Back On The Grid.

So just like I promised, here are pictures of my new whip!!! The two bikes I was debating over was this one and a black and silver one, mainly because of how much they cost. Normally I would always go with black over brown but the black and silver wasn't unique enough...it was missing something. So I went with this green and brown beauty! I didn't fall in love with it when I first saw it, but it's growing on me :) I really enjoy being able to get to places way faster than before! I even added my brother's old boy scout bandana for a touch of home...hope no one steals it!

Today was an exciting day! I got to ride my bike around more, cook another meal of cabbage/carrot/tofu soup, AND get a phone!!!!!!! Also today I found out how AMAZING Daiso is. Daiso is basically like a dollar store with tons of stuff for the house. I got many things to organize my clothes and tidy up around the apartment (Beans you would be proud). So after filling up my bike and back pack at Daiso, I had to go home to drop off the stuff then head back out to Soft Bank, the phone place. There was a huge challenge of language barrier but with the patience of this man and the help of technology and translator via I-Phone, we managed to get it all done. I can't believe I was there for over three hours trying to do this but I was patient and just really grateful the man was too!! After all the busy work and coughing up nearly $500 usd, I walked out of there with a brand new, yellow I-Phone 5c!! Way better than my I-Phone 4 if you ask me :)

The one really amazing this I noticed about this whole ordeal was how patient the man helping me was. Even at the end, I asked to use his translator to thank him for his patience through the whole process and he shyly smiled and wrote back "no thank you for your time here." It was amazing because I feel like if I was a foreigner in the States trying to get a phone, no one would WANT to spend three hours with me working slowly and patiently, barely speaking but using what knowledge they had to gesture or communicate with me. And if there was, they would probably have the most annoyed face the whole time. The genuine want to help me and get me completely set up was so amazing and awesome. I have found that my short time here, everyone I have stopped to ask for help or has had to aid me in completing a document or turning in something was so completely helpful and genuine in their want to assist me. What ever it is, I'm super glad that it's happening. Definitely a culture thing I truly appreciate.

After the phone was taken cared of, I whipped over to the grocery store across the street to check out new finds for food tomorrow. Here, the store was bigger than the store I usually go to and it had more of a selection. Walked out with some chicken, mushrooms, more juice, bananas, and a bag of noodles. Wonder what I will cook tomorrow!!

Pictures of the new phone will be up soon. It is so nice to be back on the grid though!!!

xxx