Retirement merry go round

Oh, well

2011-09-26T16:29:00.001-04:00

... so I have spent almost half a year roaming through Sweden, Poland and Spain - in person and virtually... only to do about face some two weeks ago, deciding to move back to Padre Island, Texas and work part time ... in Belize again.

So some new adventures on the new continent await... while Europe needs to wait for me, again.

The Path to Prosperity????

2011-04-30T12:11:00.005-04:00

I moved to the USA first time about 30 years ago. During this time frame USA gradually ceased being a prosperous developed country and became a third world country that it now is. How sad!
Enormous wealth and income disparity, enormous differences in rights - and possibilities - of the privileged rich and the rapidly growing percent of the population that is poor and becoming even poorer.

Sweden might look cold and in April - and weatherwise it is - but politically, socially, it is a much "warmer" place for its citizens and residents than USA ever was.

The audacity of a Republican/Tea Party budget that calls itself " a path to prosperity" while shamelessly dismantling the crumbling remains of a social system in the USA in the name of "deficit reduction" while showering lower taxes on the rich - both individual and corporations. Whew! I am glad I made the decision to leave this country permanently and executed it swiftly: I now live in Europe, again.

I no longer need to personally worry about what is happening with Medicare: I won't be using it.
My only worry is the sinking dollar, as a part of my income is in this currency. And as dollar sinks further and further against the euro ( you have now to dish out almost $ 1.5 for one euro, while ten yers ago dollar was stronger than euro, and even 6 years ago an Economist prediction that a dollar would fall to 1.40 to an euro was greeted with utmost dibelief - that's how low Amarica fell!) the percentage of my total income in dollars shrinks, too. Thanks heavens for strong Swedish crown ... though it does me no good in Sweden. :-(((
But at least its practically free health care makes me smile, as it saves me a bundle of dollars I do not have to spend on health care in America.

Cats now and then

2011-03-22T15:29:00.004-04:00

My friend, Anna, an avid photographer and animal lover came for a visit and took this photo of Missy.

Then she let the cats out on the balcony to "help me" with spring planting. That's how they are helping! By an unruly committee meeting! Missy and Tuno want chives to be planted everywhere. And all chives for them, none for me! Sweetie prefers catnip and cat grass, but is willing to share. Rascal is satisfied with my asiatic lilies, which came up in abundabce this year - he loves to chew on their leaves.

At least Sweetie took pity on my needs and is pointing out that mint needs replanting and the hanging basket is waiting for fresh spring flowers. I agree with that! :-)

And that's how all four of them looked two years ago, in March of 2009, before leaving Puerto Rico. Time flies and cats become older.

Going back to Europe?

2011-02-03T09:45:00.021-05:00

A typical street in a medieval city of Ystad in southernmost Sweden (photo by Magnus)

I think this might be the year to go back home, to Europe - for good.

To Sweden, Poland and Spain.

Why? One of the reasons would be nostalgia: I am a citizen of Sweden, I was born and raised in Poland. So if I have - again - taken a residence in the southernmost province of Sweden, Scania (Skane), I could enjoy it's picturesque charms,

its well preserved medieval towns, like Ystad or Simrishamn (photo above)
cheerfully coexisting with avant garde modern architecture, like this "Turning Torso" building in Malmo,

its quaint villages and bucolic landscapes,
its soft, sandy beaches with colorful beach huts, its proximity to "wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen"
Oresund bridge connecting Sweden with Denmark

(about one hour by car or train) , while being only 7 hours away (by ferry) from my first home country - Poland.

Old town square in my hometown of Poznan, Poland. This picture could have been taken from the windows of my old office in the research institute, Institute of Western Affairs, where I once worked.

And why Spain? Well, both Sweden and Poland are in the northern part of Europe and "suffer" long, cold winters, so in winter, i would do, what many retired Scandinavians do: move to southern Spain for a few months.

No, not to Costa del Sol, which is now overrun with - mostly - Brits, but to a more than 2000 years old pueblo blanco (white village) on the Granada's coast: Almunecar, or to neighboring Nerja or Salobrena.

A view of Almunecar

Those Spanish small towns and villages are winter havens for northern Europeans, who already constitute about 25% of their permanent population, while many more northern Europeans spend winters there renting flats or townhouses overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Another reason, this one negative, is that I have grown disenchanted with America, which - especially tea party and republican America - seems to be now going full throttle into a wrong direction: toward more inequality, more uncaring about its citizens, who are allowed to be pawns of greedy insurance companies, "big pharma" etc. etc.

Tea partiers and republicans seam so eager to dismantle even the very, very modest (in comparison to Europe) social safety networks... that it makes me want to puke - and not stay in this country any longer.

Yes, I shall miss certain comforts of America, and - most of all - I shall miss a proximity to my daughter, who lives and works here. It won't be easy for me with advancing age to board a plane to USA to visit her, and it won't be easy for her to have to board a plane to visit me, as vacations in America are also far shorter than they are in Europe, but I hope that, perhaps, we could meet during her business trips to Europe, or... she, too, shall grow disenchanted with America and decide to go home to Europe.

Thanksgiving and my apartment... before I mess it up again.

2010-11-28T15:53:00.059-05:00

Our Thanksgiving turkey - filled with herbs from my balcony: rosemary, thyme and oregano under skin and in neck cavity, salvia and rosemary, quartered lemons and onions in the body cavity, roasted on a bed of vegetables: onions, carrots, leeks and selery and basted with drippings and good Spanish sherry. Yumm.

(Since this post is dedicated to my Polish friends who asked about American Thanksgiving and typical American apartments, it will be mostly in Polish.)

Swieto Dziekczynienia w tym roku nie zaczelo sie najlepiej: Dosia przyjechala bardzo przeziebiona i odradzila mi wydanie $79 na turducken, czyli indyka nadziewanego kaczka, nadziewana kurczakiem, skoro bylysmy tylko my dwie.

Wiec kupilam stosunkowo malego jak na Ameryke, bo zaledwie 10 funtowego indyka, nadziewajac go - zgodnie z tradycja - ziolami (szalwia, rozmarynem, tymiankiem i oregano, tudziez cwiartkami cytryny i cebuli, a pod skore piersi - lekko poluzniona - wkladajac tez ziola z dodatkiem masla - dla dodania dodatkowego smaku i soczystosci miesu indyka. Indyka ulozylam w brytfance wylozonej mieszanka warzyw: marchewka, pory, seler (zielony) i cebula. W ten sposob soki z indyka, a takze mieszanka oliwy i sherry, jaka jest w trakcie pieczenia polewany, dodaje tym jarzynom swoistego smaku. Pieklam go jakies 3 godziny.

Our "typical, but healthy" Thanksgiving side dishes: mashed yams, green beans almondine, cranberry sauce and - a Polish element - cucumber sallad with dill and sour cream. I made gravy, too, a fabulous one, from scratch with sherry and turkey drippings...
but forgot to serve it!

W Ameryce istnieje kilka, a moze nawet kilkanascie - w zaleznosci od regionu - tradycyjnych dodatkow do indyka, takie jak tzw. slodkie ziemniaki (yams), zielona fasolka, sos z tutejszego odpowiednika borowek... Z reguly sa one jednak makabrycznie "wzbogacone" = szalenie wysokokaloryczne, wiec ja swoje "odchudzilam".

Zamiast zapiekanki z zielonej fasolki ze skondensowana zupa pieczarkowa, maslem i usmazona cebula - czyli dania, w ktorej ta nieszczesna zielona fasolka zostaje calkowicie odwitaminizowana, ja swoja fasolke zrobilam po francusku: krociutko obgotowana na parze posypujac przed podaniem podsmazonymi w odrobinie masla migdalami.

Uproscilam tez slodkie ziemniaki, po prostu gotujac je i miazdzac z dodatkiem odrobiny masla i smietanki, podajac z pietruszka, podczas gdy typowe amerykanskie swiateczne slodkie ziemniaki sa makabrycznie dosladzane syropem klonowym i dekorowane tzw. marshmallows, ktorych to polskiego odpowiednika nie znam.

Konfiture z tutejszych "borowek" i pomarancz z dodatkiem cukru, cynamonu, imbiru i gozdzikow usmazylam w tzw. "crock-pot" - trwa to wprawdzie az szesc godzin ale sie nie przypala i wypelnia mieszkanie swiatecznym zapachem.

I dodalam polski element: klasyczna mizerie ze smietana i duza iloscia koperku, ktory rosnie jak wsciekly na moim balkonie teraz, gdy sie nieco ochlodzilo. (Bo latem, gdy bylo goraco, nie chcial rosnac prawie wcale).

Acha: upichcilam tez - ambitnie! - typowy amerykanski sos do indyka: na wywarze z indyczej szyjki i podrobow, z dodatkiem sokow z pieczonego indyka, wzbogaconego dodatkowo sherry i smietana... ale, niestety, zapomnialam go podac ... a indyk byl tak soczysty, ze zadnej z nas sie nie przypomnialo. Nie ma straty: choc polowe resztek indyka udalo mi sie wcisnac Dosi przy jej dzisiejszym wyjezdzie, to i tak zostalo mi tych resztek sporo, wiec i sos sie do nich przyda.

Dosia, z okazji Swieta Dziekczynienia zafundowala mi staly abonament na comiesieczne "doglebne" sprzatanie mieszkania, wiec korzystajac z okazji, ze jest jeszcze wzglednie czysto, zamieszczam kilka zdjec mego amerykanskiego mieszkania, typowego pod wzgledem rozkladu oraz wyposazenia kuchni i lazienek, ale nietypowego odnosnie umeblowania, bo Amerykanie sa konserwatywni odnosnie wystroju wnetrz, a moje jest wspolczesne, IKEA-owskie, w dodatku niewykonczone, jako ze ja jestem tak "zagorzala" dekoratorka wnetrz, ze przez ponad rok nie moge sie zdycydowac gdzie jakie obrazy powiesic... bo te co mam jakos mi nigdzie raczej nie pasuja.

Mieszkanie polozone jest w kompleksie skladajacym sie z dziesieciu budynkow mieszkalnych polozonych dookola 3-hektarowego jeziora, oraz z budynku klubowego z internetowa kawiarenka, silowni i basenu kapielowego z pysznicem-fontanna, zadaszonym pawilonem, stolikami, krzeslami i lezakami.

Moje mieszkanie ma laczona kuchnie, jadalnie i pokoj mieszkalny, ponadto dwie sypialnie - po jednej po obu stronach pokoju mieszkalnego - tak, ze wszystkie okna wychodza na jezioro. Kazda sypialnia ma osobna lazienke i osobny pokoik-garderobe. W korytarzu, tuz przy wejsciu jest osobna garderoba na plaszcze. Korytarz oddziela sypialnie goscinna od pralni i kuchni. Zapraszam. (Na kazde zdjecie tutaj mozna kliknac a wtedy sie powiekszy - czasem znacznie) Oto goscinna sypialnia polaczona z moim pokojem do pracy. Pol pokoju przeznaczone dla gosci... a pol dla mnie - do pracy.
Przy przeciwnej scianie, miedzy drzwiami do garderoby i drzwiami do goscinnej lazienki jest kacik polski: bardzo stary, bo z XIX wieku, ludowy talerz z Bolimowa, znacznie nowszy (bo stary, niestety sie stlukl) wazon z tegoz Bolimowa (w ktorym na ogol, zamiast lowickich baziek, bo takowych nie mam, trzymam wielkie liscie palm typu palmetto,

ale panie sprzataczki mi je wyrzucily i jeszcze nie udalo mi sie ich uzupelnic) oraz polska "barbie"... a nawet dwie ;-). Gdy pracuje przy biurku, w gabinecie z reguly towarzysza mi koty, pokladajac sie w kocim lozku, jak tutaj, albo na Dosi lozku.

Ponizej kilka ujec z goscinnej lazienki:
Umywalnia i toaleta.
Inne ujecie umywalki i toalety - z wanna, pokryta kurtyna

A tu widok na wanne i prysznic za kurtyna" obie lazienki maja takie same kafelki.

Idac dalej korytarzem z prawej strony mamy kuchnie:

Kuchnia, niestety, ma za malo i szafek i powierzchni uzytkowych, wiec jest zagracona takze po sprzataniu, bo nie ma gdzie tego wszystkiego pochowac.
(otwarte drzwi do pralni pokazuja, niestety, balagan, ktory juz zdazylam zrobic, probujac - po Dosi wyjezdzie - zdjac cos z polki nie uzywajac drabiny... ech, ciezkie jest zycie niewyrosnietych leniuchow! :-((( )

Dalej przed nami jest barek, a wlasciwie wbudowane w sciane miedzy jadalnia a pokojem mieszkalnym biurko, ktore ja uzywam w charakterze barku ...
i gdy trzeba, bufetu. W jadalni stoi skandynawski stol brzozowy i cztery krzesla...

a w pokoju mieszkalnym podobny skandynawski stol kanapowy z autentycznej arktycznej brzozy
otoczony IKEA-owskimi fotelami, polkami na ksiazki i kanapa.

Ot, typowy dla rencistki wystroj wnetrza ;-)
Zwlaszcza ta zywa czesc wystroju!

Miedzy barkiem a drzwiami do mojej sypialni jest kacik czytelniczy

I wreszcie moja sypialnia

gdzie Pier 1 czesciowo zastapil IKEe. Z sypialni dwie pary drzwi po obu stronach lustra prowadza do garderoby ... wielkosci niemal 10 m 2 ... i do lazienki

gdzie jedna z pan sprzatajacych tak pieknie poukladala reczniki...
ze nabralam ochoty aby sie tego od niej nauczyc.

October morning on my balcony

2010-10-17T12:36:00.030-04:00

When I opened my eyes this morning, all I could see was a pretty dense fog over the lake.

But when the sun came up, the fog started dissipating rapidly. I could see wild geese, making a stop on our lake on their way south

When they walk on the grassy shore beneath my balcony

Sweetie gets crazy, wanting to jump down and chase them

Fortuno does not care - he is too busy chasing something else. A small lizard, perhaps?

or this green bug next to hibiscus' flower? (Now, what's the English name of this magnificent bug?)
Misssy and Rascal don't care either. Rascal, apparently angry that his breakfast is being delayed by this morning gathering on the balcony, went under the balcony bed, so I can't see him... and neither can you...

... while Misia jumped on the table...
to consume garlic chives, undisturbed by either me or Tuno - the other chives' lovers.

Fall is a good plant season here in the south - they thrive in the cooler weather

Within half an hour... there is no more fog

just flowers in the autumn sun
blue salvia
Siam tulips
Mandevilla...

The wild geese flew away for the day. There will be another flock coming in the evening, but now the lake is clear.

