So, once I'd got off the plane all the students from our flight piled onto a bus and went off to the AFS office where I met my family; Jenny (sister), Guicho, Evelyn (Parents) and Kipé (brother). I didn't actually meet my brother until we got home, and by then I was so shattered from the flights that I kind of just crashed into bed.

The first week was not the best for me; I wasn't used to the heat, the noise, the something in the air that meant I couldn't stomach food very much, and it was just kind of icky in general in terms of settling in. I did, however, go out with Jenny every now and then to this mall or that place, and what really struck me was the streets and the weather. Despite being hilariously hot over here, there's a hell of a lot of rain, and the first Saturday and it was a complete thunderstorm; Rumbles of thunder, flashes of lightening, pools in the roads and the whole thing was pretty cool! To me, anyways, they just seemed to find it kind of inconvenient, but then again I love the rain. Since then I've come to realize that thunderstorms aren't all that uncommon here, for this time of year at least, and I can't say I'm disappointed with that!

Another thing that struck me as extremely different here is the roads, because there doesn't seem to be much system in place beyond traffic lights and the drivers here are SO angry, there is always someone honking their horn at another car and it's all a bit intimidating! But as well as that, at every set of traffic lights is somebody trying to sell you something, whether it's flowers or phone covers or kids who will wash your windows and then ask you for money for it, it's insane! I mean, it's probably a good idea, there has to be some people out there who will buy off you, but whilst we would go to ebay to sell an old record player, or maybe a carboot sale, someone here walks by all the cars seeing if someone wants to buy it, and that is something I just haven't seen anything like in England!

As well as that though, I had an odd encounter in regards to cars. My first Sunday here was father's day, and a lot of the family went to a beach house a couple of hours away to celebrate it. The place was beautiful, the picture for this post is the view, and it really was just amazing. I met the family, went swimming in the sea (which, unsurprisingly, is a lot warmer and clearer than the sea I'm used to in Northumberland!) and it was a lovely day in general. The thing that caught my attention was that on the way back, we were driving behind some truck things, and they were carrying a load of crates, and sat on top of the crates were about 4 people just taking a ride along with it, and then when I looked closer I saw that the crates were full of chickens!! Looking back on it now, it doesn't seem like it's actually that odd, but it's so out of the ordinary in terms of what you see in England I just didn't know what to think!

Hopefully more tomorrow, until then - Jazzy x