Wipeout!

Challenges

Internet is inexpensive, but the wait to be connected with the least expensive is more than three weeks! We found an alternative that’s a start-up, but it seems to work okay. Getting U.S. TV is another matter!  Just for anyone who’s coming down, you’ll need a VPN. If you don’t know what that is, you probably won’t want to read about it, but there’s always Google. The first one we tried doesn’t work with our Fire TV. The second one does, but not with most streaming services. Direct TV works here, sort of, in a round-about way. It’s a good thing we have some TV and a good thing we have other pursuits. It’s always good to know what you’re getting into. The trick is finding that out! 

Shopping and meal planning are adventures. Silly example: We love Noosa yogurt. We can’t find it here, so we went to Chula Vista (CA), and couldn’t find it there, either. Our kitchen was equipped as a B&B, but doesn’t function as well as if it were my own – like mine had a sink that drained!  Read on.

I told you that our realtor went many extra steps to help us find and get settled in the house, but she has also expected us to trust and utilize her employees. When we turned on the garbage disposal, both sinks flooded. Her handyman said he could fix it. After three weeks and $45, it still wasn’t fixed. The rental agreement says the owners are not responsible for the washer and dryer functioning. No one mentioned that the dryer was dead on our arrival. The handyman was supposed to be able to fix that, maybe. He replaced the motor with a used one and charged us $30, but nothing changed. The realtor’s suggestion was that we give her and the handyman between $80 and $150 and let them shop for a new dryer. Um…no.  We met a brother at church who came over to visit us. We shared our problems. He got a plumber to come over and replace all of the plumbing under the sink. He disconnected the garbage disposal and will reconnect it when we move out, but that didn’t work, so we turned the problem over to the homeowner, who hired another guy who got the sink draining at about 50% of the rate it should, but – hey – it’s something.  

One day we came home to find probably 100 Pacific dampwood termites had come through the atrium in the courtyard and were exploring the courtyard and little alcove at the entry of the house. I smashed, sprayed, and vacuumed. I told the owners. I thought they'd be freaked out, but they weren't. I think the termites were disturbed by some construction a couple of doors down, but the floor under the ill-draining sink is rotten, and despite my telling the owner that this is going to be a disaster someday, there's not much of a response. 

 

 My Spanish isn’t too bad, but it isn’t great, either.  It all depends on the topic and the expediency. For example, I had missed the SENTRI lane again, so I asked a guy who was directing traffic.  (People direct traffic as cops, but also as volunteers. I was having trouble backing out of a parking space onto a busy street in Rosarito. A lady got out of her truck and stopped traffic so I could back out!) Anyway, back to Tijuana, I sounded like a drop-out from Spanish 101, week 2. The traffic director instructed me to make a U-turn in the middle of the traffic snarl and simultaneously asked if we needed a taxi.  I was driving!  One night I ordered pizza, and it came just the way we wanted it, but another night, our medium pepperoni and pineapple turned into a large stuffed-crust pepperoni. Sometimes I can understand most of a talk in church, and sometimes I know only that they’re talking about something spiritual. I definitely need to work harder.I love the Mexican people and their culture, and we are so blessed to live in such a beautiful place, but it’s humbling to have so much to learn and adjust to!