In my quest to catch you up on what's happening here in Bogota, here is an early morning post to fill you in on Sunday's happenings. Robert & Juancho just left for the passport office with Mario. They will get Juancho's passport and will confirm our reservations for Thursday. Then they'll come back and have lunch with us. After lunch we all head to doctors appointments at the US Embassy! I'll let you know how the day goes tonight!
Yesterday we did another market day to finish our Christmas shopping for the year. We went to Usaquen - the same market as last week. It is a great large marketplace and we were able to get most of our shopping done there! After Usaquen, we walked to the nearby Santa Barbara mall, which is a very cool half outdoor mall with a lot of character. We looked in some of the shops there and then stopped for lunch. We went to a Mexican restaurant with Juancho & Laura (Angie stayed home with the babysitter, since there was a lot of walking...). The restaurant didn't have a kids menu, but the waitress told me the taco plate and burrito plate were the smallest. So I asked Juancho & Laura if they would rather have a taco or a burrito. They looked at me strangely and asked 'what is a taco?' and 'what is a burrito?'! It seemed so strange to me that two children who had grown up in a Latino culture didn't know what a taco and a burrito is! But truly, the food is quite different in Colombia than you'd find in Mexico. We ended up ordering Nachos and a Quesadilla instead...but they weren't big fans of either. Weird kids. :)
Before we left in the morning, we felt that it was important to review our Family Rules List on our door, since Saturday night saw a few meltdowns and we wanted to prevent more on our Sunday outing. Both kids did great during the morning market time...but Juancho had trouble at lunch. He was given a number of chances to change his behavior, and was told he would have to stay home for the afternoon if he did not change his behavior. He chose not to change his behavior, so after lunch we took a taxi home to drop off Juancho with Angie and the babysitter. Since Laura was behaving well and responded to the things we had asked of her, she was able to come with to the afternoon market at La Fontana.
La Fontana is a fancy hotel that has a Sunday market each week. There were a number of upscale items for sale and quality handicrafts. We purchased a handpainted photo scrapbook with a Colombia scene on the front. We had them add our family name "La Familia Dressel" and the year. We plan to use this to document our trip to receive our children. (So girls...let me know anytime there is another 'Scrapbooking Day' being planned!)
After La Fontana, Laura, Robert and I walked back to our residencia. For dinner, we and Sarah (along with Diana and Jamie) went to TGI Fridays for dinner! It was great to have some familiar food, be in a place where the menu was (mostly) in English, and American music was being played! The kids all did pretty well at dinner, with a few reminders of the rules. Afterwards we walked through a large nearby park that was completely decorated for Christmas with a large Christmas tree, a large Nativity set depicting the whole town of Bethlehem. Every tree in the park was also decked out with lights, glowing stars and large Christmas balls. It was gorgeous! It was packed out with people too...so much fun! The most Christmas spirit I've had yet...it's kinda tough to think Christmas when there is no snow or cold weather! We know we will get that soon enough though!
Here's a couple pics from today...T- minus 3.5 days to Homecoming! See you soon!
Love, The Dressel Familia!
Street Performers are commonplace in Bogota. At red lights they come out and perform, and just before the light turns green, they walk along asking for donations from drivers. Performers range from children doing backflips to intense performers like these three men balancing on each others shoulders and juggling sticks lit on fire!
On our way to the Usaquen market we walked through a little park that had a Christmas tree decorated with Coca Cola bottles and had the Coca Cola polar bears on display too. Juancho & Laura just had to be photographed with the bears!
Robert and Laura outside of the La Fontana Hotel. There was a small market held in the indoor courtyard
1 comment:
The Dressels are coming the Dressels are coming! I am so excited to have you all HOME in just a few short days!!! I would love to see you all, so when you're up for it, give the Hawks a call and we'll stop by...we'll even bring food! :)
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