Five things I love and five things I am not willing to talk about yet.

You know that feeling when you are just at the beginning of something (relationship, marriage, new home) and you are more than willing to share what is awesome/perfect/fantastic about what you are doing?  When it comes to saying what is negative, it is not so easy, because admitting things are not awesome/perfect/fantastic feels like a failure on your part?  That is where I am right now.  I am happy to discuss with you what I love about Sri Lanka, but I feel like at three months, if I don't love it, I don't want to talk about it...but maybe I will.

Here we go five things I love about Sri Lanka.

1.  Food.  One of the most important things for me about anywhere I go, whether on vacation or to live, is that I find food that I love.  Here there are so many options to eat.  I have a few favorite restaurants that serve both local food and international fare.  It is AWESOME.  Yummy.

2.  Internet/Phones.  The internet here is awesome, and I have paid a total of $15.00 for the last three months of cell phone coverage.  That includes data, minutes and texting.  It has been fabulous.

3.  Shopping.  Both clothes and groceries.  We can find things here.  We have a little market at the Embassy that we can pick up most foods that we can't get locally, you know like cake mixes, Hershey Kisses and such.  Locally, we can get just about anything we need to make foods we like.  Clothes, I have already talked about here, having stuff made and finding clothes at fun shops at highly discounted prices.

4.  Carriages.  We don't have a car, and I don't think we are going to get one.  We take tuk-tuks and taxis.  It works out just fine.  In fact, with the tuk-tuks, I imagine I am back in the day of gilded carriages, and I imagine being chauffeured around town in the laps of luxury.  So far it works.  When we need something more than a tuk-tuk, we just call a taxi complete with air conditioning and a trunk to carry our groceries.  It is great.

5.  Exercise.  Right now, since I am training for a half marathon, it makes it nice to be able to run outside.  There are sidewalks and traffic signals.  One of the fun things I really like is, instead of measuring how far I need to run, I can just run until my training app says I am done, and get a tuk-tuk home.  I don't have to stress about figuring out my route and when to turn around.  It is a pretty sweet deal.  Also, for those who are interested, Ben rides his bike to work, which he loves.  He has wanted to ride his bike to work for a long time, and so this is a dream come true for him.


Things I am not willing to talk about, but since you ask, I hesitantly admit.

1.  Small(ish) creatures.  We have squirrels living in our house.  I thought they had left, but they made an appearance yesterday.  I don't know how to get rid of them.

2.  Bugs.  Particularly mosquitos, which seem to attack with vengeance every night.  We finally have mosquito nets that we can put up, but really, annoying.

3.  Stomach issues.  We have all had our issues with stomach problems, but nothing too serious.  I usually try to think of it as a weight loss program to get over it, but I haven't lost any weight- which I consider pretty lame.

4.  Traffic.  It can get crazy, and people drive crazy.  I was almost hit by a car when I was walking across the street and Ben almost crashed into a motorcycle on his ride into work (he was thrown over his handle bars).

5.  Things we lack.  Beef, cheese, and sour cream.  These are the only things I can identify that I really miss.  There is some beef, but it is not great.  There is cheese, but most of it is processed, and that which is not is really expensive.  Sour cream we don't have, but there is curd (which is similar to Greek yogurt) which I can use for recipes, but not for a dollop on top of a potato.


There you have it.  My list, five things I love and five things I would consider cons.

There are more things I could add to both lists, but we will leave it at five each.

Maybe in a few months I will be confident enough to give better cons, but thinking about it, I probably won't.  For the most part, I want you to think my life is perfect, without any issues.  Which it is...