How to call us

If you're desperate to talk to us this is how you can contact us from the US/Canada.

011 679 9 860 3850.

It is interesting to note that our country here just recently instituted 7 digit dialing. You read that right. SEVEN.

Everywhere else is moving to 10 digit dialing and we've just changed to 7.

I hope the above number works. We struggled with getting you the right number when we were in Palestine...

The last 7 numbers above are our phone number so if the number above doesn't work you can do some research on how to call out of the US/Canada to our new country. We have a cell phone so I think you need the US/Canada exit code (011) our Country code (679) and the cell code (9).

We believe that texting is relatively cheap for all of us. We encourage you to look into calling cards on your end. I have some other potential cheap ways to call us that I have to further investigate when I'm not sick. We should also be getting internet eventually which will allow for the use of Skype.

Toodles.

Still alive. Still here.

So we've been gone for over a week now. Almost two. Its been miserable to say the least.

It is very difficult to find any positives when you're flat on your back, sweating in a fevered state and then a minute later covered in a sheet, a blanket and a towel shivering when its over 30 degrees outside.

Suffice it to say we've been sick. Nicole, being of stronger stock, was sick for 2 and a half days. I've been sick going on four and a half now. I missed two and a half days of work this week - and Nicole stayed away "to take care of me". And she did take care of me.

After she got better and before I got sick we did some house hunting. The first place we looked at had an amazing view. Great breezes and nice patios. The problem was that the inside (mainly the bathrooms and kitchen) were a little too dingy for Nicole's liking. I was all like "What's an inch of mold between friends?"

The second place was really, really good. It was a little two bedroom place under a family home. They have three dogs. The rental part is under two years old and looks like it was built from an Ikea catalougue. Stainless steel countertop/bar in the kitchen. Small living room. Nice clean bathroom. Two small rooms. Perfect for us.

Only problem? No A/C and it was surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. This means it was hot and humid. So hot. So humid.

We had the lady who is helping us find a place enter into negotiations with the family. We went to a local electronics type store and looked at the cost of an air conditioner (about $400 US for the smallest one). Installation? About $100.

We told the family that we would buy the A/C and leave it with them after we moved home if they would pay for the installation.

The woman said that she would speak to her husband and get back to us.

They got back to us alright.

And said it wouldn't be available until the end of April.

Then why show it now?

That was a great disappointment for us. Especially Nicole. She really needs to get out of the place we're currently staying.

So she looked a little more yesterday with no success and now we're trying to take matters into our own hands and be a little more proactive. We'll see.

Not much else has been going on. We don't have pictures to show because I'm sure you don't want to see pictures of us laying about all sick.

I will end by telling you that in the less than two weeks we've been here we've been warned about getting robbed a half dozen times. Told not to walk outside... ever. Been told that if I don't get over my sickness soon I'll probably get pneumonia and a nasty staph infection.

Its a cultural thing I think. Handing out friendly advice to the newcomers. But with the friendly warning and the "be careful" they also cause great worry. Which isn't a lot of fun for us.

Next for us is to leave this coffee shop and get a SIM card for Nicole's phone and find out ways to phone home.

We should be back to check email and stuff tomorrow.

Until then.

Less depressing post?

Yowza! Remind me not to post when I’m tired and have just wandered around looking for a coffee shop that, apparently, has just changed its name.

The preceding post sounded a lot harsher than it was intended.

Let me go back in time with you fine folks and tell you the story from the beginning.

It all started on Monday January 12, 2009 in Portland, Oregon’s international aiport.

We ended up having so much stuff that we needed Nicole’s parents to bring two cars just to fit our stuff in.

We had, in total, five duffel bags and four carry on bags.

Knowing that we had excess baggage Nicole had called both our domestic airline and our international airline.

They indicated that the excess baggage fee from Portland all the way to our final destination would only be $68. We were astounded at how cheap it was and didn’t hesitate to bring one excess checked bag.

Being the packing guru that I am our bags were all underweight or on weight. The heaviest bag was a whopping 50.2 pounds. Score.

We proceeded down the empty United Airlines line to check in for our flight to LAX. We paid our $68 excess baggage charge and received a receipt that we were to give to our connecting flight folks to prove that we paid the charge for the entire trip.