In Maya country

2010-04-09T15:32:00.009-04:00

I have been in Maya country for almost a month now, but sadly, had absolotely no opportunity to blog, which is a shame since life here is colorful.

I'll have to do most of the blogging after return to the USA, I am afraid, but let me here introduce some of my new Maya friends.

Bureaucratic delays :-(((

2010-01-24T14:14:00.007-05:00

My passport expires on the last day of May 2010, that is a few weeks after my planned return from Belize. Which means that my passport would be valid during my entire stay there and a bit longer.

Yet, the government of Belize decided that any foreigner wanting to visit their very beautiful - and very sparsely populated - country needs to have a passport valid for 6 month after the date of their ... no, not arrival, but departure.

Oh, big brother, spare me!

Add to it that - due to international terrorism activities and ridiculously sharpened - in the wrong way - security measures - it is no longer possible to renew Swedish passports at honorary Swedish consulates - which there are plenty of, in every corner of the world.

No, nowadays you have to go to the Swedish embassy - in the USA a long plane trip from most of the country - be photographed and fingerprinted there... and then wait for the new passport to be manufactured.... in Sweden, sent back to the embassy and by the embassy to the nearest consulate... thus sparing you - generously - a second - expensive - trip to Washington. DC.

Oh, Big Brother.. too many Big Brothers.... utterly silly Big Brothers!

Since I was thinking of going to Sweden before my old passport expired anyway, a very nice employee of the Swedish embassy suggested a temporary passport now, which I could get in Atlanta right away. Alas, Swedish temporary passports are valid only for 7 months - fine if I were going on a short trips of a few weeks duration, but not on a prolonged one.

So on Wednesday I am off to DC, whether I feel like it or not...and no, I do not feel like going to DC in January!

It will be a long day: leave home at 5 am to drive to Jacksonville airport, fly to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Baltimore, take a subway ? bus to downtown Washington, get the passport formalities done... and then back to Baltimore, to Atlanta, to Jacksonville and home, where i should arrive shortly after midnight!

I may not be too old, yet, to survive the rain forest... but the bureaucratic amok of government bureaucrats pretending that they are "protecting their citizens" from either terrorists (USA, leaning heavily on the others) or illegal immigrants ? ... might very well kill me!

Watch out, Belize, for an invasion of European Union members, whose passports expire in less than 6 month after their planned departure!

Ma sa sa' la ch'ool = Is there happiness in your heart?

2010-01-21T22:30:00.007-05:00

in Q'eqchi' (also known as kekchi and previously ketchi) there is no "good morning" or "good day" or "good evening."

But there is this lovely standard greeting: Ma sa sa' la ch'ool = Is there happiness in your heart?

To which you are supposed to answer (with a smile on your face, no matter what your real emotional status at the moment?) : Sa in ch'ool = Yes, my heart is happy!

As you see I just started learning some basic phrases and words in Q'eqchi'.

Let's try breakfast ingredients: wa (tortilla), molb' (eggs), kenq (beans) , chin (orange), cape (coffee).

And now, that we have eaten, it is time for a swim.

But first let's try to get a piece of vital information: Ma wan li ahin sa li nima? = Are there crocodiles in the river?

Going to Maya country!

2010-01-17T16:39:00.011-05:00

This year started with unseasonably cold temperatures even in coastal Georgia, and, after freezing for a few days, I had enough of both the cold and - to be honest - of too much leisure, as I have only worked very little during the last six months and started having vivid dreams in which my brain talked to me complaining: "Please don't put me on a permanent retirement, if you want me to continue to work for you. I need more intellectual stimulation, I need more challenge. Let's have another adventure, shall we!"

So I gave in... after founding a very exciting opportunity: a ground breaking model of nature conservation by indigenous people - in this case: Q'eqchi' Maya in southern Belize.

In a few weeks I'll be there... supporting this model, helping to make it sustainable, so it could attract replication elsewhere.

My leisure retirement in Georgia will have to wait... again.

And I do hope my body would do its best to keep up with my brain's demands.

Belize is far too interesting a destination to just work there. :-)

Such a fabulous snorkeling: Sapodilla Cayes, here I come!

Golden years on the Golden Isles of Georgia

2009-08-22T11:28:00.011-04:00

My retirement merry-go-round, i.e. "living the world" retirement type ended - I resolved - two weeks ago, when I moved to the Golden Isles of Georgia, to live my golden years in a more stationary fashion, thus the retirement-merry-go-round blog comes now to an end.

June and July were filled with travelling all around the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, (I promise to record those travels in this blog soon, under appropriate dates) before I settled on the Golden Isles, with their sandy beaches, fantastic nature preserves and the famous marshes of Glynn.

I shall continue my encore (= retirement, part time ) career of non-profit consulting offering hands on organizational and fund development to non-profits both locally and - for short term assignments - internationally, to aid them during the recession, and after it - especially rural and remotely located organizations, since these usually receive far fewer grants than other nonprofits, often due to lack of professional resources and far fewer public support due to their remoteness.

As for the rest, I plan to enjoy the beaches, forests and marshes, and the neighboring historical city of Savannah and the nearest large city of Jacksonville, Florida - both at a distance of 70 miles. I plan to visit my daughter in Atlanta often, visiting friends there and taking it the cultural offerings I so enjoyed there: opera, ballet, theaters, museums, my book clubs... enjoy what's left of my life!

I have enjoyed this blogging adventure for the last two years and all virtual - and personal - friendships I developed through it.

Till we meet again! :-)

Callaway Gardens mini vacations

2009-06-07T18:23:00.019-04:00

At the end of May Disa received a stimulus package from Callaway Gardens, a huge English-type garden (2500 acres!), resort (2700 acres) and forest (8,500 acres) near Pine Mountain in central Georgia.

The stimulus package offered discounts at any lodging belonging to Callaway Garden resort, free entry to the gardens and all Callaway Gardens attractions plus free golf tee time, free tennis, free boat and bicycle rentals.

Since we both love Callaway Gardens, we decided to use this offer and went there last week for a three day, two night mini vacation.

Unfortunately, the weather was not ideal, because we had only one whole day without rain, Wednesday. It rained on Tuesday afternoon,

allowing us to enjoy wet and foggy vistas of the lakes (there are 13 lakes in the gardens, the biggest one with a large sandy beach) and the gardens during an early evening ride/walk through the property:

We enjoyed these aquarelle-like vistas, rain-drooping southern magnolias and the flowering bushes
and the mosses, who seemed to thrive after the rain.

to be continued

Belt tightening?

2009-06-01T10:22:00.003-04:00

'What on earth ARE you wearing??? ' exclaimed my daughter last Friday when I went to fetch her from a car workshop, where she left her car for some routine maintenance.

I looked at her surprised. I had on a pair of jeans and a polo shirt - in my opinion quite ok an attire for an errand like that.

' Everything is hanging on you! You must have lost at least two sizes and can't were those "fat" clothes anymore' - she explained seeing my surprise... and instead of driving us home, she kidnapped me - in my own car - to a Talbots outlet store (this is recession, remember, thus the need to be frugal, while still polished, lol) - almost 15 miles away.

Everything there was between 40% and 75% off regural prices... and the selection was pretty good. So I got myself this funny pelican purse (no, I did not "outgrow" any of my purses, but I could not resist this one), especially that it was both stylish and a bargain!

and a few other items: among them this new navy top (despite Disa-s complaints that too many of my clothes are navy - I simply had to remind her that they now are too big for me to wear) and patterned skirt... about half a size too small at the moment ! ;-)

Well, since I returned from Puerto Rico I have been eating a lot of healthier food: lots of veggies and lean protein, nothing fried, (be it a lechonera style pork or tostones =double fried plantains, a typical everyday food of Puerto Rico, served, to make things worse with mayo-ketchup!), quinoa, millet and amaranth instead of rice, fresh sallads, etc.

I have also rejoined a gym, enjoying water aerobics and other group excecise classes and using an elliptical trainer now and then... so no wonder I lost 12 pounds ( of fat, I hope) since I came back, and should soon be ready for those of my newly purchased clothes, which are now a bit tight fitting.

But tightening of real belts is not so good for tightening of financial belts... unless, of course you shop at outlet stores... and don't overdo it ;-)!

Cirque Imagination:Montage!

2009-05-31T19:02:00.007-04:00

Disa and I went to a circus this afternoon. Cirque Imagination is a spin off of Cirque du Soleil. The Montage performance was great - there is not so much of a phantasy story within a carnival in here, but a carnival atmosphere nevertheless and the performers and their skill level are top class. We had a grand time.

" It is a grand show of circus daring and skill, starring former members of Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere, O, Saltimbanco, Alegria and Quidam. This production aims to defy the perception of what are impossible - fusing strength, flexibility and technical skill, fostering an appreciation for the beauty and capabilities of the human body" - says their promotional piece.

Spa day

2009-05-28T14:28:00.004-04:00

Today is a pampering day. Manicure, pedicure, body scrub, massage, facial, hair cutting and styling. I like a pampering day with my daughter - otherwise I consider it too boring... but it is a part of living in the big city routine, so it has to be endured more often here than on a tropical island.

Clematis on our balcony now in bloom

2009-05-26T15:06:00.010-04:00

Clematis in the sun

Clematis which i planted on Disa's balcony a month ago is now in fool bloom!

Clematis in the rain

Too bad that the rose, which I planted it with, just finished blooming for a while. But better one plant in bloom than neither one.

Milledgeville - the First Lady of Georgia

2009-05-25T10:53:00.007-04:00

Milledgeville was the second stop on my and Disa's Mother's Day trip on Georgia's antebellum trail.

Milledgeville prides itself on its history, which began in 1803, when the state of Georgia searched for a site for its new capital. Because this area offered a central location and ample springs, it was deemed to be the perfect spot and for more than 60 years Milledgeville was the capital of Georgia.

Many area homes and structures survived the periodic fires and willful destruction of the War Between the States, so it is an interesting stop on the antebellum trail, although, when you decide to go, do not make a mistake we did and do not go on a Sunday, when all historic buildings and other attractions are closed and can be seen only from outside :-(((.

So we just walked the streets, looked at prominent buildings, like an old capitol building, now a military academy,

A sculpture of a dog near the library on military academy's campus

an old governor's mansion, etc., etc. and at the remnants of a street art festival, which took place a day earlier:
colorful "murals" painted on the streets.

Memorial weekend bargain hunting

2009-05-23T19:06:00.013-04:00

At the beginning of the week I got an email from IKEA announcing a Memorial Day sale. This classic modern chair, designed by Noburu Nakamura some 20 years ago (?) was on sale today only, for a super bargain price of $39 each. I could not resist... for both practical and sentimental reasons.

Practical: before I left for Puerto Rico I left my bedroom, guest room/study and dining room furniture in storage, but sold practically all my living room ones - and left furniture I had in Puerto Rico there, so, once I moved into my new place I would have nowhere to sit, unless I bought something new, so a couple of those chairs, especially at this unbeatable price seemed like a perfect solution.

A street in Ystad, a well preserved medieval town

Sentimental: I owned a couple of those - with pale blue cushions - some 15 years ago, when I worked in Poland, but had a seaside apartment in Ystad, in southern Sweden.

Lodz

Poland at that time was still in its early post communist period, and was certainly a fascinating place to work in, but utterly uncomfortable to live in, so every month I worked for about 24 days straight, workdays and weekends, just to be able to escape to my tranquil Swedish seaside paradise for one week, breathe some fresh air ( I worked in Lodz, at that time a heavily polluted industrial city of almost one million inhabitants squeezed like sardines in tiny - and mostly dilapidated - communist era apartments, or crumbling - and equally dilapidated - early industrial ones),

walk on practically empty, miles long beaches, flanked by wild rose hedges,

heather filled meadows and pine forests....

I loved it there... but work - and new adventures took me elsewhere... so now I had to have at least those armchairs again!

On Thursday Disa and I went to IKEA for lunch ( Swedish meatballs with lingonberries!) to preview the various options before today's mad dash, and there, while testing the different types of cushions for style and comfort, I got engaged in an animated conversation with an interesting guy... and made a new friend :-)

:-((( the pool at my gym is temporarily closed

2009-05-15T17:39:00.008-04:00

Yesterday, during my water aerobics class I found out that the sunny Olympic size swimming pool at my gym, the highlight of my near daily gym visits - is going to be closed for 11 days due to some reconstruction work. :-(((

One of the pleasures of my post-Puerto Rico life are daily (except weekends) visits to the gym.

I take hourly water aerobics classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I take weight lifting, stretching and toning classes designed for people my age and/or work on weight machines and elliptical trainers.

Try to find anything even remotely resembling it in Puerto Rico... I could not -and missed gym all the time I lived there!

But after each "dry" workout I enjoy relaxing in a hot tub and swimming in the pool. So, when the pool is closed, I won't go to the gym, even though all the "dry"classes and equipment are available. Without a pool as a reward it would not be even half that much fun. :-(((

So today, instead for going to the gym I went walking in Piedmont Park, while Disa was jogging there, and we ended our al fresco work out passes strolling among the flowers and the sculptures in Atlanta Botanical Garden (there is a Moore exhibition going on in there right now, but I'll blog about it later - today my camera had no working batteries).

Too bad that the water in the condo's outdoor swimming pool is still a tad too cold for a swim. :-((

Georgia Antebellum trail: first stop: Monticello

2009-05-13T11:19:00.013-04:00

War monument at the square in Monticello.

Behind it, on the right is the Greek revival courthouse building, made famous by the film "My cousin Vinnie".

I was looking forward to a trip to Georgia's Golden Isles on Mother's Day, but the weather forecast, which suggested it would be unseasonably cold - and rainy - there this week, made us to postpone that trip and do a day trip length part of the Georgia antebellum trail that Sunday.

Southern magnolias burst into bloom in Georgia right now!
Their flowers are as big as sandwich plates and they bloom profusely all summer long. they are also a symbol of the south and a symbol of scenic drives in Georgia.

The antebellum trail runs from Athens to Macon and showcases the best examples of remaining antebellum (here meaning pre 1860 war between the North and the South) architecture in central Georgia.

Bank building in Monticello - another example of Greek revival architecture

General Sherman's scorched earth war strategy resulted in most of Georgia (including the city of Atlanta) being burnt to the ground during that war, but he spared Savannah and some towns in middle Georgia, which made the antebellum trail possible. The monument above is dedicated to the memory of soldiers fighting in the war.

Since it was Mother's Day we decided to go to a traditional Mother's Day brunch after all, but to do it with a twist. We had no reservations, so we did not attempt to have brunch in Social Circle, but chose the next best thing: the Red Clay Cafe and Gallery in Georgia's Monticello: a quaint and very picturesque small town.

