Remember last year when I gloated that it wasn't really that hot here in the summer? That all the incessant warnings of "Just wait until summer!" and "Just wait until August! You'll meeeeeeeelt!" were just rubbish? Well someone pass me a bottle of Heinz, because I am now feasting on my words. Last year must have just been a fluke in coolness, because this summer is A BLAZIN'. I could check the data for the past few months (but I'm too lazy), but I'd say it's hit higher than 100 degrees almost every day for July and August. It's been hot, and I've been lazy as a result. I totally get why the Andalu-th-ians take longer summer siestas and month-long vacays in the summertime: it's just too friggin' hot to do anything. The livin's easy!
An Andalucian summer brings some pretty phenomenal things with it: tinto de verano, beach weather, and the rooftop location of Chill. It also brings some not-so-fun stuff: an ever-present sweat mark on the back of my shirt, longer siesta hours, and nasty, scum of the earth cockroaches. I know I've mentioned them before, but their mere existence disgusts me. I'm not normally scared of insects, but these suckers are no joke. They're bigger than American cockroaches, are brown, and HAVE WINGS. So not only do they scurry around and scare the bejeezus out of me, they could possibly FLY into my face. The thought of a cucaracha dive-bombing me while I'm sleeping is as disturbing a thought as us getting sent to Minot, North Dakota next.
I keep my house squeaky clean, and we always make sure to take out the garbage, so it's not that we're living in a state of squalor and misery. I've sprayed our house numerous times, but the f**kers keep finding a way inside. The last straw came when I was in our upstairs bathroom, taking a shower. I've got a head full of shampoo suds, scrubbing my dome, when I see movement in the corner of my eye. I look up at my shower door, and I see two little brown legs twitching in the door frame. I screamed like Homer Simpson and vibrated the entire tub with my skin-crawling shuddering. I was practically standing on top of the spigot, as far away from the hidden cockroach as possible, while it stayed creepy and plotted my demise. I quickly brainstormed an exit strategy for how I was going to make it out of this tub without making skin to antenna contact. This is NOT WHAT PEOPLE MEAN WHEN THEY SAY IT'S "SEXY" TO SHOWER WITH SOMEONE ELSE. I decided to get the suds out of my hair, vault out of the shower, spray the every-living crap out of it with Raid, leave said pest in the tub until Elliot got home, and finish my shower in the downstairs bathroom. Before I could even start the first step of my elaborate plan, the cockroach started moving and then FELL INTO THE TUB WITH ME. Not caring that I looked like Mongo from Shrek 2, I flew out of that shower so fast you'd swear I was escaping zombies rather than an insect. It was an impressive, Ten Lords 'a Leaping, McKayla Maroney vaulting into our hearts, type of exit. I miraculously avoided catching my foot on the tub edge and face planting into the bidet on the opposite side of the bathroom. Dripping water and suds, I scurried downstairs, grabbed the can of Raid, and basically emptied the entire thing onto the beast that disturbed my bathing. While screaming the entire time, of course. The entire scenario could have been the Wikipedia entry for "Girliest Reaction Ever". I finished my shower downstairs, gagging the entire time, and immediately emailed the Housing Office to have our landlord come spray the house. He came a few days later to spray the house and the outdoor pipes, which is how the sneaky bah-stads got in. It turns out we're not the only ones with houseguests; residents of Utrera went to City Hall and demanded the city do something about all the cockroaches crawling into houses via the sewers. The city said they sprayed, and my house is supposedly cucaracha-free, but that still hasn't stopped me from plugging the drain after showering...
Besides almost winning an Olympic gold medal in tub-jumping, the month of July and August were relatively low-key for me. Elliot, on the other hand, had an obscenely busy summer. After our Baltic Cruise, he had to go to Madrid for work and then went to China for a grad school class for almost two weeks. Yes, you read that right. China. Not Chinatown (which doesn't even exist here), but the country. You know, the one in Asia? He had a good time, and his professor took them all over Beijing to sightsee; he saw the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Silk Market and Tianenmen Square, to name a few. He made some good contacts and friends as well, so the trip got an A+. The 12 hour flight ride from London to Beijing, however, flunked.
