Our new home

We moved to a new apartment this week. I prefer to use the term “cozy” to describe it. I’m not very good at estimating square meters, but there aren’t many here. In order to have some luxuries, like consistent hot water and Internet service, we’ve given up other luxuries, like room for a kitchen table. There are some other perks to this apartment.
We have 9 less steps to ascend and descend – 38 instead of 47. It is important, however, that you understand the slope of these steps. Dan calls them a “ladder ramp”. They are steep! So perhaps the perceived savings is only 3 steps. It is still a savings, though!
There is a real bathroom and a real toilet. I care not to describe what we had been living with. Let me just say that some European bathrooms aren’t fun to use – and we had one of those. This bathroom is well-equipped with a nice shower, normal toilet, hot and cold water, and a washing machine (?!).
The new apartment has closets! Two closets!
We have a fully-equipped kitchen now. There is a “large” fridge and real stove and oven. This compares to the dorm-size fridge and cooking plate we had in the old apartment.
We have a nice landlord, who is also our neighbor. His daughter is darling, and his pre-teen son introduced himself by asking if we liked the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’m a little afraid to find out why, considering his bedroom shares a wall with ours.
Cable television is provided. I haven’t turned on the television yet, but I’ll keep you updated on Dutch cable television programming.

I have given up a few things. I will miss the view of the canals from the bedroom window. And I’ll miss learning about Polish culture from what ends up on the balcony of our Polish neighbors. (Sausages heating on radiators, a various assortment of interesting food dishes keeping cool outside.) And I’ll miss my kitchen table.