We had brunch at Red Clay Galleria and Cafe on the square.

The cafe and galleria are owned by Sandra (in the middle of the picture, above), who - like Monticello (My cousin Vinnie was filmed here), is also known from playing in several films: she played in Fried Green Tomatoes with Jessica Tandy and had a dancing role in Medea's Family Reunion.

The patronage of the Red Clay Cafe is racially diverse, which adds to it ambiance.

Just look at the goergeous smile of the lady in the center and the equally gorgeous red hat with pink and magenta flowers of the lady on the right... all of it against the background of a fabulous wall mural!

I love to watch the contrast between the "Sunday casual" outfits of Americans of European extraction with the elaborate - and usually very stylish - "Sunday finery" of African-Americans. I also love - every now and then, since it is definitively not healthy, but good - traditional southern cooking: grits with red eye gravy, melt in your mouth biscuits, fried chicken, cured ham, okra with tomatoes, fried green tomatoes, fresh peach cobblers - to name just the most famous dishes.

Mother's Day trip to the Golden Isles

2009-05-09T10:12:00.004-04:00

Yippi! Tomorrow morning - instead of going to a traditional Mother Day's brunch - we shall jump in a car (we haven't decided yet which car we shall take: Disa's car is more roomy, but burns more gas, while mine is easier to park) and drive south to the Georgia's Golden Isles for a few days!
So see ya when I get back!

Spring is in full bloom

2009-05-01T10:39:00.002-04:00

...and I am taking a spring break from blogging. See ya!

Living al fresco

2009-04-26T23:46:00.013-04:00

Disa's balcony is pretty small, and narrow, only about 4" x 15" (1,20 m x 4.5 m), yet she has managed to arrange it so, that it allows for different activities: there is place for plants, a round table and a couple of chairs, a chaiselounge and even an electric grill.

The plants, filling all the left over space, are my doing.

Last week I planted clematis with large, pale blue flowers, which I am awaiting eagerly (according to the nursery, the only large blooming clematis, that grows in the south) in the same pot as a lavender rose, which already has one flower. (all my pictures are clickable, so you can see the details).

I was really thrilled to have found - in the same nursery - an Angel Earrings fuchsia from the Amazon jungle (to the right of the table) - the only fuchsia that can take heat and humidity of Atlanta in the summer, popularly known as Hotlanta for that very reason.

We both love living al fresco, so this corner is when we have breakfast, lunch, sometimes dinner, read, write, talk.

Disa is a sun worshipper, so she can enjoy an early afternoon there as well, while I - and my laptop - feel that we are getting too much sun then.

What I enjoy most is the forest outside - or an illusion of a forest, since it is just a slope, covered with trees in the middle of a city with close to 4 millions of inhabitants. Behind the slope are townhouses.

To increase the forest feel I planted a dwarf columbine (in a pot on the railing) and two different vines in baskets hanging on the wall: a blue ipomoea and dark red coral vine.

Nearest the balconies grow some tulip poplars, spreading their branches like nature provided green umbrellas with yellow dots of flowers in the spring.

They give such a peaceful ambiance, allowing the inhabitants of the building to relax on their balconies, feeling as if they were having a picnic in a forest.

Oh, I do love my various places with views!

Uff, it's hot...

2009-04-25T14:59:00.006-04:00

I have been working on the balcony, replanting and now I am ready for a cool glass of lemonade. Would you care for a glass of lemonade, too?

I have plenty. I whole stand - yes, I have received a lemonade stand award from zooms For attitude. And I am passing it to the following bloggers with attitude.
First, Silka Besosa for her courage - and hard work - in starting and establishing the first CSA farm in Puerto Rico.

Next, two professors on sabbaticals in southern France:
Emile Donat and Mme Boisvert

The blogs above are in English, and thus accessible to all (well, almost all).

The blogs below are in Polish and thus accessible only to those, who read this pretty difficult language.
A few Polish expat women: Agnieszka Sadlakowska from Amsterdam, Patrycja Todo from Lyon, Bea from Sweden.
And a couple of Polish women living in Poland: Nicka from Poznan and Satine from Gdansk.
They all show great attitude and truly deserve a lemonade stand.

All of you, who received that award are asked to pass it on to other bloggers with great attitudes, by

posting a lemonade stand award logo on your blog
awarding 10 other bloggers
letting them know they got the award by commenting on their blogs.

It's a hard work, I know, but somebody's got to do it ;-) !

Purple beauties

2009-04-21T12:41:00.010-04:00

The favorite purple beauties of my youth were lilacs.

I miss their fragrance, their promise of a spring romance... and of a summer to come...

In Poland they were blooming in May, in Sweden in July and I met them in the USA, too, but in upstate New York, around the Fingerlakes.

Unfortunately they do not grow in the warm climate, where I like to live. So my southern purple beauty of choice is wisteria.

Wisteria grows all over Atlanta, covering plenty of trees with its showy purple flowers. A lot prettier - and more cheerful - than the kudzu vines.

If you like wisteria, you can find a lot more pictures of it here , on Ewas blog, as she assembled a gallery of wisteria pictures from all (?) the places, where they grow. Enjoy!

Friends' book club

2009-04-20T12:05:00.019-04:00

Yesterday my daughter Disa hosted a meeting of her Friends' book club. They were discussing a 15 years old, but relatively recently translated to English, thriller by a very successful Swedish writer, Henning Mankell: The Man Who Smiled (Mannen som Log). They were mostly Americans in the group, but also a few Swedes, either by birth or - like Disa and me - by citizenship.

Thus the discussion was lively and showed interesting observations of Sweden and Swedes, as described in the book. Unfortunately I can't give more details, as the book is a thriller and a resume of the discussion would give aways the plot and the ending. So let's talk about food Disa made, instead.

Since the book is Swedish and its main character, detective Wallander eats mainly sandwiches throughout the book, Disa served a variety of typical Swedish sandwiches.
There were cheese sandwiches with cucumber on a typical Swedish bread, limpa, purchased at IKEA.

A digression:Limpa is slightly sweet and its sweetness has an interesting origin: during WWII Swedish government came to the conclusion that Swedes were undernourished, so it decreed that all bread baked in Sweden had to have added sugar. More than half a century has passed, the law is no longer, Sweden now has various types of bread, most of them without any sugar, but limpa persisted, although it is by far not as sweet as it used to be even in the seventies, when I immigrated to Sweden and could not abide by Swedish bread. Now I eat it, too, and like it. :-)

Another typical Swedish sandwich is one with a French pate (here a duck pate) and tiny marinated cucumbers, called cornichons, served on a French baguette.
Another digression: In the XIX century Sweden underwent a serious franconization, reflected in its upper and middle class cuisine, franconization of Swedish last names, especially of its middle class, etc.

But the king of Disa's sandwich table was a Sandwich Cake (Smorgastorta) a la Skagen.

Sandwich Cake, of which are many varieties, is a typical Swedish party fare.
This particular one ( a la Skagen) refers to the Danish fishing village turned resort of Skagen, famous not only for its sand beaches but, first and foremost, for its fantastic and unique light, which has always attracted painters from near and far

Summer afternoon at Skagen - a painting by Peter Severin Kroyer

Disa chose this cake, because the main character of the book spends some time in Skagen.... and because it is very, very tasty and very Scandinavian.

Here is a recipe for the Sandwich Cake a la Skagen:

8-10 servings Prepare 24 hrs in advance.

Bread:9 square slices of white bread (you want to find a denser bread rather than fluffy "wonder bread"). Cut all crust off. 3 slices next to each other make one layer

Filling:

3 hard boiled eggs chopped,

1 lb peeled shrimp (pref small salad shrimp)

1/2 c mayonnaise

1/2 c sour cream

2 oz lump fish roe (the red kind)

1/2 c chopped dill

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mixing it gently with a spoon.

Note about shrimp: the Swedish shrimp are boiled in salty water before they are sold, thus making the taste different from the shrimp sold here. To get the same taste: 1. buy the peel-and-eat shrimp at IKEA (you will need about 1.5 bags and do a lot of peeling) or 2) buy peeled salad shrimp but sprinkle them with salt and let them soak it in over night. If you are at IKEA, you can buy the roe there also in 2.8 oz jars (use rest for garnish.)

Place 1/2 mixture on the first bread layer (it will be "stacked") making sure you have filling out to the edges.Place second row of 3 bread slices on top of the filling. Put remaining 1/2 of filling on top of that bread layer. Cover with the third bread layer.

"Frosting": 1 c sour cream1/2 - 1 c mayonnaise

Stir together until well mixed. "Frost" all sides of the "cake" I take a little less of each and add Greek yogurt, but that's just a taste preference. Makes the frosting a bit tart.

Garnish:Roe (rest from jar), Shrimp (about a cup of shrimp), Dill, Lemon Decorate the sides with dill. Arrange the roe and shrimp as you like on the top. Add lemon 1/2 moons to add color. Alternatively or in addition; smoked salmon "rosettes" can be used as garnish. Refrigerate over night. Take out 30 min before party (depending on room temp) so the "cake" is not cold when eaten. Enjoy!

Another very typical Swedish sandwich creation is ham on a Swedish flat bread with mimosa salad. Yummy!

And my only contribution to the preparation of this feast was to peel 2 kilograms of shrimp!

Cats were banned to the bedroom for the time of the meeting, as they made an awful nuisance of themselves, begging for shrimp leftovers, while I was peeling them, and there was a risk they would do the same to the guests. (Disa commented that I let them get away with anything!)

But they dis not seem to mind at all!

Pan Tadeusz... or how I inadvertently discouraged my daughter from watching Polish movies :-(((

2009-04-18T13:49:00.018-04:00

Pan Tadeusz is an epic poem by Adam Mickiewicz, one of the three greatest romantic Polish poets of the early XIX century.

It's whole title is: 'Pan Tadeusz or The Last Foray in Lithuania. A Tale of the Gentry during 1811–1812 in Twelve Books of Verse'.

It is a tragicomical story of the life of Polish gentry in then north-eastern corner of a historical Poland-Lithuania, but already at that time under Russian occupation (and now within the borders of Bielarus, not Lituania and not Poland, since after the World War II the borders of Poland have been moved - by the allies - far to the West, with over one/third of the territory of pre-war Poland lost to the Soviet Union).

Pan Tadeusz invited interesting comparison among its foreign reviewers: an English edition reviewer called it a mix of Don Quixote and Iliada, while a French one called it a combination of El Cid and Three Musketeers.

Pan Tadeusz has everything: a romance

(more than one: serious and comical),

an insurrection against the Russians (tragic)

and a foray of one faction of Polish gentry againts another disputing ownership of a half-ruined castle (tragicomical)

Grzybobranie (Muszroom picking) - painting by Franciszek Kostrzewski.1860
But - perhaps most of all - Pan Tadeusz, the poem, is an expression of nostalgia of Mickiewicz, an involuntary expatriot in Paris, of his longing to the (idealized, despite the bitter criticism) Poland of his childhood and youth.

Thus the poem is full of loving descriptions of everyday life of Polish gentry, of a special way to make coffee, of making bigos, a traditional Polish hunters' stew, a desciption of old Polish expressions of courtesy, typical entertainment (hunting, mushroom picking, formal dinners in the castle and impromptu lunches in the woods.... and praise of the beauty of Polish landscape and even the sky over Poland, full of varying clouds, light and heavy, unlike the - boring, according to Mickiewicz - sky over Italy, which is always blue.

My memory of this poem also lingered mostly on its nostalgia aspects

-- after all, although born about one and a half of century later and under a communist rule, I also spent my early childhood in a "little country manor" like the one in the movie, and used a similar type of horse drawn carriage, like the one Tadeusz uses in the first scene of the movie) not so much on either romance or forays or all doomed Polish insurrections against the Russians

(after all the action of the poem is placed in 1811-1812, where the Napoleon army -- with many, many Polish noblemen as first row volunteers: first to fight, first to be slaughtered -- marched through Poland to fight the Russians, while the final - lets hope! - independence from Russia - save for a 20 years interlude between WWI and WWII - Poland gained first in 1989, that is looooooong, loooooong later).

Pan Tadeusz, the movie by Andrzej Wajda, made in 1999, cuts a lot of these nostalgia parts of the poem to tell its main action story... and yet the movie is both beautiful and satisfying both to Poles and foreigners, and I recommend it wholeheartedly (it is available on Netflix) to all my friends and readers.

Just watch its last scene, a grand Polonaise, as a preview.

While, then, you may ask, watching this movie discouraged my daughter from watching any more Polish movies???

Well, it was my fault. She set it up, choosing the Polish language version without English subtitles... and her Polish, although fine for a brief casual conversation, turned out to be totally inadequate (she left Poland when she was 8 years old) to follow an early XIX century Polish poem.

Knowing that she never studied the history of Poland I explained the historical background of the movie, but failed to notice she had linguistic difficulty.

I found it out when I invited her to watch "Chlopi" ( another Polish historical movie, located in central Poland, in Masovia, near my hometown of Lowicz, and showcasing the rich Polish customs and ethnic costumes of this region)... and she refused.

OK, next time we shall watch Pan Tadeusz - and other Polish movies - with English subtitles.

Snow in april

2009-04-14T09:55:00.007-04:00

no, in Atlanta it is not a real snow, but dogwood.

A lot of those profusely blooming trees grow in the Eastern part of the United States, where the soil is mostly acidic.
They create an enchanting contrast of all that fresh spring green interspersed with a totally "snow" covered trees
And cheer everybody up!

It is raining today

2009-04-13T17:13:00.004-04:00

and the cats are bored. Sweetie exploited my moment of inattention and jumped into a warm clothes dryer. Naughty, naughty.

Easter brunch

2009-04-12T14:41:00.010-04:00

Our Easter brunch today consisted, as usual of a mix of traditional Polish and Swedish dishes. First the cold table (above)

According to Swedish tradition we start with a few kinds of herring: (clockwise): dill herring, traditional Swedish and onion herring. It is seved with boiled young potates, caviarm sour cream and egg with caviar, wtrapped in a smoked salmon. After herring come two sorts of salmon: gravlax and smoked salmon with a selection of cheeses.

After that comes ham, fresh veggies and a few kinds of stuffed eggs.

When we were in Chicago two years ago, we visited Polish town there, where Disa found a profusely illustrated book of Polish cuisine. As far as I know she never cooked anything from this book by herself, but anytime I come to visit she picks up this book, points to (too many, in my opinion) pictures and asks: mom, could you do that? and that? and that?

