July 10 - a break from the heat...

July 10 - Thursday 7 am - Hi everyone - hope all is well at home, we heard it's been cooler the last few days. It was cooler here yesterday afternoon/evening, it stayed cloudy and there was a nice breeze - ahhhhhhhhh! Today it looks cloudy again and the Weather Network page calls for 25 C and rain - that's totally fine with us! Nice break from the whole surface-of-the-sun thing !

We had 2 visits yesterday, one to take our girl to the international doctor which is downtown (approx 20 minute drive). She was not happy being in the car or at the doctor, but handled it like a champ. The 2nd visit was for playing, which was awesome.

Driving here is an experience unto itself - we'd heard about it from other people but you still can't believe it until you see it for yourself! Everyone drives really fast and recklessly- lanes, stop signs, even traffic signals seem to be more suggestions than rules. The cars come within inches of each other all the time as they straddle the lane or go hurtling around corners. They do not pay attention to pedestrians and we've been warned that drivers believe they are MUCH more important than walkers, so not to trust crossing signals. Only cross when you're sure there are no cars around.

For the most part we only have to cross smaller streets - every day we walk out of our apartment complex and go a couple blocks up Mendekolov which is mostly residential (apartment buildings), then we cross and turn onto a smaller side street (can't find the name of it anywhere, not even on our map) to get to Ramstore and to the place where we meet our driver for our BH visits. Our balcony faces away from Mendekolov so we look at Al-Farabi which is a major route, with 6 lanes of crazy drivers - yikes!

Also - everyone here considers themselves a taxi - it's very normal for someone to stand on the side of the street and stick out their arm - within minutes a car will stop to pick them up. After a quick negotiation of price, the person will get in the car, usually in the back seat. We've seen this every day, with both men and women doing it, sometimes with children with them. Wow - can't imagine doing that at all.....

Today we're headed to the Notary and to the airline office/airport (still trying to change our return flight date). Then this afternoon we'll have another visit at the BH. Hope you all have a good day!
take care,
N&P