We were assured that the fact that our receipt only said Portland to “first destination in new country” wouldn’t be a problem because our bags were tagged from Portland to “second destination in new country”.

We were assured.

So we left the United counter and sat with Nicole’s family a bit before hading through the empty security screening line.

The Portland airport was deserted.

Deserted.

Nicole got her last American coffee just on the other side of security and we headed toward our gate. It turned out that our first flight would be a connector flight.

Small.

The kind you have to go outside to get on.

No big deal.

An uneventful 2 hours later we were in LA and we had a good 2.5 hours to catch our connecting flight.

And this is where it all fell apart.

At LAX they have a stupid bus system that takes you from terminal to terminal.

We had to catch Bus A.

We walked and walked and walked to get to the bus stop.

We waited and waited and waited for Bus A.

We saw Bus B.

We saw Bus C.

Then we saw Bus B again.

Then we saw Bus c again.

After a good long while Bus A finally showed up.

A good long while.

By that time a whole herd of people were waiting to board Bus A.

We all got on.

And we were off.

We eventually ended up at our Terminal and quickly found “Regional Airline from our new country” to check in for our next two flights.

What a line.

It was one of those lines that was so long they had to have a staff member at mid line to direct people to keep the aisle open.

A long line.

But!

BUT!

We had no bags to check in having checked them all the way to our final destination while in Portland.

We got to use the Transferring-passengers-with-no-bags-to check-in-much-shorter-line line.

And we stood in that line.

And we stood.

And we stood.

And the other line moved.

And we stood.

And the other line moved.

And we realized we were hungry.

And we saw all the restaurants upstairs and we dreamed of food.

And we stood.

And the other line finished.

And still we stood.

With our fellow line-mates getting angry we stood.

And we checked in.

And we were asked again if our resort had contacted us.

You see our new country is in a state of emergency. Flooding has killed at least 11 with dozens still missing.

Millions of dollars of damage to homes, shops, and infrastructure.

Worst. Flooding. Ever.

But we were assured the day prior that the airports were open and that the flooding was worse on the side of the country opposite to our final destination.
And we were checked in and it was late.

And it was so late and the security line was so long that we decided we might as well forgo the wonderful, beautiful restaurants and go through security.

And we did.

And I had two full Nalgene bottles of water that I filled up in Portland and didn’t get to.

And I was happy that they let me dump them out rather than throw them out.

I was sorry to whoever had to change that garbage though.

And we were also sorry that the sign at the start of security said: “Limited concessions at gates”.

But it was late.

And we had a plane to catch.

So we went through security and arrived in limited concessions land.

And it was terrible.

Too many people.

Not enough seats.

Limited concessions.

But Lil’ Nicles bought us some waters and crackers and pretzels and it was something.

As soon as she was done buying our things it was time to board our bus.

We had to take a bus from our gate to our plane.

There were so many people and so many buses.

So much for an empty 11 hour flight.

But we got to our seats.

And we were in the middle section.

And there were four seats.

And no one was sitting next to us.

And no one else seemed to be getting on the plane.

And we ended up having four seats for the two of us.

We took off.

We ate our snacks.

We watched a movie.

We ate the sandwich given to us.

Sandwich!?

And then we slept.

I leaned my chair back (no one behind me) and Nicole laid out across her three seats.

And we slept.

And slept.

When we woke up it was time for breakfast (yuck).

And then a short time later we landed.

The fastest 11 hour flight ever.

Because we slept.

And slept.

We arrived in our connecting city only to learn that we had to collect our luggage, go through customs and then drop our bags off when we checked in for the THIRD TIME.

And then we’d have to go through security.

For the third time.

So we collected our bags and waited for another cart to become available, as I’m unable to carry five duffel bags.

But we got our bags walked a fairly long way from the international terminal to the domestic departures terminal.

And we walked up to the gate to check in for our 7:00 am flight and it was already 6:30 am and we were told that they would open the check in in fifteen minutes.

And we waited for fifteen minutes and they didn’t open check in. And we waited some more and then they finally checked us in and charged us more money for excess baggage because our receipt was only from Portland to first city in new country and not second city in new country. And we asked how much.

And we were told: “?”

And we were told: “The credit card machines are down, we don’t know the exchange rate for the US and we can’t give you a receipt because the person that does it isn’t here.”

