- Dry pork and seaweed donuts (no we didn't buy them!)
- Countless live animals for sale in the Carrefour grocery store (we haven't even been to the real outdoor food market where you can buy just about any animal it sounds!)
- People with grocery carts literally full of raw meat (this has changed our strategy about letting Zoe & Abigail ride in the carts)
- Little kids with split pants, shucks, little kids with no pants!
- Men 'relieving' themselves - wherever nature calls them
Wonderful things we've done in our first full week:
- Went to an amazing Christian church - different everything else here but our same God!
- Started all the girls in school - each day is getting better as they get caught up on the work, meet people and get used to the funky schedules.
- Have the house settled at least to get us by for the next 2-3 weeks before our shipments can clear customs
- Have figured out how to communicate (again at least to get by for now!) with the driver, the people in Carrefour (using the iPhone app to translate what we want to buy into Chinese!) and other random encounters (lots of hand motions work well)
- Found a wonderful 'hole in the wall' local restaurant - excellent noodles & fried rice and the whole family can eat for just $6 (of course there are only 7 tables in the whole place so we kind of overwhelm them when we arrive - which would explain some of the stares we got!)
Things we still have yet to do: work permits, residence permits, bank accounts, pick out a car (still negotiating for something smaller than the utility vehicle!), get our shipments, figure out cell phones for everyone, oh and start Sue at work! That should be enough for the next couple of weeks....
So to celebrate surviving our first week we had our $6 dinner out and then had $11 foot massages (that lasted a full 60 minutes!!!). We've already started the list of places to see and things to do when friends/family come to visit...so just let us know when you want to come!
Love to all back home!
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