Initial Impressions

One of our trainers in Canada told us that we needed to take photos and record impressions of our new home soon after our arrival because things would soon become normal to us.  I found that really hard to believe at the time, but I now realize how true it is.  The things that seemed so odd to me 15 months ago now seem normal and things in this far more developed city now rank as strange.  Here are a few of my initial thoughts and questions about our new city, based on one morning of errand running:

• Where did all of these white people come from?  
• Why are all of the brown people not staring at us and shouting at us as if we are aliens walking down the street?
• Why are all of these women walking around in blue jeans with uncovered heads?
• Why am I not hearing the call to prayer?
• How do they keep these streets so clean?
• You mean, they actually obey traffic laws and take turns?
• They sell ICE in the grocery stores, how can this be?
• People actually wait in orderly lines at the deli and meat counter?  Wait a minute, there is a deli and meat counter?  

Needless to say, it's a huge change from our "old life."  But, we can already tell that there are going to be lots of amenities that we didn't have before.