So this Easter I made eggs filled with sausage and clover sprouts (jajka faszerowane masa z serdelka i rzerzucha), King's eggs (jajka po krolewsku), which are first filled with a ham and butter paste and topped with whipped cream with parmesan, and eggs with horseradish and sour cream wrapped in ham cornucopia (jajka z szynka i chrzanem). I though it was more than plenty, but turned out that I forgot to make eggs filled with roqueford and something, so I'll have to make them tomorrow.

Traditionally, after all that we were supposed to have a red beet soup, steamed asparagus, boiled kabanosy and debreciner sausages, and my daughter's favorite Polish dish: pan fried filled eggs (jajka faszerowane smazone), but we had more than enough food already, so a decision was made to serve the other part of Easter brunch for dinner, insted of lamb, that can be eaten tomorrow.

Happy and tasty Easter everybody!

Carribbean art bargain!

2009-04-10T16:49:00.004-04:00

My virtual friend, Heather is an artist, living, painting and gardening in Grenada. Heather is a very talented painter with one flaw typical of idealistic dreamers - she does not price her work nowhere near their real value.

Or what would you say of her willing to part with the painting above for US$10??? I bid $ 50 for it and would consider it a bargain if I actually ended getting it for that price.... since you are welcome to outbid me... or bid on any other of her paintings, the images of which you can see browsing through her blog.

Wouldn't you like to have an authentic piece of art, which is also a cheerful reminder of the balmy Caribbean, hanging somewhere in your place???

And to be able to acquire it at a bargain price? What could be better in this gloomy time of economic crisis?

Good Friday

2009-04-10T13:16:00.008-04:00

A sashimi plate at Hashiguchi

In Poland, where I grew up, Good Friday was called Great Friday (Wielki Piatek), but as a child I used to call it a Long Friday, as the day, due to a religious catholic tradition was a severe fast day, with practically only one meal served all day (dinner) and with only fish served: usually herring with some boiled potatoes. It really seamed like a very, very looooooong - and hungry as well as gloomy - Friday.

But now, a fish lover that I have become, I use Good Friday as an opportunity to eat fish both for lunch and dinner.

To make my daughter happy, however, I made healthy eggs benedict for breakfast: toasted English muffins, wilted spinach with garlic, poached eggs, canadian bacon... but NO Hollandaise sauce.

But for lunch we went to - according to my daughter's Japanese friends - the best sushi place in greater Atlanta: Hashiguchi in Marietta, an Atlanta suburb (although there is now a Hashiguchi Jr in downtown Atlanta).

Hashiguchi is a small, but very popular place: both among the local Japanese as with Atlantans at large.

There Mr Hashiguchi himself gets behind the sushi bar and prepares fresh sushi, sashimi, maki and norimaki for each and every client, while the kitchen - in the background - makes super fresh and super yummy tempura, miso soup and other delicacies. All the food there is to die for!

I had a combination plate of sushi and sashimi (above), while Disa had sahimi and an eel California roll, for which I traded a few of my sushi. All that with a green sallad with an Asian ginger dressing and a bowl of miso soup. Yuuummm! And for dinner at home we shall have grilled salmon with grilled baby bok choy and guinoa and a dill mousse:
However, not the traditional dill/cucumber version, but an experimental cold sauce, which I am inspired to make by a Polish photographer/graphic artist living now in London (but before living in the Caribbean) and an avid cook, who posted yesterday a recipe for a mint mousse/sauce, which I decided to try to make today using a bunch of fresh dill instead of mint.

Now, that's a Great Friday in my book! Hapy Easter, everybody!

Brrr...

2009-04-09T10:55:00.003-04:00

It is unusually cold for an April in Atlanta.

It takes guts - and warm clothes - to sit outdoors even for a short moment.
Yet the cats - imported from tropical Puerto Rico - are happy. They are indoors.
Enjoying their new digs: Disa's sofa and soft, warm pillows and blankets... as she has not yet have the time to change her decor from winter to spring.

More orchids ... and an orchid sale

2009-04-08T10:20:00.018-04:00

Early this morning Atlanta Botanical Garden held an orchid sale from the Orchid Daze exhibition - for members only. You could buy fantastic specimens at $10 (and up), so a lot of members showed up to take advantage of this event.

Above is what I brought home, and below some other beauties from the exhibition.

Orchid Daze: gorgeous meets glass

2009-04-07T18:43:00.027-04:00

On Sunday I managed to catch the last day of an orchid and glass art exhibition at Atlanta Botanical Garden. Fuqua Orchid Center at the Garden has the largest collection of orchids in America, consisting of over 10 000 species!

At the annual Orchid Daze exhibitions Fuqua conservatory showcases its own - and borrowed - orchids intermingled with gorgeous glass art pieces.

This year the glass art is the work of 11 different artists.

The relationship of art and natural beauty is both dazzling and whimsical. Let's take a stroll through the exhibition, Shall we?

Let's take a break now and continue tomorrow, as there are many, many gorgeous orchids left to see.

Another stop at my life's merry go round

2009-04-04T17:35:00.008-04:00

Atlanta's skyline from Buckhead -

photo by coka-koehler

When I arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday, I have been asked to stay here for at least 2-3 months, if not longer, and I agreed: Florida can wait for me a while.

Instead, in the nearest future, this vibrant, modern metropolis of South East USA will be my new - and old, as I lived here before, twice - temporary home.

Lenox Drive in Buckhead - a street by which I now live.

I won't live downtown, however, but uptown, in Buckhead, nicknamed Atlanta's Beverly Hills, as it is partially a very fashionable part of the city, full of mega-mansions hidden on large wooded lots on very quaint streets, but also of much more modest townhouses and condos on streets ranging from semi-quaint to busy, as Buckhead is also a shopping and entertainment district.

Of course I'll have to do my best to explore the big city lifestyle: its art scene, intellectual (and quasi intellectual) scene, social scene and - last but not least - the great outdoors.

Since yesterday I have been revisiting my previous memberships: my gym, my art, book, film, discussion and outdoor clubs and picked so far only one - or two - of each and - in addition - signed up as a volunteer with Atlanta Botanical Garden, Piedmont Park Conservancy and Atlanta Community Food Bank.

As I also retained some work commitments (part time, fortunately, no more than 20 hrs per week) I expect to be fairly busy.... and have tons of fun, while living in Atlanta again, for a while. :-)))

What not to wear

2009-04-02T13:59:00.006-04:00

when flying with cats? Navy (or black).

Yesterday I packed my cats in their pet taxis and then dressed myself, to avoid cat hair on my navy clothes: navy pants (without pockets - what on earth was I thinking???), navy twinset, and mules - as they are easy to take off and on while getting through an airport scanner.

During the first part of the trip - Mayaguez to San Juan - I was still presentable - very friendly Cape Air guy loaded the cats on the plane for me, demanding only to see their health certificates before boarding - and we had those in order.

I always get health certificates for the cats from their veterinarian, within 10 days of their air trip, as prescribed, although it was the very first time someone actually wanted to see them.

In San Juan, already when checking my two, big, American cats as baggage on Delta (they have a pressurized and temperature controlled baggage compartment, where the pets can be checked in ... though at a price of $ 275 domestic or $550 international per container, no matter its size - but two cats could fly in one) I was asked to take the cats out and hold them while the carrier was inspected. Of course the cats got scared and released a month worth of their hair on my navy clothes.

Then, when going through the scanner I had to remove the other two cats (the small Purtorican ones) from their carrier and carry them through, holding my boarding pass and my ID at the same time. I must have looked pretty funny there: barefoot, one cat hanging under each arm, both scared from their wits, me holding boarding pass and ID in hand and wearing clothes covered by now in all colors of cat hair... sigh.

Then we had to wait for the carrier to go through the scanner... but at least cats did not try to run, but eagerly returned to carrier, relieved: it must have seem far less scary then hanging out there.

But a Delta person at the check counter told me that they had a case recently when a cat ran and lived hiding at the airport for two weeks before they managed to catch him and reunite him with his guardian. I did not even want to think what I would do if that happened to me...

During the flight the cats, that flew in the cabin, behaved like angels: slept mostly - the thing that cats do so well, turning their backs at all the curious kids who discovered them.

Last day in Puerto Rico

2009-03-31T21:37:00.009-04:00

Let's celebrate!
With a delicious seafood dinner

at Pito's on hwy 52, approaching Ponce from the West

It is a very relaxing place, with good food

and a lovely view.

Well, to tell you the truth I have stopped there last time when I picked Disa from the airport in October.

I have been too sick today to celebrate. Managed to get the last errands done, ship mt stuff by mail to Atlanta... and collapsed in bed, conserving energy - or what was left of it, for the trip tomorrow.

But I felt like a celebration was in order.

I feel like going postal

2009-03-29T17:16:00.011-04:00

I hope my sanity returns someday.

I wish it would return as soon as tomorrow and I would wake up being my old self again: a sane, nonviolent, open minded and openhearted liberal.

But today, if I had a machine gun, I would most likely open fire at a group of locals gathering on the beach under my balcony, enjoying 72 hours of a non-stop beach party with a non-stop obnoxiously loud music.

And totally ignoring my pleas, my helpless cries to turn the music down.

So today I would coldbloodedly mow them all down, men, women and children, to silence that obnoxious noise. And then I would take a nap!

I could not run away from them this weekend, not even for a spell of a silence, because on Thursday I was diagnosed with a bad case of infection and ordered to stay in bed at least till tomorrow. And I am sick like a dog...

I used to like Latin music (I doubt that after this weekend I would ever be able to), I used to like Puertoricans ( again, I am not sure that after this weekend I will ever be able to).

I used to be nonviolent - but today I would kill gladly those inconsiderate monsters on the beach.

And, I am afraid, that after 72 hours of being tortured with increadibly loud Latin music (who cares if good or bad??? 72 hours of Chopin or Bach or Vivaldi would be waaaay too much! especially at that decibel level!) if I ever hear a loud Latin music again, my instinctual reaction would be to want to murder - quickly - anyone who plays it.

Oh, boy, I used to be an open minded liberal - today I am closer to being a racist that I could ever imagine!

Of course it is not the beach goers race, not their skin color that makes me today want to coldbloodedly murder them all - it's their obnoxiousness, their total lack of consideration for people, who live in my building, as well as for people, who might want to enjoy the beach - without having been forced to listen to their choice of music at their chosen level of deafening amount of decibels.

Now I understand first hand at least some of the mechanisms behind the so called "racism" and "racial profiling" - they are likely to have nothing to do with race as such, but are perhaps only an unfortunate result of obnoxious elements of a lifestyle of a group of people, people behaving according to a different set of cultural norms (and now I am being euphemistic - liberal that I usually am).

I hope this weekend - and the beach party outside my windows - will end soon and that I might soon start regaining my sanity.

Punta Tuna

2009-03-28T18:06:00.011-04:00

Punta Tuna is an architectonically gracious lighthouse on Maunabo coast.

Dramatic vistas abound as you approach it from the west

on a winding roller-coaster of a road

But the beach to the east of Punta Tuna is calm and tranquil.

What to do with a car when leaving Puerto Rico?

2009-03-26T09:21:00.009-04:00

The simplest answer would be to sell it, wouldn't it?

But what if it is the beginning of spring, when both the surfers and the snowbirds leave the island, many of them also planning to sell their cars?

What if it is the middle (I am being optimistic here) of a worldwide economic crisis, a severe credit crunch, AND the biggest glut of cars - new cars, used cars - imaginable?

What if I have been duped into overimproving the car mechanically (practically new everything, high performance, heat resistance etc., low mileage), so it drives like a brand new car, while the outside shows signs of the car being driven in Puerto Rico: a few scratches, a small dent, where someone must have bumped into me on a parking lot... and fled ?

How many thousands of dollars am I likely to lose if I sell this car in Puerto Rico?

And how many if I do not sell it?

What can I do with this car other than sell it?

I do not need it in the US, because I do have another car there. A tad older, true, and with more than twice the mileage, but always driven on US highways, performing well, all services performed on time and without a hint of a problem. I plan to keep my US car - in the US.

But what if I decide to move back to Europe at least for part of the year?

Due to the peculiarities of my country's pension legislation, when I live inside European Union, my European pension income more than doubles. Something to take into account when I am getting older and might soon not want - or be able to - work at all, right?

Since I have owned my PR car for over a year, I am entitled to import it to Europe duty free - so shipping (around $2000) would be my only expense plus adjusting the car to European regulations: asymetric instead of symetric beams, etc.

Of course, I would have to factor in the higher cost of living in Europe and the nonfinancial aspects: both positive, like living in a multicultural, multilingual surroundings, with a plethora of high culture at my fingertips, both old and new; easier access to less processed food, hormone free, antibiotics free... but also an emotional cost of being across the ocean from my only daughter, my practically only remaining close relative...

But if I spent winters in Florida and summers in Sweden, or France (I would prefer Italy, since I know it much better than France, and love it, but in Italy I would be taxed to death, due to the peculiarity of Swedish-Italian tax treaty), it might work, beautifully even... for a while, at least, since the question is: how many more years will I be able to effortlessly hop on a plane and fly over Atlantic twice a year... with cats? And how expensive might it become?

I do not really have time right now, in the moving rush, to factor all these aspects into a meaningful equation, so I guess I'll just have to leave the car here somewhere for a few months or so, until I make the decision what would be the least expensive way to get rid of a car in Puerto Rico. Sigh...

My last electric bill in Puerto Rico

2009-03-25T21:00:00.004-04:00

The AEE (Autoridad de Energia Electrica) procedure for returning your electricity deposit is not designed for people who leave the island.

After you inform AEE- in person, in their office, not online - though you can pay a bill online, thanks heavens: in PR a lot of stupid errands has to be done by foot, or wheel, not by phone or email, which would be a lot easier - that you no longer want to have electricity in your place, because you are moving away, they tell you to await a letter from them in about a week's time.

Ok, the letter arrived two weeks - not one week - later, but, surprise, surprise, there is no check in it. Just a statement that you have a credit with AEE and that you have to go visit their office - in person - again, to collect your money, I am hoping.

But what if you need to have electricity up to the day you move away from the island???

They apparently do not want you to move away - at least not with your money!

Traveling with cats and packing ... again!

2009-03-23T10:58:00.012-04:00

I moved close to a hundred times - I think - overland and overseas - and yet it is the first time I'll move my stuff using USPS.

Because I am not taking any of the furniture this time (I am making a deal with my landlady for them, since it is far easier to rent a furnished condo that it is to rent an unfurnished one - overpriced that it is - in the current economic crisis ), few household goods (practically only cats' stuff: their toys, beds, to which they are accustomed, dishes, etc.) and not yet sure if I'll take a car - but that's another post.

I am taking cats - all four of them - and have found a way to fly them all myself, at once, to Atlanta (due to family's health issues I can't yet go to Florida as planned): on Delta and Cape Air, so I don't have to drive to San Juan.

