First Impressions

This is some stream of consciousness stuff. It is 11:25 p.m. and I'm taking a little break from sleeping. Our first full day here was great. Shoot, our first partial day here was great. I'll go even further--the trip was great. Traveling with a baby for longer than a 24 hour stretch is insane. Brazil lost and is out of the World Cup (told you this was going to be stream of consciousness--and my stream is flooded!) I didn't know it, because there were no fireworks to announce it. Our child is popular in every country she has been to so far. France thinks you are hiding bad things in your stroller if you come from our country in the Middle East, so they don't let you have your gate checked stroller, and you carry everything (2 large carry-on's, large diaper bag, large child, large car seat) everywhere. That should read: your husband carries everything. Bodies in jet lag do funny things. And so do babies. At the airport in Houston, there was grass between each runway. And big black ladies driving extended cab golf carts full of people. And restaurants that sell a tamale platter with pulled pork, rice and refried beans with a Dr. Pepper (can I get a woo hoo?!). You're not supposed to put your tp in the trash can here. If you forget that and do, people think you are gross. Speaking of people, there are a lot more colors and body shapes than I have seen in a very long time. It is beautiful. And hey, guess what--you can shop here and you may not have to buy the very biggest size that the store carries--it is amazing for your self esteem. And people are kind of addicted to phones here. And you may not have any teeth, but you'd better have a cell phone. Papa's fall in love with their first grandbaby real fast. Then they immediately start feeding them age inappropriate foods (and Maya is a huge fan of Wendy's frosite floats). There are a lot of choices here. In milk. In food. In race. In the color of car that you drive. Family is a precious gift. So is being able to pick up the phone and call yours without doing the math to figure out if they are awake yet. Pork is delicious and smothered in barbecue sauce, it is heavenly. They call them minutes, not units and cell phones, not mobiles. We are a little bit like the beverly hillbillies right now. Things are very very organized and orderly here and there are even rules about which direction you are supposed to exit the bathroom and how fast you should drive. Some of the unspoken rules are really hard to perceive for foreigners, and for those who feel like foreigners. People eat a lot here. Like in the car, in the airport waiting area, in the bookstore--wherever you'd like. Strangers don't come and take your baby on a tour of the restaurant while you are eating. They don't even kiss her face and hold her hands and pinch her and say, "Stab the eye", "God wills it", or "In the name of God". And then your very extroverted child misses it. But she makes up for it by obsessing over Grammie's puppy dog, whom she frightens with her exuberance and her flailing arms. It is like a refrigerator everywhere here! Tomorrow I will go and buy a sweater, and it won't even be the largest size. Not everyone watches CNN International. Or even CNN. That is all, I am going to go back to sleep now. . .