Unpacking

Well, it is probably a good thing that I cannot go to work today. It’s a long story that I’d rather not go into today, or any day for that matter! I stayed home and unpacked. It actually wasn’t as bad as I expected. I was pleasantly surprised with how much storage space there is here.

We are right now staying at a rented apartment in Abbiategrasso, a small town outside of Milan. The apartment is really nice, almost brand new, with high quality fixtures throughout. Things are quite different here compared to the U.S. I thought I would list some of my observations here:

Sheryl’s What’s Different List – Day 2
1) Church bells ringing in the background throughout the day. We’re pretty close to the il centro of the town. I can see the bell tower from the bedroom window.
2) Tiled or wood floors. It’s not really so common to have carpeted flooring.
3) Washing machine in the bathroom. And of course, no dryer.
4) Bidet in the bathroom. I still haven’t quite figured out how and what it’s used for.
5) No microwave. It’s not really that commonly used here. Well, if you think about it, the microwave is used mostly to heat up leftovers and frozen food. Let me see, here you’re not getting any doggie bags, and the freezer is too small for storing lots of frozen food…
6) Which brings us to small fridge, at least by American standards.
7) Small, in general! It felt really small when I first stepped in here. But after unpacking all my luggage, it wasn’t so bad.
8) People cycling outside. Old, young, even the babies are along for the ride on the bikes. I was looking out the window and saw a young mum reaching for a bottle for her baby at the stoplight. (!)

Here's the view from the bedroom window.


Ok, we’re off to Lago di Como to see a fireworks show. It’s about 1 hour drive from here.