We are adapting well to our environment: we can handle the local money, we are able to walk around town without a map (sometimes - when it's easy) and we can even understand the English used on the television (not real good on some of the shop clerk English yet). The local dialect only uses the first half of many words and so it all sounds a bit mushy. Walking is something we're working on and every other day it seems to be getting easier.
The television is a mixed blessing. The European television has a higher resolution than what we are used to (not hi-def but better). The pictures quality is fantastic - the picture content is different. We get five channels by just plugging the antenna into the outlet in the wall - I do understand that we will be taxed by requiring some sort of government license - but I'm sure that if this license thing is real, they'll come after us. All five channels have their own times. Lots of programs start on the hour or half-hour, but they are just as likely to start 10 minutes after the hour or any five-minute increment convenient to them. There are a surprising amount of American programs spread through all the channels - "Grey's Anatomy" just started the week we arrived. The news seems to start at a time convenient to the TV stations - anytime between 5 o'clock and 7:30. They don't generally bother with 11 o'clock news.
Nancy has pretty well figured out how to wash clothes without a dryer. Dryers are very scarce in Europe. The heat in the flat is via hot water radiators using a boiler in the kitchen that does our hot water, too. Hanging damp clothes on one of the radiators will dry them within a couple of hours, turning them every 30 minutes or so. We also picked up a drying rack that fits into the bathtub. The rental agreement we signed deliberately prohibits our use of clotheslines or hanging anything from the windows or balcony. It ain't maid service but it works.
We told you earlier that there was a lot of Easter vacation traffic returning from Wales on Thursday. Easter is a big deal here - even bigger than in the US. The kids in school get up to three weeks "Spring Vacation" around Easter. Everybody gets Good Friday off and they have added an "Easter Monday" to the mix. Many people end up with a four-day holiday. As well as the time off, there seems to be a lot of hoopla over candy for the kids.
The big sports event on the telly this Easter Weekend is not soccer, not rugby, not cricket, but Snooker. Every day for the four holidays they have six to eight hours of snooker on the tube. No other sports were offered. They are building up to the world's championship. For those of you who are unfamiliar with snooker, snooker is a game similar to billiards. They use all red balls in the triangular thingy (the rack) and have six additional colored balls. The table is slightly larger, the pockets are smaller and the ball smaller.
The whole Easter holiday has been very quiet for us. Just the kind of break we needed. We are both feeling the affects of all the pollen and spring stuff in the air and our allergies are giving us fits. Most businesses are shut down and so it was a good time to be quiet.
Nancy worked on Jerry's wool sweater and got a good start on it. She had to rip it out a couple of times because she read the charted pattern wrong.