Two weeks ago, El and I met a bunch of my family members in Orlando for a week of fun, golf and Disney. We had a freaking blast, and El played pretty solid, despite not having golfed since February. It was great to see everyone and just chill. We were busy going to theme parks and what not, but our time never felt rushed; it was just fun.
Other than our trips, my hours at work went to part-time over the summer. I only worked 8:30-12:30, so I had plenty of time to get lunch with friends, work on my tan, and watch obscure Olympic games. Trampoline, anyone? I also watched all four seasons of Breaking Bad, and ZOMG THAT SHOW IS SO GOOD. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new show as an addiction.
Although it hasn't been a "New Kids on the Block dancing around the beach while wearing all white" kind of summer, we've still been enjoying our last verano in Spain. It's really mind-blowing to think that we've been here for 19 months. Nineteen months! 1.21 GIGAWATTS! Our time here has been going by so fast, and it's hard to believe we'll be leaving beautiful Espana in just a few months. When we originally took this assignment, our plan was to head back Stateside after two years. Two years away from family and all that's familiar seemed like a long time, and I'll admit that it hasn't been all rainbows and moonbeams. It's tough to be away from the people and places you love, and it's easy to sometimes lose sight of the amazing opportunities that accompany living in Europe. Until I changed my perspective on living overseas, heading back to the States seemed the likely next step for us. Since then, El and I decided to try to get another assignment in Europe. While we have traveled A LOT, and have seen and experienced A LOT, it sometimes feels like we've barely scratched the surface of this continent. It honestly feels like we're not done yet. There are so many places, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, that we haven't seen yet. We've loved living in Spain, and experiencing a Mediterranean lifestyle, but we're hoping to get sent to Germany next. Germany is the best place, in our opinion, to fully appreciate the rest of Europe. It is much easier to travel from Germany, Elliot knows German, and we can chant our last name anytime we take a swig of beer. Nothing sounds more Germanic than shouting, "BROUSE!" before downing a Paulaner. We'll find out within the next few months if we get to stay in Europe, and we're crossing our fingers for Deutschland. Nothing is ever certain in the military though, and the almighty Air Force will send us where they wanna send us. We hope for the best and expect Minot; it's just the nature of the military. Until then, we'll enjoy that hot, Spanish sun on our backs and a tinto de verano in our glasses. We'll just make sure to keep plugging our drains....
An Andalucian summer brings some pretty phenomenal things with it: tinto de verano, beach weather, and the rooftop location of Chill. It also brings some not-so-fun stuff: an ever-present sweat mark on the back of my shirt, longer siesta hours, and nasty, scum of the earth cockroaches. I know I've mentioned them before, but their mere existence disgusts me. I'm not normally scared of insects, but these suckers are no joke. They're bigger than American cockroaches, are brown, and HAVE WINGS. So not only do they scurry around and scare the bejeezus out of me, they could possibly FLY into my face. The thought of a cucaracha dive-bombing me while I'm sleeping is as disturbing a thought as us getting sent to Minot, North Dakota next.
