Moving Day (Friday, July 30)

Well, Matt and I officially received the keys to our new apartment. Thank goodness we have an air conditioner - the only problem is, it basically only cools off our bedroom. You can guess what I did - unpacked all of our clothes and hung them up in the bedroom! I think I'm beginning to understand how people are so tiny here. THEY SWEAT THEMSELVES THIN!! (at least that's what I'm hoping for).

Anyway, my cousin Mona gave me a book to read before we moved: Japan took the J.A.P. out of me. It was hilarious! Little did I know (or want to believe), that my life was about to head in a similar direction . One of those being - laundry. As you will see from the picture, I had no idea how to work the washing maching and those of you that don't know me well, I'm a little jumpy when it comes to the "unknown". Therefore, every button I pushed on the machine I either jumped back immediately after touching it or plugged my ears. Not sure what either was going to do but I felt a little safer. There was still a problem - every button I pushed, nothing happened. So I called in "Mr. Fix-it" a.k.a. Matt. Oh, the water wasn't turned on! That could help when you're trying to wash your clothes. I backed up a safe distance from the machine while he messed with the water spout to ensure that I didn't get sprayed with water. We have action! Actually, we have water, still no action. Next step, what do all these buttons do?

We decided to play it safe - throw in some tees and socks, push a couple more buttons and see what happened. Voila! Water is pouring in and the machine is moving. We officially have clean tees and socks and 1 bra with a wire mishap. Not sure how that snuck in but, note to self, washing machine is not delicate friendly. I'm sure there's a button somewhere but it may take me 2 years to figure that out. Now the laundry is off to our balcony to dry. Laundry is going to be an all day event! And this is for only 1 load! I will say air drying our clothes is the most environmentally friendly thing I've done since moving here and I'm more than willing to do it but I nearly fell over when Matt pulled his shorts off the clothes line the next morning and they were stiff as a board! If I didn't laugh, I might have started crying. (again)