The Price of Gas

I know many of you are watching the price of gas go up. I just read an article about how it is rising still but shouldn't hit $4 a gallon!!

For some perspective, let me relate my first experience at the gas station: I was at a BP station with a friend here filling up his station wagon. In US dollars, it cost $111.11 for 13.59 gallons. If you do the math, that is $8.18 a gallon! (Yes, I converted liters to gallons and local currency to dollars before dividing!) The irony is that we live much closer to the gas supply than you do!

Sooooo, as you fill up your car/van/suburban/SUV/moped/horse & buggy the next time, remember that it could cost alot more.

Comin' Clean on Goin' Green

I can't live with my guilty conscience any longer; I have a confession to make. Our furniture is not green. However, the green furniture is extremely popular, and it is the main color of choice in all furniture stores. Because it is so prevalent, we (ok...I) decided to take a picture to show you the styles here. Then I decided to post it on the blog. I enjoyed the thoughtful and sympathetic replies, but it was time to come clean. In all truthfulness, our furniture is tan (you should've known Mike and I are too boring for lime green). We ordered two couches and two chairs, but it will be another two weeks before it comes. The couches fold out to beds, and the chairs fold down as well (to make a twin bed). So, we'll have plenty of room for our American guests!!!

I wouldn't care

One of the fun things about living overseas is meeting other Americans here. Understanding folks from "other parts" of the US and their mannerisms and phrases can be a unique cultural experience in itself. One of our friends here is originally from California. He was needing to go somewhere without his kids. Upon this dilemma I responded, "I wouldn't care to watch them."

This friend got a big belly laugh over my response of "I wouldn't care." Evidently, saying "I wouldn't care" implies that you really do not want to watch them. "I would not care" says the opposite of caring to do something. Oh, brother! We need some KY folks here to straighten these guys out.

So now when there's something I really don't want to do, but I'm trying to be polite, I'll say, "I wouldn't care to do that" as a joke. But when I originally said it, I really didn't care to watch them. Oh no, I did it again, except this time I said didn't instead of wouldn't.

Have you ever used the phrase "I wouldn't care" meaning you'd be glad to do something? Am I the only hick who has ever used that phrase?

Moving in

It has taken us a while to get into our new apartment, but we are finally here! Once we finally found a place, here are the reasons it took a while to actually move in: First we had to shop for beds, dressers, sofas, mattresses, tables, irons, a dishwasher, a stove, a mixer, a toaster, bedspreads, clocks, towels, washcloths, dishrags, lamps, a microwave, cleaning supplies, ceiling fans, clothes hampers, a desk, bookshelves, a refigerator, and more appliances just to name a few. Super Wal-Mart does not exist here, and an interpreter has helped us purchase everything. Someone other than the delivery guys had to come and hook up all the major appliances. The warrantees on the major appliances aren't good unless they are hooked up by an expert. We also needed someone to come and inspect our hot water heater. It heats water for showers as well as for the radiators in the house. Someone came to inspect it on Friday, and he said that some of the pipes were connected wrong. Someone else came to switch the gas pipe and the water pipe. Our toilet tank had a crack in it, so it is still under repair (we have a second toilet, so there's no problem). We are glad to finally be setting up house, but the kids are sleeping with their mattresses on the floor because we have not found beds for them yet. It's like camping out, and they see it as an adventure. Piece by piece we'll get this place together, and I'll post a picture when we get to that point (which could be a year from now)!

Fountain Fiasco

A friend of mine recently bought a chocolate fountain, and we took it out for its maiden voyage at a get together on Sunday night. There were 21 people anticipating the flowing chocolate, and we had quite an array of foods to dip into it. We carefully assembled the bright orange fountain, and my friend created a culinary masterpiece of warm chocolate in her make-shift double boiler. When the big moment came to turn on the fountain, we had at least 16 little eyes anticipating the unending flow of chocolate. My friend poured in the chocolate and flipped the switch. There was a loud motor sound but no chocolate. The motor kept going. Still no chocolate. Smoke began to pour out of the bottom of the fountain, but my friend said, "Smoke is normal. The directions said smoke would happen the first time." As the smoke began to billow, we decided to turn off the non-fountain and check it. After rereading the manual and making some adjustments, we still continued to get smoke instead of chocolate (note the picture of the orange fountain and smoke). To my amazement, everyone was still in a chipper mood. Those who have lived overseas for any amount of time have learned the art of flexibility. We poured the chocolate into a separate bowl, and we used a spoon to make our own fountain. The adults lifting the spoon and dripping chocolate off of it served as our fountain. We all got plenty of chocolate; it just wasn't flowing from the orange fountain.

Freebies

Something I love about shopping here are the freebies. Those of you who know me know I'm a sucker for free things. Well, various products here have free things taped to them. Many of the Pepsi products have Pepsi glasses attached to them, so I plan on drinking Pepsi products until I have a set of glasses. This drink in the picture is a grapefruit carbonated pop drink. It tastes like Ruby Red Grapefruit Tropicana Twister on steroids, and we like it. This bag of laundry detergent came with free bleach, and the shampoo came with free soap (the soap is pomegranate, so I guess we'll smell like pomegranates). Groceries here are more expensive than in the states, so I am more than happy to get something free!

Goin' Green

We've been searching for furniture for our new apartment. The most popular colors here are lime green, bright orange, and magenta. There's no way we could go with the orange, so we chose this set. What do you think?