First, I'm sure that you will be relieved to hear that my missing luggage was recovered about 24 hours later. It was actually delivered to the office of my employer (where I was living) by the airport staff, which is much nicer than anything I have experienced in the Western world. I wasn't living in that office for very much longer though. I found an apartment within 2 days of being in Vietnam through Facebook. Thank you social media. And guys, this place is amazing. It is coolest place I will probably ever live and it is only $210 per month. But rather than try to describe it I’ll just give you the tour:
Within an hour of arriving I was sitting on a blanket up on our awesome roof playing the guitar with awesome people under the stars. I had a beer and a sandwich (How I Met Your Mother Reference) and things were looking up. My awesome roommates are French, French-Canadian and Irish. We also have a kitten named Oreo.
Also - the Asia-America Gateway (AAG), which is an underwater, trans-pacific cable responsible for handling much of the internet traffic in Southeast Asia, broke a few days ago. I guess there were too many Sharks gnawing on it or something. I'm told it will take about a month to remedy this. Anyway, you're welcome for uploading this video and sharing this post even though it took FOREVER. It might be a little while until my next post though. In the mean time, I think all of us over here have learned a valuable lesson from this...
At a glance, much of Algiers is almost a mirror image of its former colonizer, France, which sits just across the Mediterranean. Visually, it is defined by Parisian-style buildings, almost all of which are colored white. However, in spite of its surreal visual similarities with France, it only takes about 10 seconds of walking the streets of Algiers to realize that it is a world all its own.
I’m going to tell you this up front: I LOVE this city.