HEYO!
I finally finally feel settled in and things are going well (for the most part). We wrapped up our last follow-up clinics (to bring medications to chronic patients with diabetes, epilepsy, asthma, high-blood pressure, etc) and then all the Floating Doctors staff was gone, just gone. They all go home for two months over the holidays and regular clinics stop, holidays are celebrated, the weather doesn’t get any cooler (womp womp) and Katie and I keep chugging along.
Our work is computer based and we might turn into zombies soon, so instead of becoming the crazy anti-social losers that many of you American office workers/software developers/aspiring writer types end up becoming, we take breaks. We’ve found ourselves in a pretty great routine these days. I would describe it to you in painful detail, but then I remembered one time reading a friends’ friend’s blog about being married and each month for the first seven months of marriage, she did a recap of that month of marriage – explaining in vivid detail what it was like to be married. I could not relate, but I passively enjoyed and digested her observations of living on top of another human and the routine they ended up finding together. Well, week 6 into my “arranged marriage” with Katie and I now totally understand what the purpose of those blog posts were – do you even realize how crazy it is to be sharing a life with someone who literally knows everythingabout you and is there for every second of every day and not even two months ago was a total stranger to me? It's insane.
The Raffalongs (Bronwen Raff + Katie Long = The Raffalongs) Month 1 Update:
It’s us – the Raffalongs, sending an update after Month 1 in our arranged marriage! Phew! I know many of you have been holding your breath for our first update and we report with good news is that our arranged marriage has thus far worked out perfectly. We haven’t even fought yet, we haven't even gotten in little tiffs about who does more dishes (me), who fixes more things (Katie) and who hogs more covers (Katie) but shhh, don’t jinx it.
Our daily schedule
7:15*: Alarm goes off, snooze til 7:33, wake Katie up by turning over, go for a run on the beach
8:45: Breakfast – Katie makes the toast, I poach the eggs and make the coffee, we listen to the BBC Global News podcast
9:30 – 12:30: Work on the computer and just when we start to lose our minds, we alternate making lunch (typical options include: leftovers, vegetable/bean wraps, something with peanut butter)
12:30 – 3: More work or errands around town
3:30 – 5: Movement/afternoon activity – typically beach volleyball, sometimes substituted by swimming or paddling on the surfboard we borrowed from a friend
5:30 – 6: Decide what we want for dinner and bike to get ingredients
6 – 7: Make dinner - Katie specials include: omelets, sushi (!!), stir-fry; Bea specials include coconut Thai curry, papaya sticky rice and tuna mac n’cheese.
7 – 10:30: Play the ukelele, play brain-expanding trivia and/or invent mind-stretching games, spend hours picking out a movie and watch half of it before falling asleep
10:30: Lights out!
*If it’s a Tuesday or a Thursday, we exclusively speak to each other in Spanish.
Favorite meals:
5) Tuna mac n’cheese
4) Papaya sticky rice
3) Stir-fry
2) Anything with peanut butter
1) Coconut Thai curry
Favorite snacks: Papaya, popcorn, ginger cookies with peanut butter, shortbread cookies with peanut butter, oatmeal cookies with peanut butter, chocolate
Favorite games this month:
5) Trivial Pursuit
4) Sporcle
3) Use an iPhone to record ourselves making music with the ukulele and sending them to friends
2) Beach volleyball
1) Improv games
Popcorn flick picks:
4) Frozen (Katie’s first time!)
3) We Need to Talk About Kevin (highly recommended by Katie, in her words “The most visceral viewing experience I’ve had in a while”)
2) The Place Beyond the Pines (highly recommended by Bea, in my words, “Ryan Gosling, what else do you need?”)
1) Serena (not recommended by either of us, from the mouth of very own film critic Katie, it was “Pretty people, pretty country, pretty bad”).
Books on the proverbial coffee table this month:
5) Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shtenygart (pretty decent read about a love story set in the near future, not on my top ten list though)
4) La Ceguera by José Saramago (Katie enjoys, didn’t seem too enthusiastic when I just asked her...she seems lost in her work)
3) Serena by Ron Rash (Good book, fatal movie)
2) Donde No Hay Doctor by David Werner (I can’t tell if looking up weird medical conditions at the one flat surface we have that serves as our kitchen table/work desk/coffee table counts as business or pleasure)
1) Room by Emma Donahue (comes highly recommended by both Bea and Katie, beautifully written from the perspective of a five year old boy trapped with his mother in an 11’ x 11’ room – that said, we do not suggested reading this book if you literally live in an 11’ x 11’ house with one other person)
Favorite questions:
5) ¿Que es eso?
4) What’s that sound?
3) Should we go to the beach?
2) What game should we play?
1) Do you want to build a snowman?
Favorite Words: Astronaut, Clinic, Game, Popcorn, Coffee, Trivia, Improv, Leishmaniasis, Sloth, Ukulele, Run, Room, Tiny House, Clos
What we’re learning this month: Patience and acceptance
Other interesting facts:
- Longest time spent apart: 4 hours
- Spines Katie picked out of Bea’s foot: 3
- Back and forths on the volleyball: 29 hits in a row
Characteristics we realize we share: Disinterest in small children, love of running, taste in food, critical lens for analyzing international development, always thought the Disney “D” was actually a backwards “G,” musical talent (I'm getting there)!
Characteristics we don’t share: Love of dogs, sense of direction, pop culture/movie references, improv expertise
Gallivants: This month we’ve been to eight Ngobe-Bugle communities as super star interpreters for Floating Doctors clinics/follow up, we’ve also explored two nearby beaches and hope to add a few more to that list this week!
In summary - month one of arranged marriage is working out great and it’s all been happening so fast! I guess we really know now what people are talking about when they say time flies when you’re in love! Wish us luck in Month 2 :)
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