First Impressions

We have been here for about a week now and I thought I should jot down a few of my first impressions of the place. First of all, it's cold! I mean really, really cold. This morning it was below freezing. It's really sunny and beautiful and, of course, dry so we Oregonians think we need to spend as much time outside as possible before it rains. The fact is, it's just too cold. We tried to take Rowan to play at a park the other day and we could only make it for about 10 minutes.

2. The roads are really nice. I don't know why this impressed me so much, but it did. I guess I wasn't expecting really nice roads. There are freeways everywhere. They are wide and nicely paved and clearly marked. Now, more about the driving and all the hilarious stuff you can see while driving on these nice roads will have to be a whole post in itself. I need a whole host of visuals to go with it.

3. I'm sure you are all wondering about the whole "woman" thing. So far I haven't had any trouble. I feel 100% comfortable walking around in my "western" attire with no head covering. There are so many people from all over the world here and, as far as I can tell, only Muslims wear the coverings. I'm sure I'll have more to report on this subject as time goes by.

4. This entire country seems to be all about kids. It's amazing. Everywhere you go there are kid friendly activities. I don't think I've ever seen so many playgrounds (at the grocery store) and carnival rides in my life. It's like one big Fun Land. I have heard people say it's a good place to raise kids, but I didn't know how much they would accommodate children. At least we won't have to worry about never having anything to do.

5. I will leave you with this last thought: Corn. I will do an entire post on corn just as soon as I can take some pictures. Let's just say it's a big deal.