learn to live with it!

I grew up in a rural small town.  Then, for the last three years I've lived at a rural farm in the Colombian mountains.  I'm not used to city noise, I'm used to space, and I've never lived in an apartment building before this month.

There is a child in our building who cries and whines and screams about 80% of the time.  Sometimes he/she wakes me up at odd hours with the concert.  I think there are several probable reasons for this behavior:
1. children sometimes cry and scream (but not that much)
2. she's spoiled?
3. her parents don't respect her need to sleep (I've heard her screaming long after I'm in bed and again before I'd like to be awake... would still be sleeping if it weren't for the crying...)
4. her family bothers her, instead of letting her be a child?
We've gotten much more used to it though.  Now, when we walk into the building and, as if on cue, hear the wail start up from the fourth floor, we look at each other and laugh incontrollably.

Another thing we've gotten used to was a shock at first: sharing a single bed.  The woman who lent us the apartment is single, and there's really not room for a larger bed, since it's a studio-type space.  At first it was uncomfortable; we were afraid to move and wake up the other, we have different sleeping positions, it's hard to share a single sheet...
But now it's the norm!  We've learned to put two twin sheets on the bed to have enough.  Plus, I'm a cuddler, and now he has to be!

Something else that's different here is the health system.  "Why are you learning about the health system on your honeymoon?" That's an excellent question.  We went for a checkup with Julio's gastroenterologist, who discovered several small gallstones in my otherwise-healthy husband!  Since then we've been in private clinics and the public hospital more times than I can count this month... mostly waiting.  In Colombia I thought I had learned to be much more patient with things like banks and doctors offices... but this takes the cake.  I know nothing about waiting, compared to Venezuelans.
Basically, there's no way to get rid of gallstones other than operating to take out the gall bladder... so we're planning a surgery for June, and praying that God does a miracle to get rid of the stones, and learning how to eat for gall bladder health (no beans, nothing fried, elimiate as many fats and oils as possible, eat as many fruits and veggies as possible, but not that cause gases...)

I, on the other hand, have kidney stones!  Since my dad is an expert (with plenty of personal experience) I'm following his recommendations, and in the meantime thankful that I don't have any pain.  

So here we are in Venezuela.  This is our last week, and then it's off on another adventure:  Argentina and Chile!