What's the Story Here?

So, this graffiti showed up a few days ago down the street from our neighborhood, and I can't help but wonder about it every time I go by.  For those who don't speak Spanish, it reads, "TM, forgive me!  I love you!"  Here's what I have deduced so far.  A teenage boy had to have written this (in your head, can you picture any other type of person doing this?).  So more than likely, TM is a teenage girl.  For simplicity sake, we'll call her Teresa Maria.  As for the person who wrote this, we'll call him Carlos.

But that's where the questions really begin.  What did Carlos do?  How long have he and Teresa Maria been together?  What could have happened between them?  Why did Carlos write on this particular wall?  Does Teresa Maria walk by here every day?  Is that her house behind the cement wall?  If so, did Teresa Maria's dad kill Carlos when he discovered what Carlos did?  Did Teresa Maria forgive Carlos?  Is there still hope for young love in a tough town like Juarez?!?

I'll let you know if I find any answers in the weeks to come.  But perhaps it's for the best if I remain in the dark.  In my mind,  I can imagine Teresa Maria and Carlos together again, walking past this wall hand in hand.  Perhaps it's better to never know...     

Food Alert: Put Avocados on Everything

Hola, everybody.  As you can guess here in the borderland, avocados are everywhere.  Not only that, they are also dirt cheap.  Every restaurant here has some form of guacamole.  If you order soup, it comes with a side of avocado.  If you ask for sauce on your taquitos, they'll drench them with some sort of avocado-sour cream concoction.  You cannot escape the avocado.

Which is why Sarah and I now eat avocados on absolutely everything; tacos, salad, as a side dish all by itself, and most recently, on hamburgers.  I know this isn't exactly ground-breaking culinary advice, but YOU SHOULD PUT AVOCADOS ON YOUR BURGER.  It is delicious, and it goes great with bacon, cheese, and BBQ sauce.  Put avocados on everything.  You won't be disappointed. 

Still Bakin'

Greetings from Ciudad Juarez!  Sorry I haven't posted anything since we have arrived.  It has been crazy ever since we arrived; getting to know the city, learning to do my job, speaking Spanish with everyone, getting things situated in our home, getting ready for the baby, and so on. 

Living in Juarez is definitely an adjustment, but we're making the most of it.  There are wonderful people, great coworkers, delicious food, and a lot of other advantages to being in this border city.  But I'm sure many of you are thinking to yourselves, "That's great, Ryan, but we don't care about you.  How's Sarah doing?"  Sarah is thriving as always, hoping to start a new job at the Consulate in a month or two.  In the meantime, she's keeping herself busy in other ways.  Plus, she just entered her third trimester like a champ!

Our little man (name to be determined) is doing well.  We will have our last ultrasound in a couple of days, and then we just wait a few more months for his arrival (still scheduled for early September).

Furthermore, Sarah is quickly establishing her reputation as the best baker in Latin America.  Despite our limited number of baking tools (most of our stuff has yet to arrive), she's already made sugar cookies, homemade Oreos, brownies, and these amazing chocolate cakes she whipped up for the Consulate Bake Sale.  Never change, Sarah.  Never stop baking treats for me to eat.

I've added a few more posts to get you up to speed on life down here in Juarez.  Please keep on reading! 

Viva Los Indios!

 

A couple weeks after our arrival in Ciudad Juarez, I had the opportunity to attend a local minor league baseball game here in Juarez.  They have a brand new stadium sponsored by Tecate beer, and the team is doing pretty well.  We got to see the Juarez Indios (Indians) take on the Cuahtemoc Manzaneros (Apple-Men).  We won 4-0, in case you're looking to pick up some new players for your Chihuahua minor league fantasy baseball team.  

 

I took advantage of the low prices to have quite the evening.  My tickets behind home plate, an Indios t-shirt, a snow cone, a sandwich, and a bottle of water came to a grand total of $18.  Not bad.

On the border you'll find plenty of places selling tortas, which are essentially just sandwiches.  Start with a delicious, soft roll, add some guacamole on both slices, then add some steak and grilled onions, and you've got yourself a torta.  Don't forget the roasted jalapeno pepper, which comes on just about everything down here.  Yes, I got violently ill two days later, but who's to say what was the cause of that. 

Home At Last

After settling into our new home down here in Juarez, we were able to enjoy our first dinner at the new place, a great big bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and a glass of water.  Not very exciting, but after a week in the car, a simple bowl of cereal sounded great.  Thankfully, most posts around the world offer a "welcome kit" of pillows, blankets, silverware, plates, etc., to make you somewhat comfortable while you wait for your stuff to arrive.

Which brings me to another interesting part of foreign service life; waiting for your belongings to get through customs.  Generally, all of your stuff is packed up into three separate categories: (1) what you can carry with you, (2) your unaccompanied air baggage (UAB), and (3) your household effects (HHE).

First, you pack the things you want to have with you the moment you arrive, such as clothing, a couple of suits, and maybe some basic kitchen items.  We were fortunate in that we were driving to our first post, which meant we could completely fill our car with as much stuff as possible.  Most people flying to their first assignment only have their suitcases. 

