First of all, I want to wish my awesome Lucianito an equally awesome birthday - little guy turned 3 on Sunday! It feels like yesterday I held him at the hospital, scared out of my wits because I wasn't good with babies! 3 years later I'm here, thousands of miles away - Tía loves you, little dude, send me pics of you in the outfit Abuelo Carlos and I sent :)
I haven't written much because a) I've been busy and b) I've been overwhelmed with this new country and all - I owe you all so many stories and pictures it's not even funny, and I have no excuse for slacking off in this manner, no excuse at all!
For shame, Nati, for shame!
Btw, everybody calls me Nati here...well, except for my grandma, who insists on calling me Natalí hehehehe.
So a lot has happened in the past few weeks, mostly linked to the pizzería - my first two weeks were all about helping get the place ready, then preparing for the grand opening, then recovering from the opening, and freezing my butt off (no joke, it got down to a cozy 25-30 degrees or so on lots of nights, and that's just not acceptable because I'm used to California weather).
I'm getting used to how things work here ("hurry up and wait" is like a way of life here, I tell you, and it drives me a little batty). I've also started to walk a bit, getting to know my way around the neighborhood (and getting a bit of exercise in), since the weather has started cooperating.
When dad's busy at the pizzeria I take off on little excursions of my own, even if it's only to run an errand - I like to get as much walking in as I can, what with all the irresistibly delicious food to be had around these parts! I'm also going to Zumba twice a week - it's so fun! I'd honestly forgotten how much I love dancing, and it's the best exercise!
Other than my walking around and going to dance class, I've done the menu for the pizzería (which was meant to be a temporary one but everyone liked it so much I guess they're keeping it), plus two different flyers...the second one is pretty awesome, I get to go pick it up tomorrow, yay! I'll try to get a pic of it to share with you all! And, of course, there was paperwork to do - which means reconciling a million receipts to turn over to the accountants...I'm not complaining, it gives me something to do :)
Alright, darlings, methinks you are all owed a ton of pictures, so I'll get to that - mostly random stuff I didn't include in my frst posts, but I have a few newer ones I'll post later that I took with the iphone...
Enjoy!
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| Supermercado El Nene - this is where dad and I do most of our shopping for the house...well, we did, til we found the equivalent of Costco |
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| There are roughly 873 varieties of salami here...and cheeeeese...so much cheeeeeese! |
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| Barfy hamburger patties...we didn't buy any of these... |
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| Most pics of dad are papparazzi style... |
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| Before Río got its own espresso machine, I went to the bakery across the street - they give you these beauties free when you order a coffee there...lovely! |
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| Same bakery where I would grab coffee - so many tempting morsels, no? |
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| Yummy carb goodness! |
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| Tarts! |
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| Cookie things and more tarts...I assume they are delicious, but I didn't try them...they're too pretty! |
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| This is a pub downtown that I intend to visit again as soon as possible! |
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| So much HAM! |
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| Sorry, I didn't flip this pic - but this is the little palm tree I bought for dad for the pizzería's opening, and I signed the card "From California with love" - it's from all of us! |
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| Grandma, Dad, and my fave gals evarr! The girl in the black shirt is dad's bank teller and that's her gf. Best people to hang out with the whole night of the opening! |
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| Family shot with dad, grandma and my uncle...finally, I have the least puffy eyes! |
I have more Pics and things to share, but I'll leave you with these for tonight, darlings..it's 2:30 a.m. and I believe I need to get to bed!
I miss you all so so much but I'm having a great time here and I will post more often now that things are somewhat normal around here.
Normal is a relative term...come on, look at the family pic above...hehehehehe.
If you Skype, please find me: natalia.r13
Hoping it doesn't rain tomorrow and that spring finally decides to show her pretty face.
Signing off with a million kisses, my darlings!
Xox
