Phil & Rachel's Shenanigans: September 2018

This will be a random entry with lots of random topics. We spend our Monday-Fridays mostly at school or doing school related things.

Anna is now playing volleyball and practices on Mondays and Thursdays. She seems to enjoy it and I have been able to help coach the junior team (here that means the younger team-not as in 11th grade). They will practice until November and then have a weekend tournament and be done after that. I don't have any pictures of her practicing.

Kate is doing well in school and has made lots of friends. She did have a bad cold last weekend, but she is much better. She loves going on adventures with Phil and is always ready to try new things.

John is okay, but having a hard time adjusting to everyday school. Even with me being his teacher, most days he asks at least once if he can go home. The last few days he has been asking to move back to Nashville. He is really missing his buddies back home. He does enjoy playing with the kids at school and all the big kids there love him and are so kind to him. He, of course, loves giving hugs to everyone.

Phillip is enjoying teaching 5/6 and the high school leadership class. We have also started helping out with the youth nights that happen every other Friday. This weekend, I will go on a youth retreat and Phil will stay home with the kids. We didn't think it a good idea for us both to go and be gone for two days with us being so new in country. We started language classes this week! Yesterday, we had our first lesson for 1.5 hours. We will do classes three times a week for 1.5 hours each time. It was hard, but good and we are happy to finally be starting classes.

Even though we are busy most of the week, we try to go on an adventure on Saturdays. With no car, we are limited to where the bus will take us. We have yet to take the metro, but we now have the proper card to pay for it. Our recent adventures have been to a place called Mega Fun (giant place just for arcade games and other fun "rides" for kids-costs about $0.75/ride or game), a bookstore, and some new parks. I got to go with a group of ladies to see a show that was people doing acrobatics. It was at a performing arts center--very cool!

Every time I go grocery shopping, I think about how it might be interesting for those back home to get a picture of what is different here (not bad, just different).

Interesting Grocery Store Tidbits:

1. Eggs are sold separately. Normally, around $0.11/each.

2.Yogurt cups are also sold separately. I didn't know this the first time and was so confused why she was ringing it up four times. Each cup is about $0.26. It's not a big deal to break apart the four pack and only take one or two or as many as you need.

3. You can get fresh bread pretty much any time of day. Each of the smaller markets also carry fresh bread. There are ladies in the bread section baking all day in the grocery stores, but someone delivers fresh bread to the mini markets. You can buy sliced, packaged bread, but it's never as good, just more convenient if you want a sandwich.

4. Fruits/Vegetables: You bag how much you want and then take it to a worker in the produce department. They weigh it and put a price tag on it. Then, you pay for it with the rest of your groceries.

5. There are dead, dried fish laying out in the deli, right beside the cheese. Not sure what's up with all the dried fish, but they stink. :)

6. Mini markets here sell things for mostly the same prices as the big stores. It's nice to be able to go to our mini market and get something and not pay more for the convenience (like in America, where convenience stores are WAY more expensive!).

7. There are two kinds of bakeries here. One bakery is mostly breads/pastries (more savory, not sweet) and the others are cakes or sweet treats. The large grocery stores have both inside, but we have separate smaller ones on our main street. Everything at the bakery is normally pretty cheap and we happen to like both kinds of bakeries! :)

8. You bag your own groceries (good thing I shopped at Aldi in the states, so I was used to that!).

9. If they can't find a price for the item you want and it won't ring up, they will just ask you not to buy it that time. :)

10. Most of the workers are there every day, meaning, we see the same people all the time. It doesn't seem to vary much. Our mini market has one guy that is there every day. I have never seen a different worker. It is open from 8 a.m. until late at night (maybe around 11), so I'm not sure when he gets a break or if there is a different person that takes over for him during times throughout the day.

That is enough randomness for one post. Now, for some random pictures.

Mega Fun!!

Performing Arts Center where I saw the acrobatics show

The outside of the performing arts center.

Playing soccer/volleyball in the courtyard (This picture was John cracking up over something he had just done and Anna being exasperated by what John had just done. Ha!)

How John rides in most Ubers (This was on the way to get our medical checkups for our visas.)

Large English section at a bookstore downtown

My birthday comes just two days after Phillip's, although, he is older than me by a year. We celebrated my birthday by going to worship that Sunday morning, lunch at the mall with friends from Nashville that also live here, we spent the afternoon swimming, and then we relaxed at home with pb&J sandwiches, chips, and cherry Pepsi. It's funny because I never ate pb&j sandwiches at home, but I felt the need for something simple and something that would remind me of home. Some sweet friends also sent birthday cards with us to open once we got here. That was a sweet reminder of those across the pond.

The last two weeks have been filled with school, lesson planning, walking everywhere, figuring out the grocery stores, and trying to settle into our new home. We are all doing well, but are trying to figure out how to balance it all and have good boundaries.

Our weekly schedule looks like this:

1. Leave for school at 8:00 a.m. (We have to be there by 8:30, but I like to get there a little early before the kids come.)-We walk 1/2 mile (or 800 meters) to school every day and walk that home as well.

2. We teach from 8:50-12:30. Phil has a long day on Thursdays because of his leadership class.

3. We leave and go home to work on lesson plans, e-mails, grocery shopping, cleaning, meal planning, plus the many other things that require our time.

4. We spend the afternoon doing homework with the kids and then we sometimes go play in the courtyard with a soccer ball until dinner.

5. Dinner at 6:30 (or sometimes 7)

6. Bath, family w. time, bed at 8 or 8:30.

Every other Friday we will go help with the youth night. Anna is old enough this year to play sports at school, but we will see how she is doing with all the adjusting. It is different than in the states. She will only practice twice a week for a month or two and then they will have one weekend tournament and it will be done. We aren't sure yet about that. Sundays we take an Uber to worship because it is farther away and it would take us forever to walk there. If we are staying in our part of town and need to go farther than we can walk, we take a bus for $0.17 USD. We walk to the grocery store and only buy what we are able to carry back. We also have to walk up our stairs if the elevator is being worked on or doesn't work (Thankfully, that has only happened once, but we were coming up!). 12 flights up is rough! It wouldn't be so bad (okay, it would!) if we didn't already walk everywhere! Again, it works most of the time, so we are thankful! Here are some photos of things we have done recently.