Then there was adjusting to the heat and humidity, but I'm not sure if I will ever get used to this!
Food is also completely different here. We thought about trying to make Thanksgiving dinner back in November, but we quickly realized the ingredients we’d need to make a traditional meal are not here. We then decided we’d try the local Pizza Hut! This was something from home. We were so excited to taste something familiar, but…it ended up having corn on it and South African hot chili sauce instead of pizza sauce. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t remind us of home.
We got lost a lot in the beginning and had a really difficult time locating anything we needed to buy. We cannot go to a Walmart or American-style drug store here like we can at home. We had to figure out what stores sold which items before we could get the things we needed.
Some moments were more challenging than others, but we quickly began to get comfortable in our new environment. Lizzy joined a local swim team where she can practice her favorite sport with local and ex-pat children (i.e., from other countries), many of whom speak French or Creole. We met our lovely neighbors and even exchanged an American snack, chocolate chip cookies, with them! In return, they brought us some gateau piment (chili cakes) to try!
We began resuming "normal" activities like we would have at home. We tried going to the local movie theater, where we were surprised to learn that popcorn is not covered in butter, but is sweet kettle corn! Grocery shopping also became normal. We got used to eating new sorts of vegetables and foods and gave up on ever making any Mexican food here. We found new recipes and learned to love new things.
At this point, we’ve gotten very comfortable here.
