Saturday, August 20, 2011

Tour of the city!

Today was another exciting day in Dar. I was woken up this morning at around 7:30 by Shannon who thought it was 9:30....we were scheduled to be picked up at 10! I then looked at my phone and told her it was only 7:30 she said oops. Needless to say not all of our clocks are set to Dar time yet and we are still getting used to the 7 hour time difference. We started our morning with fresh Starbucks coffee (Yes! I brought some with me from the states). This also meant that we had power this morning and we were able to use our new coffee pot :)

We were then off to do some shopping with the HR manager. The school got him to take us out today even though it is Saturday and he never works Saturday. The school has been extremely accommodating to us since our arrival. Our first stop of the day was at a shopping mall very close to our apartment. We went to a store called Game....It is like the Walmart of Tanzania. We were able to get some of the last items that we needed for our apartment....nightstands, rugs, extension cords, etc. Then we went on to do a bit more shopping and pick up some groceries. We also stopped to look at mobile phones and discovered that they do have Iphones here but unfortunately they are 1.5 million shillings which is about 1000 US dollars...not worth it :(

We made a quick stop at our apartment to drop some items off as we had already filled the car. Then we were off to another shopping area. Seacliff is an area where a lot of expats hang out. There are really nice restaurants and some really cute shops. There is also a resort there that has a spa that we will be visiting in the very near future. This place is very very close to the school we will be teaching at so we are excited about that! Next, we went to another shopping area called Slipway. We had lunch on the beach of the Indian Ocean. It was absolutely beautiful! Next, we were off to an open market. In this area you "haggle" with the merchants. Luckily we had Jesse (the HR manager) with us and he speaks fluent Swahili. He was able to get us some great deals. We got some really cute things for our classrooms and an awesome painting for our dining room! I will post some pictures soon.

We had a very successful day of shopping and got almost everything we needed. We are still struggling with getting the shower curtain up but that is just minor. As we were getting close to our apartment we began to notice that the area was very very very dark. We thought the power was out again and we were right! We did learn today that they can only ration the power for a maximum of 12 hours during the day and 4 hours during the night. So around 11 our power came back on tonight so it was that bad. We lit a bunch of candles and used our flashlights. We were able to get our nightstands together and played a game of phase 10. Tonight we are charging all of our electronics just in case there is a power ration tomorrow during the day.

Tomorrow we look forward to doing a little more decorating but we especially look forward to getting to relax for the first time since our arrival! Then Monday (hopefully!) we will get to go and meet some of the teachers at the school and see our classrooms so we can begin decorating them :) We also plan on going to a resort area a bit North of the city to another resort to enjoy some time at the beach.

All in all I am loving it here. We both are adjusting well and coming up with ideas for when the power is rationed. Having Shannon here has definitely made the transition a whole lot easier. I couldn't imagine being here  with out her being right across the hallway. It makes everything much  easier because we are able to shop, dine, decorate, etc together.  We also have found out that another teacher lives right next door to us and she is from the States as well. We are looking forward to her return so we can get ideas and what not with her as well!

I think that is all for now. Another late night. It is after 1 am here and I am not even tired. The jetlag is kicking my butt this time!

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