Prices here and there

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Laura

People always ask me if it’s cheaper to live in Puerto Rico. Yes and no. The kid’s Montessori School is over $10,000 cheaper annually in Mayaguez than the one we checked out in Middleton, WI (for two kids; and that one’s not bilingual!) But imported food is much more pricey. Locally grown fruit is low priced.  And soon I’ll write a post about my organic CSA. 

Prices in Puerto Rico:

   
   
   

  

    
   
  

And now prices in Woodmans in Wisconsin:  

Dill was over $6 in PR

    

Much better than 3.29!

  

PR was only $1.05 a pound. closer to the source I guess (Chile)

  

was $1.99 a pound in PR

 

I should’ve taken a picture of the price of piña. Pineapple just tastes so much better in PR. Local food is cheaper of course.  And bananas are plenty cheap. 

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Blood sucking monster

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Laura

Of all the tropical diseases my daughter could get on Puerto Rico, she gets a tick stuck in her head during our visit to Wisconsin. 

We camped ‘up north’ last weekend, but maybe yesterday’s hike at Picnic Point is where she obtained her passenger.  

 In any case, when I went to wake her up this morning I saw the ugly thing sitting right on her scalp. Thinking it was just a mark from a marker I rubbed it with my finger. Then knew immediately. Ack!! It has already burrowed its tiny head into her skin and was sucking her blood. Do you know how Lyme’s disease is contracted? LIKE THIS!

I ran downstairs to find my phone by the charger only to have my worst nightmare come true. I couldn’t find my phone in an emergency! Back upstairs? Not there. Back downstairs resting on a wooden train track on the coffee table. Real helpful to have it there. 

Called 911 thinking they could just tell me how to pull it out, the dispatcher offered to send an ambulance. Uh, can’t i just get a tweezers?? Ok, we’ll go to UW Emergency Room instead.  

 It was an easy ER trip taking only around 45 minutes. We were the only ones there! Being a dog tick not a wood tick, the chances for Lyme’s disease was practically non existent. Whew!  

When it was out I wanted them to show it to my daughter. They were’t going to! Hey man, this is an educational moment ha ha  

 Yuck. 

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Ziki or boring flu?

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Laura

My poor girl was hit hard with illness not long ago.  I was less worried than my hubby, and he urged me to get her tested for zika virus. Ugh.  Ok.  We went to my ER neighbor doc who treated my chicengunya. Chicungunya. Chikengunya. I used to know how to spell that. Spellcheck offers no help.

   

I think we got seen relatively quickly because I had texted my neighbor ahead of time.  You pay the copayment for being seen before you see the doc. 

This stayed on about 2 minutes

  

Then you go in the back to the lab and pay them cash for their tests.  Have a check or card? Trudge back up to the front again to pay. Poor girl did not like being poked by the needle. 

That’s Zika handwritten on the top

  
  It took them about 15 minutes to determine how much a zika lab test would cost me.  Apparently they don’t get a lot of requests? America is dramatizing zika much more than the Puerto Ricans do.

If this receptionist thought the A/C was cold enough for gloves, she probably wouldn’t like snow

 

Turns out my girl just had the flu.

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Laser beams and senior photo campaigns

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Laura

It’s  election year here too in Puerto Rico. Posters are up all around town.  Each one makes me think of a senior photo headshot. 

A fence outside our nighborhood

My neighbor told me Sra Evelyn is positioned to win. And apparently she’s my neighbor! Huh.

He’s got a minivan!

Those who have enough money slap their faces on the side of a vehicle.  Also, why not blare your message from the HUGE speakers mounted on top of a truck? Everyone wants to hear it. Even while they are getting a massage. 

But she has a guagua! (bus)

 

I don’t plan on voting, but if I did, I might have to vote for Evelyn.  Because…laser beams are coming out of her head! 

Laser beams!!!

 

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Peeing and doctors 

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Laura

I feel like I’ve been to a lot of doctors offices lately. Lemme tell you something about the doctors offices here.  It seems the doctors usually work independently in an office building shared with other doctors. Each has their own office, waiting room (though sometimes the waiting room is folding chairs outside the door in the hall) and receptionist. You pay the doctor directly the visit fee (based on your insurance) before you are seen.  Most don’t take credit cards, only cash or checks. 

Every office has a doorbell type button you need to press in order to be let in.  I’d only seen these before at jewelers stores in Chicago!

BUT! The one thing these offices don’t have is their own bathrooms.   You have to use the one in the hall.  The locked one.  Ugh! So when your kid tells you he needs to pee after leaving the doctor, better ring that doorbell again and get the key!

 

Women’s bathroom sign: Please get a key from the office you’ve visited

  

No key! Only for people with appointments with this office.

  

Don’t interrupt this office for the bathroom key. But ring the loud bell to get in!

