Newbie... That's Me!

Today was the last day of only newbie orientation; the rest of the staff arrives at the school tomorrow. Most have been in town for a bit, but don’t have to be in the class, so they’ve just been adjusting and hanging out. (lucky!) Today was pretty uneventful for me, it was a nuts and bolts kinda day for the teachers, and so it was a lot of being useless for me. It was interesting stuff to know for future employment stuff, to see what you have to deal with and such. After that my flatmate and I toured road 233 and walked along the shops, we passed by some embassies (there are soo many here, it’s hard to remember which one is which!) You can always tell which buildings are embassies, because they have those nice armed guards out front. Nothing like a man looking bored while he stands there with an automatic weapon to keep you on your toes! The school I am teaching at has armed guards at all the entrances too. (Note to Mum and Da: this means I am especially safe, because not only are they armed, but they are MEAN, to strangers that is.)

We went to Carrefour yesterday, which is like a giant giant Kmart for those of you in the states. I say Kmart because it’s a bit helter skelter and kinda worn down. We got a few essentials for the apartment, nothing too crazy, we really want to go in stages instead of getting all this stuff and not having anyplace to put anything! I have a feeling that one my flatmate’s boxes get here there will be more that enough stuff in the flat! I found out that I am going to be getting a cell phone from another teacher so I won’t have to buy one, just pay for the minute cards! (which is MUCH cheaper) I can’t wait to meet all the other teachers, the newbies have gotten a little bond going on and it will be odd to see and interact with people beyond us. It will be a refreshing change though!