Arrival

Welcome to my blog on my experience in Addis Ababa.
I arrived exhausted after a short stop (that wasn’t all that short) in Sudan and still had a smile on my face due to the wonderful goodbye party ( thanks to all) and the fact that I passed my C2 Cervantes ( thanks to everyone in Bilboa with the patience to correct me!)…
James with his family came and picked me up and wanted to take me out to dinner but seeing as the plane was half empty and I had been offered seconds I was stuffed and we just went to a supermarket to get some breakfast stuff for the next morning, toilet paper and candles ( for the power cuts). The school invited which was good because I didn’t have birr on me. Afterwards I was taken to the flat where I probably will be staying for the rest of the year. The big Boss a converted American Muslim is on holiday so I haven’t spoken to her or met her and she’ll decide where exactly I will teach in Makanesa where I am now or in a different school. My American flat mate David is in his early fifties and came here out of love for a girl he met in Uganda who is supposed to come down to live in Addis in December. He’s got the biggest bedroom with the on suite bathroom which will be mine once he leaves ;-). My bedroom is quite ok though I’m lacking some closet space but that all the more reason to buy some nice baskets to stuff that can be on the floor. Being tired I was a bit taken aback at first by the flat more specifically the kitchen… We sadly enough don’t have an oven only a gas stove with 2 fires… So far for cooking elaborately. They also showed me the place to wash my clothes by hand outside the house…. Pfff I must admit I was extremely happy when David told me our housekeeper does this for us, she also cleans and does the dishes ( What a luxury huh!). He seems to be a nice guy and we went exploring the outskirts of the city yesterday. Kids don’t come up to you as much as they did in Ghana here but they are however more persistent. I had the most wonderful drink, I had read in my travel guide ( thanks Roel!) that the juices here are amazing and that they can also serve you a glass with a layer of every juice they offer. This pretty rainbow drink contained avocado juice mango juice raspberry juice etc…. DELICIOUS!!!!!! And this wonderful smoothie costs 10 birr ,less than 1 euro 1 euro = 17 birr). If I keep this up I’ll definitely have my portion of fruit a day! We also went to a supermarket and David had told me he hadn’t seen cheese here so when I saw some cheese there I decided to buy some. In Bilboa I was reluctant to buy something at the counter for quite some time because you don’t know up front how much it will cost you and I should have been as reluctant here… I asked for a mere 5 slices of 2 kinds of cheese ( the slices were quite thick) and ended up paying a 100 Birr! Auwch! I learned that lessons the hard way. Down the street where we live there are some small shops, good for fruits and vegetables, there’s also a butcher with pork meat only and I thought I was gonna have to go without! Also eating out seems quite affordable so for the ones that thought I would go hungry NOT!
A bit of a bummer is limited internet access, meaning no skype probably… but well this blog thing should keep you up to date, I don’t know about pictures yet though.
Enough for today! Take care.