Finally in a house (and other adjustments)

Our first days were spent looking for a place to live.  That was easier said than done, being as we arrived (unbeknownst to us) in the middle of a time of local holidays and business closures.  When things close down here for a holiday, that means EVERYTHING closes down… banks, grocery stores, restaurants, EVERYTHING!  On the day before everything was to close, we tried to meet with people who could show us some places for rent.  We called one realtor who gave us directions to her office so we could meet… except that she used only landmarks and not streets for directions.  We don’t know the landmarks yet, so in no time we were thoroughly lost.  She said something about being by Veronica Park.  No signs at any of the parks.  She said they were in front of the police station.  We found the police station, but didn’t find the office we were looking for.  So we went into the police station to ask.  They sent us down the hill and around the bend to “the yellow and green building”.  So, off we went.  Guess what we found — about 10 huge yellow and green office and apartment buildings!  We called her back and she gave us more directions.  This time we found yet another police station (would have been good to have known that there were two police stations).  We finally found the office and walked in, only to find that the realtor was not there and wasn’t working today.  She had given us directions, but neglected to tell us that she was on vacation and wouldn’t be back to work for five days! 

We met a different realtor who showed us two ‘interesting’ places.  We politely declined.  Note that we once bought a fixer-upper house that had no plumbing and no back wall.  We most currently lived in an adobe mud ’house’ that was literally a donkey barn when we moved in and it had an outhouse and a composting toilet.  So for us to “politely decline” two places is saying a lot. 

We had a lead for another house and we called.  We left a couple of messages during the day.  When he called back, Francisco set up an appointment with us to see two places the next day at 5:30.  Awesome!  In the mean time, some friends had previewed a house for us and had given us a contact for a man named Paco.  I left a few messages for Paco and explained that he had shown a house to some friends of ours and we would like to see it.  When he called back, he said, “Yes, I will show that house to you tomorrow at 5:30.  It is one of the houses I have already set up for you.”  I’m sure that I sounded a little confused when I tried to figure out how to reply to what seemed like a supernatural ability to have already set up appointments with a man I had never talked to.  Then he let me in on the big clue… Francisco and Paco are the same person.  I had been setting up phone calls and appointments with the same person all day.  Yes, I felt pretty embarrassed.  But Rule #1 in living and working in another culture is “You must be willing to laugh at yourself and at your mistakes.”  Billy and I have done a LOT of laughing over the last two week, for sure!!!

To make matters worse, or funnier, we were told that someone from the church would meet us at a certain parking lot and lead us to the church.  On the way to the meeting place, our cell phone rings and it is (you guessed it) Francisco / Paco calling to say that he has been sent to meet us and he is waiting at the designated place.  He is very jovial on the phone and I laughed and said “Hello again, Francisco / Paco!  We look forward to seeing you again.”  He laughed and said “Okay!”.  The surprise of the day was when we pulled up and Francisco / Paco was NOT the same Francisco / Paco from the other day.  He just thought I was a little crazy on the phone!  (All is well now - we are going to his house for coffee next week.)

By the way, in the course of two weeks, I think we have met no less than 5 or 6 men named Francisco / Paco / Fran and a couple of other nicknames for Francisco that I haven’t committed to memory yet.  Obviously, this is Spain’s version of the name “John”.  You can’t shake a stick without finding someone named Francisco / Paco here.

Long story short, we ended up renting the house that our friends had previewed for us.  The landlords are very nice and have been very helpful.  It is something like what we would call a small townhome in Texas.  The bottom floor is a one-car garage, a 9x9ft tile patio, and a front door (no living space on the first floor).  The second floor is a living room, kitchen and a half bathroom.  The third floor is three bedrooms and a full bath.  The entire place is about 1200sq.ft.  No grass, no yard, no plants.  That part is going to be really hard for us since we are very much outdoor people.  A friend is going to show us where to get some plants for some pots later in the week.

We have also had adventures in grocery shopping -trying to figure out how things are organized in the store, new vocabulary for foods, etc.  You must bring your own bags or you are charged per sack, so we quickly learned to carry our reusable grocery sacks with us.  For more on the adventures of grocery shopping, you can read our blog entry from Day 1.

Getting used to a very different time schedule is another challenge.  The day gets started a little later here.  Lunch isn’t until 2:30 or 3:00pm.  Everything closes at mid-day (1 p.m.) for the lunch break and opens up again at 4 or 5.  Dinner is MUCH later… 9:00 pm is an early dinner!  The neighborhood starts to buzz at about 10pm in the evening - that is when we start to see people walking as families, kids go out to ride bikes or play outside, people put their chairs outside their gates and sit on the sidewalks and congregate to chat. On Saturday night, we actually saw an entire family (little children included) getting into their car to go out to dinner at midnight!  We aren’t acclimated to this new “life clock” and pace quite yet.

Climate has been a little bit of a challenge.  Imagine Texas temperatures with little to no air conditioning.  Our house has a small unit in the living room and in one bedroom.  The air units are like the small versions of the units you see in hotel rooms in The States.  They are very costly to run, so we work to manage the sun and the windows and the cross-breezes until late in the day.  Then we run the air for as short a period as possible to cool it down a little before we have to get in bed.  The good news is that the locals tell us that this is the end of the hot part.  
We do not yet have internet and are not sure when that will happen.  We were told that we cannot get internet service without a bank account.  We were also told that we cannot get a bank account without our official residency visa and number (which is still in process).  But our landlord was able to circumvent that rule and help us get a bank account!  So internet is coming soon.  Right now, we visit a local restaurant/café to use their wifi every couple of days until we can figure out another way.

Getting to understand the population makeup here is a new challenge for us.  There is a large gypsy population here - one neighborhood directly next to us and one neighborhood directly above us on the hill, just to name a few.  There are people here from North Africa, as well as from Pakistan and other Middle East nations.  There is a large group of people from the UK living in the area, but they mainly congregate in a town a few miles away and have their own segregated community.

We are frequently met with surprise when people realize that we speak Spanish.  The default is to assume that we are Brits.  We have been told on several occasions that our Spanish is really quite good… maybe they are just flattering us or maybe they are making fun of us, but it seems sincere.  We always apologize for not speaking “Spain Spanish” and explain that we have been living in Peru.  They are very accepting and always say that we are doing great and that the different vocabulary and verb tense will come soon enough, not to worry.  Happily, we can be  understood when we speak and we are doing well at understanding others, so all is well in the language department for now… Whew!

Blessings to all of you!  Thank you for your continued prayers and support.