[GrizGator]

One of the biggest adjustments my wife and step-daughter had to make initially was the weather (believe it or not). Despite the fact that both of them were born and raised in Bogota, they do not like the cold…and get cold very easy (I wish I have a nickel for every time my wife told me “tengo frio” since I met her). The temperature in central Florida is usually pleasant and then becomes downright hot in the summer. But we can also get some cold. Unfortunately, the cold came at the wrong time for my wife. Immediately after her arrival, we had the coldest weather of the year. One night, the temperature actually dropped to freezing. On some days, the highs were only in the 50’s. My wife could not believe this was Florida. Fortunately, the weather has improved since then and we are getting our typical March 70’s/low 80s during the day and more moderate temperatures at night. Thank goodness….because my wife made the mistake of leaving her jackets in Colombia…thinking she wouldn’t need them here.

I think things have been more difficult for my wife than my step-daughter. My step-daughter has school every day…and she’s met some friends at school who are bi-lingual. She likes to ride the bus. She doesn’t mind doing the homework. On top of that, the teachers have been very nice and supportive. My wife, on the other hand, is home most of the time. She has been studying the driver’s manual (in Spanish) on and off, but has not taken the examinations (rules test, sign test, and driving test) to get her license. It’s too bad, because I have a car waiting for her….I think things will be more interesting for her when she can get in the car and go shopping…or just drive around. As I mentioned, I live in a small town. My subdivision is on the outskirts of town, so there’s not much in walking distance. We have a bus system, but nothing like the one in Bogota. And at any given time of the day, we might have two taxis driving around town. In Bogota, there were taxis and buses everywhere you turned. My wife’s casa was near her daughter’s school. It was near the exito. It was near the Santa Fe mall. It was near the hairdresser, the butcher shop, and the bakery.

About a month ago, I called the local community college to inquire about ESOL classes for my wife. Much to my surprise, I discovered that ESOL classes are provided free and that my wife could begin any time, after taking a placement test. My wife had been taking English lessons in Colombia, but stopped when her father got ill with cancer. Fortunately, my wife has been taking the ESOL classes for the past 3 weeks, 2 days per week and 4 hours per day. Communication is a big issue for her. She feels very self-conscious when meeting my friends and work associates…because she can’t communicate. To me, getting her conversational in English is the most important step to her long-term happiness here. At this point, I should mention that before visiting Colombia for the first time, I had taken a total of one semester of Spanish…and that was 20 years ago. When I met my wife for the first time in Bogota, I knew virtually no Spanish and had to rely on a translator. But I immediately began to study Spanish, playing language CDs in my car. I learned enough that my wife and I can communicate. I’m not sure my wife’s relatives understand my Spanish, but it’s good enough for my wife. When things get complicated, we still resort to the translator….but that is pretty rare. I guess neither of us are the type that have to talk all of the time…so we get by fine.

Being at home all day can be boring for my wife. Fortunately, as I said before, I can work at home part of the week (parts of the day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays when I don’t have meetings at work). And, of course, the local cable company has a variety of Spanish channels, some which show Colombian tele-novellas (she watches them each afternoon). My wife e-mails and chats with her cousins and brothers over the Internet. And she has a Noble.com phone card she uses to call her mother. They talk every day for about 20 minutes. The phone card runs be about $20 every 3-4 weeks….a good investment in my mind. I personally wish my wife did not see the need to speak to her mother every day….to be more independent. But my wife is almost 29 years old and this is the first time she has been away from home. So I guess I should expect this. Hopefully, over time, she will find less of a need to speak with her family every day….but maybe not. It’s not really a problem for me….unless these conversations begin to reflect unhappiness here.

More tomorrow.....