Boricua en la Lima

We are staying at Jose's grandma's house.  House hunting has been tough - prices have gotten crazy expensive in real estate it's almost like Miami before the bubble burst! So of course for the price we are looking for we can't find something great and everything we fall in love with is outside of our price range. :)  We think we will wait for one that's building right now which will be ready in December but then after it's ready we will have to do some remodeling to get a master bedroom out of this area so long story short it'll be a while before we move.  I don't mind living at Jose's grandma's place (too much) but when our furniture (all 200 boxes) arrive I don't know where the heck we're supposed to fit it.  And living out of boxes for a few months is definitely not my cup of tea.   The kiddos officially started school last week but today was Gabi's first full day.  Thankfully that's one issue we resolved quickly although...

In honor of an amazing Closing Ceremony last night I finally found the video that they played everywhere which I loved so much.  I still can't watch it without my hairs standing on end! In the meantime, we are house hunting, school hunting, car hunting, etc.  A welcome reprieve was to run 20-21 KM last Saturday morning with Jose's cousin and his wife who are training for the Chicago marathon in October.  While 20-21 KM is definitely more (a lot more!!!!) than I would normally run my body was craving exercise after the trip here and all this incredibly fattening (and yummy) Peruvian food.  So hopefully I can go out with them again this Saturday morning, we are supposed to run 2 hours and 45 minutes.  Definitely an exercise in mind over matter as I've never run that much time before! Gabi was able to get into the school we wanted and Sebas is starting his day care the day after tomorrow.  Both seem really happy with the move so far.  I just dream...

Now it's time for me to write an Olympics post from behind a TV set instead of from a nosebleed seat from some Olympic venue in London.  It's my penultimate night in Switzerland and we've been reported for a noise complaint.  This embodies my experience in Switzerland.  Controlled madness.  I can be excited for Puerto Rico's performance in the Olympic games but not enough to bother the neighbors (oh and by the way a lady next door kept me up half the night bawling at 2:30 am two nights ago, super weird).  What propelled this noise complaint? (Normally I would be shocked but when it comes to my voice and decibels of course I am not).  I just happened to be for the first time in many many months jumping up and down in front of my TV rooting for Puerto Rico's own Javier Culson in the 400m men's hurdle.  He was one of a handful of Puerto Rican athletes in the 2012 Olympics and happened to be a favorite in this event at the Olympics all along and came in 3...

Well I'm lucky enough to be able to say I've now been to TWO Olympics! I went in 1996 to Atlanta because I was interning with Amoco in Alpharetta, Georgia and I can't believe it's been so long since then because I promised I would try to go to every Olympics after having such an awesome experience the first time.  But of course I didn't know back then when I made that promise what a difficult feat it is it to be able to go to the Olympics!  In any case, after just a *few* years we made it to London 2012.  We got tickets to the Opening Ceremony (Jose and me), soccer (Jose and Sebas), gymnastics (Gabi, Jose and me) and then the whole family was able to go to field hockey, water polo and beach volleyball.  And what an amazing experience it was!  Not just being in the Games and being in London during such an amazing time.  What always surprises me the most is how nice and cheerful everyone is during an Olympics.  From the people you meet on the street chee...