Wednesday October 29

Good morning everyone

I have begun my job here and I think I am finally getting over jet lag. Just when I think I'm okay, I hit a wall and have to rest.

An interesting thing about my apartment is that there are no hot water taps. To take a shower, I need to turn the gas heater on 3 or 4 minutes ahead of time. The bathroom is the only room that has hot water. In the kitchen I heat water on a two burner gas hot plate. There is also no central heating or cooling. Each room has a wall air conditioner, and I only have it on when I am in my apartment. My apartment has a second floor which has the bedrooms, but it is really hot up there, and since I am already cooling the living room, so I have decided to sleep on the couch. It is really quite comfortable, and saves a great deal in cooling costs.

To enter my apartment, I have to unlock three doors. The first door opens an area where there are three apartments off a foyer. The second door is a heavy iron gate in front of my entrance door. Its purpose is to allow me to leave my entrance door open for air flow if I chose. With the air on, I keep my entry door closed, but some of my neighbors open their entry door and through the iron bars of the door I can see the inside of their homes as I pass. My neighbor across the hall from me has a big dog, and it barks like crazy when it hears my key in the first door. How many days before I remember to expect it? I always feel like Hyacinth falling into the bushes at Daisy and Onslo's (for you "Keeping Up Appearances" fans.)

I like to go to the park in the morning and read the English newspaper. Since the streets are narrow and the buildings are tall, there isn't much air moving in the streets. The park is open and breezy. Since we are 13 hours ahead of Illinois, does that mean I will know who won the election before you do? Should I call and tell you?

I love reading your comments.

Lois