Second, your UAB arrives about ten days after your arrival at post.  A family of two people is given about 400 pounds of cargo that will be flown to your new home, which meant Sarah and I had to spend some time before we left Arlington deciding whether to pack the vaccuum, extra clothes, or whatever we wanted to arrive in the speedy UAB delivery.

Finally, your HHE arrives, or at least it's supposed to.  I say that because Sarah and I have been in CJ for about a month and a half, but our HHE shipment has yet to clear customs.  This is to be expected, but it is still a bit frustrating, since we live in a giant three-bedroom house with no pictures on the walls, no rugs on the floor, and only a fraction of our clothes.  But we have faith that the rest of our stuff will arrive someday.  Until then, I'll be wearing the same seven ties to work.

Road Trip Across America

Hey folks, sorry to be a bit late posting this, but here are a few pictures from our recent road trip across America.  Sarah and I decided to stretch our journey to Ciudad Juarez out a few days by driving through the Southern United States, instead of the more direct route across Tennessee and Oklahoma. 

DAY 1: Arlington, VA - Savannah, GA

We began our journey by driving down the Atlantic coast all the way to Georgia.  We stopped in Fayetteville, NC, to get some true Carolina BBQ at a place called The BBQ Hut.  Basically, it's a hut that sells BBQ.  They may have looked at me like I was completely insane when I tried to pay with a credit card, but they cooked a mean pulled pork.   

 

It's quite a drive down to Savannah (almost 9 hours), but we still managed to get out and walk around the city a bit before bedtime.  Downtown Savannah is fascinating, and I convinced Sarah to go with me on a ghost walk tour around the city.  Apparently, Savannah is the most haunted place in America (according to people who apparently vote on that), so we got to see a haunted restaurant, a haunted CVS, and so forth.  Pretty entertaining.

Perhaps most haunting of all, however, was wandering down a street only to come face to face with the Juarez Mexican Restaurant.  Hopefully, this was a good omen.  Needless to say, we ended up eating at Paula Deen's restaurant instead.

DAY 2: Savannah, GA - Birmingham, AL

After a decidedly uneventful (in other words, non-haunted) night of sleep, Sarah and I packed up early to continue our journey.  But not before stopping in the world-famous Bonaventure Cemetery. 

Most people recognize it from the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," and it is an amazing place filled with creepy Spanish moss, decaying gravestones, and other weird stuff.

We continued our trek onward toward Atlanta, where we stopped at Sarah's own, personal Disneyland; the World of Coca-Cola.  The museum itself is pretty entertaining, but best of all, at the end of the tour, you get to try odd Coca-Cola products from around the world, over 60 in total.  India and Bangladesh had some interesting flavors, but according to Sarah, it doesn't get any better than the original.

After that, we made our way into Alabama, stopping for dinner at the Irondale Cafe, which was the inspiration for the book "Fried Green Tomatoes."  Yes, we had the fried green tomatoes, and yes, they were delicious.

DAYS 3-5: Birmingham, AL - New Orleans, LA

On our third day of driving, we left Alabama, drove through Mississippi, and made our way to New Orleans.  It is a weird and fascinating place.  Perhaps it doesn't hold quite the allure for us as it does others, since we don't generally drink and party all night, but we still had a lot of fun.

We spent a lot of time touring the French Quarter, and had some absolutely amazing meals, with everything from gumbo to pork cracklins' to fried fish.  We also spent some time touring other areas, including the Garden District a bit further west of the downtown area.

We, of course, stopped for beignets and the world-famous Cafe du Monde.  I don't know if they used to sell actual food, but at this point their entire menu consists of beignets, coffee, and hot chocolate.  I tried to convince Sarah we should eat here every night, but sadly, she had my welfare and the welfare of my arteries in mind, so once was enough.

New Orleans is also home to some other fascinating attractions, such as Jackson Square (above), the National D-Day and WWII Museum, and a pretty fantastic aquarium.  We had a great weekend there, plus, it was nice to be out of the car for a few days.

DAY 6: New Orleans, LA - San Antonio, TX

After the weekend, we got back in the car and made our way across the great state of Texas.  Texas is 836 miles across, which means it takes an entire day of driving just to get halfway.  We opted to stop in San Antonio, primarily because I wanted to see the Alamo, which was pretty cool.

San Antonio is also famous for its riverwalk area downtown.  Unfortunately, Sarah was feeling a bit under the weather (perhaps as a result of too much beignets, pralines, crawfish, and pregnancy), so we stayed in that night.

DAY 7: San Antonio, TX - Ciudad Juarez, MX

Finally, the fateful day arrived, and we began the last leg of our journey across the border.  You may be wondering why I don't have any pictures for this last day, and that is because there is absolutely NOTHING to see in West Texas.  I've driven a lot in the US, and this has to be the most desolate place I have ever been to.  Eight hours and 400 miles later, we arrived in El Paso, met our contact from the U.S. Consulate, and made our way to our new home south of the border.  Bienvenidos!