Where to begin??

Well, first of all... I made it!! I arrived safe and sound in Macau on Tuesday just so everyone knows. My computer access has been somewhat limited up to this point which is why I am just now posting something.

As I said, I arrived in Macau late on Tuesday night, went straight to my apartment and proceeded to sleep for about 12 hours. The next few days were followed by Orientation. A.k.a., leading all of us around Macau like children because we are all completely lost at this point. Macau has a very interesting street system. There are no "right turns" or "left turns", everything circles around itself and twists this way and that way so much that I still am not exactly sure where I live! For someone who does not profess to have a sense of direction, navigating the streets of Macau is definitely going to be a challenge. The team here in Macau is great! They are so patient with my ineptitude in finding my home and they let me attempt to lead but inevitably they have to point me in the right direction. As you may be able to tell, being dependent on others to even get to work is a difficult thing for me, but I have faith that soon I will remember where I live!

On other topics, this weekend we (the team) traveled into mainland China. It was a great experience, as the mainland is different even from Macau. In mainland, the people rarely see "foreigners" so they were very interested in us. Any opportunity they had, they would try to engage us in conversation. There was some very interesting conversing taking place!! I was also able to experience a Chinese massage. It was great!! Maybe on of the highlights of the weekend. Two hours of massage! AHH!!

I have not done just too much at this point. My apartment still needs work as I currently sleep on a matress in the living room floor. The matress however is a nice, comfy American matress. The Chinese sleep on very thin, hard matresses. In fact, the first time I laid down on one I thought it was just the box springs and that they had forgotten to put the actual matress on the bed. But nope, I was mistaken. The hard thing I was to sleep on was a matress. So anyway back to the apartment, I still have some organizing and cleaning to do, but it has an incredible veiw of the cathedral square with a fountain.

Here is an interesting side-fact for you, and also a little advice if ever you decide to visit Macau or China. Bring your own toilet paper, because it is not provided for you. This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way! I have yet to visit a bathroom facility in which the toilet paper was provided for you. Apparently it is not the "done" thing around these parts.

Well, that is all for now. In the future, I hope to post pictures along with the posts. However for now that will have to wait. Today, my day off, my plan is to find my way from my apartment to the English Center. I will give you an update about the outcome of that endeavor. Until then peace and love!