I feel like many people in our area have never seen a real-live foreigner, but I can hardly believe it. In the past 2 weeks, I have seen a few other westerners myself- ok, in the western restaurant not too far from here. But still... I know there are some others around.
A very kind gentleman asked me yesterday if I'm from Korea. Korea... really? I would love to be, but I don't think I have any Asian blood in me.
Then, I met a nice lady who lives in our stairwell and we happily chatted for a few minutes outside. While we were visiting, another older woman came to inform my new friend, "She can't understand you. Don't you see she's a foreigner, she doesn't speak our language." Funny timing... she must not have realized we were already deep in conversation!
As for this neighborhood, we are so happy here. We live very near two nice parks and one of them even has a playground and grass that I think, I hope, we might even be allowed to walk on. The thing that most blesses Matt's heart is that in a 5 minute bike ride he can be standing in the shadow of a tower that was built over 1,400 years ago or he could be standing on the ancient city wall around the inner district of our city if he rides just 15 minutes further down the road.
For history lovers like my love, this place is spectacular. Unfortunately, the pollution here is also pretty outstanding. Our first few days here- while we were all in the throws of jet lag, and not at all unpacked- the air was so thick (murky like dingy dish water after all the dinner dishes) that I honestly felt like I was in a science fiction movie scene of the last days of the earth. Sadly, I couldn't find my camera to snap any shots. If I had pic.s, those days would have taken your breath away too. But I'm not going to hope for a repeat just for the sake of photo evidence. I've been happy to have some bluer days since then.
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