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Monday, September 30, 2013

Rant of the Day

So, I haven't really been doing much the last few days.  Have had a cold, a bit grumpy and still catching up from Miranda's visit.
For anyone that doesn't know, we were told on the Friday that Miranda was here (wine tour day) that Josh would be done work in Peru on Friday, October, 4th. We were also told that we would be starting in Seattle at the home office for SNC near the middle of November.  I had mixed emotions of course, there is still things here that I want to do, plus that is not much time to get the cats certificates ready, get packed , sell stuff etc.  So we decided that for 2ish weeks when he was done work we would go to Machu Picchu for about 5 days and then the Amazon for about 5 days.  I spent the days after MIranda left, packing, telling EVERYONE here and at home that we would be back to Maine on October 17th for a couple weeks, then driving to Seattle for Josh to work in the head office for a few months until the next project.
On Saturday, Josh came home from work and was a bit confused.  One of his managers had mentioned to him as he was walking out of the gate that he needed to talk to the Commissioning manager at head office about his demob date.  We weren't really sure what that meant so Josh emailed the manager in Bothel hoping for a quick response.  Of course nothing on Sunday, so we both spent the day worried about what was going on.  I had just paid 400 dollars to board the cats for 2 weeks while we were on our trips, and had started planning the trips as well as had set up the cats to be able to fly home with us.
So this morning, I was heading out the door to yoga, and Josh emailed me.  Turns out they need him here and don't have a spot for him at the office right now.  We will now be here until around Nov 26 or 27.  Well thats what they tell us right now.  I wouldn't be shocked if it is longer.
I know I was a bit sad to leave, but to get totally packed, and ready to go, say goodbye to people here, make plans here and with family and then get told we aren't leaving is a real blow.  At the end of October I will have been out of the US for 6 months.  This is kind of a maximum that I am allowed with my greencard.  Any longer and they can basically say that I'm not allowed in.  And Jinx is getting sick, and I was hoping to get him home and settled again before he starts to get really sick so he is comfortable and we don't have to fly with a sick stressed out cat.  I don't want to put him through that.
Why is it that companies don't care about their employees anymore?  They obviously knew that this was going on last week, and it seems everyone knew except for the people that it matters most to.  Why did they tell us, yes for sure we are done, and spend the money to book our tickets and take it back?  Ridiculous.  All of these employees and their wives and families have given up so much, and been pawns for so long it has us wondering if it is really worth it to work for a company that makes it so obvious they don't care.
That is the end of my rant for now.  I may have more, and I am starting to come to terms with two more months here.  It sounds like we will still get our two week rollout to go back to Maine and also do at least our Machu Picchu trip so that will make it a bit better.  It is such a stress!  I guess I will start unpacking!
Thank you to my lovely friend Mariya that took me out for a mani pedi and Pinkberry to cheer me up today!  Check out her crafty blog My.Craft.Affair.  I'm also a model on it today ;)

I guess i should mention though that on Friday I FINALLY got my actual Green Card!  So it really is one less worry!  Here we are!


Friday, September 27, 2013

Miranda Trip Days Seven and Eight- Shopping and Jumping off a Cliff


So, Miranda's last couple days here were pretty un eventful.  I had a really hard time setting up the tours we wanted for two white girls.  Tour companies would not take us certain places specifically because we are pretty white girls.  So Tuesday, we just hung around and did a ton more shopping and ate some good food.  This was our lunch.  I had Lomo Saltado Fajitas and Miranda had a mix of tequeños at Mangos.  AMAZING.


Later we went to dinner at Papachos, one of our favorite places for dinner.  Probably my list of Top 5 (maybe higher) burgers anywhere in the world.



Wednesday started out pretty quiet.  We took a double decker, open air bus tour to Barranco for an hour.  We saw some beautiful old cathedrals, got to walk across the Bridge of Sighs while holding our breathe and met a nice couple from Edmonton.

















After that we headed down to the beach to look for some seashells and play in the water.  While we were down there, there was a 6.8 earthquake 400km south of Lima.  We didn't feel it, but there were tsunamis warnings, while we were frolicking by the water haha.  Josh felt it at work as he is about 100 km closer, and Mariya felt it while sitting in her apt. here. Crazy.











Anyway, we found some shells and got soaked, and were just going to go for lunch when we noticed that the Parasailers were out on the cliffs.  So we took a cab up, only to be disappointed that it was just the instructors testing it out.  But they told us to come back later.  So we called up Mariya and went to Homemade, one of our favorite places, for lunch.  We had some yummy desserts after as well! Chocolate Marquise with Pistachio crust and whipped cream drizzled with raspberry sauce and Miranda had a Nutella cupcake.



We stopped at the grocery store, as well as home to drop off our groceries, and we noticed that the weather had greatly improved, so right away we took off for the cliffs to see if we could paraglide!  As we were walking up the instructors were waving us over to hurry up and get to the head of the line.  We basically only had a few minutes before we were up in the air.  They got us dressed and didn't give any instruction and as we were going to jump off, the instructor stepped on my heal and my shoe came half off!  Luckily it stayed on the whole flight.  It was amazing!  Seriously, so peaceful and breathtaking.  Here is the video of my experience.  Parasailing over Miraflores
and here are some still photos from the video.

















When we were done, we still had lots of day left, so we grabbed Mariya and did some more shopping.  Then we went to La Emoliental Bar for one, okay 3, last drinks :(