Well, I have much to talk about but one of the things I find most amusing is that our kids will be taking their street shoes off and wearing "slippers" for school. Justin may be able to wear his black Superman clogs, but we'll have to wash them up and he will keep them at school for use during the school day when not outdoors.
We arrived on time and, after our extremely nice Austrian Airlines flight, were happy to see all nine bags of luggage next to each other on the luggage carousel. So they can be organized with the luggage.........I don't think I've ever seen our bags come off an airplane in such an orderly fashion.
Our drive in the Galileo School's minibus took about one hour. We traveled through the Austrian countryside and even waited at a traffic light for our turn to drive through the one lane castle gate where we could continue on the road to Bratislava. The border crossing was simple - our passports were not even looked at except for the front covers. Anya was not feeling well from the long flight. We were, after all, up in the middle of the night Michigan time. She needed to make a few stops and we tried to have her drink some water. OOPS---forgot to ask for STILL water. She was not happy about the bubbles in the bottle that our gracious host, Peter, bought for her.
We made it into Bratislava and then onto the drop off to our new home. Can't say I was impressed at all when I looked at the pre-fab cement slab building standing before us. I had seen many similar buildings when we made our adoption trip for Anya in Northern Russia. These are the remnants of Communist rule and socialism---. The cement is not painted and has the refugee camp-look from Palestine. These buildings go on for blocks and blocks. Some are being renovated on the outside, but for now we definitely in the "communist block". I hoped for the best as we made our way up the teeny, tiny elevator to our 7th floor penthouse apartment. To my delight, the apartment was beautiful. Everything had been freshly updated and remodeled recently. We are outfitted for almost everything (no coffee pot)! What we thought was a four bedroom flat is a four room flat. We can still have visitors, as the rooms are a nice size and we can double up the kids..... The kitchen is bright, with a view of the courtyard and playground (soviet era again) below. The walls are peach in the living room and a lighter peach in the kitchen. The kids have nice roomy airy rooms as well. Doug and I have a small veranda where I'll be able to dry the laundry. Nice washer wedged into the tiny bathroom, but no dryer. The toilet is in one room and the tub/sink/washer is next to that room.
We've been to three different grocery stores now. Stocking up is not so easy when you need to carry everything home. The stores are not far, but we look forward to a new store opening in one month---Tesco---that is British and it is even closer than all the others! That will be very exciting.
We have met one family who spent time in Jerusalem. What a blast to be able to talk about Israel, the West Bank and Palestine during our first days here. The man is American from California and met his Slovak wife in Jerusalem, where they were married. They have a five year old who has become fast friends with Justin and Anya. She speaks both English and Slovak. They also have a newborn! These friends have shown us the downtown area, the bus system, a local church, and some other sites. We look forward to more time with them.
I should go for now. We are six hours ahead of Michigan. We'll be in touch now that we are internet connected.
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