Everyday Life

Everyday Life

O.K. it’s been 5 1/2 weeks so we are kind of getting a routine down….until I realize how much I have not figured out yet, like, how to make a long distance phone call; or that I need to plan shopping because most stores close at 5:30 on weekdays, 2 PM on Saturdays and aren’t open on Sundays; or the post office is not open on the weekend; or that I better figure out what’s for dinner before getting back from an outing at 7:30 PM because the grocery store closes at 8 PM on most days but 7 PM on Saturdays and Sundays and there are no Chipolte's, Tokyo Joe's or Noodles for dinner options; or that people don’t use dryers around here - do wash when it’s sunny out or it will hang in the house for a few days drying!  So here’s what we’ve learned and now it’s kind of becoming routine: 

Transportation 

Avoid driving if possible...my new wheels are a bike.  Look right before crossing stay on the left.  I do mutter to myself on the road....look right...stay left...look right...stay left.....

Kind of odd looking at a car and thinking twice about who is in the driver's seat. 

Wait - who's driving the car?

I need to take a double take on that one

No confusion about where to sit - just need to think a little harder while riding

Light switches

On is down, off is up.

It's on - is on down and off up because we are upside down?

Garbage

It's hard to get rid of garbage!  Trash is collected every other week and will only be collected in a specific green bag which cost $2 each.  People definitely create less trash here.  Glass goes out with the garbage.  Those bottles seem to stack up quicker than the garbage!  Recycles go out the opposite week.   

Two weeks worth - more trash or more empty bottles????

Work Breaks

One of the nice aspects of work is tea break at 10 AM and 3 PM.  It's like everyone just stops what they are doing, goes and gets a cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate (mostly tea) and sits in the conference room chatting for 10-15 min.  Except for the guys who play some sort of cricket if it's not raining.  Tea, milk, sugar, hot chocolate, coffee all provide for free.  The instant hot water heater is the best.

The break room and conference room - temporary quarters because the building they were in was evaluated for earthquake risk and scored too low, so they moved out and are redoing offices right now.  Getting the break room set up must have been a priority.

Several types of tea and other hot drink choices.

Instant hot water for tea -- I LOVE THIS!

Work Fridge

I like the options.  

This speaks for itself.... 

Real Work

I am involved in a few projects so far.  The one taking most of my time right now is a feasibility study for replacing vault toilets with flush toilets at a site with no running water or electricity and lots of visitation....poo is the same here, measurements are different.  Metric was adopted, relatively recently, in the 1960s so sometimes measurements are in metric and other times imperial.

Front door of office (temporary office due to earthquake inspection of buildings) enter on the LEFT side.  Pass people in the hallway on the LEFT side.

New digs--looks kind of messy, makes me look busy..I haven't introduced my cubicle neighbors to food throwing over the wall or prarie-dogging...of course then I'll have to explain what a prarie dog is.

Tennis 

Never played on asphalt or astroturf before.  The net does not touch the ground so people pass the ball to each other rolling the ball under the net. 

The local courts

That's them...I can't find any other women who play...some men at work are nice enough to play with me...it ain't easy...I think the ball spins in the other direction.  It definitely spins ALOT!

I've filled in a few times for a league that plays in a town 25 min. from here. There's usually 3 men and 1 woman per team, they are all pretty darn good players here. 

Laundry
The house we are renting did not have a washing machine. We planned on going to the laudromat but at $4 a load for wash and $4 for 8 minutes of the dryer, we decided we didn't like that plan. Plan B was to buy a washer. I was all ready to buy a new one a few Saturday's ago but got to the appliance store after 2PM on Saturday and it was closed. Lucky for me because the following day, Sunday, Plan C went into action. A used one showed up on Trade Me...the local Craig's List. At 11 AM, I was high bidder at $3 until the last two minutes at 2:30 PM when the bidding war started. I defeated my opponent and was victorious in winning a $43 (US $38 or so) washing machine. I was on a mission. By 6:30 PM, mission completed, laundry was getting clean.

This machine makes me very happy!  Please give me more laundry to wash!

Inside dryer until a sunny day comes along...I'm paying much more attention to the weather forecasts now!

Cheers mates, until next time!