Every Thursday at 1:55 pm, Dr. Mitchell (Bernie), the superintendent, gives his end-of-the-week announcement and then plays Louis Armstrong for a few minutes. I have to say, at some point the song will probably drive me nuts, but in this first crazy busy week, it was a blissful way to end the day. The students were quick to leave and there was a good forty-five minutes to close things out before heading home.
The bus made a quick stop at the local supermarket on the way home. This was another Sultan Center located close to school (nothing in this heat is within walking distance). What I am discovering is that some items are not available consistently. For example, I have not found almond butter since our first shopping trip. I did however find canned pumpkin, and what people told me was that I got lucky. Items like that will come and go without notice so buy a couple if you like what you see. The other lucky find was there was a “farmer’s market” section in the store with locally grown produce. I found a whole flat of beautiful butter lettuce for only a couple dollars, and was able to share with our neighbors. We are enjoying the salad mix quite a bit.
The complex had a bbq Thursday night down at the pool, although it was too hot to grill. We were fine to graze on salads and other cold dishes. It’s really a nice eclectic group of people, a mix of families, couples, and singles mostly from the US and Canada.
Yesterday, I went over to the Friday Market with a few people. This was an amazing shopping experience (except I was resigned to just looking until payday next week). There were a dozen outside covered pavilions, each about the size of a football field. One pavilion had bedding, another had furniture, another had rugs and curtains, another had clothes (which assuaged my doubt that there wouldn’t be any second hand stores). It was phenomenal and something I would like to spend more time at. We also went over the plant souk where I did buy a couple of plants to hopefully fill in our apartment. We miss having green living things around us.
Later in the day, Russ and I went over to the Hilton to walk at the beach. It is a good four kilometer loop that gives us something somewhat pleasant to look at. We then used the internet for about an hour. We are trying out a new internet service here at the apartment, 3G technology sharing with another apartment. So far so good.
After spending the morning today prepping food for the week and puttering around the apartment, I went back to the Hilton with my friend Maria for our workout. Maria is about my age from Nova Scotia. She is easy to shop with and we're on the same workout philosophy. Even though I am friendly with a lot of other people, it's great having someone (other than Russ) to call up and hang out with.
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