Settling In

We're in the apartment and trying our best to get over the jet lag. Last night was probably our best so far, but I think we still have a few days to go before the kids start to feel like they are on a normal schedule.

It's Friday morning now, and Tommy has just left for the office -- he'll take a half-day today to get some errands done there, and then be home this afternoon.

Let me give a quick-ish recap of Wednesday and Thursday...

On Wed. morning (at the hotel) Betsy and I woke up around 5, and Tommy and John around 6. After breakfast at the hotel, we rounded up all of our things and prepared to meet Candy. She was running a little bit late, so we walked over to the Starbucks and took John into Carrefour (our grocery store/WalMart equivalent).

When Candy arrived with her driver, we piled all of our things in her van and headed down the street to our apartment. We didn't realize that the compound has underground parking with elevators that go straight into each building -- this was a very happy development, since we were imagining having to drag all of the suitcases through the compound. We came straight upstairs and into the apartment.

It was just like we remembered -- but now with more furniture! The landlord had added the light fixtures we requested, plus a bed and wardrobe in John's room and a dressing table in Betsy's. We had a full house -- all of us, Candy, the engineers installing the second TV, the representative from the compound's management office -- and the kids pretty much just took it all in stride. After a while, we had a surprise visit from our landlord! She brought us a basket of fruit as a welcome and was so excited to see Betsy and John. We learned that she and her husband own our apartment and the one directly across the hall, and they have two teenage daughters.

Candy and I did all of the paperwork such as recording all the furniture items, the current meter readings (we are the first tenants), and she walked me through all of the various controls in the house. There are a lot of controls. We signed a lot of documents and finally, around 1:30, we were done and on our own in our new home.

And we were hungry. So we decided to walk over to Thumb Plaza for lunch at Wagas, which has English menus and really good sandwiches. Betsy hadn't taken a nap yet, so she fell asleep in the stroller pretty quickly. Lunch was delicious, and we went from there back to Carrefour to buy some sheets for John's bed so that at least we had one bed to sleep on.

That's pretty much how we spent the rest of the day, walking back and forth to Carrefour to get random supplies. I went back on my own around 4:30, trying to find some dinner for us. It did not go well, and I had a moment where I thought we were going to starve or go broke from eating out because I couldn't find anything. I finally came out of there with a jar of peanut butter, some bread, some milk and butter, and a box of macaroni and cheese. Did I have a spoon to stir the macaroni? Nope. Or a knife to spread the peanut butter? Nope. Time to improvise.

And while I was gone, the kids had fallen asleep and were therefore furious that we dared to wake them for dinner. I think we got them to eat half a piece of bread (Betsy ate some banana) before we just threw them in the bathtub and put them back to bed. Tommy went back to CF for temporary sheets for our bed. (We're doing a lot of walking.)

We finally fell asleep around 9, and the kids woke up at 12:45 and 1:45, respectively. Betsy and I went back to sleep around 4, and Tommy and John around 5. So Thursday morning felt even more disoriented. We had peanut butter sandwiches and NutriGrain bars leftover from the flight for breakfast and then -- in a brave and completely stupid move -- decided to pack everybody up and take a taxi to IKEA.

The taxi itself was stressful, but not as bad as I feared. Betsy actually fell asleep in the car, which helped a lot.

IKEA is about 45 minutes away, in Puxi, in a very busy part of town. Oh, and it was the start of their 10th anniversary sale. Crowded, to say the least. Like the day after Thanksgiving at the mall. Times 10.

At one point we had the stroller, a cart, a big yellow IKEA bag, and some borrowed room in Tony's cart. (Tony got in on Wednesday night and had to get some things for his place, too.) We were trying to move this all over the store, which was packed with people. And then Betsy woke up, and we discovered that our daughter is a rock star. If it was hard to move through the store at the start, it was even worse once people got a glimpse of her and her hair. I had prepared myself for the possibility that she would get a lot of attention -- but this was totally strange. Huge groups of people would stop and stare, point, pet her hair, talk amongst themselves about her, try to pick her up, and generally fuss over her. And this happened every 5-10 minutes as we moved to different rooms in the store. I was hungry and tired and overwhelmed and just wanted out.

Tony's friend Jemmie works at IKEA, and he met us at checkout and helped us get our things packed up and set for delivery (today at 2!). Then we walked with Tony across the street to another giant mall, where we indulged in a sit-down lunch at Papa John's. Betsy was getting restless by that point, and I took her outside of the restaurant to walk around while we waited for our food. We were in a little courtyard of kiosks, and again, all of the workers and shoppers stopped what they were doing and crowded around her. They were all cooing over her and trying to get her to walk to them, and when one of them handed her a brochure, she did her coy little nod and wink and had them all swooning. She is going to be our ticket around here, I think. :-)

The taxi ride home was a little more daunting. Tony had given the driver our address, but then he wasn't with us, so when the driver started asking questions, we were nervous. And there was lots of traffic. And halfway home the trunk flew open, with our stroller inside, so we were wondering how long it would take for someone to snatch it out of the back. The kids were tired and whiny and by the time we got home, I was pretty sure we wouldn't be taking a family taxi trip again for a long, long time.

But it was only 4:00, and we were all about to fall asleep. So we couldn't sit around the apartment. Another walk to Thumb Plaza! We checked the Sephora and the brand new Best Buy and Apple store, then had a treat at one of the 5 pastry shops in walking distance, and then -- guess what? -- back to Carrefour for more groceries and supplies. Finally dinner (we could make the mac and cheese now that we had a spoon), baths, and bed. Betsy and John woke up around 2, but went back to sleep, and I think the official wake up time today was 6:30.

Today's agenda includes going back to Best Buy to get some cables for the tv, some lunch and playtime, then home to meet the IKEA delivery man.