Now that we're staying...
I really, really, really don't like our couch. It's too big, it's ugly, it's falling apart, and it smells like a dog. It's actually quite comfortable, but that's about all it has going for it. At this point I'm almost embarrassed to have anyone over to our house for fear they'll sit on the couch. I think it's OK to have such hatred for this couch because we didn't buy it, we inherited it. The Americans who lived in our apartment before us left it for us, along with several items with a plug (eg. iron, toaster, microwave, TV) that would have been of no use to them back in the US. OK, so I guess we did "buy" it, but it was an outrageously low price considering all the stuff they left for us. At first, we were quite happy to have the couch because we slept on the pull-out sofa bed until our furniture shipment arrived from DC. And I've tolerated it since that time knowing this is just a temporary living arrangement. But now, things have changed and I'm really sick of it. Of course we're still here just temporarily, but somehow 3 years feels much more permanent than 2. It occurred to us the other day that, you know, we could buy ourselves a new couch while we're here. We have one couch still in storage in DC, but we got rid of our second couch-- the old, "dog" couch-- before moving here so we might as well buy one here and take it back with us.
Now I'm obsessed with getting a new couch. I've lived with this one for a year and a half, but now that we're considering buying a new one I want it now. I always love an excuse to go to Ikea so I think I'll start there. I suppose I should also check at a couple of the furniture stores downtown but I dread the thought of how something would cost at anyplace other than Ikea. I have a feeling the big challenge will be to figure out how to get rid of the old couch. I wonder if there's anything like Goodwill at home where you can donate old furniture, or if anyone picks up old furniture for donations a couple times a year like many organizations in the US. I'll have to do some investigating. When we moved here and we wanted to get rid of the old couch I told the guy who was painting the inside of the house for the new renters: "If you can get the couch out of the house, you can have it", and it magically disappeared.
I also have two other "now that we're staying" projects. The first is to switch to some sort of normal cable system so that we can have more TV options such as BBC and maybe even the Swiss channels which we don't get because we're on our landlords' satellite system. Then I need to decide what to do about my German lessons. I had planning to start phasing them out, knowing that German really won't do me much good back in DC, and had gotten quite excited about the prospect of no more lessons. But now that I'm staying I suppose I should continue, at least once a week. I'll have to come up with a plan before my lessons start again in a couple weeks.
Now I'm obsessed with getting a new couch. I've lived with this one for a year and a half, but now that we're considering buying a new one I want it now. I always love an excuse to go to Ikea so I think I'll start there. I suppose I should also check at a couple of the furniture stores downtown but I dread the thought of how something would cost at anyplace other than Ikea. I have a feeling the big challenge will be to figure out how to get rid of the old couch. I wonder if there's anything like Goodwill at home where you can donate old furniture, or if anyone picks up old furniture for donations a couple times a year like many organizations in the US. I'll have to do some investigating. When we moved here and we wanted to get rid of the old couch I told the guy who was painting the inside of the house for the new renters: "If you can get the couch out of the house, you can have it", and it magically disappeared.
I also have two other "now that we're staying" projects. The first is to switch to some sort of normal cable system so that we can have more TV options such as BBC and maybe even the Swiss channels which we don't get because we're on our landlords' satellite system. Then I need to decide what to do about my German lessons. I had planning to start phasing them out, knowing that German really won't do me much good back in DC, and had gotten quite excited about the prospect of no more lessons. But now that I'm staying I suppose I should continue, at least once a week. I'll have to come up with a plan before my lessons start again in a couple weeks.
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