were being polite) a terribly pessimistic, and perhaps jaded individual. Even when i'm trying to look on the bright side, it's still a very salty viewpoint. That being said, despite this outlook I am often more than willing to deal with things that affect our day to day life, and in general work to get them resolved. Some things you just can't ever find a work around for (ie: staircase from hell in last house) but for the most part smaller hiccups (like a  horribly clogged sink, for example) can get resolved to everyone's satisfaction, even if it takes a bit of work. I get that. I also tend to get my hopes up high (despite all this) before we get to our new post, every time. Especially with this post, because reasons.

 Now I suppose I could lie, and just pretend for the next three years in every entry about our life in Merida that everything is wonderful like an Instagram account (#INSTA-LIE), but if you know me, you know I am completely incapable of doing that.

So go get a drink and some snacks. You'll need them, because this is going to be long.

  At the very end of September, we finally left for post. After a very delayed flight, what should have been at most a two hour flight to Merida became a two day ordeal. Such is life. We are now in Merida, and have been here for a little over two weeks. In that time, we have done a lot of grocery shopping, received our UAB (shocking!), tried to get the kids into school, volunteered to host a Halloween party, and rented a car.

That was the short version of the last two and a half weeks.

This is the long version.

The long version starts out the same. We did leave post at the end of September, and it did take us two days to get to post. I'm not going to elaborate on that part, because it's PCS travel, which is always (despite planning or effort) a total mess.

When we got to post, our sponsors picked us up, and dropped us off at the house. A house, that once I had received our housing assignment, I had dubbed, "The Miami Vice" house. Finally, we were seeing it in person, which is always nice but not always for the same reasons.

An older shot of the exterior, from the assignment package.

As it was already early evening, we just ended up unpacking our suitcases and getting the house in order. That was when we discovered a few things we had not expected. Like a twin bed on the first floor, and two queen beds (in separate rooms, thankfully) on the second floor. Missing (important) keys. Only one set of keys. Possibly the saddest attempt at a welcome kit, ever (which merits its own post, it is that bad). A strong smell of insecticide, which is understandable (the tropics) but still annoying. Lights just not working. An LED pool light with seemingly no off switch that made the pool look like a rave.* And to top it all off, the only tub in the house...broken.

That was day one.

Day two had us meeting our babysitter (arranged by the CLO). She watched the kids while we went with our sponsors on a trip to the grocery store with a cliff notes tour of the city tacked on the way to and from the grocery store. The trip was fine, we got our groceries (the goal)- which is pretty painless here in Merida as there is no shortage of local and American goods in the grocery stores. We went home, unloaded our stuff from their car, paid the sitter, and saw everyone off. After putting away the groceries, we decided to let the kids use the pool- since they had been pestering us about the pool since the night before.
  There were some dead dragonflies in the water, and palm fronds at the bottom, and we'd managed to get the rave light shut off, and although I saw no movement in the water, it was apparent the pool had five jets to circulate the water. So, we let them go in. I sat, on the edge of the pool in my 'this is as stylish as a mom bathing suit from Target can get' bathing suit, legs in the water, still not quite committed to getting in with the kids. I sat like that, on the edge watching the kids for about five minutes. We have photos of that. Our children, happily splashing away in the water. Water that I soon discovered was filled with mosquito larvae. The kids were pulled out of the pool and bathed, the gate locked. And just like that, I became the fun squisher.**

Day three was uneventful, save for moving the twin mattress to the second floor office since it had become apparent that the kids really needed to sleep in their own rooms again. This had always been our intention when we got to Merida, but due to the layout of beds when we arrived we let the kids share a room in the interim. Thankfully, everyone slept well that night.

Day four was the usual first visit/check in, and I finally met the CLO in person, whom I had been corresponding with for months. I have nothing bad to say about the CLO in Merida, and that is no lie. The children became infamous, as they managed to get into the pool on the consulate grounds when they were supposed to be playing in the playground. Everyone knows them now, thanks to that stunt!

  The next four days were filled with visits from various contractors and GSO employees for work on the house. Visits that occurred much later than the stated appointment time, solving minor issues. There was a visit from a locksmith to make a key that we never received yet was necessary. He made one key, and left. Another visit was to replace our dryer- as it was not working, and had made a terrible screeching and thumping sound when I tried to use it. It was replaced, and I later found out that the reason it died was because a snake had decided to take up residence underneath it in the mechanisms. When I started the dryer, the two died simultaneously. No one was able to tell us what kind of snake it might have been, or how big. But I am guessing the answer is, "big enough to take out a dryer"- which is as good an answer as any.
  A plumber stopped by to take photos of our kitchen sink- apparently some time between the last residents and us, the kitchen faucet head grew legs and walked away. The plumber actually asked me if I had the faucet head lying around somewhere and I assured him that no, it was not in the house. He left to find a replacement, and never returned. A gas company stopped by to check on the level of gas in the tank on the roof. I attempted to get the pool cleaned, and that ended in tragedy since the guy I called to do the work couldn't because the pool needs to be repaired and repainted before it can be cleaned and maintained. Right now, it is a big empty hole in our back yard. At least the larvae are gone. The extra queen bed was taken away (after I argued that they would be taking it and we would not be storing it in the house) and replaced with a twin, the other queen was moved out of the master and into the downstairs room for guests, and two more twins replaced it in our room***, and the office furniture got swapped with bedroom furniture.
  Almost all of this (save for the conversation about the queen being removed permanently) was done in Spanish. While I am really happy about that, I can say it is also really very tiring mentally to have a full week of dealing with visitors in a familiar language you have not used in a long time. Also during this first week, I went through our inventory list, given to us by GSO. For those of you new to this- you get a list on arrival at post of all the furniture, appliances, transformers, lamps, etc. issued to your property. You, as the new resident/custodian of said property, are expected to go through the list and check off everything on it, denote things that are not in the house (missing) but on the list, and also note any and all current damage to the items on the list so you don't get blamed for said damage. Then, you turn that list in to GSO and you're golden until the end of the tour when they inventory the property again.

