So I have finally overcome my time issue for not posting on my blog. Though I am not very busy I was waiting until I had enough time to 'properly' update you on my recent trip. My time never seemed to present itself in those convenient chunks so I kept putting off my postings. Then, this morning I looked at my blog and realised that I have only written 2 posts in the past two weeks, which isn't really helping anyone keep in the loop about what I am doing.
First I shall start off with telling you all about the significant advances made in my room organisation. On Sunday I washed my floor and shelves as dust accumulates at an alarming rate in my room. Or perhaps I just notice it more because my floor is black. In any case I now have a system, instead of having miscelleanous papers spread all over my desk they are now on my shelf. I was hoping this would open up more desk space but it doesn't seem to be. I have just started putting other stuff on my desk, like the clothes I usually put on the floor. This is somewhat of a problem because my desk doubles as a kitchen table and I would like to have enough space between my laptop and whatever I am eating so my laptop doesn't get harmed. Case in point, Monday when I was eating a particularly juicy grapefruit the juice was squirting everywhere, in my eyes, on my freshly cleaned floor and on my laptop. No harm was done but I had grapefruit juice all over my screen.
I also went to Ikea yesterday and purchased a desk lamp. This is very exciting because up until now I have only had an overhead light. This on its own is not a problem, however the light switch is very far away from my bed and I was often too lazy to get out of my warm cozy bed to turn it off at night. To clarify, very far away is two feet from the end of my bed. First I experimented with throwing change at my light switch. This was not effective as I do not have very good aim, and you have to hit the light switch in a very specific area to turn it off. I also ended up with money all over the floor in the morning and would often run through my stash of change before I succeed in turning off my light switch, so I had to get up anyways. The temporary system I had rigged up after throwing change failed was equally primitive, though rather innovative. One of my friends found a somewhat long stick outside and gave it to me. When night rolls around, I reach under my bed, grab the stick and if I stretch just enough (while sitting up) I can turn off the light with the stick whilst remaining in my bed. Sadly this system was not as effective as I had hoped, so after weeks of turning off my light with a stick I can now just refer to my friendly desk lamp.
Something that surprised me was the cost of lightbulbs. In France you cannot buy the regular light bulbs anymore and all light bulbs are the new energy efficient ones. While my lamp was 5 euros, the light bulb I had to purchase for it cost 7euros (about $9). I understand that I will never have to replace this lightbulb and that it will probably last for the next ten years, but $9 for a single lightbulb seems pretty steep. I should also note that it was one of the least expensive lightbulbs there. To avoid any false generalizations, I have only ever looked at the price of lightbulbs in Ikea, so its possible that they have exceptionally high prices to compensate for the low prices of the lamps. So this might only hold true for the French Ikea and not the whole of France.
Other new advancements; I have now been skiing three times! I really enjoy it though I am not very good yet. I am however making a commitment to getting better and I am going to look at skis today. There is a consignment type sports store that sells all kinds of used (and new) skis for good deals, and they are currently having a sale, so all their merchandise is 20% off. I am hoping I can get boots, poles and skis for under 100 euros which would be a significant savings over the cost of renting skis each time I go.
Last but not least I finally have access to the laundry machine! Providing I get the key on time I will soon have clean clothes. Though I still have enough clean clothes to wear, I am forced to dress progressively nicer and nicer because all my regular type clothes are dirty leaving me with dress pants and vests.
This concludes my free time for the day and you are all in the loop about the mundane details of my life!
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