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Sunday, February 26, 2006
just came in from the evening walk. the northern lights are dancing over the lake, and the ice is burping like a big old bear. now i'm getting ready to go to bed and read my very good book and hopefully have a cat or two under the blanket with me, and if i'm lucky the old bob joins us for a while too.
¶ 9:42 PM
my birthday. from now on i'm old. i had birthday breakfast in bed (i.e. smörgåstårta and coca cola), and galdor was very happy with the paper wrapping around the miniature rose bush. the sun is shining, and we tried to go for a birthday walk and get some more freckles, but it was so windy we went back home again.
gifts so far: miniature rose bush, miniature orchid, plant with blue flowers that smell good, plant with white flowers (the flowers have allready fallen off, though), checks to buy flowers, a BATH TUB (yippi) and ZORBING. ... i guess people think you need a lot of flowers when you're old :) (which in my case is very true, as i have killed all my flowers). yesterday a colleague/friend took me out for lunch, and another one gave me coca cola and a cookie instead of afternoon coffee (he actually gave me 15 sekr, to go buy it myself...:). today people (tommy's relatives) have sung birthday songs on the phone. nice of them, but somehow a but weird... fortunately i've had some training, as my grand parents used to do that when i was a kid. my own relatives just said congratulations.
¶ 3:10 PM
i'm baking! for real, i'm not even lying! ...i've eaten so much batter that i feel sick... but i feel quite grown-up. i guess it's good to practice, as i'm soon an old woman. (i'm expecting to wake up on saturday with an urge to bake cakes and cookies and cook real grown-up-food and clean the house and do the dishes and go to bed early and don't complain when the alarm clock goes off in the morning and watch the news and wear a watch and dress warm and have matching socks and water the plants before they look dying.)
the boss finally had time to sit with me at work today. he was supposed to stay 2 hours, but only stayed 40 minutes. he said i was good and he had nothing to complain about, and then he left. i almost hope they are secretly observing us when we don't know, otherwise they don't really have much to base their judgement on... but it's always nice to hear that you're good, i suppose.
¶ 7:18 PM
we're home! somehow i didn't really think it would still be winter when i got home... but it is. snow everywhere.
our washing machine has been working all day, as all our clothes were wet, salty, sandy and, worst of all, smelly!
some of my flowers are still alive. i'm afraid i've finally managed to kill the physalis, though... it had left us 10 sweet little fruits on the windowsill, and then colapsed :(
the bob was very happy to see us. he made happy sounds and hugged us. the cats acted as if they didn't care, but they both slept on top of us at night. so i think they were a bit happy too.
i have a cold. it's better today, though. i've been drinking a lot of tea with honey, and read magazines under a blanket in the sofa.
i've uploaded some images to flickr. i've allready used 100% of my uploads for this month, so you'll get the other ones later. i noticed i put them in the wrong order, though... i'll see if i have the patience to see if i can change that, otherwise you'll just have to see them in the wrong order. i guess that won't kill anyone :)
¶ 7:40 PM
day 7: as i had a head ache we decided to stay out of the sun as much as possible, and take the bus to "mercado conejero ("rabbit market"). taking the bus in venezuela turned out to be fun. there are no bus stops and no time tables. you just stand by the road and wait until a bus comes by. there's no fixed rout either; it has a starting point and a stop point, but in between those two points you just say where you want to go, and see if the bus driver feels like driving you there. the market was enormous. a lady who's grandson was throwing a baseball made of plastic bags told us we had to see sambil, which turned out to be the biggest shopping center i've ever seen. i'm embarassed to say we had lunch at mc donalds...and that it was the best food yet on this trip... i normally don't think you should eat at mc donalds when you're on vacation, but i thought i had to eat something beside toblerone and pinepple for once :) on our way back we met leo (the fisherman/drug addict) and his friend elka. she's a tattooist, but she had lost her tattoo machine. had some beer with them and talked for a while. leo gave us a coral he had picked for us. i hope they are not protected or anything... it wasn't even good looking, and it would be impossible to bring it home with us. but it was nice of him. leo invited us to go fishing with him tomorrow, and he seemed really exited about that. we would go the the little islands you can see from our beach, los frailes. when we walked back to the hotel there were lots of children sitting on chairs in the street, watching a cartoon on a screen attached to a wall. elka said that the government shows films in the streets to the poor now and then. had two slices of pineapple for dinner. my left foot swollen, and when i move my toes it hurts a bit. and the skin is falling of my nose and forehead. and my hair is so full of sand and salt i haven't been able to brush it for days. i must look really horrible :)