This is my inventory list, for our house:

 Save for a few pieces, almost every item we received is damaged. Now, i'm ok with that because we didn't cause the damage and after submitting this sheet they know we didn't. And we have kids, so having stuff that's taken a beating is kind of better than having brand new stuff that you have to fix because it was new when you got it. So there's that.

 We also made a list of items that needed to be fixed or replaced in the house that we used to submit work orders to GSO. That, we were told, would start to take place on week two. Then we had the weekend, and that was mostly visiting Walmart (Walmart!) for things we hadn't remembered to get the last few visits during the week. Also, for more pan de muerto, because it's the season for it! I have decided that you can never have enough. I suppose this means I will need to find a recipe for it. So be it.

 Week two started with a day mercifully absent of any visitors. I spent that time arranging with the one school that had responded to my latest round of emails for a visit the next day. The following morning we took a trip to the school. As I have been trying since May to get my kids into a school at post (or at least get the process started), this was our first actual interaction with a school beyond email. This was not my first choice of school, nor second, but third. As we had the kids with us, they were 'tested'. We took a tour of the school. An appointment for later in the week (without the kids) was scheduled for us to meet with the school head to go over the results and find out if our kids could be admitted. We left with mixed feelings.

 The next day, we were supposed to have GSO show up at ten, to work in the house. Sure enough, no one was at the house at ten. I know, because I checked at ten, then went back upstairs to deal with the kids. Then at 10:21 someone opened our front door.

It was not my husband. He was at work.

This person didn't both to announce who they were, until I started running down the stairs yelling "WHO IS AT MY FRONT DOOR".

No phone call to our landline.
No phone call to my cell.
Work order clearly stating not to enter the home without contacting the residents.


  I know. I probably sound like a crazy high-maintenance person. I swear i'm not. I wish I could say this was the first time I had a run in with this particular person since we have not been at post for long, but it isn't. It's kind of just the one thing I am not cool with. Maybe I have been lucky. Maybe I have been spoiled by previous posts. But I don't think so. After a very terse conversation regarding entry to the home, this individual and his coworker came into the house to do work. I wish I could tell you everything that was supposed to be completed during that visit was, but I can't because it wasn't. Which is apparently a common thing here, at post.

  We haven't had anyone back to the house since that visit. We did go later in the week to the school for our appointment with the director. That meeting, much like our first visit to the school, left us with mixed feelings. The kids were 'accepted', if we want them to go there. I honestly don't know if we do. Could we homeschool? Yes. Do I have the temperament for it? Not really, if i'm being honest. So, back to trying to get an answer from other schools as to whether or not they have openings. The CLO is helping us out in that regard, but it's still like pulling teeth. After attending a CLO meeting about Hanal Pixan and Halloween, I offered to host the Halloween party at our house since we have decorations (thank you UAB) and lots of empty space. I also learned, during this visit to the consulate, that the majority of EFMs at post are male. So, for once I am the minority in the EFM population at post. I suppose there's a first time for everything. Clearly, no book clubs or wine night here!

  Which brings us to this week. We rented a car (for getting around town), and now we are arranging for work to begin in earnest on the house next week. I have managed to clean the house to the point where your feet don't turn black just walking around on the tile. Many of these things regarding the house will get taken care of in the near future. And to be clear, GSO has been great about our concerns, and is actively working to make things better. They already know everything here- and I have no beef with them. Other things still have me a bit on edge. Beyond this, what i've seen of the city is beautiful. The skies are blue (when it's not raining), there is tons of green everywhere, and it's sunny. I have no problem when we are out and about communicating with people. Sure, there are some things I take a minute to process, but it's to be expected. Maybe, after a month or two here, i'll be able to laugh all of this off as an aberrant blip for an otherwise lovely tour. I think that if we get everything with the house sorted, and the kids school taken care of, we have a really good chance of enjoying the three years we are here for. We just have to get to that point.




*A Dengue/Zika rave!
**This is not the first time (or last time) I have been called that.
***Because two twins = king (or close enough).

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