At least two times

My neighbor Sidonya kisses me -- at least two times every time she sees me to greet me. And she kisses me -- at least two times every time she says good bye to me. (The meet and greet may only be only a matter of thirty seconds apart by the way.) I have learned that she is 89. That she is a widow. And that she wants my extra boxes. If I am taking them to the trash, why aren't I bringing them to her instead? I have also learned that since she lives in the one house I pass on the way to Kristy's, I am going to have to stop and get kissed each time I pass. At least two times to say hello. Two times to say good bye. And then two and two again when I pass on the way home. That's eight kisses in just a matter of minutes.

Abigail has gotten use to the smattering. She takes it in stride now after screaming bloody murder the first few times.

Oh and did I mention that Sidonya speaks zero English. Not only does she speak Portuguese, but she seems to care less that I don't. She continues to speak to me in Portuguese. Long paragraphs. Rolling sentences. Questions. Requests. Observations. Actually, sometimes I start to think I might even understand what she is saying.

And John. He is Juan. And Juan must get kisses too. As many as me. If not more.

My housekeeper, Heeta, speaks English. A little. But it's far from good -- maybe about as good as my Turkish was. She has decided that Abigail's name, in Portuguese, would be Gabriella. I have no idea if this is actually true, but it is what she is calling Abigail now. Always.

And I kinda like it.

I visited the Commissary today. Woahhhh is it small. Hard to imagine anything smaller than Turkey, but here it is. In fact, when I saw the cereal selection, I started looking around to see if I was mistaken. Maybe there was another section? There were probably less than a dozen different choices. No pink oatmeal squares (strawberry shredded wheat) which Isaac loves. Only one kind of Cheerios (Honey Nut) other than the regular kind. Only regular life -- not Cinnamon. Slimmm pickens.

And organic or natural choices? You better forget it. There is one kind of Kashi granola bar. Blackberry. But that's it. If you are only going to have one, why would you choose blackberry?

The BX is equally small. And it's very odd shaped so it feels even smaller. I asked them if they had any pool toys, and I was directed to an aisle which contained one rubber boat and a snorkel.

Hmmm .... after two years here, I'll be way used to buying stuff online.

And being kissed. Immensely. And regularly.

P.S. And did I mention that we had decided that all bideas in our house will be effectively known, from this point forward, as a urinal. Much more useful.