Recently, I was house-sitting for friends, and the dishwasher broke. I had to pause it every few minutes to empty the water by hand. It amounted to 2 shallow oven dishes' worth of water. And not filled to the brim, either: I had to be able to bring them to the sink without spilling.It was a really, really small quantity of water.
As a French citizen it drives me nuts. Yes, my take-home pay looks low from a US perspective. But my 6 years at college/university were free, my monthly hospital stay for a chronic illness costs me exactly nothing, having a kid cost me around 100€, the way-too-expensive daycare was 400€ a month, Internet is like 15 a month...
I love not having to get up, saying toasty in bed (my house gets very cold 6 months a year--around 12C). Also, we tend to make better breakfasts in those cases. With a flower from the garden and everything.
Additionally, in my 9 year old's case: since she was born, she had at least 80% of her breakfasts in bed. She likes to wake up slow, she reads for a while after waking up, and since she started middle school her days are hectic, so we pamper her that way. It's twenty minutes of comfort before she starts her 10-hour days.
Probably Syria. Lived there for some years (had to leave because of the Arab Spring.) Amazing people, fascinating culture, loved the language, the open-mindedness, the thriving art scene in Damascus, the sheer beauty of the architecture, the desert, the mountain, the oasis.Least favorite... Honestly, the US. I lived in DC for a year, moved back to Europe as soon as I could (and I could have gotten a Green Card). People were well-meaning and nice, but so fucking insular. Even the well-read, well-travelled, worldly people I knew honestly thought, at the end of the day, that their country was the best, almost by definition. Or... the one other countries had to measure up to.
I'd be against it even if we could magically know without a doubt the person's guilty. Even if it had a negative cost. Even for raping a child.Life is sacred, whatever "sacred" means for an atheist like me.(And I was raped as a child, fwiw.)
I'm convinced it's much less straightforward than people here say it is.
I hate Windows, but I only use my computer for OpenOffice, some liiiiight browsing, and old-school light pirating (light enough TPB fits all my needs), so meh.My new neighbor is an old leftist techie though, and when my 9 year old laptop dies, I may ask him to convert me. Maybe.
Some temps (students) for customer-service jobs, but mostly the work is passed on to colleagues and often... just not done. I used to work for a BtoB ad/communication agency, and August basically didn't count. "So, this will take 4 months. It's early June... Expect it early November."Out-of-office auto replies typically say: "I'll be away until [Three weeks later]. For emergencies, contact Colleague. Otherwise, I'll read your email as soon as I'm back at work and get back to you!"I actually took my vacation weeks in September, because August in the office was almost a vacation by itself. Everybody was gone, you were just holding the fort in case there was a fire or something.
Everybody picked English as first or second foreign language. Most picked Spanish as second language, the best students (or kids from solidly middle-class families) picked German as a first language, to get into the "good" group. Latin was an elective for nerds, Geek for Über-nerds.
I was reading Circe, by Madeline Miller, and on several pages some ancient Greeks wait for the tide to sail away, or watch the sea rising while waiting for Odysseus, and so on. Like, woman, did nobody notice at your publishing house?
Recently, I was house-sitting for friends, and the dishwasher broke. I had to pause it every few minutes to empty the water by hand. It amounted to 2 shallow oven dishes' worth of water. And not filled to the brim, either: I had to be able to bring them to the sink without spilling.It was a really, really small quantity of water.