A very long story short, it was an elderly diabetic lady, who apparently hadn't eaten much, but had drank several glasses of wine. She had passed out and they got her conscious again, checked her blood sugar (had another diabetic on the plane who let them use his tester strips) and checked her blood pressure (same man had a blood pressure cuff too!). Once they had her conscious for a little while and talked with her, they had her get back up and tried to get her to walk. She walked the length of one seat and passed out again. They had to get the emergency medical kit and thankfully their were several medical personnel on the plane who were willing to help. They ended up rigging up an IV and getting some fluids in her, moved a row of people so she had a row to lay in and got her back in pretty good shape. When we landed medical personnel came on and attended to the lady, and she was able to walk on her own and seemed to be doing pretty good.
Once we got off the plane we were met by Matt's boss and a TDYer (the lady who was temporarily doing Matt's job until he got here). They also had an Embassy driver with them with a big van. We loaded up our 8 checked suitcases and 6 carry-ons (seriously a lot of stuff!) and headed toward our apartment.
When we drove away from the airport I was surprised by the out in the middle of the country feel that I got. It was like nothing was around and you seemed to be driving down some country roads. There were a lot of mountains and greenery around, so I was also surprised by how mountainous it was.
After we got a bit farther out from the airport I was amazed at the contrast in areas. The area we were driving through seemed like a very crowded city, with apartments everywhere, but you still seemed to have a lot of greenery.
Once we got off the highway, or interstate or whatever you call it here, I was surprised by how narrow the streets are. Their are a lot of one way streets and all the signs are in Greek (which I had heard before I got here, but it's different actually experiencing it in person).
When we got to our apartment we had to wait outside for a bit because Matt's boss had forgotten our keys at his apartment, so he had gone to get them. This was fine because it gave us a chance to chat with our driver (he is native) and get some impressions from him. (I have heard since then that drivers don't really chat much, which makes me even more thankful for this time)He warned us that pedestrians NEVER, EVER have the right away and cars will not stop for you, even in an area where you are supposed to have the right away. He also informed us that we were on a very busy street (which we had not realized), it is a one way street, but apparently a main street. A ton of cars went by, some very fast, as we stood there and talked.
He told us that two of the trees in front of our apartment are olive trees, but not to eat the olives straight off the tree. He also told us that there are trees that look like orange trees (we've seen them everywhere),but they are not oranges, and not to pick them either. He couldn't tell us what the English name for the fruit is, but said that if you take it down to eat it, it is very bitter, but it is used in a lot of desserts here. He also pointed out that we were right next door to a dentist and optometrist.
After we got inside our apartment building, we were very surprised to see how small our elevator is and how different it works. I will have to take pictures of it so you can see it. While it is smaller than US elevators, apparently it's bigger than most here. It will be interesting to see the differences. One of the good things about the smaller elevator is that Kayla doesn't like it, so most of the time we take the stairs, and we are on the third floor, so a little exercise :)
We had seen pictures of our apartment, so there were not that many surprises. We have three bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a half bath. We also have an office area which will be great for homeschooling. We are the top apartment of our building, which is nice and all the rooms have balconies off of them, which is also really nice. We have a lot of furniture (from the housing pool) and will have to decide what goes and what stays. We are thankful for the excess furniture because we have been at posts where we were not in the housing pool or where there was not enough furniture. We even have patio furniture on the balcony off the living room, exciting stuff!
The living room/dining area is huge. I am standing at one corner of the room and you can see the china cabinet on the far side of the room. This picture doesn't quite do it justice.
I took several pictures of the apartment so we could have some before and after shots. Most after shots will be done after we have all our stuff that we have shipped here.
Just the living room side. For those of you who saw our apartment in Singapore, this corner, with the balcony and bookcase, is set up exactly like the setup in Singapore. This whole room reminds me of Singapore, only inverted...that's not a bad thing!
This is the kitchen, the big window area is a small balcony off the kitchen. The wall on the right of the picture is the only cabinet space in the entire room, and thing at the left is the refrigerator. It's a very small room and I am working on ideas to make it more usable space. I have already removed the table and chairs from the room!
These pictures are of the master bathroom. The doors on the left lead out to the balcony. The doors on the right (bottom picture) is our closet space. The two doors on the left of the closet, top and bottom have rods to hang clothes...and the door on the right has shelves. I am most likely going to be hanging my stuff in Kayla's closet, I seriously doubt we will get all Matt's suits and my dresses and shirts in that space. Our bathroom is on the right. I haven't taken pictures yet of the before or after. It's small and not very exciting ;) But, at least it is there!
Pictured below is Kayla's room. The window that Matt seems to be standing at is Kayla's balcony doors. Her and Elijah share a balcony. Where the dresser is on the left, behind that is a wall and behind that wall is Elijah's room. Her closets are also on that same wall. This picture doesn't do justice how big her room is, I had just gotten off the plane and was trying to snap a few shots before we unloaded our stuff.
Kayla's closets and the hall leading toward the entryway (where the suitcases are sitting)
Welcome to Elijah's room. The dark window looking thing is his balcony, with blinds closed behind the doors. This is a security feature of our apartment and almost all our windows and doors have the blinds, you actually have to open them and then close the doors back. I will eventually have to take close up pictures to see it. His room is also a fairly decent size, I again, didn't get a great picture, but you get the idea.
So, after exploring the apartment a bit, the kids watched a show and Matt and I set about making beds, unpacking toiletries, and making sure everything was set up for bedtime. Then, we took a little walk, literally around the block, we were so tired that was all we could manage, but we were trying to see what was around.
Later, we called our neighborhood sponsor and had them come get us and take us to find something to eat for dinner. We had a few food stuff in the house, our work sponsor had picked up bread, peanut butter and jelly, sugar, coffee, a little bit of cereal and a few other miscellaneous things. We had peanut butter and jelly for lunch and wanted something a little more filling.
Anyway, they came and picked us up, brought us a nice little gift basket with a few goodies (pasta and sauce, sunscreen, tiny candles, etc) and took us to Cafe' Verde (I think it was café, it was definitely Verde). It was a pizza/pasta/sandwich place. We really got our first exposure of Greek culture here.
To be continued...
Love the details!! Thanks for allowing us to be a part of your adventure.
ReplyDelete