OK, flying four cats costs me four times more than my own ticket (I wonder why: the two small ones will be stowed under my sit - in one container, small enough to fit there, yet large enough to allow them to nap huddling together - as they love to do anyway, while the two larger - and considerably older ones - will be sharing another, larger, container, being shipped as luggage in a pressurized, air conditioned compartment of the airplane) plus the added expense of four health certificates issued within 10 days of travel.

Here again: nobody asks me to bring a health certificate for myself, as if people could not spread infectious diseases, but cats, who spend all their time inside - save for the balcony - they are indoor cats - need to prove they are healthy!

Also, my two older cats are experienced international travelers and have their European "cat passports" - electronic chips with detailed information on them and their guardian - under the skins of their necks. The two Puertorican youngsters don't have those, yet - they are not going to Europe - at least not yet, so they need collars with identifying info instead, in case they somehow got lost somewhere.

This - long - weekend is all about packing. I found out that the USPS takes suitcases, provided they are locked - and it is a good thing, since with two containers of cats I can only take my computer with me as a carry on and no more than one suitcase as a checked luggage.

So most of my clothes and linens will fit in them. Books - except the huge, so called coffee-table editions - I plan to stuff all in large size flat rate boxes, thanks to advice from Jeff, who used them for heavy, yet small, tools, when he and Katrina moved here, and thanks to Miri, who mused recently about fitting a 50 pound of ceramic clay in each of them.

Larger shipping boxes I found at Home Depot, at prices lower than U-Haul on the mainland. There I also found stretch wrap and bubble wrap, but no packing popcorn and I decided to take my flat screen TV with me.

But supposedly Office Max has it, so off I go to Mayaguez Mall to look for it and also to look for locks to my suitcases. Perhaps Wall Mart? Or the stand where they make spare keys? (Office Max had packing peanuts, different kinds, different size bags, rather pricy, but.... A key making stand next to Wall Mart had a good selection of locks, including suitcase locks)

If I don't find it, an employee at Home Depot suggested that they have one and two inch wide foam panels, which I can cut to size to cushion my flat screen with - it looks like it might work, so I shall see.

Temptation

2009-03-21T08:09:00.007-04:00

I haven't yet moved out of Puerto Rico - I am staying here till the end of this month - when an invitation to move here (photo of the village above) right away, practically yesterday, for at least three months if not a year, or longer, presented itself.

The village is pittoresque, located on one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, surrounded with majestic mountains - and volcanos, with a spring-like climate year round and inhabitated mostly by very friendly and humble people.

Unfortunately, due to endemic poverty, drugs and a history of violence in this country it is also very dangerous.

And, I wish I could, but can I ???

P.S. Do you know where this is? Hint: it is a tad south and more than a tad west of Puerto Rico.

Green day

2009-03-17T22:01:00.008-04:00

It's St Patrick's day and the only green thing I had today was a green sallad for dinner: lettuce, sprouts, microgreens.

For lunch at work there was arroz con pollo - definitively not Irish, so I thought of cooking dinner for a change, but did not found in a PR grocery anything Irish. So green sallad it was. And a green tea. My Irish friends would laugh themselves silly.

But I was reminiscing Ireland today - I worked in Dublin two summers in a row some 15 years ago - on an all-European project. Our hosts seemed to love taking us on pub rounds around Dublin... and I had to hide the fact that I really do not like Guiness. :-((

Otherwise, I loved the green island, Dublin, following in the footsteps of Leopold Bloom, a character from James Joyce's Ulysses, who wanders through Dublin some 90 years earlier... Loved the pastoral countryside of east Ireland, too, all those brambles, leek soup, potatoes, cabbage, corn beef... :-)

Sunday afternoon

2009-03-15T15:07:00.011-04:00

the weather's so so, yet the beach in front of my condo looks like that

and that
Does not seem like too big a crowd, but the noise they make is horrendous. Kids scream, adults shout - all at once, all the time, from Thursday afternoon till late Sunday night, there is no quiet minute!

And I still have two more weekends of that noise pollution to endure...

Dog sledding

2009-03-14T11:36:00.012-04:00

When I lived in Colorado, 12-10 years ago, I took a ride on a dog led sled one weekend and have - since then - been daydreaming - off and on, when I was not dreaming of living in Palau ;-) - of having a dog team and becoming a musher.... even though already at that time I was already at least a tad too old for that... and waaay too unfit. :-(((

But dreams are dreams, so I followed Iditarod, cheering all female mushers, followed all the mushing stories trying to figure out how I could make the impossible possible... but all I was able to accomplish was to talk a musher - whenever I had a chance to take a dog sled run - to letting me "co-mush" ? for a spell.

My daughter, on the other hand, being infinitively more practical than I, just dreamt of having a husky!

Freedom

2009-03-12T08:38:00.005-04:00

"That backpack's like your symbol of freedom," he comments.

" Guess so" I say

"Having an object that symbolizes freedom might make a person happier than actually getting the freedom it represents".

.....

"Perhaps most people in the world arent trying to be free, Kafka. They just think they are. It's all an illusion. If they really were set free, most people would be in real bind. You'd better remember that. People, actually, prefer not being free."

"Including you?"

"Yeah, I prefer being unfree, too. Up to a point. Jean-Jacques Rousseau defined civilization as when people build fences. A very perceptive observation. And it's true - all civilization is the product of a fenced-in lack of freedom."

Haruki Murakami: Kafka on the Shore.

Suspected

2009-03-04T09:11:00.002-05:00

... biopsy tomorrow.... I wish it was me....

Finally!

2009-03-01T13:25:00.012-05:00

You can't imagine just HOW RELIEVED I feel to finally having been able to figure out the way to leave this island soon and without jeopardizing the work I have been doing here - thus without any qualms of conscience !

Will I miss this silvery sea?

No, I am moving to another seafront location - in southwest Florida.
So I won't miss the sea, or the tropical ambience or... the discomforts of living in Puerto Rico! ;-)

I have a new place arranged preliminarly - and - surpise, surprise: due to the recession and overbuilding it is now less expensive to live in Florida's cultural mecca - with its miles and miles of stunning beaches, opera, theatre, ballet, tons of art galleries, abundance of organic veggies at every corner and all the other stuff I could only dream of here - that it is to live in Puerto Rico!

I just need to fly to Florida one of the nearests weekends to finalize things there, so my new place will be waiting for me.

And I also need to figure out how to take some 5-6 suitcases and boxes of my belongings (how on earth have I accumulated so much stuff here, so fast???), 75 punds of books, a flat screen TV and 4 cats off the island with a minimum of trips ( I am hoping for no more than two), and ... how to sell a car in Puerto Rico, while I need it practically to the very last moment....
All the furniture and household goods will go to charity, so that's easy. I'll have them picked up!

Boy, am I glad!

What's in my purse?

2009-02-26T22:47:00.002-05:00

Oh, pardon. who's in my purse.... Missy, what are you doing here????

Stop asking stupid questions and take me for a walk!

New Hillary and the women's rights

2009-02-21T08:22:00.004-05:00

When Hillary Clinton went to Asia as a first lady in 1995 she made a passionate speach for women's rights.
Now, when she went to Asia as a secretary of state, women's rights weren't nowhere on her agenda. They fell offer to climate change and the economic crisis.

Just two weeks before the International Women's Day, women, as always, are supposed to stand back to "more important" issues, as if sexism and scarcity of women's rights in most of the countries of the globe were nowhere in the same class as racism, as climate change, as economic crisis.

Shame on you, Hillary!

Ladies, do you still regret she was not elected president? She would have been the first woman president to abandon women! Not what we deserve!

World Cat's Day...

2009-02-17T18:01:00.012-05:00

... is today, February 17th ... at least in my home country.
So today my blog is devoted to my two little Puertorican amores, Fortuno (yes, he has the same name as Puerto Rico's current governor, but not for political reasons) or Lucky, the former jungle cat - and Carina, or Sweetie, the former airport cat.
Yes, they are both fully Spanish-English bilingual, including their names.

They love sharing their cat bed , especially when it is freshly laundered, still warm from the dryer and generously sprinkled with cat nip.

Otherwise Fortuno, a male that he is, loves to nap his days away in my recliner. However, unlike most other males I know (including Rascal, who can appropriate my entire bed, stretching across it!) Fortuno leaves enough space for me, to share the recliner with him. A generous, friendly cat!

Sweetie, or The Sweetest Thing in the World on the other hand, not always deserves either her name or her nickname. Once I found her in my refrigerator and now... what are you doing in the garbage bin, Sweets?? This is not a place for a well behaved kitty, you know...

Yeah, she knows, but she does not care...

Good Grief or how to be - or not to be - a good widow.

2009-02-16T10:34:00.011-05:00

Valentine's Day is a cruel holiday .... since so many people are not only excluded, they are brutally reminded, just how ALONE they are.

I have been a widow for almost 17 years now, so I have gotten used to it and treat being alone as not only normal, but enjoyable ... at least every now and then... and, anyway, nobody living with cats can ever feel truly alone.

Yet, every year at Valentine's my heart aches for all who are recently widowed, recently divorced, recently brokenhearted.

This year around Valentine's I happened to read this debut book by Lolly Winston about a recently widowed woman.

The book is well written, thoroughly entertaining and .... I learned a lot from it about grief I did not know about.

I learned that for many grief might be a totally overwhelming feeling, causing a total falling apart, a total collapse.

I used to suspect that the high drama of a debilitating depression, of falling apart with grief, was - consiously or not - just for show: a way to get more attention ? more support?

I learned I was wrong. I learned that many, may be most, people are unable to show the world a stiff upper lip and keep their grief under wrap, no matter how hard they try.

Are they more - or less - human for that? Are they more - or less - gracious as widows ?

Thanks, Lolly Winston, for introducing me to grief the way I have never known it. Thanks for letting me understand other grieving people better.

The symbol of love?

2009-02-13T08:48:00.004-05:00

Quick, how good are you in floriography (?), that is deciphering the meaning of flowers you give - or receive?

Here is an updated guide

Oh, I wish...

2009-02-12T20:31:00.005-05:00

I were in LA now!

But are they emancipated enough?

2009-02-10T09:24:00.013-05:00

A friend from Sweden called me yesterday, seriously alarmed: her daughter was planning to move to Singapore.

I did not, at first, get the cause of her alarm. Singapore is a vibrant, interesting city. Yes, it is very expensive to live there as an expact, terribly hot, terribly humid and terribly overcrowded, like most cities in Asia, but it is sort of civilized (save for their penal code, with its crudely medieval punishments like caning etc.) and could be fun. So what's the problem?

Her daughter is single... and a corporate executive... a single (heterosexual)female corporate executive.

"Who is she going to date there?" her mother asked me.
"Will she ever have a chance to marry, perhaps have a child, if she lives there"???

Now I understood her concerns.

If her child was a guy, a single male corporate executive, there would be no problem.
He would have plenty of opportunities.
He could date Asian women, be they ambitious corporate executives (there is a growing number of them, there) or old-fashioned (= professionally unacomplished) gals.

Most cultures in Asia - like in Latin America - have that in common: their lack of emancipation. Even a veneer of emancipation, if exists, is still (?) very, very thin.

Not good places for truly emancipated and professionally accomplished women to have a work-life balance, I had to admit.

And no, my friend's concerns have nothing to do with race (at least I hope they don't).
They are all about culture, ingrained, badly traditional culture, defining women as subservient (though sometimes luxurious) appendages of men.

Are there Asian or Latin men emancipated enough to truly appreciate a professionally accomplished woman? Without - subconsciously - expecting her to serve him: put a dinner on the table, make sure that the house is clean, in short to manage the household in addition to managing her job? Instead of equally sharing the household management duties with her?Hmmm. Very, very few, I am afraid.

Such culture clashes are still happening even in Europe and in America, where emancipation often seems only skin deep, despite it being proclaimed for a lot longer than in other parts of the world, so long that it already should be the norm, should feel obvious to all concerned... but, sadly, it is not.

I still remember vividly my own failed attempt at forming a relationship with a cultivated (I thought), highly educated and worldly American. On the surface, we had lot in common: interests, world outlook, wanderlust... but not the level of emancipation.
I could hardly believe my ears, when he proposed... with a disclaimer: he would be the decider. He would give me every consideration, he said, but he would be the decider.
At first I thought it was a joke, so caveman it sounded, and I laughed, amused. But he was serious, a barbarian at heart, despite all his education and his polish of civilization and worldliness.

So what a chance my friend's highly emancipated daughter would have at any personal happiness living in a very nonemancipated culture???

Planting time

2009-02-04T20:35:00.006-05:00

Groundhog day is behind us. So it looks like a planting time on my balcony...

In-fern-o

2009-01-31T07:53:00.008-05:00

Looking for an unique - an environmentally friendly - Valentine's Day present?

Then perhaps one of those one-of-a-kind vases made from fallen fern tree branches by 3T Vakil could fit the bill?

Or any other of the Puerto Rico rainforest crafts?

I (almost) caught my dinner tonight!

2009-01-28T19:29:00.004-05:00

It was cloudy this afternoon, but I had a headache when I got home and decided to walk on the beach for a while to cure it.

And I was doubly rewarded. The sun got through the clouds promising yet another glorious sunset. The beach was almost deserted, but there was a solitaty fisherman. He just caught a fish when I approached him and was reeling it in, so I stopped to watch. A red snapper!

'Nice catch' I said.

The fisherman smiled. 'Do you like fish?' he asked.

'Very much so' I smiled back.

'Wait a moment, then' he said 'and I shall clean this fish for you'!

And so he did. Just like that.

Ah, the kindness of Puertoricans!

And that's how I caught my dinner tonight.

We chatted while he cleaned the fish and he told me where to find the mussles, whose colorfull shells I found on the beach. They are apparently every bit as tasty as the black ones. I am looking forward to swimming with a mussles bag next time I go for a swim.

And then may be I really catch my next dinner myself.

More bingo

2009-01-26T18:38:00.027-05:00

AMPI has bingo fundraisers three times a year: in January, May and September. Here are some pictures from the first bingo I ever attended.

It's early, about four hours before the official bingo starts, but already there is a group of volunteers busy : ...assembling and placing tables and chairs...
...filling ice chests with water and soft drinks...
... brewing the first pot of coffee...
... arranging snacks...
... while kitchen volunteers start cooking...

... bacalaitos... ... and sorulitos... which, of course, require tasting...

...a chore undertaken with enthusiasm by Eunice, needing refreshments after assembling tables...
a crew selling food vouchers is getting ready...
... as is the crew selling and validating bingo cards...
and the first players are greeted enthusiastically by Zenaida.
The most eager players start gathering around 10 am, ... preparaing their cards and their tokens...
socializing...
introducing themselves...
... snacking... having a good time...
... or concentrating on an informal pre-game.
... while the kitchen crew keeps busy...
as does the food serving crew, serving lunch...
and this fabulous Tres Leches cake for dessert....

while THE game finally BEGINS...

