What happened so far (English Version)

Almost two weeks are gone since I am in Cuyamungue (Santa Fe) in New Mexico.
I could not write earlier because our telephone line was broken and therefore we couldn’t use our dial-up internet connection.
Anyway, for those who are interested what my first days here have been, here comes my little diary from my arrival until New Years:

I safely arrived last Sunday the 24th at Albuquerque airport. Actually everything went fine and I did not stuck at Chicago airport as I thought (no delays either). Chicago’s airport is quite huge (as a friend already told me). I needed to change from terminal five to terminal one and I had to re-check my luggage, both in only 30 minutes. I thought I would never make it. I do not know why, but the flight from Munich to Chicago was almost 2 hours shorter, so I had enough time for changing terminals and re-check my luggage. A fast train connected between the terminals. Wow, I reached my terminal in less than ten minutes. That was much faster and a lot more comfortable than I thought.
The re-checking of my bag was fast, too. A security woman only scanned my two big bags with a hand-scanner-thing and that was all. No opening of my bags or waiting in line or so. Great. Just before my gate was the security check where the man already asked all the very important questions, like ‘did you pack your back’, ‘did someone asked you to put something in your bags’, ‘did you leave your bags alone’, ‘where are you going to in the States’ and questions about my relationship to Nathan. I already knew this little questionnaire from last year, so it was not a problem. After being a non-risk for the States, I could enter the security zone to my gate where I could sit down and wait for my plane’s boarding time. I was so tired that I almost fell asleep in my seat. There were many ugly and unpleasant people around. Many loud people near me who mostly also behaved weird. The first time that I doubted a little bit if the States is the right place for me. I thought, okay, you are in Chicago and still a few hours away from your goal-state. Let us wait and see.
Unfortunately, I was not very well in the flight between Chicago and Albuquerque. I got a headache from sleeping in a bad position and the pain got worse. I asked the Stewart for an aspirin but it already was too late. The headache turned into a migraine and so I ended up throwing up in the toilet. The rest of the flight I tried to sleep.

When I arrived at Albuquerque airport I put on my Santa hat (my red Christmas hat that I wear on the photo in the last blog post) so that my head is a little bit covered and Nathan would not see my too early. You know, I like surprises and little gags. After picking up my luggage, I went through the arrivals hall to look for Nathan. I looked around and then saw someone with a red Santa hat! Guess, who it was? Nathan. Funny. He had the same idea.
Then we drove home, to Cuyamungue, which belongs to Santa Fe, but is still 20 minutes from it and about an hour from Albuquerque.
The first thing I thought when we entered the one-room house was; it is beautiful and not too small at all. Yes, it is a nice colorful and cozy house with a brand new refrigerator, a new stove, and new bathroom utilities. It is all clean. I unpacked my stuff and amazingly could fit all of it into Nathan’s shelves and drawers.

On Monday (Christmas Day here), I started the day with my first real American nice delicious oatmeal since last year in Maine. I just love it! Nathan made it best as always. After breakfast, we opened some presents. We got so many presents that we stopped after one hour of unwrapping to do the rest at night after dinner. Instead, we went to the mountains to celebrate Christmas while having a picnic. Yay! We drove up to the mountains that are just around the corner. This was our picnic place with a great view: This was the first little snowman that we met and this was probably his big brother. The sun was very warm and we enjoyed the sunbeams warming up our faces. A beautiful day.
Back home Nathan made our Christmas dinner; baked chicken with sweet potatoes, zucchini and onions. Then we opened the rest of our presents.

Tuesday started not so well, because my skin on my whole body was itchy. I had an allergic reaction against something that we did not know what it was. First, we thought it must have been something from the bed, so we took all the sheets and blankets to the washing salon. Three loads and everything was hopefully clean enough. They do not have 30, 40, or 60-degree wash temperature here. You can only choose between cold, warm or hot, whatever that means. We did the hot wash and I hoped that it killed all dust-mites. Then we went on a little trip through the old town of Santa Fe (by car) to get an idea how it looks like. The roads are crazy here. It is quite small and twisty with lots of one-ways so that you easily get lost. The old town looked cozy, beautiful and seems to be a nice area to walk around and shop. The houses here are all the same color; terracotta or brown-red. Some houses really look like they have been saloons a long time ago ;o). We did some grocery shopping at my new favorite store Trader’s Joe (one of Nathan’s favorite shops here as well) and ate Mexican food at a place called BumbleBee’s (Tacos with black beans and rice).

