Meet and Greet

Well it's day two of my big adventure and what a fun filled day I have had!  It all started this morning when I was actually awake to go to breakfast, I received a message from another teacher in the hotel saying she was headed down to breakfast and so I was able to join her!  Let me tell you breakfast was AMAZING!  I will take pictures and post them tomorrow, the amount of food and selections they have is out of this world.  Everything tastes like this country, I know that is weird to say, but if you could give a taste to a country it would be the food at breakfast.  I can't wait to try more tomorrow, I'm going to give camel's milk a try!  After breakfast, I ventured out with three new friends to get SIM cards and cell phones.  Let me tell you something the Mall of America (which I have never been to) has NOTHING on this mall and apparently it isn't even the biggest!! I did manage to take a picture of the Starbucks written in Arabic which is so cool looking.  As we were walking through the mall and venturing down to the supermarket, I can't help but catch myself staring at the men and women dressed in the traditional clothing!  It is so beautiful looking and they move about so gracefully in it, it is breathtaking!  I purchased the most random food items to snack on in my hotel room.  These items included: a baguette, hummus (divine!), Fanta, Dutch carmel cookie things, fresh squeezed pineapple juice, and two apples.  Purchasing produce here is really smart, here's what I mean, before you leave the produce section, they weigh your produce for you, close your bag and put the sticker with the price on the bag so when you go to the check stand to pay, they don't have to type anything in!  So smart!  At the grocery store, remember Walmart on crack, we were looking through the clothes and I found some AWESOME shiny purple pants that are to be worn under and Abya.  I tried them on and everyone got a laugh out of how I looked.  
After shopping, I came back to my room and tried to nap, until about 4.  Well i tried and tried to take a nap, however I only fell asleep about 30 mins before my alarm was to go off and of course I didn't hear it!  So I woke up and headed down to the lobby to get a copy of my stamped visa so I could get a sim card, that process took us (Alecia and I) over and HOUR!   There were a bunch of other teachers that South Africa and one from Ireland (I think that's where she was from, I forgot to ask).  After we received our copies, we headed down to the lobby where Melissa was there waiting for over an HOUR (she is AMAZING for waiting so long for us!).  Melissa took us to Carrefour which is another Walmart on crack type store to get our SIM cards and phones.  She was so informative and so honest with the things she was saying which is refreshing, the more I know up front the better I will do.  Then she took us to the same restaurant I ate at the night before, which I did not mind at all because I loved the food, this time I had fish and chips.  She filled us in on all the good and not so good things she has experienced and we openly asked her question after question and she answered honestly.  The key phrase of the night was "I have a guy for that" meaning she knows anyone and everyone that can help with anything and everything we could possibly need!  I am now back in my hotel room looking out into the hazy humid sparkling city.  Here are some pictures from yesterday that I forgot to post, enjoy!