Affordable Puerto Rico

2009-01-24T19:49:00.003-05:00

Today New York Times in an article on affordable Caribbean lists Puerto Rico's northwest coast, between Aguadilla and Isabela as the most affordable for surf oriented vacationers. Check it out ... together with 10 other affordable spots on Caribbean islands.

Medicare advantage in Puerto Rico

2009-01-20T15:03:00.006-05:00

Yes, at my last birthday a month ago I reached official retirement age and became entitled to Medicare.
Thus, I had to do my due diligence and research both Medicare advantage and Medigap policies in Puerto Rico ( since I am still here) and in the USA and compare them.

I am happy I finally can say something really positive about Puerto Rico: the benefits of the best medicare advantage here are far greater than benefits offered by the best in the USA.

So for retirees on a limited income, especially ones that either require hospitalization or serious dental work, it would be financially beneficial to live in Puerto Rico and enroll in one of the best medicare advantage plans here. They could save thousands of dollars per year... at the cost of dealing with local bureaucracy and with Spanish as a prevalent language, but yes, some things are so far better here ... though these benefits are likely to end once PR becomes a regular state ... if it becomes a regular state.

I am dirty... :-(((

2009-01-19T12:17:00.009-05:00

.... I was looking forward to making a trip to my favorite beach today... but I can't go anywhere, for the simple reason that there is NO WATER in my apartment complex today and thus I could neither take a shower or wash my hair... and I am not going to go anywhere dirty!

Nobody knows why there is no water, nobody knows if and when it will be back... not even the maintenance people. Oh, Puerto Rico is hell more often than not!

OK, I brushed my teeth and washed my face and hands - using water sparingly. I have only one galon of it and carrying enough water to the third flor to wash up is not a doable task for a woman my age.

So I am sitting on my balcony - sweating (it's hot!) and fuming that I HATE Puerto Rico! With a vengeance! I want to leave, NOW, no matter if I had to give away all the stuff I acquired here. I am - personally - sooooo sick and tired of this hellish "paradise"!

But one of my coworkers quit her position during the holidays, I got a couple of grants for a project I designed. It needs to start in February, or the organization risks loosing its credibility as a grantee, not to mention the disadvantaged Puerto Ricans we work for, who'd lose a chance at employment, income, improving their living standard and their quality of life....so for THEIR sake I should stay - another six, seven months??? Until a suitable replacement for me could be found?? If there would ever be another skilled one willing to work for peanuts....

And I am doing best I can to try to stay, despite the fact, that I am uncomfortable and thus unhappy here, that I can't stand all those inconveniences: heat, lack of water, general shabbiness and shoddiness of dwellings plus a bysantine bureaucracy everywhere!

The repairs in my current apartment finally were done last saturday.

But... not only had I to cut short a brunch with club friends, witch I greatly enjoyed, to hurry back home to meet the plumber.... one of the newly installed faucets - the one in the bathroom, stopped working already the next day - lasting barely long enough for me to pay my January rent!

So I am thinking HOW, on earth, could I be able to stay here any longer???
Where???

There is NO supply of decent, even halfway decent rentals in this part of the island. And there is no service. None. Zero!

Cabo Rojo has a plethora of houses and appartments for rent on clasificicados. So does Mayaguez. But that's a theory.
Many of them are the same places listed in duplicate, triplicate etc.
Many of the reasonably priced ones have already been rented and are no longer available, but are on the list.

I keep calling real estate agents, yet few of them even have a decency to return a call, once they know you want to rent, not to buy.

So how am I going to be able to do any job without even a halfway decent place to live??? With water, internet, working appliances?
You tell me!

I want my bailout money!

2009-01-12T08:19:00.005-05:00

Let me share with you a morning laugh, which I enjoyed courtesy of Broad in Costa Rica:
I want my bail out money is hillarious... perhaps because it is, sadly, so true?

Landlords from hell

2009-01-10T07:59:00.016-05:00

I am sorry to say, but ALL my patience with the discomforts of living in Puerto Rico is now gone!

I know that - in a larger perspective - my complaints are petty ones, but I detest discomfort caused by someone's inneficiency, uncaring and general lack of service.

I can take a certain amount of discomfort, if it is adventurous and only for a short time: living in the rain forest, without a phone (since not even cell phones work there) and internet due to lack of coverage (providing those services are available nearby and can be accessed daily), parking my car half a mile down and walking up a steep hill to the cabin.... carrying my laptop, and all the groceries on my back.

But I can't take a lack of water, because the cabin's owner did not install it properly... or an invasion of bugs, because the owner put a roof floating over the walls, instead of attaching it to them... and failed to inform me of any of the cabin's "quirks". And abandoned her kitty in the cabin, so I had to adopt the poor creature!
At least there the rent was peanuts.

But here in Joyuda I rented a beachfront condo, a so called luxury one for a luxury price. It proved to be a hellish place - overheating so badly, due to lack of insulation that even now, in January, when the temperature outdoors is 84 degrees it becomes even hotter inside. Didn't the landlady know about it? Didn't the real estate agent? Should not any of them inform me?

Anyway, I was not aware that I needed a temperature clause in my rental contract, so there was not much I could legally do about it... I could only swear and complain.

But repairs, which according to contract were the obligation of a landlord, were another matter: so after two months of reasoning with my landlady - through a real estate agent, since any efforts to reach the landlady directly failed totally (she never replied), I finally decided to delay the rent payment until the things that - according to the contract needed fixing - were fixed.

And, halleluja, after only two and a half months (!) I finally got a missing window screen, an internet connection (landlady insisted all utilities etc. remained in her name, so I could not get it in my name, without violating a contract... I suspect she does not declare the condo as rented in order not to pay taxes on the income... but I am not a tax police).
I got hot water after only a month, because I got tired of cold water and fixed it on my own. I know, I am sooo impatient!

So I paid my November rent in a sheer euphoria that my landlady finally got something fixed, despite the fact, that faucets in both my bathroom and kitchen needed urgent replacement, as they tended to fall off at will, creating unexpected - and undesirable - fountains in the kitchen and bathroom. And she promised to fix them.

But come December and they were not fixed - surprise, surprise! - so I delayed rent payment again. My landlady called me promising to fix the faucets, but asked for a rent check in advance of repairs. I declined.
And still nothig happened. Faucets fall off almost daily now, and ... two days after I got back from the mainland, my stove top and oven quit working.

A message to my landlady remains unanswered - ok she might be travelling, or even be in a hospital, but she has family: a daughter living close to me and dropping in during my work hours to put utility bills under my front doors. So there is no excuse. And I guess she does not need the rent money???

So by now I have " recovered" my deposit - by not paying rent since November - and could - and should - move out without having to sue her in an unfamiliar legal territory ... since I seriously doubt I would ever get my deposit back, or manage to get a discount on my rent for all the dicomfort living at her place caused - and causes - me, without having to sue her for a breach of contract. Sigh...

OK, OK, I feel slightly sorry for her, if her negligence as a landlady is a result of a - monumental! - ineptitude and not ill will, because I am almost equally inept in practical everyday matters... but knowing my strengths and weaknesses I would never even entertain a thought of being a landlady... without hiring a management company to deal with bothersome for me details!

But a simple thought of moving to another place in Puerto Rico and dealing with - most likely - irresponsible landlords, in addition to extremely shoddy construction, gives me shivers... so I sent a couple of emails instead, to check a possibility of a relocation to Florida and ... got a green light the same day... despite my age and recession. (But I do get results - funding - for my non-profits, despite recession, so - naturally - they all want those results.)

Still, I decided, that if I can fix the stove top and oven for a reasonable amount of money, I'll endure another seven weeks on the island and transfer at the end of February - in order to be able to finish at least the most critical aspects of my work project and - hopefully - find a replacement for myself.

But if the stove can't be fixed inexpensively - I am out of here now!

Fondue party to end the holiday season

2009-01-06T08:12:00.016-05:00

Fondue party, a quintessential winter food, is a fun way to end a holiday season. It can feed a crowd or a couple and you don't have to slave in the kitchen all day to whip it up.

For a small crowd - and for the Three Kings Day I like to have three basic types of fondues going:

a beef fondue, called Fondue Bourguignonne, a cheese fondue and a chocolate fondue for dessert. (For a bigger crowd I might add a seafood fondue cooked in an aromatic broth and wine.)

For a beef fondue I heat olive oil with red wine and the guests cook small cubes of beef fillet in it at the table. Then dip the meat in a variety of sauces, mostly cold, like a garlic dip (sour cream with minced garlic nad herbs), curry dip ( Greek yogurt, mango chutney, curry powder and cayenne) tomato-chipotle dip (sour cream or Greek yogurt, a touch of mayo, tomato paste, chipotle sauce and a touch of ketchup). I add to it some mango pickles, avocado and melon balls.

For a small party, where there is no side cheese fondue (Swiss version: ementhaler and gruyere cheese, white wine a little kirsch liqueur) going on at the side to dip vegetables (bell peppers in all color varieties, celery, cherry tomatoes, cauliflower of all colors, broccoli, champignones, etc.) and pieces of bread in, I serve also one hot sauce, bernaise, for dipping veggies.

Finally, a dessert: cut up fruits (pineapple, mango, papaya, pears) and strawberries dipped in chocolate fondue (melted chocolate with orange, coffee and chocolate liqueurs).

Happy ( and Tasty) Three Kings' Day!

Flying over Puerto Rico

2009-01-04T21:18:00.019-05:00

Leaving Mayaguez airport on a Cape Air flight
There were only two passengers on this flight... but Cape Air never cancels flights

When I was planning to leave PR for two weeks of Christmas/New Year vacation I decided to take a Cape Air flight from Mayaguez to San Juan instead of driving to San Juan and flighing from there.

The extra expense of flying was more than offset by not having to pay for 2 weeks of parking at SJU, not having to drive there and ... as an added bonus ... seeing Puerto Rico from the air. Here are a few pictures:

Lago de Guajataca
Over the mountains
In the clouds
Approaching San Juan
Cape Air planes at the San Juan airport
Starting the return flight from San Juan Flying over Isla Verde
Somewhere over NW coast... does anybody know where this is?
And over the mountains again.

Now I am thinking of taking a weekend trip to St Croix ( I have previously visited both St Thomas and St John, but haven't been to the largest of the USVIs) with Cape Air: the connection is good: leaving Mayaguez at 9:25 I can get to St Croix in about two hours... and the fair from MAZ is only $240 round trip - less than from San Juan.

The perils of obedience revisited

2009-01-02T22:36:00.004-05:00

Please, make an important New Year's resolution to encourage thoughtful disobedience!

I recently learned - with an utmost horror - that a repeat of a famous Milgram experiment of 1961, in 2008 gave even more horrifying results that the original one.

Here is what Discovery magazine writes about both these experiments and their horrifying results:

'In the 1961 experiment, Yale University professor Milgram asked volunteers to deliver increasingly strong electric “shocks” to other people, who appeared to be test subjects but were really actors, if they answered certain questions incorrectly. Milgram found that, after hearing an actor cry out in pain at 150 volts, 82.5 percent of participants continued administering shocks, most to the maximum 450 volts.

The results, now a fixture in psychology textbooks, suggested that people’s moral attitudes can be suppressed when they’re put in a situation of obedience. Although no actual shocks were delivered and the sounds of agony came from a tape-recording, many of the volunteers suffered stress from the task and replication of the experiments was deemed unethical.
In the new study, to be published in American Psychologist, Burger replicated the gist of the original experiment but included measures to minimize the psychological stress on the test subjects, such as limiting the shocks to 150 volts and not letting them administer any further shocks even if they indicated their willingness.

The new participants were reminded repeatedly that they could stop at any time, while in Milgram’s version, participants were told, “The experiment requires that you go on,” if they expressed hesitation. Again, however, the vast majority of the 29 men and 41 women taking part were willing to push the button knowing it would cause pain to another human. Even when another actor entered the room and questioned what was happening, most were still prepared to continue. About 70 percent continued the shocks up to 150 volts and were willing to go even higher. “That was surprising and disappointing,” Burger said'.

... and absolutely horrifying!

So let's discourage blind obedience and encourage conscientious disobedience! All of us! Now! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T18:23:00.011-05:00

Let's have a toast:

and some tapas:

And if you wish for abundance of riches in 2009 you might want to try a Spanish habit of eating (quickly) 12 grapes at midnight!

All sweet ones symbolize months of prosperity, the sour ones - less so. So let's have a sweet grape year - all of us!

High on High!

2008-12-30T10:56:00.005-05:00

Post Christmas weekend was devoted to high culture... which in Atlanta - at least as far as visual art goes - means High Museum of Art.

Art is one of the things I miss most living in Puerto Rico (the other being: comfortable housing, decent roads, fresh vegetables, less bureaucracy etc. ).

Yes, I have visited -more than once - the musea ( I know that in English I should have written museums but for a student of Latin it sounds soooooo totally wrong, I'll stick with the correct Latin plural from museum, that is musea) in Ponce and San Juan, but High in Atlanta, in addition to its impressive permanent collection, exhibits regualrly interesting collections from other leading musea in the world.

And right now it had three such exhibitions going on at once, and I did not want to miss any of them. So I decided to devote one day to see The Masterpieces from Louvre and Medieval and Renaissance Treasures from Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Please click on the links and come see them with me - you won't regret it!

But one of the days had to be devoted solely to one of the biggest archeological art discoveries of the previous century: the terracota army of the first emperor of China.

Its sheer magnitude is mind boggling: as is the artistry of each individual piece

So, please, click on the exhibition link, see the masterpieces of ancient China, watch the videos, ENJOY!

HO! HO! HO!

2008-12-27T14:35:00.019-05:00

This Christmas was fun!

First I ran around Atlanta, freezing (since I had no time to go to storage and retrieve my winter clothes), shopping for ethnic food - both Swedish and Polish... and for American Christmas Day turkey dinner, too.... since my daughter wanted to have all these traditions observed during the holidays.

Both in Poland and Sweden the biggest, most important, traditional feast is a Christmas Eve dinner:

in Poland a "fasting" (here fasting just meaning: no meat) feast of seven ... no, not seven fishes, as is the tradistion in Italy, but seven...or nine... or even twelve different dishes (most of them fish, though), which you begin to consume when a first star is spotted in the sky .

Don't worry about what to do, when the sky is overcats: someone will eventually get hungry enough and insist he spotted a star... and everybody will accept that gratefully.

