Learning

My second venture today proved to be much more successful than my first! I came back to the hotel feeling more confident in living here for the next two years. My first walk this morning took me through some parts of this city that are not the best. I like the area around my hotel though and will continue to explore. I am finding that there are beautiful bakeries and clothing stores sandwiched between not-so-nice cafes and trinket stores... it just takes some observing and exploring, which I will enjoy these next couple of weeks before school beings.

I went back to the huge electronics store (4 floors!) that I went to last night and was determined to figure out how to buy a cell phone... last night I was not able to communicate with the people there. Well, I got the most basic phone I could find and then bought a SIM card from down the street... and it works! I just made my first phone call to the assistant HR girl at the school and she is going to have a realtor get in touch with me... I can hardly wait to hear my phone ring for the first time :P  ...oh the small things.

In the US, I always wanted just a basic 'flat' phone... but could never find one. Low and behold... that's exactly what I got here! Isn't it cute??...

My outing also included finding a wonderful bakery. I got a pizza bread-ish thing, a muffin, and a caramel macchiato... they didn't have chai but I will continue to look or learn to make my own.

THEN I went back to the gold store where I exchanged money yesterday and decided to treat myself... I have been wanting a gold bracelet  - both of my grandmothers have always worn a few on their wrists and I love it - so I got one! I like it with the silver one that my Grandma gave to me as a parting gift.

...More pictures of the city later. I also plan on trying to take a video of crossing the street and posting it here too - haha... you cannot even imagine what the traffic is like here! You just step off the sidewalk and start walking at a steady pace into oncoming traffic that comes from every direction; the honking is nonstop and so are the mopeds and cars... it's NUTS. I made 'friends' with an Australian lady - we figured we'd attempt crossing an intersection together and ended up talking a bit - it was nice just to be able to converse fluently in English with someone.

I plan on eating dinner at one of the restaurants listed in my travel book - there are a number of them that sound good. (Thanks for the book Barb!!)