Happenings

Well, another week gone which means it is time for another blog entry. I am sorry I don’t have many pictures for you this week. The picture above was taken at the temporary lodging place when I first got here. I do like Jessica’s idea of getting a video of the driving here. I’ll see what I can do to capture the real-life race car video game for you. Seriously, if you like playing car video games, you should definitely come here- it is an adrenaline rush every time you get behind the wheel! Here is what I observed this week when it comes to driving:

· A bus turned left from the far lane across 3 lanes of traffic where there is only one left turn lane. Everyone calls them “sweepers” here.

· On a narrow, two lane, busy street, there was a car parked on the side of the road with no one around. Let’s just say, a narrow two lane road became an even narrower 3 lane road!

· Traffic lights take an eternity to go through their cycle (seriously 10 minutes later….) so you get a lot of people turning or going through the yellow/red because they don’t want to wait.

· A cause for so much craziness on the freeway is the huge range of speeds. The speed limit is 120 Kilometers per Hour which is about 75 Miles per Hour. Well, you will have some people going 80K (about 50 MPH) and others going 160K (about 100MPH).

Other interesting things about this country: · The people running the stores are awesome sales people who are fabulous at stating the obvious. Seriously, it makes me laugh, but they are so happy to point out that the watch you are looking at is “a square watch with a blue face” or “here you have a round watch with a silver band”! It would be helpful if they told you info about the product you wouldn’t know simply by looking at it, but that might be asking too much! In another store I was looking at a binder containing a list of movies for purchase and the sales guy proceeded to read to me the titles of all the movies. Thanks, but I do know how to read English! It cracks me up! A similar situation happened when I picked up a menu at a café or when I moved into my apartment and they were going through the binder of information with me, so I guess it is a common thing to do.

· If you are looking at something just to find out what it is, they think you are interested and want to buy it. They immediately begin displaying 20 other similar items so you have a wide variety to choose from.

· If you are near stores, every five feet you hear “Ma’am, would you like to buy a purse?” or “Sir, we sell watches!”

· A common very common phrase is “No problem, I show you”. The sales people are very polite.

· When buying fruits or vegetables you have to write down the price before taking it up to the cashier. If you don’t, the cashier looks at you and says “no price”. They don’t send someone back to do a price-check either. Live and learn. Needless to say, I didn’t buy any fruit that day.

· The prayer song gets broadcast and you can hear it pretty much wherever you are at. I wish I knew what they were saying so it was more than just sound to me.

· The cheese here is a little off. Okay, it tastes pretty nasty actually. I went to a bakery this week and was so excited to get some cheese bread. The bread part tasted pretty good, but I had to tear the little veins of cheese out. I was kind of disappointed. Again, live and learn!

· The number one seller from the bakery were little pizza things. We heard what was in it, and it definitely sounded interesting, but if they can’t keep them on the shelf I am willing to try it. Yeah, I took one bite and threw the rest away! Pizza made with the interesting cheese and ketchup didn’t quite cut it for me!

· The cars here start dinging if you are going over 120K (or about 75MPH) and it does not go off until you go below 120K again. So, either you don’t speed because you can’t stand the constant bell or you turn up the radio to drown it out!

· For the most part, everyone speaks English, or at least knows enough to communicate. I did ask a sales guy where the toilet cleaning stuff was and he took me to floor cleaning supplies, but we eventually got on the same page! Anyway, at work there was a situation where we needed to talk to the city. Well, when we called the emergency number the person who answered did not speak a lick of English other then, “no speak English”. Nice! One would think that is when you definitely need to have someone who speaks English. Hey, what do I know?!

· For this next story it is important to keep in mind that there are a lot of dust storms here and heaters don’t get used very often. Okay, so yesterday as I got to work it was a little chilly (yes, 48 degrees seemed pretty chilly to me and a co-worker). Anyway, my co-worker decided to turn the heater on, which hasn’t been used for probably a year, and almost immediately there is a nasty burning smell and the fire alarms went off. Nice! We called the fire department to save them a trip and let them know we turned the heater on, but the dispatch said that since the alarm went off she still had to send them out. So, the fire fighters told us to turn on all the heaters to let the dust, dirt, and grime burn off while they were there and wouldn’t have to respond again. It was a fun way to begin a Saturday morning! (Just for the record, it was not me who turned the heater on and I told my co-worker not to!)

Well, there were about 30 people at church last Sunday. It was actually a really good meeting being testimony meeting and all. I think I've mentioned before that we only meet for two hours. We have Sacrament and then we alternate between a Relief Society/Priesthood Lesson from the Joseph Smith Manual or a Sunday School Lesson from the scriptures. Because of this, we are really behind on lessons!

This morning I watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It's the small things that remind me it is the Christmas season. Easy to lose track of what day it is over here! I am very grateful for technology that allows me to watch the devotional a week later. The talks were wonderful. I truely don't know what I would do without my laptop and the internet. I love the fact that I still feel connected to family and friends. Its always fun talking/chatting with everyone!

Okay, that is pretty much all the stories I have for you this week. Next time, unless there is something really exciting to write about, I will share my story of mirrors flapping in the breeze- stay tuned!

For all you who are traveling this week- be safe! Love you all!