A Trip Back "Home"

Yes, we are horrible bloggers we know... This is actually P.J. this time. Usually Lizzy writes most of the blogs (She is more gifted at it than I), but I have chosen to write one to hopefully inspire/shame Lizzy to write more often. Although it is a weak excuse, our new work has kept us quite busy the last few weeks.

Since our last blog in April so much has happened. We made a trip "home" to the last city we lived. A place that we grew very fond of and have people we consider family living in it. It was much anticipated and enjoyed greatly, but at the end of two weeks, we were ready to return to our new home. That is a good sign of our adjustment.

Our old home had many benefits like fairly constant electricity, fast internet connections, good water supply, and wonderful tastes of home like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and KFC, not to mention some truly world class restaurants. Our new home tends not to have things like electricity, fast internet (or internet at all sometimes), water, or anything at all resembling KFC (We do have good Mexican food though... something we couldn't find before). All those things aside there are benefits to our new home. The population here is much smaller, which means life here is much quieter, more friendly, and generally nicer to live in. It is much cooler here with temperatures peaking in the low 90's and generally never leaving the 80's as opposed to months spent in the upper 90's or even crossing that dreaded 100 degree mark. If you have ever laid eyes on me, you will know my body was not meant for temperatures such as those. The natural beauty here is incredible. We have extremely noisy screech owls, little green parrots, and real cuckoo birds sharing the tree outside our living room window! The city has climbing vines covering many of its walls that blossom with many different colored flowers. All this is framed by the gorgeous, snow-covered mountains we can see on clear days.

So we love our new home, as we have loved this country for the past 9 years. There are definitely many unlovable things about it, but we love it anyway. Living in a different country is always a challenge, but we try our best to focus on the positive aspects of our new country, and there are many. Of course, if asked what is the best part about living here, we would answer "the people." They are among some of the most warm-hearted, loving people we've ever met, and that's saying a lot!