   

Doorbell and no key sign

 

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I stumbled upon the perfect creepiness 

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Laura

I needed to waste 20 minutes near Post Rd/Calle Betances/2R (it has a lot of names) and I finally walked in the park I’ve been eyeing since we moved here.  It was closed for repair, but reopened a few months ago.

new steps over old, stray cat

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lone mango

It’s a cemetery! I guess I should’ve realized that because it says cemetery near the road but I forgot, and it looks like just a park from the front.

Mayaguez has cool cemeteries.  This was is huge – like 4 acres or so.

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stray cats

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selfies in cemeteries!

Cemeteries are not this cool where I come from.

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There was an opening in the outer wall, which led to the ‘poor’ peoples area.  At least that’s what I assumed. It was wonderfully creepy.  Beautifully neglected.  And even mother nature was making it haunted with vines hanging down off the trees.

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extra crosses, tiny plots

It made me smile so broadly! Oh the photos I could create here! I will be back with my camera!  I am literally rubbing my hands together brainstorming all the possibilities!

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Palmer is a German name…not Puerto Rican…hmm…

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Signs of a bankrupt country

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Laura

There are a lot of things I like about living in Puerto Rico.  But sometimes it’s just too hard to ignore the effects of living in a country that is poorer than the poorest state (Mississippi) with a corrupt government that is desperate to declare bankruptcy.

Growing up, I learned about countries with economies that spiraled down into depression, and I often wondered what it was like to live there. I had penpals in the USSR, I visited El Salvador after their long civil war, and more recently read about Greece and other European countries not doing so well.  Did they have riots? Bread lines? Chaos? I guess now I can answer those questions myself.

No. (not yet?) For now, the public is going about its business.  Going out to eat, seeing movies, taking Zumba classes. Life on the ground level still seems normal. However, we still receive a newspaper every day (I don’t think the landlord knows that he’s still paying for it). It’s a dramatic paper, but some titles just jumped out at me that demonstrate how a poor government looks.

Literally means: “$67 million taking mold”. There was an ambitious sports complex project in Bayamon that ran out of funds and is deteriorating rapidly.

Three major landfills were closed due to not complying with the regulation laws. No money to keep these services running properly.

There was another article about how the government is running out of money to supply food to the prisons. I think they actually stopped for a weekend.

And another rumor about lowering the minimum wage to $4.75 from $7-something now.

And of course, we still lose power at least once a week for no good reason.  I don’t think there’s adequate funds for tree-trimming around powerlines, etc.

I often thought the police should start handing out tickets to drives who plow through stop signs, run red lights, have no functioning break lights, and who park in front of fire hydrants.  They would make a fortune! And I don’t break any of those rules, so I thought that was a great plan.

This scribble says that we were obstructing traffic (my friend deciphered it)

Well, nobody asked for my advice. They had a similar thought in mind. Except their plan called for a lot less work for the police. Because instead of actively catching people really breaking the law, it seemed the whole west side of the island got a great idea to make thousands of dollars ticketing people who parked near beaches.  Where they park all year round. On the public street.  Where there are no “No Parking” signs. And we never get a ticket any other day. Except this weekend.

tickets 2

This was posted on the Friends of Rincon facebook page

 

tickets 1

Even the municipal vehicle got a ticket!

Mayaguez was hosting a huge collegiate sporting event.  Rincon was hosting the annual whale watching festival. My family figured we would avoid those crowds and just go to Buye Beach (the closest and one of our favs). We returned to our car to find a $50 ticket. $50!! Ok, $15 maybe, but $50???

Lemme complain a smidge more: There’s no way to pay this ticket except to physically walk into a government building and stand in line to pay. Can I swear now? Can’t you just supply a telephone line to pay by credit card or a mailing address to send a check??

Low police.  Very low.

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Abandoned. Everywhere. 

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Laura

In my last post, I wrote that PR has the most cars per square mile in the world. But I’d be so bold as to say that at least 1/4 of those cars are sitting around abandoned.

I drive through a slightly dodgy neighborhood on my way to school. I take the most direct road straight though it (past the shoes hanging from the telephone wires above). But one day a garbage truck was blocking the road so I took a slightly different route to circumvent it. Which led me deeper into the neighborhood. To find nearly every house had an abandoned car.
  I took all 12 of these photos in a 4 block stretch. Some cars you can’t tell are abandoned from the photo, but believe me.  I could tell they were.
  
  Some had aged flat tires.  Some no wheels at all. Some just had a layer of dust, while some had bushes growing on them.
  
  Is it hard to get rid of an old car here? What’s the process? Is there a large fee? The hassle must be more than the people deem worthy if they are willing to put up with all these eyesores.

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I could have snapped one more, but the nice guy in front of it was kindly waving at me while feeding his chickens (in the road). I thought it would be rude to just snap a photo of the old car behind him. And risk hitting one of his chickens.  In the road.

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Underpaying and non automated

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Laura

Puerto Rico is very much a car culture. Puerto Rico has the most cars per square mile IN THE WORLD! Yes, that is correct.

