My apartment is not available until February, so I am staying at the Liv'in Hotel & Residence until that time. Think of a Euro-style extended stay suite hotel, including a small kitchen. It's nothing special from the outside but it's fine inside. (Photos are posted on Facebook.) The place also has a restaurant where a complimentary breakfast is served, however it's closed for the holidays until next Monday. In the interim, breakfast is served at their sister hotel, the Fleming Hotel which is about a 5 minute walk away. Makes for a brisk wake-up as I discovered this morning, but worth the walk to get some good bread, cold cuts, interesting yogurt, excellent coffee, and of course an Actimel chaser.
The hotel also includes free WiFi, which I have been using a great deal. I configured Skype yesterday (my user name is "spriser" for those of you who are on Skype) and it seems to work pretty well. I also discovered this morning to my delight that XM Radio Online works abroad so I can get my POTUS and 20 on 20 fixes. I suspect I may also be using the WiFi to download a lot of podcasts ("Meet the Press," "Washington Week," "Face the Nation," "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," et cetera) and perhaps some video content as well (think episodes of "The Colbert Report" and "Law & Order").
The need for the video content was underscored last night as I was channel surfing. I was checking out what appears to be the German version of TV Guide and saw that the movie "Sideways" was going to be on at 8:15. Sweet! Waited on pins and needles, only to discover that it with German voiceovers. Doh! So I ended up watching an episode of "Hallo, Robbie," which appears to be a German version of Lassie, except Lassie/Robbie is a sea lion. I'm not joking. Robbie rocks, though -- not only did he rescue a paratrooper who fell into the sea, but when his master was captured by evildoers on a boat, Robbie swam after him and saved the day. With such compelling programming (and the only German language programming I could kind of follow), I set the WiFi to work overnight downloading "Baby Mama" from iTunes for the low rental cost of $3.99, which is my Sunday night viewing treat. Oh, the excitement.
I finished unpacking today, discovering that the bottle of Febreeze I had packed but was to large to fit in a Ziploc had somehow (Murphy's Law?) come open. Note that there are no laundry facilities in the building, so I will be smelling particularly "fresh" this week. There is also no iron/ironing board in my suite, so I may be a bit rumpled-looking as well unless I can figure out some steaming action in the bathroom.
I took a long walk today to get to know my temporary 'hood and also walked all the way to where my new apartment is to get an idea of that neighborhood as well. Nice walk, but a bit on the chilly side. And they weren't joking when they said that all the shops are closed on Sunday. Not that I doubted, but good thing I got a few groceries yesterday.
Finally, I have unpacked my purse, removing all U.S. currency and other treasures (e.g. Starbucks card, MTA and CTA cards, a fully-stamped Venice Cafe card (doh!), and some gift cards). Kind of sad. But I thought of an interesting (to a geek like me, anyway) exercise. I have a grand total of $150.06 in U.S. currency (including a Sacajawea and a silver dollar, both of which are valued at their face value, even though the silver dollar is worth more). I'm going to see how the value holds up during the four years I'm here. The current value according to Oanda.com is a whopping EUR 107,84. Each time I head back to the U.S., I'm going to take stock of its value and gain/loss of Euro purchasing power. Just because.
The hotel also includes free WiFi, which I have been using a great deal. I configured Skype yesterday (my user name is "spriser" for those of you who are on Skype) and it seems to work pretty well. I also discovered this morning to my delight that XM Radio Online works abroad so I can get my POTUS and 20 on 20 fixes. I suspect I may also be using the WiFi to download a lot of podcasts ("Meet the Press," "Washington Week," "Face the Nation," "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," et cetera) and perhaps some video content as well (think episodes of "The Colbert Report" and "Law & Order").
The need for the video content was underscored last night as I was channel surfing. I was checking out what appears to be the German version of TV Guide and saw that the movie "Sideways" was going to be on at 8:15. Sweet! Waited on pins and needles, only to discover that it with German voiceovers. Doh! So I ended up watching an episode of "Hallo, Robbie," which appears to be a German version of Lassie, except Lassie/Robbie is a sea lion. I'm not joking. Robbie rocks, though -- not only did he rescue a paratrooper who fell into the sea, but when his master was captured by evildoers on a boat, Robbie swam after him and saved the day. With such compelling programming (and the only German language programming I could kind of follow), I set the WiFi to work overnight downloading "Baby Mama" from iTunes for the low rental cost of $3.99, which is my Sunday night viewing treat. Oh, the excitement.
I finished unpacking today, discovering that the bottle of Febreeze I had packed but was to large to fit in a Ziploc had somehow (Murphy's Law?) come open. Note that there are no laundry facilities in the building, so I will be smelling particularly "fresh" this week. There is also no iron/ironing board in my suite, so I may be a bit rumpled-looking as well unless I can figure out some steaming action in the bathroom.
I took a long walk today to get to know my temporary 'hood and also walked all the way to where my new apartment is to get an idea of that neighborhood as well. Nice walk, but a bit on the chilly side. And they weren't joking when they said that all the shops are closed on Sunday. Not that I doubted, but good thing I got a few groceries yesterday.
Finally, I have unpacked my purse, removing all U.S. currency and other treasures (e.g. Starbucks card, MTA and CTA cards, a fully-stamped Venice Cafe card (doh!), and some gift cards). Kind of sad. But I thought of an interesting (to a geek like me, anyway) exercise. I have a grand total of $150.06 in U.S. currency (including a Sacajawea and a silver dollar, both of which are valued at their face value, even though the silver dollar is worth more). I'm going to see how the value holds up during the four years I'm here. The current value according to Oanda.com is a whopping EUR 107,84. Each time I head back to the U.S., I'm going to take stock of its value and gain/loss of Euro purchasing power. Just because.
Ahhhh...xm radio - how I miss thee. I do listen online, but hardly ever. It's a satellite - can't they just point it at Europe too??!! :)
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