I know there will be a lot of ups and downs here and culture shock will come a go, but so far so good. I think right now it hasn’t really hit that I am LIVING here permanently! Kind of feels like a vacation because I’m doing a lot of things with the people I went to Memphis with and they pick us up in vans – like a tour group J
I LOVE the school and we’ve only technically been there one day so far!! But I love the culture of the school. I cannot believe how much they do for us! From what I’ve heard no other school helps people settle in like ASB. I can’t imagine trying to do this on my own. The school sent people to FRRO with us yesterday to navigate that crazy system. They send vans to pick us up when we are doing group things. The drivers are awesome and know where we live etc. They usually drop us off right in front of the apartment, but yesterday traffic was bad so they were dropping us off at corners and we are still a little unfamiliar with our area. When they dropped one guy off they noticed he looked around like he didn’t know where to go. The van was already down the block but they pulled over and the driver sent one of the guys who went to FRRO with us to run IN THE RAIN to make sure the newbie got to his apartment ok. So nice! Jordan (the other math teacher) lives about half a block from me. They pulled up at a corner to drop him off and we both assumed I’d be getting out too. Nope. They told me to stay and they drove around quite a bit (lots of one way streets and heavy traffic) to bring me to my door. I don’t know if it was because I’m a woman and it was raining or what – but it was nice. They didn’t know that if any woman was comfortable walking by herself in the rain it would be me!
In some ways I feel like I am adapting better than others – some ways not so much. Since I have never worked overseas before, I had no expectations for accommodations, just glad they were paying for it!!! But apparently these are substandard compared to other schools so some people are really disappointed and uncomfortable. I don’t care that much about matching furniture etc J I do plan on acquiring furniture and making things nicer but for me, that can wait. Some people are really affected by their surroundings and need it to look great immediately. But on the flip side they are all very helpful telling me how to use things because they are used to these kinds of bathrooms, geezers ( the things you have to turn on and wait for hot water), water filters, the weird washer and dryers (which I am going to attempt to work today) and the elevator. Holy Moly that elevator is scary in our apartment. I live on the 3rd floor (which is really the 4th floor because they do the British way of the ground floor being 0). I walk up the stairs which is nothing because it college I lived on the 9th floor and never used the elevator – scary thing getting stuck all the time. But we went shopping yesterday and Preya had a lot of stuff and needed help getting to her 2nd floor apartment and with the elevator. You have to open this door then pull the gate, and then close both and go very slowly up and then reverse the process. Like the elevators in Titanic!!!! Never again! Unless I have a broken leg! I also need to get used to them being called lifts J
I’ve walked around a few times – it will take awhile to used to where everything is. People stare at me a lot, but no one has bothered me. It is tricky to navigate those crowded streets especially when everyone has an umbrella! Everyone honks every time they see a person or vehicle with is every 1/100th of a nanosecond!!!! Crazy! And it rains constantly. Hard to believe that when monsoon ends, we won’t see one drop of rain until it starts again in June. Not. One. Drop. Of. rain. Ever. I guess the forecast is hot and dry every day J It will be easier to navigate when it is dry but hotter… so we’ll see. It is really nice right now – in the mid 80s every day. Could get used to that if only it wasn’t raining!
I have a lot more impressions and will get to them in pieces J
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