Going through withdrawal.

Whew. We were without internet for 5 days and I don't think I could've made it another day! Ok, so it wasn't that bad, but I'm sure glad to be connected once again. Our modem went bad, so Brandon had to exchange it at work with a new one. The rep said it would take 3-4 days, but Brandon managed to get her moving in high gear (VERY unusual in the CR... the "high gear" part) and we got it in 1 day. Other big news... curtains have been hung! Yippee! And what a difference it makes. It feels so much more like a home now, and I don't have to worry about the construction workers peering in the windows! We're still waiting on rugs; once they arrive I'll get some pictures posted.

Still no land-line phone. We aren't sure when they'll hook that up. No one seems to be able to give us an answer. At one point, the phone company called Brandon, but they only spoke in Czech, so we have no idea what they were calling to tell us.

Also, a lovely "repair" needs to happen to our terrace. One day, they came and marked over 1/2 of our terrace tiles with a yellow "x". I wasn't sure what was going on, but the next day my questions were answered when I looked out my window and saw they had torn up the majority of the tiles on the neighbors terrace... all of the marked tiles need to be removed and replaced. They've already started on our neighbors homes; don't know when we'll be up, but it looks like an incredible mess.

And... we finally met our neighbors on Sunday. Bente and Heine from Norway. They have a son, Henric, who is a month younger than Lydia. They seem nice, and we've actually spoken a couple of times since then. Lydia and I are going over to their house to "play" on Friday morning.

Best of all... my car has arrived! The leaded gas had to be drained by a mechanic that we found a mile from our house. They only spoke Czech, but we managed to get by with the help of the 3 Czech-speaking contacts we have managed to meet. They drained the tank and flushed the fuel lines, added 10 liters of gas and only charged us $40 U.S.! And, it was same-day service. What a deal. Lydia and I went on our first solo excursion to the park today in our Freedomobile. It felt quite nice.

There's also so much more to write about the ministries that we are already getting involved with here, but I'll save that for another day.