the pet duck

[L] So we were walking down the crowded street in downtown of our city, and we see a duck. Normally, it might not be such a strange sight. We see chickens and other animals all the time, being in a cage or tied up, ready for some hungry person to purchase them to cook them.... bringing them to their fate. However, upon closer inspection, this duck was not your ordinary duck. It was walking freely, AND... it has a little bell tied around it's neck. NOT ONLY THAT, it had an owner!! And it was faithfully walking and following it's owner! When the owner stopped, it stopped. When the owner walked, it walked. It did not have a leash, and yet, was behaving as if it did. Now, THAT is a special pet. Oh, by the way, even if the weather is extremely hot and humid, it seems common for people here to wear socks and hoses underneath their lovely slippers. =)

adventure at the bike shop

[L] I guess what the folks here say is true, "Everything a foreigner does here takes approximately 3 times longer to do than it does in America!" Being a task-oriented person I am, being so "inefficient" here in this new country, at first, was driving me crazy! But towards the end of the week, after realizing that this is now simply a fact of life for a good while, things begin to look a more humorous each day. Suddenly, we realize that the "simple" things in life that once we took for granted in America, can become a long, drawn out adventure...

So, we finally went to get bikes!! After being here and seeing the importance of having a basket on the bike (i've seen people transport anything from furniture items to their groceries on their bike!), I realized that I wanted a basket on my bike too. After "test driving" a few different bikes, I finally narrowed down a bike that best fits me and my height AND with a basket capability. A few hours later, after negotiating & getting ready to buy the bike.... "BANG!" It sounded like a drive-by shooting. It was so loud people looked to see it I was hurt. But NO, it was really the wheels on the parked bike that spontaneously popped (or rather, exploded). So then they come out to change the tires and assure me that they bike wheels were over inflated and that everything else was okay.

But then, they changed their minds and decided, "Oh no, this bike has no capabilities to fit a basket. Sorry." But a basket was what I REALLY needed! So I told them "No, I don't want to buy it anymore. I can get another bike (starting all over again) or go to another shop." Suddenly, things changed and they said, "Oh yes! We can put a basket on it!" So then they did! So yay... I now have a bike that I can ride home in WITH A BASKET! =)

So, we proceeded to ride our bikes home. Everything was going well -- I have a new bike, I have a basket, life is good! =) We ride for at least 15-20 minutes (a couple miles down the road), and "BANG!" No, it wasn't a drive by shooting. It was the wheel on my bike that popped (or rather exploded) AGAIN! So, now we are stranded on the side of the road. I can't carry my bike back to the shop, nor can we go home (another 15-20 minute ride). Luckily, our friend had a number to the bike shop and called them to come out to service our bike. But the bike shop people didn't have a car, so they had to load all their equipment onto their own bike and bike out to help us. After 30-40 minutes of sitting on the side of a dusty road, they finally came to replace my entire wheel, and I was able to bike home in one piece! PTL! =)

At last, after 2 tire explosions, basket to no-basket back to basket debate, 30-40 minutes sitting on the side of the dusty road in hot humidity, we now have bikes! Yay! Now the challenge is to not get our bikes stolen! We heard of someone we know who got his bike stolen 6 times on 1 year!!! Yikes. We ordered some heavy duty U-locks that costs almost more than our bikes...

our first week here

[E] Adjusting to life here has been kind of stressful. My language skills are so minimal that if I had to order food for Lilly and myself, we'd have to eat the same thing. Thankfully, that hasn't happened yet since we've been doing things mostly together with other people who know the language. We've also had so much activity in trying to settle to our new place.

[L] It's really funny how there is a paradigm shift among us and our friends. Some of our friends here are caucasion, so whenever we are out, sometimes people will point them out and yell out, "foreigners!" But with us, people just speak directly to us and assume we know the language because we are Asians. Then, it becomes REALLY confusing to them, because our "foreigner" friends would have to step in to "translate" for us because we don't know what the natives are saying! hahaha.

a new world

[L] Hello friends! We are finally here in our new place... It's been quite a journey. The past 3-4 weeks have been CRAZY! But alas, we have arrived. As Shakespeare writes in Romeo and Juliet, "Parting is such sweet sorrow." The "parting" part was definitely hard. Though we looked forward to the journey ahead, leaving friends and family in a place we called "home" for so long was a difficult process. We miss all of you guys so much already. We especially want to thank those of you who came to help us move in our last days... We couldn't have moved out without your help. It was a humbling experience for us... realizing that we could NOT have done it by ourselves (even though we thought we could--yeah right!). Who knew one (and we have two) could hoard so much stuff after only a few years!

On the last night before we turned in our keys, we took one last look around our apartment to make sure we didn't leave anything (and that everything has been cleaned out). While walking through our apartment one last time, suddenly another wave of nostalgia hits us. Like a camcorder, flashbacks of memories came back to us and we can't believe that we are now leaving it all behind... turning in the key was definitely a hard thing to do. We wished we had more time to say our "good-byes" and our "farewells"...but we found ourselves scrambling with barely enough time to move, clean our apartment, and pack.

So now, we have finally arrived to a new world after a long journey. Everything takes 2-3 times as long to do here, especially since we are new to the language and culture. Just writing this entry took a LONG time as we had a difficult time with the internet connection, phasing in and out... Even just finding our way back to our place was difficult...let's just say getting "lost" and "disoriented" happens with every activity that we needed to do... even with the mundane and ordinary tasks....like to going to the store.

We'll try to share our daily adventures here... but we'll save that for the next entry as we are exhausted in doing just ordinary task and figuring our way around here. We are just thankful we are in one piece -- the buses here stop for no one. The bigger vehicles rule over smaller vehicles, and in turn, bikers rule over the pedestrians. Maybe we'll go get bikes soon this week! Then, maybe we'll be one-up from being pedestrians.