Making our home/Things that are different

We have been here a month and a half now, and it is really starting to feel like home. I was talking last night about how quickly I came to feel comfortable here. I contribute this to how amazing the people are here, how easy it is to become friends with people, and how great the school is that we are working at. The school did a great job integrating us, and the students are so wonderful and open to new ideas. The staff members are so interesting with all of their life experiences. They are all doing such amazing things in the classroom, so innovative and pushing the students to their limits. Plus, they are really fun to hang out with, and it is so easy to hang out since we all live in the same general area, and walk past many happy hours on our way home from school. I feel like we have really settled into a nice routine here.

So there are a few things I have started to realize that are different here compared to Chicago. These things are different, not necessarily bad.

Low water pressure. Showering is fine, but even in our kitchen it takes a little more time to fill up a pot, or the bucket for mopping. Plus we turn our hot water heater on and off. If we forget for a few days, it is a super chilly start to the day, if we leave it on the water is scalding hot.

We have no garbage disposal. We have to remember to throw all the food away when chopping vegetables that we have washed with our bottled water. 

Cabs honking at you because they want to know if you want a ride, not as they try to run you over. 

No street lights really anywhere. Or traffic rules. It's a free for all. One way, no problem. Park on either side facing either direction. Scooters fly by, cars fly by, trucks stop in the middle of a street. 

All toilet paper gets thrown in the garbage cans,not in the toilets. 

There is no use for clothes dryers. I love the hanging of clothes on our many clothes lines from our balconies, only dropped on thing so far! 

There are small shops, for the most part everywhere. Great neighborhood places where you get to know the shop owners and you find hidden treasures. I love talking to our fellow teachers about the best stores for different products. We talk about our cheese guy, hummus guy and more.

People here are washing the sidewalk/or street/or store floor all the time, but they are really careful to not spray you as you walk by. 

You haven't lived till you have woken up to cat fights. Of the real feline variety. These cats are vicious, and some have told me the cat screams are from something else too...I'll leave that one for you to figure out.  But it is crazy just that there are cats everywhere.
The last thing would be worrying about internet. You pay for a certain number of Gigabytes per month, and if you run out you have to pay more. The internet is free though from 11-5 am, so that is interesting as well. We try to do our downloading then.