Getting Settled in Yet Another Place

Sorry, I don't have pictures to show you yet- we haven't quite located our camera cable to be able to upload all of the pictures we've taken. Right now, we're living in another family's apartment (they're gone for another couple weeks) and so we haven't unpacked everything from our bags and duffles yet.

HOME, SWEET HOME
Two weeks ago this morning, we arrived here. Last week, after just one day (!) of looking, we located and signed a lease on a great apartment. This place is just right for us! While most apartments here have a street right in front of them, the street in front of our apartment has been closed off, so we won't have as much traffic noise.

Additionally, it's on the "first floor" (which, here , means the second floor- the first floor is for shops and stores), which is great for the kids (no walking up flights of stairs or squeezing into the tiny elevators they have here). It has a bathtub, which is above and beyond what we expected, and it has a lot of great windows. We'll be very close to three great parks, and one big grocery store. Plus there's a Sunday vegetable market one street away, so I'll have my beloved fresh veggies easily accessible every week!

SHOP TIL YOU DROP
The end of last week and all this week has been filled with shopping, shopping shopping. Beds, dressers, linens, dining room & living room furniture, appliances, dishes, glassware, silverware, trash cans, etc. We've had to start over with everything we need for a new place, which has been fun (it's not every week that you get to shop like this with a purpose!) and also somewhat overwhelming. Particularly when you consider that all of this shopping is being done in another language, another culture, and surprisingly expensive prices.

STICKER SHOCK
When we lived in our previous overseas home (last year), everything was skads cheaper than in the US. But this place has shocked us, in that nearly everything is at least the same price as in the States, but many things (meat, eggs, furniture, milk, linens, clothes, well, nearly everything) are more expensive than in America. So we've definitely had some sticker shock!

SOME GREAT THINGS WE'VE ALREADY NOTICED
The food has been delicious, and the people are kind. There are lots of nice parks near us, and the kids LOVE that. You might remember the "parks" in our previous home... the parks here are much more like American parks, and the boys have a blast!


I'll start updating with photos soon. This is a beautiful place- very hilly, with views of the nearby sea, and a very old-world charm while having the conveniences of modern life. We're thrilled with our new apartment, and the kids are adjusting well. We've all been sleeping through the night for more than a week (sometimes difficult with the time changes), so life is good. All in all, we're ready to settle in and begin having a sense of "normal" here in this new place.