Finally pictures -- but still no internet

---

So, ResNet services -- the internet conglomerate that handles our connections here at the uni -- is incompetant and I will not be getting my connection until middle of next week. But, in another example of how great the IPOD is, I figured out how to transfer my pictures to the Pod and bring that Pod to the computer lab and show all you nice people some of the cool stuff that I have been talking about.

So our apartment should probably be the first place to start -- since I have said nothing about it in anticipation of the pictures. It is small -- but it is nice. We like it. I can see, however, that Accommodation services was a little liberal in their descriptions of some of the ammenities. When you open the door, there is a tiny square hall area where we have decided to keep out jackets and shoes. There are two doors jutting out off the hallway: One to the bedroom and one to the room I am going to call the Living Kitchen. First the bedroom. It is nice -- the bed is, I think, slightly larger than the one we had in NYC. It also has a small built in desk that is scituated next to the window -- Graham has taken that due to my reasoning that he will most likely be going to bed earlier than me, and that I couldnt work next to him while he was try ing to sleep. The tiny bathroom is attached to the bedroom.

The living kitchen is really weird. On our original Accommodation offer, we were told that there was a kitchen/living area with a Gallery Kitchen. I assumed that this was a Pullman type kitchen and that the room would be more living room than kitchen -- I was wrong. The space that is intended to be the kitchen is large and well equipped, but the Living area consists of a yard-wide band of carpet around its perimeter. We have arranged our "Fluffy Chairs" and my desk in what we hope is the most space-economical way -- but its still kind of cramped because the furniture is disproportionately large as compared with the available space in our flat.

Today I hung out with our cleaning lady for about an hour -- yes, we have a cleaning lady who comes in twice a week, which is quite possibly the most kick ass part of this whole apartment thing -- and she was telling me some interesting ways that people have configured the furniture in the past. Some have apparently dismantled it, hidden the coffee table in the closet, stored things under the bed, piled furniture on top of other items of furniture -- the list goes on and on. I think we are happy with the way it is now though.

---