In Sweden a traditional Christmas eve dinner is a Julbord, a Christmas smorgoasbord.... with all sorts of herrings, lax, but also ham, meatballs, sausages, cheeses.

Thus in both Poland and Sweden an overabundance of food, just rather different types of food.Swedish food was far easier to get, thanks to IKEA, which had all sorts of Swedish fare: herrings, crispbreads, cheeses, caviar, Swedish ham, lingonberries, Princess cake...

Polish food was nearly impossible to find in Atlanta, so I finally gave up on most traditional Polish Christmas Eve dishes, except for my daughter's favorite:

cabbage ( half fresh cabbage, half sauerkraut) sateueed with porcini mushrooms,

...which , however, she'll get first tomorrow, accompanying a pork roast with plums,
not a pan fried fat fish, as Polish Christmas tradition would demand, since that particular kind of fish was not available even in the World Farmers' Market :-(((

I also had to give up on a traditional Polish dessert, which I love:

a poppy seed sufflet with tropical fruit and whipped cream: trying to buy a pound of poppy seeds in Atlanta could get me suspected of attempting to make opium.... not a particularly appealing prospect.

When I lived in central Texas I could always drop to any of the ethnic Czech bakeries,

order a poppy seed strudel...

and ask to buy a pound of poppy seeds for my sufflet from them. Besides, in Texas, Minnesota and Colorado there were Polish ethnic shops, but there is none in Atlanta. Had I been planning this better I could have ordered everything from Chicago by mail, but I did not.

Next I was preparing all the dishes I could, just as my daughter wished to have them, being in a traditional mood this year, but then I tried really hard not to eat them myself, as nearly all are too fat, too heavy, in short: completely unsuitable for a diabetic.

And a Christmas miracle happened: I lost seven pounds during the Christmas week, surrounded with all that food. If that's no miracle, I don't know what is ;-)!

Bacalaitos

2008-12-17T17:27:00.010-05:00

or salt cod fritters are a favorite snack in Puerto Rico.

They came from Spain and there are called bunuelos de bacalao and are round, looking more like donoughts ( codfish donoughts, anyone? :-)... sounds a little weird, doesn't it?), while the Puertorican ones (that I ingested!) are flatter, more like pancackes. Also, Spaniards add parsley to theirs, while Puertoricans don't.

Still, both varieties are great.

If you want to make them from scratch, here is a Spanish recipe:

500 g (or 1 lb 2 oz) of salt cod
1 large potato, unpeeled
2 tablespoons milk
oil (best to use: olive) for deep frying
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
30 g (1/4 cup) self raising flour
2 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

Soak the cod in water for 24 hours, changing water regularly: at least 4 times.

Cook potato for 20 minutes or until soft. Cool, peel and mash with milk and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Drain the cod, cut into large pieces, place in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes. Drain and cool. Remove skin and bones, then mash with fork until flaky.

Meanwhile heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan, add onion and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for one minute. Remove from heat.

Combine the potato, cod, onion mixture, flour, egg yolk and parsley in a bowl and season.

Whisk egg whites until stiff then fold into the mixture.

Fill a large heavy-based one third full with oil and heat to 190 C (375 F).

Drop heaped tablespoons of the cod mixture into the oil and cook for 2 minutes or until puffed and golden. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

,in Puerto Rico you can make bacalaitos without going to all that trouble, since there are ready - or almost ready - mixes for them here and special frying pans for bacalaitos as well - see picture above.

They taste sooo good and apparently have less than 50 calories each, so you can indulge in two... or even three of them. :-)
Buen provecho!

Grand opening

2008-12-15T21:19:00.022-05:00

Life would be too sweet in Puerto Rico, I guess, if its bureaucracy was a little more oriented toward serving the public ( that pays through the nose for it) and a little less toward creating obstacles under the slightest of pretexts... and often, with no pretext at all.
Anyway, common sense and goodwill prevailed this time and La Casa de Junny was finally ready for its grand opening.

Friday before Thanksgiving trustees,

employees,

clients and their families,

friends,
neighbors,
invited officials, media and - last but not least - future tenants,
descended on La Casa de Junny to take part in its grand opening.

After a handful of inauguration speaches

a representative of the future tenants cut the ribbon,
AMPI employees formed a receiving line,
and each of them escorted a tenant to her room as both tenants and guests entered La Casa de Junny.

When the tenants settled happily in their beautiful new home, and guests had enough time to inspect it in detail, both tenants

and guests
enjoyed lunch.

Turkey-less Thanksgiving

2008-12-03T21:14:00.024-05:00

Thanksgiving started early this year. On Tuesday I had an afternoon meeting in San Juan, which coincided perfectly with my daughter's arrival.

She arrived in the evening and wanted to do some Christmas shopping in Old San Juan, so we stayed overnight in the city. After a year spent in Puerto Rican towns and villages full of ugly concrete bunkers enveloped in even uglier metal cages, I truly enjoyed the architectural grace of Old San Juan, without holding a grudge that it lured me to Puerto Rico under false pretenses (I first visited Puerto Rico on a cruise , and naively thought the entire island was as charming as old San Juan - a big, big mistake)
Enjoyed the gracious buildings, the pretty balconies,

even the early Christmas decorations ... although I, as a principle, oppose Christmas before Thanksgiving. It feels so out of place.

But I LOVE old San Juan, no matter what!

So we spent Wednesday shopping, doing our dardenest to stimulate the economy in a typical American way: spending money.

Still, it was not easy: both old San Juan stores and the stores in the outlet mall in Barceloneta, where we shopped on our way back to the west coast were so full of bargains, almost everything seemed to cost a lot less than a year ago.

During the rest of the week we mostly enjoyed the sea and the beaches:

the one in front of my condo in Punta Arenas,

with its panoramic view of Mayaguez coastline ,

and, of course, the Playuela
so quintessentially Caribbean ,
and so full of fun!

We also went to Bahia Salinas, where we enjoyed another beach,
a spa, with its sybarytic lounging beds
around the infinity pool overlooking the typical glorious, west coast sunset

and had a great dinner at their renowned Meson type restaurant Agua al Cuello,
eating ? (see top picture) FISH! Without even a slice of turkey in sight!

La Casa de Junny

2008-11-22T16:53:00.031-05:00

Yesterday was an important day, a - small, perhaps, but very important -social progress day in Puerto Rico.

Yesterday the first in Puerto Rico assisted living house for people with mental retardation has been inaugurated in Mayaguez by AMPI: Associacion Mayaguezana de Personas con Impedimentos.

The house is called La Casa de Junny - named after Junny, a person with mental retardation, who died a couple of years ago.

It is a very nice house. Large, with plenty of room for 8 people and with separate appartments downstairs for the caretakers.

Until now in Puerto Rico adults with mental retardation could only live with their families - if they were lucky enough to have families able to house them and take care of them, or live in oldfashioned, often dehumanized institutions. Now it will all change. They will be able to live independently, yet assited by the caretakers they need.

Casa de Junny has ample space for both togetherness and privacy for its occupants.

It has an ample formal living room

Here filled with AMPI's employees preparing for the house's inauguration

An entry parlor

An ample dining room

adjacent to the living room

and a comfortable family/entertainment room in another part of the building
with a flat screen TV and a nice sound system

There is also a little study, where we hope to have a computer soon

There is also a well equipped
eat-in kitchen with storage and laundry

with a large adjacent terrace, serving as an outdoor living and dining room

balconies on three sides of the building

and a large yard with fruit trees, plants and lawns to use for outdoor exercise.

Last but not least
There are six individual bedrooms upstairs
each of them different
to accommodate various preferences of their new inhabitants
each of them comfortable
and each lovingly arranged
by AMPI staff and volunteers, thanks to generous donations from the people of Mayaguez and surrounding communities.

It starts so innocently

2008-11-17T21:53:00.010-05:00

My Puertorican teenage cats wake up and start grooming each other...

Grooming, grooming...

Grooming, grooming....

When suddenly.... a fight erupts!

Fighting, fighting....

Taino Indians

2008-11-13T20:13:00.020-05:00

Today's brunch meeting of the Mayaguez International Friendship Club was devoted to Puerto Rico's heritage: Taino Indians.

Sebastian Acosta from Cabo Rojo presents Taino Indian's culture

It was a double treat: Sebastian Acosta from Cabo Rojo, a devoted Taino culture enthusiast prepared an exhibition of Taino artifacts and gave a presentation on Taino's life and customs.

And a dance and music group Raices Sagradas brought the very sad Taino history to life playing and dancing it.

If you want to see a Raices Sagradas performance by yourself, you can: there will be two performances in Yauco on November 28 and 29.

No luck with the car... :-((((

2008-11-12T11:15:00.004-05:00

Shock absorbers, fluid and coolant exchange... all of it is going to cost me today close to $900!!!
After I spent about $ 500 on it last month (starter, oil change, belts, air filter).
And it irks me that I have another car, waiting idle for me, on the mainland. :-((((

Boy, is life on this island expensive!!!! Sigh....

Hurra!

2008-11-11T12:24:00.032-05:00

An early evening view from my balcony . The weather's fine!

I finely ( after 2 and a half month) got a cable TV and internet at my new place.

Long story: All utilities: electric, water, cable is in my landlady's name and she wants to keep it that way. She is a nice and wellmeaning lady, once you learn to know her, but she was absent most of the time and I had a lot of troubles to get in touch with her. Finally this month I decided to postpone paying rent until everything I needed fixed got fixed.

Looks like it worked almost like a charm: less than two weeks and I got a missing window screen, cable fixed, internet installed and a plumber is supposed to come later today. So now i can post some pictures of my new place - as it is now.

And here is the same view in the middle of the day. A boat is passing in front of Desecheo island. (Click to see the details)

My guests (Katrina and Disa) in an animated conversation one Saturday afternoon

Here is my kitchen
my living room...
with a good luck "goldfish" I once bought on Galveston island now hanging in a Puertorican net...

When I drag the table - and chairs - back inside from the balcony, they serve as a dining room/study.

Definitively minimalistic... save for the abundance of cats everywhere! Cats by the table...

Cats on the table...

Cats in front of the TV...
Cats in my recliner...

Cats in every corner...

Cats in cat beds...

Cats on top of the refrigerator...
Cats on top of the world... er.. on top of the stackable washer and dryer ...

Cats on the balcony...

...and all the cats in my bed! It's time to retire - they tell me: come on in, there is place for you, too! :-)

It's night already. Behind the bedroom window a silvery moon is reflecting in the sea...

I think I'll just move in to Sears

2008-11-10T09:12:00.003-05:00

Auto Center. Due to all the time - and money - I spend there recently.

After all the maintenance and the purchase of an ultra expensive high performance starter motor ( as if I were a rally driver, lol), my car developed a ticking (coughing ?) noise every time I turn the motor on and turn a wheel. I have no idea what it is and the Sears mechanics did not mention that anything was wrong. Sigh.

So today I need to go there again and make them check it out. Wish me luck. Sigh.

A car and .... a machete

2008-11-07T07:47:00.005-05:00

I have had a series of troubles with my car lately.

It served me without the slightest mishap since last December, when I bought it (save for a routine maintenance like oil chnges, new battery and tires) till October, when I had to replace its starter motor (and have been price gauged really, really bad) , got a flat tire and - upon changing oil - learned (from Sears) that besides the oil, I need to replace two belts, change all the fluids and the coolant, air filter and something - all in all over $300 - again!

But yesterday my car trouble was my own fault entirely: I left my car keys in the lock. I was going to atted meeting yesterday afternoon and found out the keys were inside.

So I asked one of the coworkers, Joel, a really thoroughly talented guy, what should I do, and he threw his arms in the air, but then laughed, asked me to wait and in a moment ... emerged with a machete.

I have seen machete used to cut grass, vines, pumpkins, but I had no idea how easy it is to open a car door with a machete. Merely seconds!

I was impressed by Joel's abilities, greatful for his help... but from now on I'd rather not leave anything of value (like my laptop) in the car, knowing anybody with a machete can open it at any time within seconds.

Not that a guy with a machete would not be conspicuous on a parking lot of a mall, for example ;-)

A little knowledge of Spanish can be dangerous...

2008-11-03T14:23:00.007-05:00

...to your expectations.

These are enchiladas, right? At least to someone familiar with Mexican cuisine.

Well, last Thursday I took a coworker to a lobster dinner and could not make up my mind how I wanted my lobster, since I have had almost any variation of it in that particular restaurant, El Galloway in Boqueron, where lobster is always "just right".
But I haven't tried lobster enchiladas, so I ordered them (or so I thought) expecting something like above. A succulent lobster meat wrapped in a tortilla, with some sauce, cheese and sour cream on top.

Boy, was I in a wrong country. Lobster enchilada in PR is something else entirely. Care to guess what? (hint: it looks like the dish in the photo below)

And what is the dish in the photo above? Gazpacho, right?
At least that would be gazpacho in Spain.
In Puerto Rico a gazpacho is .... a salted fish salad.
Something I really like, but not when I expected a gazpacho of the Spanish variety.

But this culinary linguistic confusion is not limited to Puerto Rico. After all a Spanish tortilla and a Mexican tortilla are two very different things, as well. :-)

My year in Puerto Rico

2008-10-24T11:28:00.007-04:00

Last Sunday was my anniversary of living in Puerto Rico.

I decided to leave the island as soon as my professional obligations permit, most likely during spring, as I absolutely can't imagine spending another rainy/hurricane season here.

I could live here during a few winter months... but there are probably more comfortable places in the Caribbean to spend winters, which I haven't yet discovered, so I am not likely to return to PR.

Right now my overall impression of Puerto Rico as a place for me is : a hell with some elements of paradise....., but given sufficient time outside the island my memory might change to a paradise with elements of hell... I usually remember adventures warmly, even if they have been hellish at the time ;-)

What was paradisic in Puerto Rico for me:

Climate ... but in winter only... I love being able to wear light summer clothes all winter long, swim in the warm, calm, beautiful Caribbean sea,
Nature ... its beauty and its unexpected diversity, considering that it is such a small island. Granted, Puerto Rico does not - by far - have the natural diversity of fauna or flora of , say, Costa Rica, but it is both beautiful and diversified nevertheless. And Puerto Rico has some really breathtaking beaches.
People... though as friends, coworkers and neighbors only: they are warm, helpful, cheerful... Puerto Ricans as citizens are not my kind of people: I dislike traditionalism, conservatism, unwillingness to stand up to authorities and demand fair treatment by them... and, most definitively, I dislike what happens to many Puerto Ricans when they get behind the wheel .... it is like dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde... ;-)
San Juan Viejo... it is utterly charming despite its commercialism. I moved to Puerto Rico after visiting the Old San Juan only and imagined the whole island to be as charming... A big mistake... the rest of the island is an architectural disaster, completely devoid of any elements of charm.

