Driving Here.....

So, we are fortunate to have a car here.  Jeff's company had a car to use for customer visits, and after
changing locations of their office, the car was not needed, and thus given to us during our stay here.

It is a smaller SUV, just right for our family getting around.  The steering wheel however is on the right side,
vs. the left which we are used to.  They also drive on the opposite side of the road.  And speaking of the roads, they are extremely narrow with many walkers, bikers, etc. also making very fast tracks through the streets.

We took our first adventure last Saturday to see if we could find the route to a friends house we were visiting that night.  We had planned on walking to their house, due to parking being limited, but just thought that would be a good exercise for us to practice.  In that short trip..... not only was it extremely stressful, but we also got lost.
It seems many streets look the same, with very tall buildings.  We also came accross a festival where the streets
were closed off and police were directing traffic.  Oh, and did I mention the arrow on the GPS was in the other direction as well.  The whole experience left me feeling like we live in opposite world.

We have our next outing planned for Saturday.  Needless to say Jeff has been playing around with the GPS a lot.
We think we have the arrow going in the "right" direction now, and are hopeful we will arrive at our destination without a head-on collision, or any other fender-bender.  Wish us luck!

I do hope I can also learn to drive at somepoint, as it would be helpful in getting around more easily with the kids.  Fortunately there are many places within walking distance to our apartment, the park, shopping, restaurants, coffee shops, an international library, etc.  But so much is also in neighborhoods that we here about but are not quite sure how to get there.   One thing that I also just learned is many of the Moms ride their bikes to the kids school.  Here, Jeff had me practicing on the Subway, and it is about a 20-30 minute process, walking and riding the train to get there..... come to find out it is only like a 10 minute bike ride.  I am meeting a Mom by the baseball field near our home next week to follow her to school so I can learn the route.  I am thrilled about that.

 We'll keep you "posted"!!