An awesome thing about being back in the States is excellent doctors with excellent medical facilities. A less awesome thing about being back in the States is that our (AMAZING) GP is up in MD near my parents’ place, and we’re down here in NoVa with no car.

We’ve been taking the kids to the Crystal City Xpress Urgent Care for minor aches and pains and illnesses. They’re pretty much awful (think about the worst attitude a doctor ever gave you in West Africa, now give it an American accent and a clean waiting room). UGH.

Grace has had terrible digestive problems for the past week or so, and Xpress finally just threw up their hands and told Bertrand to take her to the hospital to “get some labs done.” They wouldn’t give him orders, and in fact, wouldn’t even look at her. They just told him to take her to Virginia Hospital Center, and find a doctor there.

So that’s what we did.

We ended up in the ER because where else do you go at a hospital if you’re not there to see a specific doctor? Everyone there was very understanding about the situation, including the fact that we felt damn foolish for being there. And everyone was like, “Hey! Get a damn local pediatrician.” Which we were going to do this week anyway, and we are now … doing this week anyway.

Sigh.

Bertrand and I are exhausted because hospitals are stressful, even when you know that your kid’s OK.

Grace is fine.

For Lent, I am giving up negativity.

I like my job. I like my apartment. I like my colleagues and their families. I love my own family. I’m happy with my progress both improving my health and remembering to just breathe. So why do I complain all the time? Why do I qualify my positive statements with caveats and warnings? Why don’t I always talk about the best in people?

It’s too easy to just bitch these days, instead of focusing on all of the awesome in my life. And I’m a little tired of it.

For the next forty days, just call me Pollyanna.

Actually, don’t.

Our first week of language training has been hard. Really hard. I get up bright and early to shower and dress. Then I wake up Bertrand. While he’s enjoying his morning ablutions, I make my lunch, get all of the kids’ stuff out, and study for half an hour. Once we’re both up and running, I wake up the kids, and we begin the hour long process of feeding them and getting them ready for school.

Then we spend all day at FSI, studying, going to class, going to lab, studying while we eat, going to class, and studying some more. And I run to the daycare to nurse at lunch, and pump during breaks. After class, we study for a short while, then pick up the kids to head home.

At home, Bertrand and I switch off on the kids while I make dinner, he picks up the house, and we both get the kids ready for bed. Once I get Jasmine to sleep, I’m usually ready to crash myself.  The good news is that Grace is sleeping through the night. The bad news is that Jasmine usually doesn’t.

Needless to say, we are both at the end of our rope, and we’re not even done the first week yet. My fervent hope is that once we’re done with the three week introductory class, we’ll be onto the regular block language schedule, and will be able to fit quite a bit more study time into our days. Or at least, some alone time. Language class isn’t going to get any easier, but I HOPE that we’ll be able to figure out a better routine as time goes on.

So it goes.

It’s great to be settled in an apartment where we’ll be for the next nine months. It’s great to have Costco next door. It’s great to have friends in the building. And it’s SO GREAT to be able to order groceries online.

We’ll figure out the rest as we go alone.

Because we have and we are.

DC is wonderpants!

It’s good to be home. Even better to be on the road again. We Sondjos are spending the week in Seattle saying hi to friends long lost, and beginning our quest to get to know the rest of America. Home Leave is a cash sink, and we figure that as long as we’re burning money, we might as well do it in interesting places we wouldn’t otherwise get a chance to visit.

After an adventure with rescheduled flights, we finally made it here, and we’ve been living it up, PNW-style (that means in fleeces and boots, apparently). Yesterday, we met up with a dear friend from my days in Benin, and explored Fremont.

Here’s Jasmine with the Fremont Troll, as she realizes that it’s a face, not just a rock formation.

This morning, we got up bright and early to head to Pike Place Market! Bertrand bought a pound of dates (best paleo snack EVER). They were rich and creamy and sweet and delicious.

After browsing the artisanal goods at the market, we headed down to the waterfront to eat. We were exhausted, and didn’t really feel like sitting down to fine dining with the kids, so we headed to Ivar’s Fish Bar. It was a great choice. Informal. Delicious. And lots of opportunities for Jasmine to feed birds.

Jasmine had a great time watching fish, touching fish, running around like a maniac, and generally having a very good time at the Seattle Aquarium.

Our last stop of the day was Starbucks to visit one of my postmates from Peace Corps. It’s amazing how much some things change, and others stay the same. After she woke up from her nap, Jasmine begged us for milk, and here she is, finally satisfied. That was the end of grown-up conversation, and pretty much the end of our first whole day out in Seattle.

You might be asking yourself why there aren’t any photos of Grace. Since we don’t (yet) have a double stroller, I spent the day baby wearing. Since I also wield the camera, Grace wasn’t in a lot of shots. I’ll fix that for tomorrow. ;)