Well, I saw my apartment today and got to go inside for the first time since I've returned. The view was even better than I rembered? I have almost a 360° view of the valley. The apartment is bigger than I remebered, but it is a very inefficient use of space. The place is big, but the 2 bedroioms are extremely small, the kitchen has absolutely no counter space, and the living room has almost no wallspace because there are 4 doors that go into it. There is a bar in the living room, and that is quite nice. There are 3 doors (1 from a bedroom) that lead to the terrace. The walls, molding and flooring are very nice, but the place needs to be cleaned. The toilet is the nastiest I've ever seen. I will have to do some cleaning, and creative arrangement of furniture, but overall I like it quite a bit. I got home from work today without getting lost. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but I couldn't do that the first day. I bought all of my appliances today fridge, washer, dryer, dishwasher, oven/stove, microwave, TV etc. As it turned out, both of my credit cards were declined because of the large amount being charged (I bought them all at one place) from a foreign country. I had to call the credit card companies to get them to allow the purchase and remove the blocks they placed on the cards. The store liked me purchasing everything there though, and gave me a volume discount. Most of you know that I research purchases like these to death, so it was tough to walk in after hearing just a bit from word of mouth, and then purchasing all that at once. It was probably therapeutic though. Tomorrow I shop for furniture. I'm starting to understand the term 'shopping' a bit more. Except for the appliances, the stores are quite small (shop). If you want something you really may have to 'shop around' at alot of different shops. I think I had more bread with dinner tonight than I've ever had in one sitting. Tate and Rob (the two biggest bread fans I know) would love it. I think it may really be turning me into more of a bread fan. And believe it or not, maybe less of a cheese fan. I love many french cheeses, but wow! I've had some seriously aged cheeses! One I had for lunch today actually had the mold on it, hair and everything. I could only eat half of that one. I really do enjoy most of them though. I was told by a french person today that I ate cheese like I was french and not American. I'm pretty sure that was a compliment. :-) I owe my love of fine cheeses to my mother who introduced me to brie at an early age. For dinner tonight they served terrine banane chocolat. I had something else so I m not sure what that is, but it made me think of Eric because I'm sure he'd love it (being the world's biggest banana fan). Dinner tonight was excellent, I mean really really good. Not sure what the fowl was, but it was delicious. Too small of bones and dark of meat to be chicken, but too big to be quail or dove. I'm sure my dad could tell me (he knows his game better than anyone I know). Well it's getting late and the temp housing is about a half a mile walk from here, so I should get going. Bon soir!
Posted by Brian at April 1, 2003 02:36 PM