One Step Closer

It's amazing that we have only been here for 4 days and we already feel so comfortable with the city. A big reason for this is all the work the school is doing to get us settled. It's pretty incredible how many people they have working for us and how many places they have influence over in the city. We are pretty much like rockstars around town. We get stared at walking down the street, doors opened for us, people standing to greet us as we walk by, and royal treatment everywhere we go. Most of this is from what the school has set up for us but we have discovered that ASB holds a lot of power and flashing the name around town can really get things done. It's a strage feeling to know that everywhere you go people are willing to bend over backwards to accomodate anything you need without question. This is very much a culture of status and it is at times uncomfortable to be on top. Of course it is wonderful to be waited on and treated so kindly but it comes with a sense of guilt at times. For example we just learned that the rent for our apartment is around $12,000 a month. Yes, thats dollars. EVERY MONTH. We pay our housekeeper $200 a month (and she has to take public transit 1 1/2 hours to get here each day). Thats hard to reconcile.

It is what it is though and thats they way their system works. On some levels it makes a lot of sense however. Everyone has a job. It might be cleaning someone's apartment or cleaning someone's ears but there is a job for everything. That's the thing that amazes me most so far. Anything that you do during the day, there is someone here who could do it for you. I could have someone give me a wake up call, drive me somewhere to get a shave, have my ears cleaned, get a massage, a hair cut, and a shoe shine. I could get a ride to a tailor who would let me pick out a piece of fabric I like and sew me a new shirt out of it while I went out to lunch and have it delivered to my apartment the next morning (or I could have my housekeeper buy all my things for me). I could get my driver to take me to any store I wanted and I could walk in, point out the things I want and have it delivered to my house immediately. Or I could just call in my order if I didn't feel like going out. Oh and this entire outing would cost maybe $100. It's pretty crazy.

It's amazing that EVERYTHING can be delivered. Today for example we went to a couple market places and bought some groceries and supplies for the apartment and two boys brought it by our place an hour later (a bunch of groceries, some garbage pails, and an ironing board). We also drove an hour or so to a bigger mall uptown and bought a tv and some furniture pieces and other apartment things and they are going to send an installation guy and a carpenter to deliver all our stuff, set it up, drill holes in the wall and mount our tv. (more on that later). We actually live right next to a couple gelato places and a brownie stand (yeah, it's a little store that just sells brownies) that we can call up and have someone bring a brownie to my doorstep. Or, I can call one of the butcher/bakery stores and have them pull a loaf of french bread from the freezer, bake it, and deliver it to me hot and fresh. Pretty incredible. But like I said, it makes sense. Why take my own things home when someone else can be employed as a delivery person? It feels strage but we just have to remember that we are actually helping provide jobs and stimulate the economy by letting people serve us. Just another bizarre truth about this country.

So about the TV, the school gave us a "settling in" stipend so we just went on a big shopping spree and got a number of things for the apartment. We got a 32'' LG flat screen tv, a new DVD player, 3 really nice furniture pieces, new speakers, storage racks for the showers, and a whole bunch of cleaning supplies all for about $1500. We really scored big today and we can't wait to start getting things a little more decorated in the apartment. I think we might go to the fancier downtown area tomorrow and look for some artsy stuff. Once we have a good idea of our decorating options we can start to paint and rearrange and all that fun moving-in stuff. I can't wait. We are definitely going to be settled and ready to go by the time school starts on the 13th. If we feel this in touch with everything in the first 4 days I can't wait to see what life will be like once we get really comfortable and figure out our routines. For such an overwhelming place its amazing how quickly we have been connected.

So as you can probably tell, things are going great. Our housekeeper starts on Monday. She will come over M-F for 6 hours to clean, do laundry, feed and walk the dog, do a lot of our shopping, and cook dinner. She comes highly recommended from a number of people and has a great record and skill set so we are really lucky we were able to get her.

Work is going well, the school is wonderful. The staff is amazing and the school is just beyond words. The kinds of things that are going on at ASB are inspirational to say the least. What an amazing school and an amazing group of people. We are both really excited to get the school year started and jump in to all the great things they have going on. We start back on Monday morning really diving into the education side of the training. So far its been a lot of personal business and social orientation to the city but we are starting with the good stuff next week. School starts on the 13th and I can't wait. I've got support and resources coming out of my ears. The hardest thing is going to be figuring out which of the myriad tools I want to use. We are both loving our new laptops that the school gave us. Now that we have cell phones and internet the next step is finding the best way to contact everyone. We are still waiting for some of the features to start on our phones (like international calling) but it sounds like it's pretty cheap and easy. Once we get all our phone, cable, and internet stuff 100% up and running we will start messing around with Skype and other things. For now, this will do. Hope all is well in the rest of the world. G'nite!

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K&E