So many things in our kitchen don't work as they should. There is the problem with the washing machine which leads to a king-sized puddle regularly appearing in front of the fridge. No matter how many times we mop it up, it is back by the end of the day. The main light doesn't work, so we have positioned desk lamps on each side of the room. The worst part, though, is the blocked kitchen sink. After you do the dishes, the only way to empty the sink is to open a valve underneath and use a bucket to catch the resulting waterfall. (You must be careful not to overflow the bucket - a full sink is easily two bucket's worth.) You then haul the bucket to the bathroom and empty its contents into the toilet. This is the only way, aside from, say, throwing it out into the street.
Through AIESEC, we have been contacting the agency which is supposed to fix these problems, but nothing has happened so far. At least we have a better appreciation of how much we rely on a fully-functioning kitchen.
posted by James 8:28 am
The weather has warmed up since since the country's brief encounter with snow last fortnight. The past few days have seen temperatures of close to ten degrees - warmer than I had been expecting for this time of year. At the same time, I have learnt that the temperature in St. Petersburg has been dipping below -20. If I get to go there, the cold will be a shock to my system. I have never experienced such a degree of coldness.
On Sunday, we went ice-skating at the Stappegoor, in Tilburg. This is on the other side of the Ringbaan from my place, yet, when we went by bus, I only had to stamp two strips on my strippenkaart to get there. That's the equivalent of catching the bus for one stage in Auckland. Tilburg is a small place.
I had been looking forward to the ice-skating, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. Maybe this is because the skating rink was smaller than the one I went to in Groningen. I also don't like it when experienced skaters (usually teenagers) weave around you and have near-collisions, scraping up the ice.
I tried to learn how to stop, but I was unsuccessful. Instead, I just stop skating and wait until inertia or the nearest wall does the rest.
posted by James 9:05 am