A Simple Update

Brad here. It seems I've got a little more time to share since Amy has done more shopping lately and has more preferences when it comes to certain purchases (like curtains!).
Life is starting to get a little more settled here and will be much better when we get our long awaited dining room table and kitchen. To give you a little glimpse of how life can be a little more frustrating here, the contract we signed on the kitchen stated it would be finished by Thursday, May 10th. On the 10th, at 3pm I took a taxi to see the 'kitchen guy'. When I arrived he pulled out the contract and proceeded to scratch out the 10th and write in the 14th. Amazing! I called a friend who did some translation work and I learned that the materials were being shipped in and have not arrived yet. Therefore, we'd need to wait another 4 days. Well, its been 3 of those 4 days and still no word from him. Is this normal or am I being taken advantage of b/c I'm a foreigner. Maybe a little of both from what I can tell, but its the type of thing that will kill us if we let it get to us.
Or we can simply say, things like this do occur sometimes in the US and we just need to keep the big picture in mind. I must admit, I am tempted to scratch out the price I agreed to pay him and reduce it by 10% and see what he thinks of that. The kitchen table should arrive Thursday and life will be a little easier at that time.

The kids don't seem to mind a whole lot. Without a kitchen, they get to go out a little more and that's usually a welcome event. Yesterday morning, Amy took the kids to McD for breakfast (yes, they know us quite well there) and took a walk around my campus since it was such a beautiful day. I got a chance to study the language for a couple of hours while listening to baseball in the background (yeah, a little strange to listen to the Astros while eating cereal...but the upside is they don't keep me awake all night when they play like bums or when Brad Lidge blows a save...however, I'm thankful we didn't dump him...he's looking better all the time).

We are continuing to meet many new local friends. I must admit we are working hard to get settled, but people are so eager to meet us and speak English to us, we have plenty of opportunities to make friends and share our message. It is an amazing time to live here, and I can't wait to have some of you visit so you can witness what it is like. Peter loves it here since ice cream cones at McD cost around 35 cents and make a fun after dinner treat.


Here's a shot outside our 13th story window. Not a bad view of the city. We'll give you more of a tour of our place once all our stuff gets in later on this week.