And we felt like we were getting ripped off.

But we paid.

And it was 7.

And we didn’t know what gate to go to.

And it was 7:15 and we waited.

And it was 7:30 and we waited.

And it was 7:45 and we waited.

And it was 7:50 and we heard the first announcement we’d heard all day.

Our flight would be delayed until 8:00 am.

And we were an hour late.

And our taxi driver that was hired to pick us up wasn’t impressed.

Although he was gracious.

And he told us not to go out at night.

He ended up taking us to our new work.

And they ended up taking us to our new, temporary house.

But we couldn’t get in because someone changed the gate lock.

So we went back to work and we waited.

And waited.

And then went to the grocery store and restaurant and bought a few things and were finally taken to our home.

Where we ate some ok food.

And napped some ok nap.

And then we watched our one tv channel.

Well we have three tv channels. Two of which are identical. One of which is blurry TBN.

But we were surprised that there was a DVD player.

And we were even more surprised that it played our DVDs. Because we’re not in the North American region.

As we explored the three bedroom, 1.5 bathroom house we noticed that there was mold everywhere.

On the walls.

In the cupboards.

On the carpet.

Everywhere.

And it smells of mold and mothballs.

And there is no air conditioning.

And it was raining buckets.

And it didn’t stop for two days.

The next morning we awoke and went to work and did nothing. And stared at the walls. And the internet didn’t work so we couldn’t tell anyone anything.

But Nicole was eventually able to update her Facebook status.

But after sitting and staring for awhile we went home.

And we napped.

And then we waited for a break in the rain.

And we went to the store.

And we came back.

And I realized that I lost the keys.

And we had to call someone.

And I felt stupid.

Because I am stupid.

We woke on Friday to a sunny day!

And we went to work and had meetings and learned what our role would be.

We also learned that they are on a hiring spree and we would be joined by a lot more people over the year. We also learned that we would have to see patients when the students are learning how to see patients. Its ok. Although not ideal. They decided that it wasn’t fair to the community to have the clinic open only when students were training as it makes the community feel like guinea pigs and also causes the clinic to be open for only a short time.

And after our meetings we took a taxi downtown and saw that even downtown was a developing country’s downtown.

Dirty, rundown, buildings looking a little shoddy. Much like the hospital we had toured earlier.

The hospital looks just like a hospital you would see in a movie based in Africa. Old. Dirty. Run down. Things crammed everywhere. Makeshift offices. But the eye surgery suite is really nice… despite the three dead roaches.

And today is Saturday and Nicole is sick. And we still don’t have internet at home and our FREE laptops have been confiscated at the airport so we won’t get them for awhile so we can’t keep in touch with people and that kind of sucks but we’ll get our computers and internet eventually.

Next week we look for a new house and continue to settle in.

And that’s our story.

Here

So as many of you have gathered from Nicole's Facebook account we are here. I have only 30 minutes to check all of my email and update this blog. Nicole will also want to use the computer in that 30 minutes so this will be quick.

Remember to those who got all excited that we were going to a tropical paradise that I kept saying that it was a developing country?

Well? We're in a developing country.

Our job descriptions changed between accepting them and arriving here. Not drastically but they changed.

Our house is moldy. So moldy.

We're moving when we find a new place as the house we're in is for visiting lecturers. We'll probably end up picking a place that is more expensive than they're willing to pay so that will be more money out of our pocket (paying the difference).

I've met at least three housemates in our home. I killed one of them but his smaller brother is still running around somewhere. We met three of his dead relatives in the surgery room that we were required to take our shoes off and gown up to see. That's funny.

So for those of you who need things spelled out our "boss" says this; "You'll get used to seeing cockroaches here". Add to that our other housemate, the lizard, and we have a very busy three bedroom house.

We arrived in the midst of the worst flooding this country has ever seen. It was worse in the west and we are in the east but it has been raining buckets since our arrival. Today was nice but raining buckets.

I've lost a set of keys already. Nicole has cried already.

It will be difficult but we'll make do. Only 21 weeks until our June break.

That sounds depressing.

We're a bit depressed but today was a better day than all the other days and we left work far more encouraged than we arrived.

So we hope to update with a more positive update tomorrow. In fact we'll write it at home on word so we only have to copy and paste.

