And We'll Have Fun Fun Fun...

It's no “T-bird” -- a '96 Sentra with a whopping 1.6L engine (some sedans around here only have 1.2).  Used cars cost about twice as much here as in the States, but they also retain their value better, so we're hoping to do well on the resale.  Andrew weeps when he remembers the visceral power of the old Jeep Cherokee now sitting dormant in Vermont.

 

But yesterday one of us walked over 9 miles looking at different apartments.  Neither that nor getting rides from our incredibly generous hosts here is sustainable.

 

Petrol here is expensive, but not the worst in the world – about $5.50 per gallon.  We are hoping to find a living arrangement that will allow us to walk to campus and some shops, saving money for our longer sightseeing trips and for Andrew to visit different prisons in the area. 

 

Even if the car itself is not exciting, driving here is!  Neither of us has much if any experience with the left side of the road, plus it's a stick shift.  Some of the controls are reversed, like the turn signal being on the right of the steering column (which lets you signal and shift at the same time).  Others are the same, though.  It's nice to have the pedals in the same place, but the having the same gear setup is a little tricky -- 1^st gear is up and away from your body instead of in close, and it's very easy to put the car in 2^nd gear thinking you're in reverse...

  

Have you ever driven on the left side of the road?  We want stories!