day 8: valentine's day :) up early to go fishing with leo and elka. leo seemed nervous. when we got to the boats we understood why: he said there was something wrong with his boat, but we could go with another boat on a snorkelling tour for 40 dollars each. we were a bit disappointed, as we thought it would have been fun to go fishing with his little boat. but not too bad though. i don't like killing fish very much. we went to the beach instead. as it was cloudy we thought it'd finally be safe to "sun" bathe. must of the time we were under palm treas, but not with t-shirts on because of the clouds. which turned out to be stupid, as we both got sunburned... after a while it started to rain. a lot. we had a short swim in the pool outside our hotel room (had to at least try it before we leave). walked along the main road, to a small "center" called la loma. tried 3 internet cafes on the way, until we finally found a computer with an internet connection that worked (although very slow). walked back in darkness, listening to the cikador/cigales/don't know their english name. stopped at a read limousine-restaurant. had a quarter of a hamburger + coca cola. edison invited us back tomorrow, when he'd make us arepas. found a chinese supermarket. they had everything. except chocolate. had a "midnight" "swim" in the sea (it wasn't really midnight, and we didn't really swim :)
day 9: heavy rain. read magazines under a roof made of palm tree leaves. in the afternoon the rain stopped (at least now and then). participated in a dart competition. i managed to get zero points... looked at a dance i think was called ragaton. read some more by the pool. started to rain again. went to our room. watched some tv. walked to the read limousine. edison made us arepas (mais bread with eggs, tomatoes, ham and cheese in). according to the madman josé you should have them for breakfast, not for dinner. but they were good anyway. edison gave me a coca cola plate! he's a sweet and funny looking man :) cleaned out ants from the suitcase. many of our clothes are wet. tried to hang them in front of the aid condition thing to dry.
day 10 + 11: up early. clothes still wet. had to pack them anyway. the bus to the airport took another road than we're used to, which was nice. met a man that talked a lot. he's the best writer in sweden. maybe in the whole world. extremely self centered. will have to look for his books. fun experience at the bank in caracas. neither of the two cash automats worked. explanation: sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. happens everyday. i like the cool attitude :) sometimes the bus comes/ the internet works/ you go to school/ you go to work etc. etc. you never know when it will happen. a common answer to almost everything seems to be "maybe tomorrow" :) as the automats didn't worke we tried the "real" bank instead. a nice man helped me fill in the necessary form (there are lots of necessary forms in the airport in caracas), then i had to wait for my turn. there were 25 people before me, and only one person working behind the desk (at least five were standing by the door welcoming people in). i got to leave a finger pring to get my money. the thumb is still blue with ink. when we were leaving they had locked the door, and noone was allowed in our out. explanation: security. after a while a serious looking man with gun proof vest, gun and other cool things attacjed to him came, and the door was unlocked and we could leave. the man who sat next to me on the long flight to frankfurt was praying and brushing imagined dandruff from his shoulders all the time. 27 hours after we left the hotel we arrived at my parents home.
¶ 5:35 PM
day 4: up early. walk on the beach. found a ghost hotel. didn´t bring a camera... i don´t think i´ve ever seen anything so beautiful! the hotel was right in the middle of mountains, "desert", the sea, and surrounded with palm trees and those strange big birds sailing around in the sky. i guess it was abandoned because it was on it´s way of falling down in the sea... but still. i would have loved living there! spent the day under the palm trees, next to the deserted pool and the steep down to the sea, read books and watched birds. my shoulders and nose read from the key hunt... apart from that i´ve stayed out of the sun as much as possible. followed the road back. sweet little village. i love the mountains, with the clouds covering the top. it´s grean everywhere. small red flowers on the ground. ...and garbage bags, of course... tried the pool at the hotel for the first time. i don´t really see the point in having a pool when there´s the sea just next door. read some more under the palm trees. doing nothing is starting to come easier. i feel i should do something, explore the mountains, walk through the villages, talk to the dirty dogs... but then i remember jm´s advice: "remember to do nothing" :) we went for an evening walk, to see if we could find anything to eat (the food at the hotel is erally disgusting, and there´s no restaurant around, as the hotel is built in a poor village). a fisherman named leo asked if we wanted to by marijuana. then he invited us into his home, to meet his parents. i´ll post pictures from their house later, as i don´t really know how to describe it... poor and dirty. but fun floor in a corner, mosaik of broken plates. then he took us for a walk, to see the two churches and his boat. when we came back to the hotel there was a dance show with sweet little children in enormous dresses with many colours.