So….why do the car washes look like THIS:

  and this:

    Seriously, I’ve only seen ONE automatic car wash on the west side of the island. In Aguada. There are little stands like these – basically a tent with a hose and a couple of dudes sitting on folding chairs waiting for a customer.  With a sign by the road that advertises car washed ‘by hand!’.  Like it’s a selling point, rather than the only option.

I inherited a better solution though. One I feel a little guilty about. Our landlord hooked us up with his housecleaning woman (helpful? Or just wanted to keep an eye on his place?).  Her husband also cleans cars! Score! AT YOUR HOUSE! Double score!

dude even vacuumed my car seats!

He brings all his own cloths, sponges, cleaners, and shop vac.  I just take everything out, give him the hose and he goes to town.  For three hours. Top. Bottom. Wheels. Wheel beds. Seats. Floor mats. Dashboard.

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he makes the wheels all shiny

My car looks completely new afterwards inside and out! The first time he came I asked, “Cuanto cuesta?” How much does it cost (he doesn’t speak English). “Viente” uh, wait what? I must’ve heard incorrectly. That’s $20 folks. Triple score!

Honestly, for how hard he works, I wanted to tell him to raise his rates. Like, to $80. Because that’s what it would cost in Wisconsin.  But I’m not in WI.  Maybe that is a fair price here. And….maybe he thinks that is a lot? Maybe I like only paying $20…maybe if he raised his rates his other clients (several neighbors of mine) would hate me? Hm…  So I pay him the puny amount of $2o without comment. I still feel a bit guilty though. But not enough. 😉

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Self imposed pressure and stress

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Laura

I wish I could write more eloquently because I would like to describe to you how I’m making my life more difficult than it really needs to be. Maybe I’m way out there, or maybe there are other parents like me.

I, foolishly and unnecessarily, put tremendous pressure on myself to learn and speak Spanish. I made myself audio recordings so I can quiz myself for half an hour each day during my solo car rides. I hire a tutora to come once a week to calmly answer all my questions and speak slowly to me, and listen to me take a full minute to craft one sentence.  I plan coffee dates with certain friends and ask them to let me practice. Gracias amigas!

 Every English conversation I have with a native Spanish speaker I berate myself for wasting an opportunity (unless it is very important like government or medical business). The grocer mumbled something to me that I didn’t understand (stop mumbling!) then said, “Oh yeah, you speak English.” No I don’t! Wait yes I do! But, wait! I can do better! (just stop mumbling dude). Don’t give up on me!
Some people are easy to understand.  Some, for some reason, cause me a lot of problems.

en mi cocina

I have post-its and papers taped around my house. I subscribe to websites (that I more than often forget to use). I try to speak Spanish with my kids, because…

Ack! Are my kids learning Spanish? Why do the other kids switch to English when talking with my kids? Am I doing enough? Should I speak more Spanish with them? They already watch their TV shows in Spanish… do they need a tutor too? Seriously, I’m outta control. I worry way to much.

I’m not looking for reassurance or really support from you, dear readers. My rational brain knows everything is fine. Slow but sure, look at the big picture, day by day. From where we’ve come from to where we are now, things are going great. Every once in a while my kids really do surprise me with their knowledge.  And I know that we don’t have a deadline. There is no life quiz. This learning is on-going.  Gotta keep it fun and relevant. I moved my kids away from Wisconsin to a Spanish speaking country for crying out loud. THEY ARE GOING TO LEARN. Chillax. I’m just setting up a foundation. Year by year.

I’d say I learn 2-3 new words/phrases every week. Seems small, but I’m not living with a native speaker, and I’m trying to remember everything already crammed in my head.

SUMMER! I’M GOING TO FORGET IT ALL WHEN WE TRAVEL! No, no.  Again, this is not rational.

Anyone else’s mind jump off the deep end before the rational voice speaks up and yells, “STOP FREAKING OUT!” Yeah.

Friends have told me that it took them 3-5 years to become really fluent in English.  And they were in a situation where all they heard walking out of the house was English.  People so quickly speak English to me here that usually I have to constantly ask them to speak Spanish, or just keep speaking Spanish even if they speak English to me. hm.

I do notice that when I haven’t slept well I get more stressed.  estressada

What a fascinating pressure I’ve given myself.  Pressure to grow, to challenge myself, speak up for myself, better myself. I’ll keep taking steps toward my goal, mi meta, and perhaps just shed the stress and guilt.  That doesn’t help anything.

But friends: if we are in a Spanish conversation and my face looks all funny, it’s because in my head my dialogue is:

translating, translating…figuring out my response, oh what’s the word, what’s the tense, wait, I learned this…my tutor told me about it..it’s on my recording..hm…ok what’s a simpler way to say this? (They repeat what they said in English) no wait, I almost had it, gah! (I say it in Spanglish) don’t waste the opportunity to practice…

I probably look pretty funny.  And my bubbly personality doesn’t come through at all.  So I look goofy and boring! haha.  Kidding. It’s all part of the journey.

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