Friday, November 4, 2011

The toilet paper countdown has begun!


Now that I'm not spending indecent amounts of time attempting to write in Spanish, we've turned our attention to other pressing matters. Such as this morning's discussion regarding how much toilet paper we will use up before we leave! Should I buy more and how much more? Such are the existential debates happening at the Prince-Johansson household these days.

Yep, it's time. We are in our last stage here. We can all feel it. We counted and I think we only have 6 or 7 weekends left! Last week I contacted the kids' principal back at home and confirmed our post-winter break arrival. The kids have just a little over a month of school left here before summer break.

Our friend Jenny asked me about how it feels to be winding down. As you would expect, it's a mix of feelings. We're starting to get excited about returning, especially about seeing family and friends. We talked with some of the kids' friends back home on skype the other week and it was pretty fun. I can't wait to have a clothes dryer again. Towels without that damp smell!!! Very exciting. And when tough stuff happens now, its okay since we know its time limited.

But of course, we won't have the ocean out our window and the streets won't be owned by the pedestrians. We'll probably quickly fall back into the busyness of it all and we'll have to get into a car again. I'll miss doing mosaics each week and in particular the fun, women's banter that accompanies each class. Instead I'll need to find job again. I'll miss walking the kids to school each day and chatting with Maria Magal, our newspaper vendor each trip up and down the hill. We've made some good friends here. People who generously made room for us in their lives' knowing that we would only be here for the year. It'll be hard to say goodbye.

And I'm guessing we'll miss a whole lot of other things that we probably won't realize until we're back in the snowy tundra.

So anyways, you're invited to enter the toilet paper countdown pool! Send your guesses and maybe we'll buy a pisco sour for the winner. :-)

Ciao,
Laura

5 comments:

  1. Well, I don't have mixed feelings about your return--I'm pleased and excited! My guess on the toilet paper count is 14 rolls. I'd love a pisco sour--win or lose.:)

    Love, Mary

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  2. What in the world is a pisco sour? Is it a drink of some sort? It doesn't sound all that appetizing.

    The name reminds me of the story of the two Irishmen in New York who were out drinking very heavily on New Year's Eve. As midnight approached, the two of them decided that it would be a good idea to go to midnight mass, so they staggered off into the night in search of a Catholic church. They pulled up in front of a massive hospital building that they mistook for a church, and they went up the steps and into the vestibule. There in the vestibule, on a handy ledge, some orderly or nurse had temporarily put down a bedpan, and one of the men, thinking it was a holy water container, dipped the fingers of his right hand into it and crossed himself. Sniffing his fingers, he turned to his friend and said, "Mike, I think we're in the wrong church. I think it's Episcopalian."

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  3. Let see!!!! knowing that toilet paper does not last very long here in the States or in Chile I think you are going to have to buy one more roll!!!. I'll be expecting my pisco sour mmmmmmmmm...so happy that the experience you had in my country was overall a good one and hope you keep in contact with your blog. You and your family are an amazing family.

    Maria B. (Cambridge, MA)

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  4. Dear Maria, Thanks so much for joining in on the blog. It's been fun having you as a regular reader. I don't have your e-mail address, so I hope you get this reply and maybe sometime when you are in Minneapolis or we make it to Boston we can grab that pisco sour! :-)
    Laura

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  5. Thanks Laura I do hope I get to meet you and your children. My email is mariagbon@gmail.com and we live in Cambridge, MA which is a fantastic city to live in my children are 10 and 14 I am married to a Salvadorian so as you can see we are a diverse family, with a big Chilean and Salvadorian heart!!!!. I forgot to mention that my family is in Santiago and although we were there last year we wish to go back soon but it is so hard with the kids schedule from school, we do love pan calientito todas las mananas y compartir con nuestra familia y que mis hijos sientan lo que es tener abuelos y primos cerca. I look forward to that pisco sour or maybe cola de mono para Navidad. I don't have your email so it would be great if we keep in contact.

    Maria B. (cambridge, MA)

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