day 5: up early. bus to porlamar. catamaran to isla de coche. the air was warm, and the sea was calm. i was the only one wearing a t-shirt and keeping my legs wrapped in my towel (but still i was just as read as the others on the way back). had to swim to the beach from the boat. wite sand. "green" water (like in pictures from the caribean :). almost no people. walked through a closed salt mine, that used to be venezuela´s biggest. the ground and rocks were made of salt. came to a strange "lake", with black mud (which smelled very bad, and was very difficult to wash off once you had smeered it all over your body...).on the way back home the waves were big, and the front of the boat was sometimes completely under water. great fun! after a while i was the only one left sitting in the gront. it was very windy, and i was all wet from being under water now and then. after a while my nails turned blue, and my lips and eyes were hurting from all the salt. (i also very much needed to go to the toilet:). but i didn´t want to miss the fun, so i stayed anyway. when we were almost back in porlamar the sea was calmer, so i could finally go to the toilet. my left foot is read and hurts from all the sun. but it was worth it :) when we came back we were very tired, and salty. had a shower, then dinner. i was almost sick just by the smell of the food, so i couldn´t eat much. bought chocolate and coca cola in the little shop instead.
day 6: my feet hurt from all the sun on the boat. did´n´t leave bed until 8.30 (the latest yet). had a slice of pineapple for breakfast. went for a walk (brought the camera!!). throught the village, back to the ghost hotel. through a desert to the foot of a mountain. throuhg something very green and full of thorns and cactuses. it rained a bit. through another village. tommy had dead octopus for lunch. i had a pepsi (they didn´t have coca cola :(.back to the hotel. drank lots of water.read under a towel under a palm trea. walked to the tourist beach to see if we could find some food. after the first punta we were surprised to see lots of venezuelans on the beach. sundays seem to be their day off. we were the only gringos (as we almost always seem to be. the others seem to stay at the hotel, drinking beer by the pool). taxi to the supermarket, where there´s a pizzeria. ordered the smallest pizza. could only ea a third. they don´t seem to be able to make bread here... back to hotel room. coca cola and chocolate again (which is not bad).
have to stop now... there´s only one computer in this internet cafe, and tommy wants to check his emails. if i don´t get to write more before we get home you´ll get the rest of the report from sweden :)
short summary: this is a beautiful place! but the food is horrible :)
¶ 11:50 PM
i´m going to write this report as quickly as i can, while i´m also chatting with my little sister. if it turns out to be unreadable i´m going to blame it (at least partly) on the key board :)
what we do: day one: 23,5 hours after leaving my parents home in tierp we arrived at our hotel in venezuela. everything went fine, except the final flight from caracas to porlamar, where they somehow hadn´t booked us. but after a looong waot and a lot of phone calls it was ok, and we could go for the final short little flight, before we could jump into bed and sleep like little angels.
day two: up early. walk on the beach. climb on a white punta. no camera... :( talked to manuel, who wanted to take us snorkeling. looked at the fishing boats, and lots of vultureas. bathe in the sea. read in the shadow under a palm tree. walked to the super market, which seems to be the meating point for the villagers. after dinner we walked on the beach for a while in the dark. i had to lie down and watch the stars for a while... so i got sand on the only nice clothes i brought allready on the first day here... but it was worth it.
day three: up early (again. it seems impossible to sleep later than 7 here...). walked to the tourist beach, many many kilometers away. visited a small market. bought a t-shirt each. tommy bought sunglasses. taxi back to hotel. short walk on the beach again. a man was dragged out by the currents, and panicked. he was saved by jesus and two others. it must be good to be named jesus when you apply for a life-saving job. tommy lost the key to the hotel room. looked for it for ages. jesus helped us find it. tommy sat on his new sunglasses, and broke them. bach to hotel and watched volley ball in the pool. watched salsa lesson. back in the hotel room tommy broke his glass of water. he can be quite clumsy sometimes :)
oh, i don´t have time to write anything more... have to leave this place in a minute... i´ll write more later.
