An empty family room=large play area for kids
My household goods either arrived in this week's barge or will be here in the next one, about 2 more weeks. No, in the grand scheme of things that's not really a long time but I guess when you're in the middle of things it feels like an eternity.
Internet is slow and many of the programs I enjoyed, i.e. Hulu.com and any video streaming program, are blocked due to the limited bandwidth. We need to purchase calling cards to call home or risk paying $5 per minute. Cable TV - well we get very few channels and having come from the world of DVRs, it is sort of annoying that I can't pause a show to answer the phone or get the door. So if you want to watch something, plan to be there on time.
On the bright side - because there's always a bright side :-)
Getting calling cards is really not an issue. They have those machines all over the place and you can get $5, $10, $20 cards and costs only 0.9 cents a minute to call the states and only a little more to call the Dominican Republic. They have become part of my grocery list so I always have one handy. No more three hour chats over the phone=more time to play.
TV and Cable -- well we didn't always have a DVR so yes we were spoiled but again if we really want to watch something we plan for it, if not then we have more time to play outdoors and play family games. It's amazing what how spoiled we are and how much we take those things for granted. I remember becoming annoyed when the Internet back home was slow for no good reason - it was never as slow as it can be here during peak hours. So we plan when we go online and never spend as much time on it as we used to.
The best stories are in the books we're reading - no slow Internet, no power outage, can stop and start at will--a book is much more fun.
Finally the kids - because the house is empty, they can ride the tricycle indoors if it's too hot outside!! That is a lot of fun and according to them, pretty cool!!
'till next time!
Terie
