Gram
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Me- We finally have internet and phone!! I want to call you so bad, but I want to wait until Len gets home from work to see what plan we have so I know how long I can talk :). The flight to India was better than the flight to England, (I didn't get puked on by Ali). The kids weren't perfect, but for being on a plane for 9 hours I don't think they were that bad either. A couple of people might have felt differently, but some people are always grumpy. One of the flight attendants told me she thought it was wonderful that we had 6 kids and that they were all lovely. She looked Indian and was very pretty and kind. We all had the posh "bed" seats, so that was pretty cool. It was arranged a bit better on British Airways than it was on Canada Air, so that was good too. Our apartment is nice. It's big, with lots of cupboard storage, but not lots of "big" storage. We'll see how we can make everything fit when our shipments arrive :). It's pretty, lots of marble, lots of glass, lots of wood, and lots of cream paint. We were going to have them paint colors in the bedrooms, but then decided to go neutral in case we wanted to re-arrange bedrooms later on. We didn't get our neutral colors to them soon enough, so all of the bedrooms, bathrooms, halls are a not-so-nice cream, but we can live with it. Luckily, they were able to paint the main living/dining room in the taupe we wanted so it looks nicer. We have a lot of furniture too, so everyone can sit at the table together and around the TV, etc. I want to re-arrange some of it, I just need time to do it. We're going to make the front office room into the kids' playroom once all of our stuff comes.
First impressions have been all over the map. The airport is absolutely gorgeous, so it was very welcoming. Once we got outside, we were hugged by a hot, wet blanket with the humidity. We had 3 cars to drive us all home, so I was with Kaleb, Noe, and Ali. We saw pretty palm trees and water, tall buildings, and lots of shacks. Our apartment building wasn't what I was expecting, nor it's neighborhood, but our actual apartment is nice. We explored the playground, pool, gym area yesterday and it is very nice. The pool looks like it's from a resort, I just hope we can swim laps in it on a regular basis. We also met our next door neighbors in the elevator yesterday, an older Indian couple, they were very friendly. Our elevators have "operators" in them to push all the buttons for us, I think it's kind of annoying, since there are 6 elevators, but domestic staff use 3 of them, so that leaves 3 for all the rest of us (38 floors and about 4-8 apartments per floor), however only 2 ever work at a time and they are small, put in the operator and his chair and that takes up 1/4 of the elevator, we've been crammed in with lots of others riding up and down. I guess we'll get used to it. We did venture out to the mall next door last night (just Len and I) to check it out. We can go a back way through parking lots, so we're never crossing an actual street. We still have to walk through a small neighborhood portion though. It reminds me a lot of Taiwan. Tiny little shops, with tarps over the sidewalk just full of people. The mall was nice, but I felt so much like an outsider I felt very emotional. I did see a couple of other "white" faces, but not many. I think I'll have an emotional roller coaster the entire time we're here. We can see big buildings that all look like they're falling apart (because of the weather), blue tarp covered homes, a huge green field (not sure what it is), and the ocean from our windows. The car horns are honking non-stop. It is driving me crazy!! They might stop for one hour in the night, but then you can hear all the construction jackhammers and drills more clearly. I've wanted to use my ear plugs to help me sleep, but then I don't because I want to hear the kids if they need me in the night. Hiram and Ali were up until about 1:30 in the morning, then Ali still woke up a couple times in the night. Hopefully, we'll get over the jet-lag soon. We're 12 1/2 hours different from you, 9 1/2 from Ottawa, and just 4 1/2 from London, so hopefully by day 5 we'll be more on schedule. Oh yeah, we could hear the Muslim call to prayer at 3 different times yesterday. It's a soft song that sounds pretty. Whenever I hear it I want to say my own prayers too. I will surely need them!
Love you and everyone SO much!!
Jenny
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Noé-
I want to break all 23 million horns
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