Arrival

We made it!  Layna and I arrived on Tuesday morning (my time) at 3 am.  We landed in the international airport and in all honesty the airport looked similar to airports I had flown into in West Africa.  I was expecting something bigger and fancier, but it was a plain airport with two customs gates and a rinky dink baggage claim.  Thankfully we were both able to get all of our luggage through security without being questioned or charged for overweight bags, and this included us going back and forth through the security.  We were greeted by our supervisor and another man who works with us.  We left the aport and headed for a temporary home for the next four days.  We won't move into our apartment until this weekend, so we are currently living out of suitcases but so thankful that we get to stay in a coworkers cozy home while she is in the states.

My first impressions of the city were mixed.  It was what I had expected but also completely different then  what I had thought.  The snow has just melted and it is muddy, trash and cigaret buds are everywhere (they will begin to clean up soon) and the trees are barren.  People fill the sidewalks as they walk to work, stores or walk for the sake of walking, and busses, trolleys and aggressive drivers rule the road.  The rule of "Cars yield to pedestrians" does not exist here, instead you follow the green walk light and double check that the cars are stopping.  The skyline is filled with grey buildings that range from building built decades ago to new buildings, yet they all look the same and even the newer buildings look old.  There are some new building that are more colorful or have a different architectural build, which are great for using as landmark references.  People are dressed in coats and hats and the woman here are very fashionable and many walk around in heels all day.

People do look at us oddly on the streets when they hear us speaking english.  I did learn that the older generation sometimes can not differentiate between french, german and english so one man asked if we were french.  We are beginning to recognize some landmarks and know were we are in parts of the city, yet today I got turned around when we were walking.  We also took the trolly for the first time today when we went to the market that is near our house (the house we will be living in soon).  The market reminded me of the markets in Africa, they sold the same things basically and it was open air.  Different people on the team have been showing us around and helping us get acquainted with the city.  Our days have also been filled with trips to offices to make sure everything is in order to live here for the next two years.  We were able to go to an english club/bible study on Tuesday night and meet some of the people, which was really nice.  We also visited some orthodox churches and saw how that religion affects the city.  People are preparing for Easter on sunday and so for english club and other outreaches they are using the Easter story to teach English and share the Gospel at the same time.  Monday we start our language learning three days a week with our tutor who we were able to meet yesterday.

Goodbye!
до свидания!
(Dasvidania) phonetic spelling