All posts tagged: home & living

Early Sunday Morning Surprises

Published by Sula H.

Sunday mornings. Not everywhere do they stand for sleep-ins and lazy mornings, for quiet and solitude. Here, they certainly don’t. The other day, I woke up to a surprise … a rather unpleasant one at that! I woke up to heavy banging, to voices shouting all over the place, and to the clanging of metal against metal, and it dawned on me that the workers were at it again. At it in ways I wish they weren’t. And when I looked outside, I knew what was going on. I guess, for the next couple of weeks I’ll have to deal with people talking on the other side of my walls, sounding as if they’re standing in the room with me just the same. Bye-bye lazy sleep-ins, bye bye quiet and peace.

The Dust Invasion

Published by Sula H.

When your eyes start hurting and feel irritated, then you know something is wrong. And of course, when you hear the wind rattling around the corner of the house, you really know something’s wrong. And then, when you look out of the window, and you see how the sky has turned yellowish and everything is wrapped in a thick cloud of dust, that’s when you know: it’s a sand storm. And trust me, sand storms are no nice things. You know why when you see the layer of dust slowly descending onto every surface in your home, and when everything you touch feels a bit more slippery than usual, because it’s covered in tiny fine little grains of dust.

The Exciting Uses of a Hole Puncher

Published by Sula H.

One of the fun things about living abroad is being able to witness the excitement simple everyday items can cause around here. Take a hole puncher, for example. Where I grew up, basically every member of a family would have their own hole puncher, simply because it’s needed for all sorts of things in school, work, home, etc. And believe me, a hole puncher is no reason to cause excitement there at all. Here, however, things are quite different. Here, people can be fascinated at how a hole puncher works, how it’s able to – yes – punch holes perfectly into a paper! It makes me realize how much gratitude I owe to this little thing whenever it helps me punch holes. And it makes me realize what a lucky person I am to be the proud owner of a hole puncher!

Pipe & Leak Problems

Published by Sula H.

It finally happened. Not that I ever wanted it to happen. I mean, I always felt so lucky whenever one of my neighbors had to deal with it, but I was spared. And I’ve been spared for years when all of my neighbors around me had to deal with it. The problem? Call it a pipe problem. Or a leak problem. Or a pipe-with-a-leak-problem … whatever you call it: the results are always the same: Water. In place wheres you don’t actually want to have it. Like on the bathroom floor. When you’ve just mopped your whole house and expect everything to be nice and in order. But this time all was not good. Because it finally happened to me: a pipe broke and now I’m having to deal with water, right before I actually wanted to go to bed. But on a more positive note: it’s just a small leak, which will (hopefully) not affect my entire home. And after it’s been my turn at last, I should be save from leaks for another …

The Promise

Published by Sula H.

I remember well last year. And the year before. When they faithfully promised us we would be able to move come the next term. Of course, me never wanting to move I was always glad that whatever promises they made weren’t actually about to be fulfilled. And now, guess what: The other day, we just got another promise. That the patio/playground would be completed within this month. Well, this is how it looks right now: And now I’m curious about the promise, and about how long it will actually take for them to actually fulfill that promise. And so, the waiting begins …

That Age Old Struggle

Published by Sula H.

They’re back. The students that is. How I can tell? Because of the internet. You see, we’ve just had a good long winter holiday. And during this good long winter holiday, all the students are gone. Gone home. Gone to visit family and friends. Gone traveling. Etc. Just gone. A whole lot of “gones” in fact. The kind of “gones” I like, because for the few of us staying behind on campus that finally means, we get to do the fun stuff online. We get to open a webpage, and it will actually open. Or we get to watch a video clip, and we can actually see the picture moving. Or, like me, you sit down to blog, and you can actually access your blog – how fun is that?! Now, however, things have suddenly changed again, and we’re back to the same old struggle. It makes me kind of wish for student-less campuses. But then, of course, what with our jobs and all, right? So, I’ll have to get my muscles back in shape …

Bread At Last!

Published by Sula H.

You may remember how our bread supply this winter has been kept on a leash; and how we’ve been frequently given pancakes (and waffles) for a substitution of bread (not that I actually enjoy the plain white bread they’ve served for a while now, but it’s better than all the sweet breads you can get in the local bakeries). Yes, to the locals bread means sweet! But now, we’ve been finally served bread again, and I am happy, because I can have my chocolate spread back – a weakness most other Germans will share with me!

The Moth Disaster

Published by Sula H.

I’ve got a problem. A big fat problem. Or maybe a tiny fluttery problem? Well, whatever you may call it, it seems to be all over, and no way around it. The problem? A moth problem. Yes, an annoying big fat, tiny fluttery moth problem. What happened was that over the last summer I wasn’t home. And over the summer, some other creatures decided to make my home their home. I realized it, when I first got back home after the summer. But then I had to move, and I thought with that the problems were solved. The moths stayed behind and everything was back in order. Little did I know that the moths didn’t quite agree with that. They decided to move with me to my new place, and decided to remain living in my kitchen cupboard. And even now, after months, and after me mercilessly hunting down every single moth that dares to cross my path – every other day or so … one of them still creeps up on me, and I’m …

The Pancake Mystery

Published by Sula H.

We solved a mystery the other day! The quest was: Why, after probably a year of not serving pancakes for breakfast at all, has our kitchen staff started to serve them again recently? As a matter of fact, they serve them every single day, these days! After lots of thinking and discussing with my colleagues, we’ve come to a conclusion. It’s because of the bread. Yes, that’s right! Because of the bread. You wonder how pancakes have to do with bread? Oh, sorry. I forgot to mention. Recently, the kitchen seems to have run out of bread, because there’s no more bread for us at any of the meals. And I guess they must be thinking that pancakes make a good substitution for bread. After all, they use flower and stuff for both bread and pancakes. So, now it’s waffles and pancakes for breakfast every day. Unless, of course, you prefer fried potatoes and fried something elses.

Showers – At Your Service

Published by Sula H.

My bathroom has turned into a shower service these days. Every day one of my friends is coming around asking for permission to take a shower in my bathroom. The reason? For days the hot water in our buildings has been turned off, and if people want to take a shower, it would have to be an ugly cold shower, and who wants that? Now, the reason circumstances for me are different, and the reason why people ask to take a shower in my place isn’t because my shower is prettier than theirs. I owe that simply to the fact that I’m blessed to have a hot water heater. A nice, big fat water heater that keeps things warm and cozy for me. Unless, of course, someone gets to take a shower before me. Then (like today) I have to wait for hours for the water to be hot again, so that I’m not the one ending up with a cold shower. Brrrr!