I keep my house squeaky clean, and we always make sure to take out the garbage, so it's not that we're living in a state of squalor and misery. I've sprayed our house numerous times, but the f**kers keep finding a way inside. The last straw came when I was in our upstairs bathroom, taking a shower. I've got a head full of shampoo suds, scrubbing my dome, when I see movement in the corner of my eye. I look up at my shower door, and I see two little brown legs twitching in the door frame. I screamed like Homer Simpson and vibrated the entire tub with my skin-crawling shuddering. I was practically standing on top of the spigot, as far away from the hidden cockroach as possible, while it stayed creepy and plotted my demise. I quickly brainstormed an exit strategy for how I was going to make it out of this tub without making skin to antenna contact. This is NOT WHAT PEOPLE MEAN WHEN THEY SAY IT'S "SEXY" TO SHOWER WITH SOMEONE ELSE. I decided to get the suds out of my hair, vault out of the shower, spray the every-living crap out of it with Raid, leave said pest in the tub until Elliot got home, and finish my shower in the downstairs bathroom. Before I could even start the first step of my elaborate plan, the cockroach started moving and then FELL INTO THE TUB WITH ME. Not caring that I looked like Mongo from Shrek 2, I flew out of that shower so fast you'd swear I was escaping zombies rather than an insect. It was an impressive, Ten Lords 'a Leaping, McKayla Maroney vaulting into our hearts, type of exit. I miraculously avoided catching my foot on the tub edge and face planting into the bidet on the opposite side of the bathroom. Dripping water and suds, I scurried downstairs, grabbed the can of Raid, and basically emptied the entire thing onto the beast that disturbed my bathing. While screaming the entire time, of course. The entire scenario could have been the Wikipedia entry for "Girliest Reaction Ever". I finished my shower downstairs, gagging the entire time, and immediately emailed the Housing Office to have our landlord come spray the house. He came a few days later to spray the house and the outdoor pipes, which is how the sneaky bah-stads got in. It turns out we're not the only ones with houseguests; residents of Utrera went to City Hall and demanded the city do something about all the cockroaches crawling into houses via the sewers. The city said they sprayed, and my house is supposedly cucaracha-free, but that still hasn't stopped me from plugging the drain after showering...
Besides almost winning an Olympic gold medal in tub-jumping, the month of July and August were relatively low-key for me. Elliot, on the other hand, had an obscenely busy summer. After our Baltic Cruise, he had to go to Madrid for work and then went to China for a grad school class for almost two weeks. Yes, you read that right. China. Not Chinatown (which doesn't even exist here), but the country. You know, the one in Asia? He had a good time, and his professor took them all over Beijing to sightsee; he saw the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Silk Market and Tianenmen Square, to name a few. He made some good contacts and friends as well, so the trip got an A+. The 12 hour flight ride from London to Beijing, however, flunked.
Two weeks ago, El and I met a bunch of my family members in Orlando for a week of fun, golf and Disney. We had a freaking blast, and El played pretty solid, despite not having golfed since February. It was great to see everyone and just chill. We were busy going to theme parks and what not, but our time never felt rushed; it was just fun.
Other than our trips, my hours at work went to part-time over the summer. I only worked 8:30-12:30, so I had plenty of time to get lunch with friends, work on my tan, and watch obscure Olympic games. Trampoline, anyone? I also watched all four seasons of Breaking Bad, and ZOMG THAT SHOW IS SO GOOD. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new show as an addiction.
Although it hasn't been a "New Kids on the Block dancing around the beach while wearing all white" kind of summer, we've still been enjoying our last verano in Spain. It's really mind-blowing to think that we've been here for 19 months. Nineteen months! 1.21 GIGAWATTS! Our time here has been going by so fast, and it's hard to believe we'll be leaving beautiful Espana in just a few months. When we originally took this assignment, our plan was to head back Stateside after two years. Two years away from family and all that's familiar seemed like a long time, and I'll admit that it hasn't been all rainbows and moonbeams. It's tough to be away from the people and places you love, and it's easy to sometimes lose sight of the amazing opportunities that accompany living in Europe. Until I changed my perspective on living overseas, heading back to the States seemed the likely next step for us. Since then, El and I decided to try to get another assignment in Europe. While we have traveled A LOT, and have seen and experienced A LOT, it sometimes feels like we've barely scratched the surface of this continent. It honestly feels like we're not done yet. There are so many places, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, that we haven't seen yet. We've loved living in Spain, and experiencing a Mediterranean lifestyle, but we're hoping to get sent to Germany next. Germany is the best place, in our opinion, to fully appreciate the rest of Europe. It is much easier to travel from Germany, Elliot knows German, and we can chant our last name anytime we take a swig of beer. Nothing sounds more Germanic than shouting, "BROUSE!" before downing a Paulaner. We'll find out within the next few months if we get to stay in Europe, and we're crossing our fingers for Deutschland. Nothing is ever certain in the military though, and the almighty Air Force will send us where they wanna send us. We hope for the best and expect Minot; it's just the nature of the military. Until then, we'll enjoy that hot, Spanish sun on our backs and a tinto de verano in our glasses. We'll just make sure to keep plugging our drains....
I would be very happy if you were to get Minot...
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