settling in

Slowly slowly slowly we are beginning to get settled in. We always knew that this first part would be tough, and it has been. I remember an exact point in Korea that was at least two, maybe three months in, where I realized that I actually liked it there. Up until then, I was putting on a brave face, but there was so much adjusting that needed to happen. So ask me in three months how I'm feeling... I'm curious myself what changes will have happened!

The good news is that we are all sleeping through the night again. That happened around Day 5, maybe?

We are also in our own place. It felt soooooo good to unpack our suitcases after basically living out of them since the end of June. However, our sleeping arrangements are a bit funny. Back in spring, Mike got an email from a teacher at his new school saying that she had furniture to sell and would any of the new teachers be interested? One of the items was a set of bunk beds. Even though we didn't know what our living arrangement would be, we figured it would be smart to speak up for them. So we did, and she said she'd hold them for us until we arrived.

So our new apartment has three bedrooms, but they are so small. One of the rooms has a big wardrobe, which then means there isn't much room for a bed. The master bedroom has a queen sized bedframe, but for some reason no mattress. Well, we thought that was okay if we had to buy one from Ikea. Having all the other furniture included in this place is still saving us a ton of money compared to buying all new furniture! The evening we got the key to this place (Wednesday) we went to Ikea and bought one, but the earliest they could deliver it was Monday evening. The final room has a double bed in it. We decided that it would make the most sense to use the "wardrobe room" as a playroom for the girls, and then get rid of the double bed and put in bunk beds. Only the teacher selling the bunk beds doesn't get back to Canada until Monday (15th) and then who knows when we can get delivery of that. So that means that Mike and I have been sleeping on the double bed in what will be the girl's room, and Annie and Leila have been sleeping on the couch. I'm just amazed that they have been willing to do that. They are learning to fall asleep anywhere- taxis, buses, planes, our arms...

But tomorrow our mattress comes, and slowly we will get set up and this will all be in our distant memory.

We also got a toaster oven and coffee maker. I went the first week and a half without my morning (and afternoon) coffee. Can you believe it? And we have cell phones. I got a pink one. We were too cheap for the iphone, so Mike got the Android Samsung version. And as of this morning we now have internet and cable. There isn't much on our cable, but it seemed to come with the internet. I don't know how we'll watch our shows because Canadian networks don't want to play here. We'll have to figure something out, I guess.

So every day we take a little step forward. It's been a big exercise in patience. Tomorrow Mike goes school and I will be on my own with the girls for two weeks, and then Annika starts kindergarten. I'm wondering how it will be- I don't know anyone here, but we'll take it one day at a time and see what happens.

I think tomorrow I'll try to post some pictures.

Good night!