What was hellish for me in PR:

Housing. Definitively THE main contributor to my perception of Puerto Rico as hell. I have NEVER had to move so many times in such a short period of time. Only twice during my year in PR I moved because of the job change, while four times I moved because of the hidden flaws in the dwellings I rented: noise in the first dwelling, dangerous electric shower in the second, lack of water in the casita when the stream dried out, and having been trapped there once due to idiotic construction of inoperable windows, overheating due to nonexistent insulation in walls and ceiling in my current condo. I would have moved again in a heartbeat again from my new condo, despite its breathtaking view of the sea and of magnificent sunsets, were it not for the high deposit I paid... the hope that the problem won't be so pronounced in winter... and lack of more suitable alternatives near my work. I thank heavens, though, that I have resisted signing the rental contract for one year: my expensive, so called luxury condo ... is overheating so badly that - except for the (huge, I admit) balcony and its sea breeze - the rest of the condo is practically uninhabitable in the afternoons and evenings - where I want to spend some time there. And the bathroom without a window and without ac makes even morning grooming an exercise in futility: one gets sweaty within a minute of leaving the shower!
So I have decided to NEVER AGAIN rent a place without central a/c in a hot climate. And there are NO dwellings with central a/c for rent in PR - as far as I know!
Climate between May and November: it is awfully hot and humid! Yet, I am used to hot and humid. I have lived on a barrier island in Texas, where it gets a lot hotter, and I was very comfortable there. I have also lived in Florida in summer, and was comfortable also. But in all tropical and semi tropical places where I lived I had a central a/c at home, or - like in Costa Rica - lived so high up in the mountains, that a/c was not needed, and I was not forced to suffer heat and humidity both outside and inside! And the heat and humidity (without a/c) in PR creates a mold problem I have never had to deal with before PR (except for a short period in Costa Rica, but I left CR in mid June)... and never want to deal with after PR! And I haven't even mention the hurricanes, yet, the occasional lack of water and electricity during the hurricane season. No, PR in summer IS HELL! Both for people and electronics.
Roads are almost as bad as in most of Latin America, which is far poorer than PR and not a part of USA. So there is not a lot of excuse for PR authorities to have neglected them so badly. They are hell on cars.
Inequality, overblown and inefficient bureaucracy etc, - did you know that PR, despite it being a free associated state of the USA ranks as FOURTH MOST UNEQUAL country in the Americas???

My new - all in all - $400+ starter motor...

2008-10-22T11:47:00.004-04:00

... or how to be taken to the cleaners (twice???) by car mechanics in PR.

In my last post - from less then two weeks ago (I know, I have been neglecting this blog) I wrote about the troubles my starter motor caused me... and that I had it fixed after a couple of hours of wasted time and a $ 130 in towing ($45) and parts and labor for the starter.

I thought the problem was fixed. But no... yesterday I went to the airport in San Juan to drop in my daughter, who was leaving after her long weekend visit. Parked the car... but when I was ready to drive back, the car would not start. The airport security came to help, noticed there was electricity: sound signals worked, lights worked, radio worked... but the car would not start.

They tried to bust it anyway, but to no effect. They said it was my starter. Whaaat? Said I?
I had it fixed less than two weeks ago!!!!

They shook their heads... So I called AAA, now knowing it offered services in PR.

A towing truck came in less than half an hour. The towing guy tried to bust it, also, not trusting the security people... and the same no result. Starter, he said. I repeated that I had it fixed less than two weeks ago. He, too, shook his head and towed me to the nearest Western Auto in Carolina.

"You need a new starter" - they told me. "It will be $ 170".

I reapeated that I had it fixed recently.

"He rebuilt your starter" they told me. "But it did not work. You need a new one. $ 170, will be ready in 45 minutes".

So there I was : 120 miles away from home, two deadlines looming and I have already taken too much time to entertain my daughter during the weekend and driving her to San Juan.

"OK", I said.

But after half an hour the guy, Carmelo, calls me back:

"We have a problem" he says." This is not the part you need. The regular starter won't work in your car". He did not explained why. He only shook his head, when I asked and continued: You need a special starter. There is one in Lakeland, Texas, which we can get here in one and a half weeks (he knows I am 120 miles from home, before he askem me that previously) ... and there is one on the island, which I can get in about half an hour, but it will be that much" and he shows me a price on the computer of $ 296.

I had a distinct feeling I was being taken advantage of ( you know , the Blink factor), but... what was I to do: renting a car, driving to Cabo Rojo and driving back in one and half a week would cost me more that the difference (of about $ 100) in quoted starter prices, so I agreed.

The part arrived within the half hour as promised and the car was fixed within a bit more than an hour. But the final bill did not show the price of the starter as previously quoted at the computer screen. It was the same as Lakeland price - if I remember correctly. Only a few other parts and services were suddenly added to come to a definitively not cool $301.

I have been taken to the cleaners: twice, presumably... though the first time might have been in a misguided wellmeaning....

Handy men and car mechanics - two groups I have very bad experiences with ... almast always trying to take advantage of single old ladies. That was the reason I sold my house in Texas when my spouse died and swore never to buy another one, so I would not have to be at handyman's mercy - or bother my neighbors every time I got a repair quote to verify just how badly they want to rob me.

But how WHERE can I live without a car, to be able not to be at mercy of car mechanics????

Making a grand entry... the WRONG way!

2008-10-09T15:50:00.010-04:00

Mayaguez Resort and Casino - terrace in front of IFC meeting room

This morning I - inadvertently, I swear! - made a huge traffic stop when entering - by car - Mayaguez Resort & Casino, to attend a breakfast meeting of the Mayaguez International Friendship Club.

I pulled into the entry gate too far away to reach a parking ticket, so I stopped the car and got out to pick my ticket up. That went realtively well, although already inconveniencing a few drivers behind me... but when I got back into the car and tried to start it... nothing happened.

Again and again. I opened the mask, to see if battery screws needed tightening, messed with them a moment and ... hotel personnel started coming to get me off that spot. First they tried the jumper cables, but when these did not help, they pushed my car away, so the others could pass me.

I could not believe how many cars I managed to stop during this five minutes (?) of my car mishap!

I told the parking attendants I was about to be late to a meeting. "Don't worry", they told me, "your car can stay here until you get back and then we shall see what we can do."

Now, THAT, I call a first class service!

I enjoyed the meeting, got the tow truck called in by the parking staff, after they failed to start the car with jumper cables. "Starter" they told me "not the battery". The tow truck took it to Mercado Auto Electric downtown, a garage that specializes in alternators (don't ask me what that is, I have no idea), starters, generators, regulators and all things electrical.

The car is now fixed. Starter changed. Parts and labor total $68.78, which, I was told, is a very good price.

Tow truck was $45 and a very nice conversation with its driver, who told me about his adventures driving an 18-wheeler through the entire USA and Canada, when he worked there. He knew how to speak Spanish to a foreigner, and even threw in some English words, when I looked confused, so I understood quite a bit of it. Too bad I did not know I could have used my AAA in Puerto Rico, but I know now!

The worst was the close to 40 minutes wait for a coworker to come and pick me up from the garage, as it is downtown, tight spaces, hot, nowhere to sit and cool down. And, of course, after I pick up my car from the garage, I'll have to try and not get lost, among the maze of narrow, congested streets. But I'll manage somehow :-))

Pumpkin cakes - Puertorican style: Barriga (?) de vieja

2008-10-08T12:00:00.006-04:00

Funny thing. I get into AMPI's kitchen this morning to make myself coffee and I see our cook making some kind of a dough. I ask and am told we are going to have traditional PuertoRican fried pumpkin cakes: barriga de vieja?
I am just guessing at the spelling, if it is supposed to mean "an old woman's belly pounch"????

So lunch today for lunch is rice and corn beef, avocados and those "old women's belly paunches" .

Ouch. Still, I had two of them :-))

Too bad I had no camera with me. :-(((

But here is a message to local readers: if you ever have too much of some crop: avocado, calabazas, bananas, whatever, AMPI will be thrilled to accept a donation of foodstuffs.

We have 52 mostly low and very low income clients to feed and a very limited budget.

Pumpkin pancakes

2008-10-06T16:23:00.005-04:00

I found this unexpectedly versatile recipe for pumpkin pancakes - a traditional treat of Polish cuisine, which I did not know. Should be handy for all, who "suffer" from an overabundance of calabazas (I think they can be frozen, if needed).

They can be served in either sweet or savory version.

Basic recipe: make a dough as for pancakes: mix flour with egg and a bit of salt. Then add shredded raw (recommended) or cooked minced pumpkin, so that the dough is a thick pancake variety.
For a savory version add minced onion and/or some spices: red paprika, cayenne, chili, whatever you like.

Fry pancakes :they should be slightly puffy to taste their best.

Sprinkle confectioners sugar over a sweet version and serve with sour cream . The savory version is in Poland traditionally served with duck... or venison... but they taste good alone, too, also served with sour cream.
Buen provecho!

Good news and bad news

2008-10-02T11:45:00.005-04:00

Yesterday my blood sugar started acting real bad, 270 fasting blood glucose was a reason for serious concern... (normal is 80-120) but yesterday I was lucky.

I was recommended another doctor, this one in San German. I called his office, told his assistant exactly the same in Spanish, what I told the other one last Friday... and got a completely different reception.

Learning about my blood sugar she put the doctor - who spoke English - on the phone and after a short exchange he asked me to come right away and he would fit me between other appointments, as my blood sugar level was serious.

Well, it got up to 370 by the time I got to his office and my blood pressure was 190! Horrible.
The doctor told me what to do to get both down asap, ordered a battery of tests... and told me to make a follow up appointment for next week.

When I was leaving his office I heard him apologizing profusely to a person with next appointment slot, that my emergency caused him to wait 15 minutes.

Yes, this doctor makes appointments, like in any other country.

And accommodates what he sees as emergencies.

And apologizes to a patient who had to wait a few minutes because of this.

I am inclined to treat it as a first swallow of hope, that Puerto Rico can get organized, if only there is some will and some goodwill.

I would make a champagne toast to it, but at the moment I am not supposed to drink champagne. So orange juice it is!

As for my health: I had to refuse (beg, actually) being declared unfit to work, no matter my blood sugar and blood pressure levels, because I have an important deadline and - at the moment - am absolutely indispensable (I know, cemeteries are full of those, but I am still standing... well, sitting ;-)), so I made some accommodations in my work schedule.

Instead of the regular 9-12 hours straight at my desk I now shall work in the morning (3-4 hours, till I get tired) then exercise (swim, walk), eat, rest, ( a total of 2.5-3 hrs), work again... (3-4 hours, or till I get tired) and so da capo al fine till the work planned for the day is done and I am still feeling ok. Hopefully that way I'll be well and the work will get done. :-)
Wish me luck... if you feel so inclined ;-)

Boy, am I bitchy today!

2008-09-26T13:57:00.012-04:00

Yeah, that's right: bitchy... No, it is not a misspelling of beachy... I feel far from beachy today....

I feel, I feel... almost as disgusted as my profile portrait ;-)!

You see: my stomach hurts. A lot! For a few days now and alka seltzer, pink soup and even immodium seem not to make it better. So I need to find a doctor and make an appointment.

My real estate agent, Aida Martinez, (AIM Realty), who is a local Cabo Rojan, and a very nice person, recommended two. I call, ask if the receptionist speaks English... and hear no.

(I am surprised. Just a moment ago I called a local vet to make an appointment for my cat and the vet's assistant spoke decent English. While the doctor's assistant doesn't. Is it because most people who take care of pets here are English speakers... and the vet would not make any money catering to Spanish speakers only??? Told you I was feeling particularly bitchy today...)

She does not even try. Nor does she utter a polite disclaimer " I am sorry" or "lo siento". (And SHE is an American citizen, while I am not! The b... word again...) She just says "no".
Yet, instead of deciding right then and there to end this attempt at conversation, I do try my Spanish.

I explain that my stomach hurts and I need an appointment. ("Yo tengo mucho dolor de estomago y necessito pronto una cita con doctor ..."). She asks my name, tells me October 2nd and asks what kind of plan I have. All in Spanish, but that much I understand.

I have a stomach pain now and she tells me to come a week from now? And without specifying an hour? Or telling me the address? So I ask ... and she gets irritated and speaks now in this rapid fire Boricua, which to me is almost totally incomprehensible.. it does not even resemble the Spanish Spanish I know a bit of. Sigh...

I ask her to speak slower, she speaks even faster. And this only about specifying time and address. And keeps asking about my insurance and telling me "no". I tell her, don't worry, no se preocupe, knowing I am unable to explain to her that my "plan" will pay for any doctor's fees, but she tells me "no".

A rude, obstinate idiot, who should never be allowed to work with people. What kind of a doctor, I think, hires such a stupid bitch as his assistant?

Do I want to see such a doctor? I decide I do not want - let me rather die of stomach pain : he should have had enough sense to hire someone more educated and nicer. (Unless she is his wife... or lover... but then I definitively do not want to see him: the guy's judgement can't be trusted!) So I throw the receiver down in frustration.

And then I laugh at myself: why am I not mad at myself for not knowing adequate amount Boricua? Good question. Perhaps I am getting too old to learn effectively?
I did not have a problem in communicating in Spanish with medical support staff in Spain... they often do not speak English in the public medical system there either (but private doctor's assistants did), but they at least spoke Spanish, slowly, distinctly, like to a foreigner... ;-)

My stomach hurts... a lot... and I am sick of Puerto Rico... again (yesterday I dealt with car licence... don't get me started!!!!) and I want back to a civilized country: be it USA (which is not quite civilized, either, but at least medical staff there knows how to behave... and speaks English), be it even Spain... anything, ANY COUNTRY would be more logical and better organized than Puerto Rico!!!

Told you I was particularly b...y today, didn't I???

Cabo Rojo got floooooooooded!

2008-09-24T16:55:00.004-04:00

Yesterday driving to work on small roads I absentmindedly drove into a waterfloded part of rd 311. First when I was in about the middle of it and the water pushed by my car created a fountain over its mask I got slightly scared thinking "I should not have done it"... especially that my Mazda is really low. I remembered, though, to push steadily, do not stop and do not drive too fast. Uff, I made it! But a few hundred meters furtehr down the road I noticed an even bigger, scarier looking flood over the road and three cars, including 2 pickups turning away. So I turned away, too. I followed the other cars through a maze of narrow village paths and got to a major road.
And now in El Nuevo Dia I see what the part of rt 311 that I did not attempt to cross looked like (see picture 29) from the other side ! Boy, am I glad I did not attempt to drive through it!