In the last week or two, we have become more comfortable with life here. It was such a gradual change that we have been surprised to realize that we are actually "comfortable" most of the time. Well, at least with almost everything but the driving... Even Don doesn't feel comfortable yet about that and we still don't know how or what streets to go on.
Even though we don't know the language we don't go places wondering how we are going to get what we need. We know that we can get by in a pinch and if we have to come back another time, so be it. We walk into our big grocery store, where very few of the workers can even speak a tiny amount of English, and we go about our business as if we were in Walmart back home. Sometimes some customer standing next to us can answer a question or two and we always have fun trying to talk to them.
I went into a small store to buy some white tea the other day and neither one of the ladies spoke any English. By hand signs, I just told them I was looking, and then I remembered that I could say, "I would like... tea white." It was a wonderful feeling to have the words come to me when I'd already given up!
Friday night we walked to a big mall near us and met with other friends on our team for one of the children's birthday parties. We had conversations in English, Pizza Hut pizza (actually tastes very close to the pizza in the States), and birthday cake that was made with American cake mix! We could have been in the States just going about a regular birthday but then when we left and went out to walk around the mall - this time I didn't notice the big differences. It just seemed like a mall to me with people in it. The language didn't seem so strange, and the signs did not make me wonder what they said (I recognize some words now and know that in time, I will get a lot more.)
Okay, speaking of language, now I need to go study those present tense verbs that we are going to be tested on next week...
