Saturday, April 18, 2009

Being Smarter than the Shower

Everyone keeps asking me, "So how's the family adjusting to Europe?" and my response is always the same, "they're loving it!" And I think that's absolutely true, at least that's what they tell me, and sometimes it's easier for dad to just take everyone at face value. Now that's not to say there aren't challenges and adjustments....

There's no QuikTrip around the corner which means no fountain Diet Cokes at any hour of the day.

There's no Diet Coke! This has not been a very good thing as most of our family dearly loves Diet Coke. There is Coke Light, but I'm sorry even a non-connoisseur such as myself can tell the difference, and in this case, change is not necessarily for the better.

In most places everything closes at 7 or 8 pm, and almost everything is closed on Sunday - yes I think that's a good thing, but closing at 7 does reduce the 'convenience factor', in fact, surprisingly in this day and age, there doesn't seem to be that drive to suck the money from your wallet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You see people out after dinner walking their dogs, riding their bicycles, walking in the park, kayaking on the river, *LIVING* and not shopping. I think it's awesome...

And things generally are just different here, space is more of a premium because the green areas are more jealously protected. In the USA it's all about sprawl, but here, at least in our area, we don't see that. So there is an inherent need for efficiency. A lot of those things we used to look at in the Ikea back in the USA and say "what on earth is that?" or "why doesn't this work in my shower?" make sense now. Most of the time if we just pause and think things through it makes sense, or at least you can see the logic behind the design, there really is some amazing engineering to be seen here. Don't get me started on the windows....

Sometimes though, we have to work to be smarter than the shower. Last week we were in Paris - an amazing experience but more on that later - and in our hotel bathrooms we had shower heads but no shower curtain. There was like this half glass wall that covered half the length of the tub, but I don't think any of us ever actually figured out over the 4 days how to use the shower without spraying the bathroom to some extent. Some of were less successful than others, but we'll leave that be for now. :)

So for this week, to the chagrine of some and for the entertainment of most, our favorite line is "Try to be smarter than the shower!" Of course we're in Amsterdam today to see the Tulips at Keukenhof so I'm sure we'll pick up a new quote for next week. Stay tuned!

2 comments:

  1. Diet Coke!! There have been times when I've sorely missed a regulation fountain drink with crushed ice and plenty of fizz. Paris was beautiful and I was glad to be there with you. Glad you're blogging!

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  2. Life is so grand! Danke!

    ♥ ♥ ♥

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