What We've Learned So Far

As I lay awake in bed this morning, I was thinking about our circumstances.  Here we are, in a country where we can neither speak, nor read the language, and yet we spent the day yesterday getting cell phones, negotiating the purchase of a car (albeit an overpriced piece of $hit), arranging to see rental houses (on our new phones,) and exploring the town on foot.  But what permits all of these things to occur, generally speaking, is trust in our fellow human beings.  We don't know if we are being ripped off or deceived.  In fact, I assume we are to one degree or another, yet if we didn't just suck it up and trust the people we meet, we couldn't accomplish any of the mundane tasks that we need to complete.  Essentially, I'm feeling very vulnerable and helpless.  But then along comes some sweet face with basic English ability and suddenly we are signing contracts that we can't read.  It goes against everything I've ever learned the hard way.  My brain is shaking with apprehension, but I know it doesn't matter.  We have no choice but to trust people completely.  We are students of humanity right smack dab in the middle of an important lesson, though class is not out yet.  I'm hoping to be rewarded for our faith in people and not have my cynicism reinforced.

I'll let you know how that goes......

In a few minutes, we are being picked up by the owner of Jess' school.  She's taking us to check it out for the first time, which we are all very excited about.  We are also meeting one of Jess coworkers who has a washing machine.  All of our clothes are stinky with South-East-Asian humidity and we have no way yet of cleaning them.  It's the little things that make us excited these day, you know?

Later, I have to drop off the rest of our deposit on the overpriced piece of you-know-what.  Then at 1 PM we get to see our first house.  It's almost directly across from the school, but is not furnished. That has to be negotiable though.  After that?  Who knows?