Foreign-land-ia?

I am hoping that my blogging will become a bit more prolific now that I have....INTERNET AT HOME!!! Pictures are still on their way, I apologize. Baby steps.


So....what's to tell....I went to church for the first time last Sunday. It was neat! There is an LDS chapel and an LDS temple as well, not too far from where I live. The people there were really nice, and were all really surprised when I said I was staying for a couple of years, not just a couple of days.

And everyone at work has been great too. There are definitely some hardships here (i.e. difficult to get an i.d. card, therefore difficult to get your shipments/car here, and difficult to exchange money). So there's this wonderful sense of "we've all been there, let us help you out." I can't tell you how many people have offered me rides and money. Accepting over and over is killing me -- I can't wait till my car gets here and I can return the favor!

One last thought for you all. There was a "joke" I loved when I was little: "Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?" Well, I ask you: Why do we cook foreign food in America and American food in Foreign-land-ia? This hit me when I realized how often I cooked foreign food while living in the states, but every time I go abroad, I end up making American food. Rationally, it would be much easier to make each where their own ingredients are.

In Mexico, it was apple pies. My host family wanted me to bake an apple pie SO BADLY....so I made the first apple pie of my life. Three, actually. And they were pretty dang good. It only took me a couple of days to figure out what "shortening" was in Spanish, and to find it in a store. Manteca.

Here in Venezuela, it has been pretzels. Why start making pretzels now when for the past four years (after working at Auntie Anne's) I've been telling myself I should give them a shot at home? Go figure, but I made them for the embassy's "German Night." And now everyone is asking me for the recipe....wait, I guess pretzels are German, not American, so maybe this destroys my theory...but it still took my about 2 days longer here to find all the baking soda, yeast, and sugar (which I had to borrow from a neighbor, shortages, you know -- that will be my next blog post) than it would have in the states.

I'm sorry if you're still reading this, I'm kind of rambling. I think I missed having the internet too much. To sum up, I am having fun here, getting to know the wonders and quirks of Venezuela, and....if you have any questions, please comment and ask me! Then maybe my next post will be a little more focused.