Maybe we can get the internet to work at home today too!

Later.

Trouble

I'm having a truckload of trouble with the following posts so please ignore formatting issues.

There are three new posts following this one. Please read them top to bottom. I have made them in chronological order.

Our Trip Home - Part I

Wow I can’t believe how long it’s been since we’ve updated this thing. Well no fear fair reader we are updating it… NOW.

We left our wonderful Decatur, Georgia condo for the last time on Sunday, December 14. Well I guess we didn’t leave for the last time as we still own it. Our renter has since moved in but we haven’t heard from the manager nor seen January’s rent. So that’s concerning.

But that’s an aside. We left on Sunday, December 14 in the not so early morning. We had to be in Edmonton, Alberta by Saturday, December 20 to see my brother get hitched. We figured that would be plenty of time to drive 2400 miles.

The first day’s drive went quite well. Car was loaded beautifully (although we had so much stuff you couldn’t see out of the back window).

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We drove all the way to St. Louis before stopping for dinner. As we ate the weather took a turn for the worse. Soon a monsoon was outside the restaurant. We decided to keep going anyway. BIG mistake. A few miles north of St. Louis the monsoon turned into ice rain. The roads became very slick and I was barely able to control the car as it slid left and right for 40 miles.

But being an extremely skilled driver I was able to drive us safely until we finally found a hotel.

But being… well… me and me being stupid we found the hotel but I miss judged how to get to the hotel and ended up back on the freeway going back the way we just came from. We had to slip slide 10 miles before reaching an exit and then had to slip slide the 10 miles back to the hotel. <>

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The next morning broke and when I went outside to start the car I noticed it was cold.

Oh so cold.

And it didn’t warm up again the rest of our trip. We hit some frigid, frigid temperatures. It was -40 in North Dakota when we drove through. (Celsius or Fahrenheit doesn’t matter at -40 as they are the same and both are cold).

Day 2 included more driving.

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So much driving.

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Through the barren wasteland that is the Northern States.

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We quickly learned along our drive that the bottle of windshield washer fluid that somehow found its way into our trunk did not contain anti-freeze and had frozen in the lines after I dutifully filled our tank to the brim in preparation for our trip.

Who needs to see anyway?

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Day 2 ended somewhere in North Dakota in another hotel on another freezing cold night.

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Day 3 took us into Canada!

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The border guards were NOT happy to see us. For some reason they didn’t believe that we weren’t i) moving to Canada or ii) leaving a bunch of stuff in Canada. They took us to a special room and searched through our stuff. They did such a thorough search that they uncovered stuff we didn’t even know we had in the car.

Like the previous owner’s purchase contract and registration. They asked to see our registration and asked where the car was licensed a couple of times.

They had Nicole take out her computer and show them the contracts for our new jobs to prove we weren’t moving to Canada.

They were trying to catch us in a lie. But we weren’t lying so they didn’t catch us in a lie.

So there border guards.

Moral of the story? Canadian border guards are grumpy.

It must be the cold.

They eventually believed our story and let us cross into my motherland.

After they let us go we only drove a block before we pulled over so I could re-pack the car they messed up.

Packing is a skill that not everyone understands.

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They took the time to ruin my packing but couldn’t figure out how to fix it! Jerks.

Our plan for Day 3 was to drive to Regina and get a room for the night. We drove to Regina.

We got on the ring road.

We soon found ourselves past Regina.

It really was that quick.

“Oh! Regina. We can stop for the night!”

“Wait… what happened to Regina?”

So we drove to Saskatoon and froze half to death walking from the hotel to the nearest restaurant.

I don't like Saskatoon.

Never have.

Never will.

The restaurant in Saskatoon was ridiculous.

Crazy.

You order food and they bring you a surprise soup. Nowhere on the menu did it say your meal comes with a giant bowl of soup. But it did.

After the soup came a platter of food.

So. Much. Food.

And after eating the food you’re expected to brave -40 weather to walk back to the hotel? I think not.

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Day 4 was Canadian driving. More accurately Saskatchewan driving.

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That was fun.

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About 60 km east of Vegreville all hell broke lose with our car. I was driving along minding my own business when the back of our car tried to pass the front of our car. The back was sliding left and right and back left again. We were all over the road. We became more concerned when we realized that it seemed we were the only ones having such a tough time on the road. I fought the car the rest of the way to Edmonton.

