Western Imports!

Hello-hello,

Today Oz took us to Carrie Four, the foreign grocery store. It has every important item a Westerner could want: wine, cheese, bread, and salmon! Food is cheap with minor exceptions. The most expensive thing was French wine and spirits. Even those are affordable.

I’m still amazed at all the people – there are people everywhere! And you should see how they drive. I am surprised there aren’t more accidents and fatalities. It’s hard to adjust to the pushing and shoving and lack of personal space and courtesy but there are so many people, how can you be nice to everyone! Pedestrians don’t even wait to cross the road, they just start out into traffic, even old ladies maneuver lane to lane through giant eight-lane highways. It’s amazing.

The city has some excellent sights and the architecture is fabulous, but the smog continues to perplex me. Buildings in the foreground are visible but hazed over, while buildings in the midground disappear into an infinite grey. The pollution thickens with rush hour and the overwhelming flow of cars and buses. Furthermore, the sounds are all-encompassing with honking-honking-honking. There are these crazy old motorbikes that produce the most pungent exhaust plumes that smell like straight petrol. I can’t believe more people wear masks. Then there is the spitting, which I can understand considering the pollution, inhaling all the smog is like smoking cigarettes. I think the upswing of the hork is what I dislike most about the spitting; sucking all that phlegm into one giant burst of gob that then gets ejected, sent flying to the ground where it waits for the inattentive victim to step and slip in it…

Oz continues to be a fantastic host, he treats me like a prince but drinks a lot. Besides fighting with his girlfriends, he smokes full-time and it’s making me dizzy. But always a gentleman, he is considerate and leaves the room when he needs to suck one back. His girlfriend is gorgeous but can get extremely mad and throws some intense temper tantrums. When she’s not pissed off, she’s very nice. It’s all a little crazy. One minute she’s kind and gentle, the next she is crying, screaming, and breaking stuff. I need to find a place to live. I am meeting an agent later this week.

Anyways, so happy to have found cheese, smoked salmon, pizza, rotisserie chicken, mustard, and mayo!!!

Lots of love.