マンハッタン散策

この街、首都の島、これから便宜上マンハッタンと呼ぶことにしましたので、悪しからず。Mの字しか一致してないけどね。週末の金土（言い慣れない）は街の散策とお家探し。お店がいつ閉まっていつ開くのがまだ把握できていないので、金曜日はスーパーが開くのを１時間近く待たなければいけなかった。レストランなんて４時まで開かないので、空腹と水分不足で倒れそうになったよ。スーパーにちゃんとした物が売っているのか、かなりのドキドキだったけど、ピーマンとかズッキーニの野菜やチーズ・ヨーグルトも売っていたので安心した。これだけでも週末の収穫と言えるかも。今のところはホームシックにもならず、元気にしているので御心配なく。あまりにも暇で、話す人もいないので、思わず隣のベンチに座っていたインド人のおじさんと世間話しちゃったけどね。家探しのことは詳しくまた後で書きます。

To make things easier and more fun, I have unilaterally decided to call this capital city island "manhattan" since both start with 'm' and I am going to find all the other similarities between these two places that I lived this year. Yes, I am very ambitious!

It is interesting to discover the city. I was really nervous yesterday. That was not because I was making a big presentation or going on a speedboat. I walked into a supermarket! I was warned about the lack of fresh produce and other luxury items in this country prior to coming here. Eating and cooking are one of the most important things in my life. I was very much relieved to see not a wide range but decent fruit and vegetables and cheese& yogurt on the shelf. Expensive but manageable. I also made a visit to a sleepy produce market where I found bananas, coconut, papaya and watermelon. I have to ask my family to send a stock of Japanese ingredient, but I think I could survive. To be honest I was quite scared about the life here and felt negative before coming. I am sure there will be different challenges ahead, but for now I remain positive and optimistic. I forgot that one of my good “cho-sho” was supposed to be flexibility and ability to adopt to a new environment. It is also all about perspectives. My Pakistani colleague made a comment how easy the life is here, being able to walk on her own etc compared to her country. Stares and occasional comments from guys on the street do annoy me, but I livd with worse in Guyana.

I spent the whole Friday alone. Shops are not open until 2:30. Walking around the city, I was on a verge of passing out being so dehydrated and hungry. Most of the restaurants only open at 4. Luckily, I found one restaurant in a nice hotel, which was about to close in 10 mins. They kindly let me in and stay for an hour until I finished easting. I was so bored while waiting for shops to open, and I struck a conversation with Indian businessman who was sitting on a bench next me. He imports vegetables and spices from India to this country.

Costs of living- expensive in general. Nicer hotels and restaurant even in the capital which is not so much touristic quote prices in USD. One dish can easily cost 10-15 dollars. Taxi is affordable. No matter how far you go on the island, it is a set price for about $1.3 though you cannot go that far on this Manhattan. Lunch at a local restaurant for tuna sandwich with french fries& mineral water was about $2.

I will write about apartment hunting later.