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Nicole lost years off her life with her fretting and worrying about “losing control” and “crashing” and “being killed” but I told her I am a superior driver and wouldn’t allow her to be more than “maimed”.

Turns out we have crappy tires. And the road from Vegreville to Edmonton is crappy. And our car was very heavy in the back. Those things combined made for some difficult driving.

So word of advice: don’t drive from Atlanta to Edmonton on summer tires in the dead of winter.

Unless you like a challenge.

We stopped to check the car out in a little town called Mundare, Alberta. It's Nicole's favourite Albertan town because its the home of Mundare Sausage.

And this monument.

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We made it to Edmonton that day.

Exhausted. Worn out. But we had arrived.

Our Trip Home - Part the Second

And the next day was wedding rehearsal!

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And then Friday was decorating!

And Saturday was my little brother’s wedding!

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It was a nice wedding. A beautiful ceremony at which the groomsmen a groomsman cried like babies a baby and the bridesmaids stood stoic. I say if you don’t cry at a wedding you shouldn’t be there.

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The reception was fun too.

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Great food. I don’t dance or drink so the rest of the reception activities were meh. But it seemed like people had fun despite the frigid, frigid temperatures.

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At least we only had 10 minutes of outdoor pictures. (it was -40 and I was wearing a suit which was, apparently, constructed with tissue paper). At least one of the other groomsmen rebuked the pain in my back as it seized up from the cold.

(It didn’t help by the way. But it’s the thought that counts!)

The wedding was on the 20th and Nicole’s Dad joined us.

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While he was away from Portland the snowstorm of the century hit the Pacific Northwest. He was then stuck with us for another three days due to the Portland airport being closed.

We had a great Christmas this year. It was a lot of fun.

Christmas Eve found six of us at church where we were able to see old friends and experience the strangest Christmas Eve service in the history of mankind. Let’s just say it involved a lot of pantomiming and climaxed with a blow up saxophone, lip synching angels wearing short dresses and an angel ripping his robes off to reveal a black suit complete with skinny black tie before breaking into song…

Good times. Good times.

It’s a family tradition after Christmas Eve service to go home (actually we do it at my sister’s home now) and have a “Birthday Party for Jesus”.

Complete with cake.

And the singing of Happy Birthday.

With a candle.

He doesn’t blow it out.

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It was only the 6 of us (out of the normal 13) for both Christmas Eve and Christmas day as my brother was at his chick’s wife’s family’s and my sister and her kids were at her husband’s family’s.

On Christmas day we opened stockings, played Wii and then had a fondue. It was a great day and I think we should do it every year.

We had “Christmas” on Boxing Day. So we opened gifts on December 26th with all 13 people and had our big, delicious Christmas dinner on the day after Christmas. Then we had our annual Croquinole tournament, which my Father and I, of course, won.

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Handily.

It wasn’t even close.

It was like grown men playing against children.

Who had no fingers.

Poor, poor fingerless children.

We ate too much.

We had too much fun.

It was a normal Christmas with my family.

Actually that’s a normal day with my family.

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Our time in E’Town came to a close and we were soon loaded up and on our way to Washougal, Washington.

What a drive.

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What a horrible drive.

We still had summer tires and this time we were driving through the MOUNTAINS in the dead of winter.

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Smart?

Sure.

The problem with driving from Edmonton to the Pacific Northwest is that unless you leave in the middle of the night you’re going to get into the mountains at night.

When it’s dark.

Do you know what lives in the mountains?

Animals.

Scary, scary animals.

It was a mere 10 years ago that I found myself in my 1970 Volkswagen bus with my brother; Jill and Fat Matt. We had driven from Edmonton toward the great Pacific Northwest. After our first gas stop my bus wouldn’t start. So Jill and I got out and Fat Matt got into the driver’s seat of MY bus. Jill and I pushed the bus. Fat Matt started the bus without too much difficulty after it got up to speed.

I hopped into the second row of seats.

The row WITHOUT seatbelts and Jill got into the passenger seat.

It was dark.

We were listening to the Insyderz.

I was fiddling with the map and a flashlight (bent over at my waist looking at the floor) while Jill was resting his elbow next to the passenger window dozing.

