Puerto Rico, Day 1

So much has happened in the last few days that I don't even know where to start. Also, I have no Internet access as I type this so I can't even check to see when I last posted.

We spent our last couple of days at our neighbors house. They were gone and it was so nice of them to share their home with us. We spent most of our time running last minute errands. The car got sold, Joe got his award, the house got cleaned, we said goodbye to our friends and this morning, we left for the airport at 4:50am.

The flights were uneventful. Ellie fussed for about 20 minutes on the second flight (and bit me really hard while nursing. No permanent marks, but my nipple is red and sore). She then fell asleep for the last hour or so and so did I. Puerto Rico so far reminds me of the other places I've been in South/Central America. Lots of bars and fences, sort of hot and dusty, but with lots of American stuff so it doesn't seem too far away. We are planning on going to a bit tourist-type resort this weekend, but for now, we have decided to stay on Ft. Buchanan.

Since everything Joe has to do is here, we decided to stay here for now. I think they are full over the weekend, but that will work well with our other plan (because if they are full, the Army might pay more than normal for a hotel). Coming on this base, it feels like home. Although I usually complain about how similar Army bases are, when you are just showing up to a new places, the familiarity is comforting. The PX is just like the old PX at Bragg - same layout and everything. The stores are all the same - Baskin Robbins, Anthony's Pizza, Burger King, etc. We were out walking around at 5:00pm and retreat sounded, just like it always does. (Retreat is the name of the bugle call they do at 5:00 every day when they take down the flag. Everything on post stops for a minute or so while the call is sounded. People outside stop moving, the cars stop, etc. Retreat is intended to honor those who have died serving.) So, the familiarity means that I don't feel too far from home.

We have a few issues that have to be worked out. We want to live on post, but we aren't sure how much flexibility (how long we can wait and how much the Army will pay us) we have in choosing a house. There are major differences in houses and we want to be in the same place for at least three years. So it might be worth it to wait, even if that means three weeks in a hotel. Of course, if we choose to stay in a hotel longer, I'm not sure how long the Army will pay the bill. Also, there appears to be no high speed internet on post, although there may be DSL available. I would like to say dial-up is a dealbreaker for us when it comes to living here, but there are honestly so many nice things about being here. For example, there is a water park and the day care is maybe half a mile from our house. The bottom line is that we want to live on post but we still have a lot of issues to resolve.

The other thing we did today was stop by the daycare center. I'm actually really excited about the possibility of Ellie being at the daycare. We would have to pay for a full time spot, even if she was only going to be there for a few hours a day, but I guess that makes sense. Otherwise, I could bring her in on a space available basis, but that doesn't seem like it would work very well. They stay in the infant room until 15 months, so that would be three months for Ellie. They teach them to sit at a table and nap on little mats. I like the idea of her spending time with other kids and learning some of this stuff. Still, I get a little choked up at the idea of leaving her somewhere and I *know* she will hate it at first. Despite that, I think it's a good idea and I'm excited for her. So, once we are settled I'll start looking into that more. I *love* the fact that it would be so close to our house.

I guess that's all we did today. Joe is off getting us food for dinner. I'll post this once get access.

Water Spout

Ft. Buchanan has a really cool water park that I read about before we got here. Today I finally got to see it and it was just as cool as it sounded. There is a 0-2 ft. pool with giant sprinklers and a giant umbrella. Ellie had a great time running as fast as she could through the water. It ranged from knee to chest deep and she loved it. When she got tired of running around, we went to the "deep" section and she practiced jumping off the edge. She would stand on the edge, hold onto my fingers and walk/jump into the water. In all, we were there for an hour and she had a great time. Membership is only $50 for an active duty military family and we will be signing up the next time we go.

In housing news, things are still up in the air. There are two houses available in the next week. One is very close to the street. The rode actually curves around it, meaning that there is basically no safe lawn for a small toddler to play on. The other house looks okay from the outside. There is open space away from the road, but it is on a steep hill. It looks like it could work, but we need to check the inside. Walter's house (Walter works where Joe works but he's leaving) will be available at the end of the month. It has a flat, private lawn and a very large storage area. I would love to move in, but it would mean that we would have to stay in the hotel for most of the month of June (until at least the 28th, I think). This would be bearable, although not great, but we have to check to see if Ray would be able to keep our dogs that long. Also, we found out today that the cable company supposedly does provide highspeed cable internet access.

On the daycare front, Ellie is #2 on the list. I'm not sure what that means because there are also two openings in her room. I need to find out how much it will cost before we can decide whether or not we can afford to pay for a full time slot.

Puerto Rico, Day 3

Since there was no room for us on post this weekend, the Army was kind enough to book us a room at the Condado Hotel and Casino. The cool thing is that the Army pays all but $30 a night. We will be here 4-6 days.

Of course, since we aren't here on vacation, we've been admiring the views and the ocean but our main concern was hooking up the Internet. It costs $15 a day, but since the Internet didn't work in our first room and since it took 3 guys and 3 hours before they finally got us another room, Joe talked them into comping our Internet. Yay! And I brought the Airport Express, so it's wireless.

Other news...While our furniture will be here in 25 days or so, it will not clear customs for about a month. We expect to see our stuff around July 20th. While not ideal, this makes it a lot easier to wait for the house we want to become available. Currently, the plan is that we will be in a temp house with temp furniture sometime in the next two weeks or so. Once the house we want is cleared for new people, we move in there with the temp furniture until we get our own stuff. The dogs will be able to move into the temp house with us. I think Ellie and I will be spending a lot of time at the pool while we are homeless. No high speed internet, but it's supposed to be coming. Maybe in two months, but I'm not holding my breathe.

Somewhere in all this, I'd like to look for a job. I have absolutely no leads in that area, but I'm not looking very hard. There's just too much going on right now. We will try to enjoy our little vacation here and get back to the business of getting our lives settled when we go back to Buchanan.