a short summary, for those of you who don´t feel like reading all this: we´re having a great time! :)
¶ 9:54 PM
we're now in the "internet cafe" on a beach veeeery far from home. the computers look like the first computer i ever saw in mylife :)
i'm going to (try to) be very short, because it's warm and damp and i'm thirsty and tommy is waiting for the computer. and there are ants all over the keyboard. you'll get a longer message later.
the vacation, so far: * the trip: long. 23,5 hours to be exact * the hotel: smelly. old. dirty. noisy. the towels smell of clorine (it's a good thing i've been working with dogs: i think the smell is cosy and nice :). the water smells like something you want to flush down in the toilet, and makes your hands sticky. even shorter: i LOVE the hotel! * the beach: no people. salty dogs. very salty water. big waves. in short: LOVE the beach! * food: don't like it. but they have coca cola in the hotel, which is the most important thing. * activites so far: walks. on the beach, in the mountains and in the villages. * streets: dirty. fullt of holes, dirty dogs, dirty children and tired people. * birds: fun. vultures everywhere.
there's probably much more i should tell you, but my finger soon stick to the keyboard, and i want to get out of here :)
i've packed. couldn't find my bikini... but i guess i can buy one there. we found the missing radiator! it was in tommy's suitcase. i realised it was gone soon after we moved here, and ever since then i've had periods when i haven't been able to stop thinking about where i might have put it. losing a radiator is a bit worse than losing a sock or a pen, somehow...
i just finished my bedside book. i hate it when that happens. i want my books never to end. this one was the first good book i've read for ages, which makes it even more depressing. it's like saying good bye to friends, that you will never see again. the next book will have a hard time trying to convince me to like it...
the boss never showed up yesterday. apparently his kid was ill, or something. fortunately it was my last day at work before my two weeks vacation, of which 10 days will be spent in warm venezuela. otherwise i'd be a bit angry. he didn't even tell me that he wasn't going to come.
jm: i've been doing some thinking, and i'm afraid i do expect some kind of a miracle after all... i'll let you know what happens.
¶ 9:41 PM
i didn't leave bed until 14.30 today. close to my record (15.30). i didn't sleep all the time, though. the husband woke me up a couple of times, to see if i was still asleep. the dog woke me up now and then to see if i wanted to go for a walk, and the teo cat woke me up to see if i wanted to scratch him behind his ears. i turned my back to them and went back to sleep.
¶ 4:52 PM
four days without fruit... maybe the one-fruit-a-day thing is allready ruined... i wish coca cola and chocolate would be good and healthy instead! i'd be so good at eating healthy then...
tomorrow my boss is going to sit with me when i work for two hours. to observe me. don't know why. i'm nervous. it's the being observed thing i'm not really comfortable with. i don't like having people in the same room when i'm on the phone either. if i have to make a phone call to the bank or the telphone company or something else scary i force tommy to put his headphones on and listen to music in the living room :) one of the bosses at work laughed at me and said i didn't mention being phono-phobic on the interview before they hired me.
we're getting 20 new colleagues at work soon. they are interviewing them right now. we have really fun interviews at work. they interview about 10 people at the time. there are different tests, both individual and in groups, and finally you get to sit alone on a chair in the middle of a room with the "jury" behind a table asking questions. on my interview there were two women who started crying, they thought it reminded of "idol" on tv. but i thought it was fun and interesting. i like tests.
i had my hair cut yesterday. i often get students when i go to get my hair cut. they say it's good for them to practice on someone with lots of hair. i don't mind. i do have a lot of hair after all, so i guess the damage can't be too big :) when she had dried the hair and put shiny stuff in it she was quiet and very still for a while. then she said, very quietly: "you can't see any difference." there was enough hair on the floor to make a pillow or two, but you really couldn't see anything missing on my head. my hair is a mystery. i guess most of the students are happy when i leave :)
¶ 9:01 PM
i'm erika, and this is my own little blog. i'm married to tommy, and we have two cats named galdor and kala bhalu, a puppy dog named sasoh and a few chicks. we also have five angels: love, arne, anton, bob and teo.