All of a sudden I hear Fat Matt say “Woah!”

I feel the bus go left, then right as I feel a warm fluid hit my face. Soon I was tumbling into the seat in front of me as the bus slid on its side down the highway.

The next thing I remember is yelling out “Are you OK? Is everyone OK?”

Jill says “Yes”

Fat Matt says “Yes”

I walk out the FRONT WINDSHIELD with Jill to a row of cars facing us. We were in the wrong lane and the bus was on its side. I turn around and Fat Matt is still in the bus.

I go back in with some guy and say “Fat Matt why are you still in your seat?”

“I can’t undo my seat belt.”

So some guy and I undo his seat belt and we re-exit by whence we came.

The front window.

Long story short. Everyone is ok except Fat Matt needs to stay in the hospital for observation over night as his girth caused the steering wheel to bend in half and his knee broke the key off in the ignition.

Ouch.

Serves him right.

The warm fluid?

Moose innards.

Mostly moose manure.

That nobody told me was covering my face and clothes for three hours.

So anyway for some reason I don’t like driving in the mountains in the dark.

Because you never know when a depressed meese is going commit suicide by jumping in front of your car.

So we left Edmonton, not in the middle of the night, and slip-slided through Leduc, Red Deer, Airdrie and Calgary before arriving in the Mountains.

In the dark.

And we saw plenty of beasts.

Plenty of beasts.

And Nicole was scared.

But we survived and actually crossed over to the US that first day of driving.

The US border guards hardly gave us a second look as they waved us through.

Moral of the story: US border guards are lazy.

Must be the heat.

And we stopped for the night a short drive away from the bustling metropolis of Washougal, WA where we arrived around 3 pm the next day.

We drove, in total, 6 days covering 3380.38 miles. We saw 16.5 road kills. One of them was being literally scraped off the road by a road maintenance crew as we drove by. It was flat as a pancake. It reminded me of a cartoon.

But it was oh so real.

The 0.5 road kill was interesting. We were driving on a divided highway. We were in the driving lane (as opposed to the passing lane – something that Americans don’t understand – you drive in the right lane and PASS in the left lane. Upon completion of your pass you move back into the right lane. Not complicated. So learn how to do it. Oh. And cruise control is your friend).

Anyway we were in the driving lane and on the right shoulder was a road maintenance truck.

As I was moving to the left lane to give the guy room I noticed the road maintenance guy sprint from the median across traffic to his truck. I immediately slowed down and stayed in the left lane. As we passed his truck going somewhat slowly on our left by a huge snow bank was a deer struggling to stand up. It was thrashing about standing on its front legs with its hind quarters flat on the ground.

So sad. We’re hoping that it had just slid down the snow bank and was slipping on ice but imagine in reality it had just been clipped by a big truck or something. So that was the half of the 16.5 road kills. The others included animals ranging from deer to dogs and skunks etc.

Our Trip Home - The Final Chapter

The day we arrived in Washougal was New Year’s Eve and we partied like it was 2008!

Playing the Wii with Nicole’s Granny who is visiting from Romania and her parents.

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We watched the fireworks that all the neighbours were shooting off and we watched the Times Square ball drop.

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And it was 2009.

And we went to bed.

Our time in the Northwest has been spent doing a lot of running around getting ready for our move. We were able to spend some time with some friends. (Let’s be honest they are Nicole’s friends. They just tolerate me because they have to.)

We were lucky enough to be hit by another Pacific Northwest Snowstorm. We went out and played in the snow.

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Nicole, her Granny and Mum built the saddest looking snowman ever.

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I shoveled the huge driveway just for fun. I had nothing else to do and it made me feel like I accomplished something (it wasn’t necessary as all the snow was melted by the next morning).

Nicole tried to go sledding despite my assurances that it wouldn’t work. The snow was way too sticky to slide with any speed so I ended up having to push her down the hill.

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We had fun. <>

We’re now down to a couple of days to go.

We’re not ready.

>Oh well.

At least we know we’ll soon be in a warm place where we can finally spend some time together. (Note sarcasm as we’ve been lucky enough to spend almost a year together 24/7)

That’s our trip thus far.

We’ll see y’all on the other side of the world.

A magical place where it’s always tomorrow and it’s already summer.