Wednesday was another day of bad awakening because this time I felt that I have a bladder infection or something similar. Sigh. To be sure what it is exactly and to know if I need antibiotics we made an appointment at a women health center for the late afternoon. It was a funny experience at the doctor there. First, I had to fill out several papers with questions about everything you can think of. Starting with details to my person until questions if my intercourse is ok, if not what is wrong, and if family members suffer from HIV, alcoholism, or similar things…Well, the funniest thing was the line, where they asked me how I wish to be called. I wanted to write Missy Cola in there, ha-ha.
The doctor was very friendly. She could not exactly say what I have and wanted to do a medical examination, which would not cost extra (very nice!). Therefore, I had to jump on this women’s chair. The pads for the feet were covered with baking gloves and the doctor looked in my insides with a usual desk lamp! Unbelievable.
In the end, I had to pay 60 dollars less than we expected and the doctor gave us a pill roll with antibiotics for free. I did not need the pills yet, because I am all-good now. Whatever it was, I think it has gone.
We also went to a very nice teahouse in town to use the free (!) wireless internet there. You only need to purchase something to drink or to eat and you can use the internet. Great. I had a iced Thai coffee drink to that I was probably allergic, because later that day I was itchy on my body skin again. Sigh. A never-ending story.
Back at home, Nathan cooked dinner for us: ham roast with pineapple and kale. Very delicious! I never cooked kale (Gruenkohl) as a vegetable side dish with the whole leaves like salad. Very nice indeed.

Thursday and Friday Nathan went back to work and I stayed at home. We had an enormous snowstorm that brought us heaps of snow. Nathan came home earlier and said that his car was stuck in the snowy driveway at work. We were without a car, an horrible idea for an American or for someone (like us) who lives in the middle of nowhere *g*. Nathan was really pissed off, because there is no public transport around here and we were really stuck at our house with only a small (expensive) supermarket (closed during holidays) and a gas station 10 minutes by foot from us.

Saturday (Dec 30) we wanted to get the car from Nathan’s work and our kind landlords wanted to drive us there and help out. So we drove with 5 people in a small car through the snow storm to free Nathan’s car. It took us about half an hour to get there. We were stuck in the snow a few times and we had to shovel the car free. Good that we brought a snow shovel with us!
When we reached the place, Nathan felt his pockets and he must admit that he unfortunately forgot his car keys. It was a big laugh and our landlords wanted to go back and get the keys without a problem. Nathan felt uneasy about that but at last they persuaded him. So we went the long way back, slid into a huge pile of snow on the road side, shoveled, pushed the car, arrived at home, got the keys, found some snow chains, everyone back in the car and back to the work place. What a fun day. ;o)
To make the story short: we found the car like this: On the right front side the car was damaged. Nathan’s boss was there and he came out to say that he drove into his car.
We put on the snow chains. They fell of after 2 seconds of driving. Nathan tried to drive up the hilly exit of the parking lot from his work, but he always slid backwards. After a lot of pushing, forward, backward, poor car, Nathan’s boss came out and offered his help to pull his car out with his snow truck. After a few seconds, Nathan’s car was back on the road. We drove back home. Unfortunately, there was a leek in the power steering now.

The following days between working and free days Nathan tried to repair his car by himself. He needed a little piece new but only the official Volvo place in Santa Fe could give him the piece for $ 52. Nathan called different places, talked to his dad in Maine and engineers there, but it seems that we need to get this part from the Volvo place. Therefore, we ordered it and next Monday we can go get it. We could not use the car since December 29, but it will be fixed next week hopefully.
Luckily, Nathan’s boss lent him on of his cars at the beginning of January, so we were able to drive to buy groceries and that stuff, but we were not allowed to drive into Santa Fe with it.

My notes from the first days in Santa Fe end here. It all sounds like we had some pretty stressful days, indeed we had, but still I am happy to be here. However, Nathan is annoyed with Santa Fe and its unforeseen problems that happen all the time, the expensive life here, his weird boss who gets on his nerves all the time, and so on. I know we will not live here forever, but men seem to give up earlier than women, don’t they?

To be continued….

One request: Please look in my current poll for my new blog name, there are only two possible names left. Please vote (again). Thanks in advance! Go to the poll, here…

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