back post 2: around the house

Aug 17- 18

Learned a neat lesson about reading packaging closely today.  See photo below.  Most all of you will immediately notice the picture of the washing machine, leading you to believe the contents are laundry soap.  You would be correct, unlike those of us who assumed from the box shape, size, and weight that it was simply their version of Cascade dishwashing detergent.  So I guess we’ll just have to make another trip to the basement if we want clean dishes.  Really can’t wait for our unaccompanied baggage to get here so we have more than 6 forks and 6 plates.

really need to learn to read Turkish labels

 Our main objectives lately have been buying food and figuring out how stuff works in the apartment. 

Now that we have plenty of laundry soap, I guess it’s time to figure out the labels and settings on our Turkish washing machine.  (went pretty well).  Dryer is labeled in German, so I’m all over that, but it’s a really odd energy saving tiny thing, and it annoys me because it won’t run continuously but starts, runs for a bit, then cuts off, then starts again.  Also don’t think there’s a vent on it.  We found some compartment that seems to collect water…I guess we’ll see what happens.  

Dryer.  It's funny how the German comes back

Tiny front-loading washer.  Can't say I've figured this out yet.  But we do have clean clothes!

 

All our other appliances are very nice, if maybe on the small side.  I’m going to have to learn to convert oven temps in my head….but really I’m probably just going to put a sticky note on the fridge. 

See attached for photos of the apt.  It’s pretty darn big (4 bedrooms & 3.5 baths, plus a huge living/dining room with a table that seats 10, kitchen, and balconies).  Air conditioned.  They say the floors are heated in the winter – looking forward to that.   Shower pressure is more than satisfactory.  We don’t drink the tap water, but we use it for cooking, teeth brushing and the like.  The cats drink it though.  We have a 19L big jug thing that we just call the front desk whenever it needs replacing and they’ll have a guy bring one by in less than 10 minutes (no, it’s not free but it’s not bad).  I think we’ll join the gym next week, but for now we get our exercise walking to and from the bus stops and all around town.  

Pretty small.  My hand stretched out pinky to thumb = half of the width of the oven.