Impressions after the first week
Beautiful, beautiful scenery and marvelous vistas, wonderful system of paths – interspersed between homes (very close together with small, well-kept yards edged with bright flowers and clean, clean windows) and driveways and happening upon wooded parks with lots of paths, high prices of everything, only one laundromat in the center of town, no tennis courts nor many exercise facilities, Moms walking/jogging with baby carriages [mothers get a year’s paid leave from the government], lots of day-care centers, many women smoking, everyone doesn’t know English though most clerks/bus drivers know enough, so comforting to have a McDonalds ½ mile away [as well as the closest place for us to use the ATM.] Grocery stores that we’ve found don’t have big packages of toilet paper/paper towels, large sizes of yogurt [haven’t found non-fat or low fat plain yogurt either], or much soup of any kind. Thankfully our apartment has wireless [though I’m even more addicted than at home] because there aren’t as many internet cafes as I had expected and it costs to use the internet at the mall. If I keep walking as much as I have this week, I’ll be able to run up the driveway when I get home.