Friday, January 28, 2011

Day 4 - A Day at Home - Looking for My Energy

I can't explain it, other than to say that today I have been too tired to put one foot in front of the other, so we have had a restful day at home.  We got the suitcases put away, muddled a bit over our classes, and rested our smiles.  My jaws hurt I have smiled so much.  People have been so lovely to us on the buses, in the stores and on the streets, and my theory is:  If you don't know the language, you can at least smile.

One of the things I have always found difficult in other countries is water management.  It is so difficult for me to remember that I can't just stick my toothbrush under the water to wash it.  Since we have a kitchen here, it is more complicated because I have to remember that I can't just turn on the water to wash a dish or an apple.  We have a dishwasher which gets really hot, but I really feel quilty about running it mostly empty, but we only have service for 4.   We buy bottled water, but I also keep a big pot of boiled water.  I was surprised that the CDC says it good after 1 minute of boiling.

 I am not complaining.  This is much more modern than the farm was in my early days.  We started out with a hand pump on the back porch, moved up to water in the kitchen and eventually got an indoor bathroom when my brother was a freshman in college, and I was in first grade.  I always said Bubba had all the credentials to be on the Supreme Court.  Not only was he a lawyer, though I'm not sure that is required by the Constitution, he grew up in a house without indoor plumbing.  Remember the play that got in the hearings for at least one nominee?

At least I can solve my problem to a great extent by buying paper plates, cups and so on.  We didn't have them at home.  I don't know if they weren't invented when I was a little girl or if they were just too expensive.  One of my early memories was the day Mother and Daddy went to Richmond to a doctor's appointment and Bubba, who was in high school, kept me.  Going to Richmond to the doctor, about 60 miles away, was an all day affair in 1950. They left really early, so Bubba cooked breakfast for us - fried eggs dippy style and toast.  We ate those off the front of the plate, of course.  At lunch time he turned the yolky plates over and put our sandwiches on the back.  I was so impressed.  That night for supper, he cooked the frog legs he and Ronald Lee Pollard had giged the night before down at the creek.  I remember that some of them jumped out of the hot frying pan and that he made me pick them up and put them back, but it could be that he pitched a couple over just to tease me.   He started over with clean plates for supper, though.

Tomorrow we will wander a bit, work on our courses and hit the grocery store.

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