Fireworks

A firework stand in a mall. They also sell fireworks in Walmart. Only in Puerto Rico...

Tear.....

I got so excited and scream "Target, yay!!!" Sadly, its a car rental business : ( 

Got milk?

It is weird to see the "staple" items in your house all of a sudden in a different language.

Boxes boxes boxes...

As we emptied out each box we would break them down. Our pile got so high my head could almost touch the ceiling! We had to make several trips to the recycling dumpster before it was all said and done.

Walmart

Ryan and I drove 20 minutes out of the way just to go to Walmart. We were in need of something familiar. Never would have guessed a dang Walmart would give us that fix!

Save more. Live Better.

Guaranteed lowest prices!

Lunch

One of Ryan's co-workers and his wife stopped by around noon and brought by a pizza for us. It was so sweet and thoughtful of them! We had to eat on top of boxes. They also gave us a welcome basket with helpful info, magazines and brochures about the island, paper toilets, water bottles, ect.... They bring welcome baskets to everyone that moves into housing. Its funny to think that ill be the one passing them out to new families in the future!

God love...

The packers sure are hard workers, but not very bright. This box contained items that were in our SHED.

Red.......

There are so many fun and exciting perks about living in Puerto Rico. And I thought I had mentally prepared for all the good and bad that could happen..... but it never crossed my mind to think about having a red kitchen floor!!! Its horrible.... not sure if I should pretend like its not there and put out our green, brown, and gold decor we have for our kitchen or change it up and try to work with the red...?

Outside view of our house

Our first home as Mr. and Mrs. Richard!!

Let the moving begin...

All of our household goods were in wooden crates and were literally "shipped" over to Puerto Rico. There were about 15-20 boxes in each crate. Every box had a number and listed what was inside the box. Our job was to stand by the truck and check off every box to make sure nothing was missing and to tell them what room to put it in. Once we got a rhythm down, it went pretty fast. They had everything in the house in about 3 hours.

The movers put together all of our furniture that they had to take apart to fit in the crates. (beds, kitchen table, chairs) They finished up and left about 11:00am. It went from loud and busy to a silent house and boxes to the ceiling. It was overwhelming, but we were so excited to finally be in our first home together!  

First dinner in PR

Ryan took me to a mexican restaurant called Tijuana's. Nothing too different from what I am used to back home. Our waiter greeted us in Spanish. We told him "no habla espanol" and the rest of our communication was just key words and pointing at the menu. You don't realize it at the time, but a lot of non verbal communication goes into talking with someone who speaks a different language (hand gestures, pointing, ect...)

Hot delivery!!

Toilet

The toilet in the San Juan airport had a foot flusher, loved it!

Finally Made It!

I flew into San Juan Thursday night (Dec 1st) at 6:20. I was so excited to finally be in Puerto Rico, but I was even more excited to see Ryan! The airport wasn't too different, but almost everything was written in Spanish with English subtitles below. And I had to show my boarding pass to leave the airport... I thought that was kind of strange. Ryan was waiting on me right outside the door! We both got cheek cramps from smiling so much. It was so good to see him!