Make a run for the border

We have only just returned home from visiting the neighboring country for a couple of days. It still seems funny to me that we can take a 'quick' trip to an entire other country. It was a super FUN trip for many reasons (which I'll outline in detail momentarily) HOWEVER, I have learned that international travel is not without its own set of difficulties and trials. The trip started fantastically - we even left on time. The travel was great . . . well for this part of the world. We'll just say that I need to write another post called 'traffic' to describe the madness on the roads in this country. There are trucks, cars, auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, buses (most of the time with people sitting on top), motorcycles, regular bicycles, walkers and various asundry animals that one must avoid while traveling by road. It's a feat. My husband rocks at it! Anyway, we came to the border. Again, all is well until we realized in one of those 'breath sucking in', 'freak out' moments that we are a day late leaving according to our paperwork. This is bad - like breaking international laws bad. We used all the language we had, and with the help of a friend (whose language is better than ours) we were allowed to the leave the country without any jail time. Whew. I mean a really big whew.

We arrived at our destination and found a hotel-a dramatic pause is necessary here. The room had AIR CONDITIONING and NO LOAD SHEDDING! I was ecstatic. THEN we went to this place called Big Bazaar. I was expecting a big bazaar, similar to the the bazaar in our town (except maybe, uh, bigger) BUT PEOPLE GET READY - it. was. a. mall. With inside stores, a food court and A/C. I honestly got a little teary eyed. I just didn't realize that after only three months of living overseas that I would need to be in touch with something so American-like, but I needed it. I was so thankful to be there. I was already totally overwhelmed, but it gets even better! The NEXT day, I went back to the mall, had an hour long pedicure (for $10.00) AND ate at Dominoes pizza. I could've gone home right then and had complete refreshment, but it gets even better! The next day, we took the kids to a water park, and it was WONDERFUL to see them having so much fun. Probably the most fun they've had since we arrived. It was awesome.

After the waterpark fun, we found a fantastic coffee shop (think Starbucks here) that served regular coffees, iced coffees and coffee ice cream treats. We all got a treat. Mine was a Snapple (I'm completely unAmerican and not a real adult b/c I HATE COFFEE)! I have posted a photo of said Snapple mainly because Jonathan refused to pose for a goofy photo with his cool coffee drink. Then I abrubtly realized that since the changing room at the water park didn't have a light in it, I put on my top inside out. I like this picture because it reminds me that I'm still me, and not even culture shock can change the ridiculous things I do.

Return trip was pretty smooth after we worked out the kinks with an ATM card AND credit card that wouldn't work and paid our bill at the hotel. Like I said, apparently there's always something going on when you travel around here. Now we are refreshed and ready to give language learning and local school another go!