We're all here!

Wednesday morning Gav and I flew out of Bangkok with the rest of the new teachers and landed in Yangon at noon.  We were all taken straight from the airport to our houses in groups on a few school buses.  All of our luggage was squished haphazardly in the back, so every time we stopped at someone's house there was a lot of shuffling and counting to make sure that everyone got everything.  One new teacher brought only 1 suitcase that weighed 30 kilos and a piece of hand luggage and didn't ship anything-the ultimate in minimalism!  Good for her, Gav and I were sporting 4 huge bags and 2 carry-ons and still have a shipment arriving.

A few days before we left we got an email saying that housing assignments had shifted and the school was able to find us a house with a small yard instead of the flat we were expecting.  Very exciting news, but we were a little cautious because we had seen some housing online and when we visited and knew that housing here has a very.....particular style.  So when we rolled up to the place we were happy to see that while not at all our style, it has some potential.  As soon as we get some furniture to fill it!

Since then it has been a whirlwind of social outings and meetings and organised trips to the supermarket.  It appears that the Burmese are really into their snack food (so many kind of goldfish crackers available!) but I can't really find any actual ingredients to make meals.  Maybe we have to find less upscale supermarkets for that stuff.

Yesterday was a bit of a milestone for us as Nell finally arrived!  She flew out of London on Wednesday and we could track her online (when she landed in Bangkok we got a notice that customs has received "one live dog" errrr, thanks).  We also got a little video from her handlers Thursday night of her going for a walk and looking rather nonplussed so that made us feel better. We have been very nervous about her transport because when we first looked into it all no airline would agree to take an American Bulldog as bulldogs have snub noses and can easily die due to breathing issues.  Of course Nell is a cross and doesn't have a snub nose at all, so it was very irritating to be told it was impossible to fly her.  Finally we got in touch with a pet transport company who got pictures of her and sent them to BA saying "this is a lurcher cross, would you accept it to fly" and they said they would.  So then we had to go to our vets, explain the situation, and have them update her records to say "lurcher cross" and hold our breath that no one would say ...hey, wait a minute!  All's well that ends well I guess, but I am glad to be able to stop worrying about it.

We are so happy that we were able to come for a visit in January because we knew just what to expect of Yangon itself.  We still haven't done a lot of exploring, but we did get a dog walk in along the lake we live near.  We all managed to dodge the street dogs who like to bark at Nell.  Thankfully she is pretty oblivious to them so far.  I also went on my first run outside this morning, not bad temperature wise but the humidity is really high.  Everyone is telling us to run our air conditioning all the time whether we are home or not to try to avoid mold.

We are pretty tired but happy and excited to start school properly next week!