sitting and waiting...

I took a weeklong break from listening to music on my computer after arriving here. It wasn't an intentional break at all; I simply didn't have the time or thought to listen to it. This is quite unusual for me, a twice-cursed product of a family in which music is omnipresent and member of a generation which cannot abide silence so fills the natural voids with sound. This isn't to say that I didn't listen to music this week; I just didn't listen to my music. Plenty of Greek and Turkish music jarred my ears in taxis and restaurants. I'm surprised at how "ethnic" the music sounds as opposed to my expectations. I know that there are pop groups all over the world, but I was surprised by my Hispanic students and by the people here who cling tightly to the music of their culture.

We've been waiting since 8:30 this morning for IKEA to show up with ne'er a peep from them. The appliances were delivered by two burly Greek men who hauled in the fridge, washer, and stove without a dolly or back-belt. Impressive. I hooked up the washer successfully, and we're now the proud owners of clean clothes. We've set up a clothes line in the wash area, but I think we'll still need to buy a rack to put out on the porch. I haven't heard of anyone having a dryer here; I think clothes dry naturally.

The fridge is tiny, but it will hold enough. That's a notion which I've enjoyed experiencing here in regards to the size of cars, plates, glasses, washers, fridges, etc: It's enough. It's easy to hear the US be called the largest nation by nearly any measurement, but I think we tend to blow it off and think other places are just "skimping." No, we're big. Really big. Is everything in the New World so large in reaction to the tightness of Europe? A new space without limits had to be appealing to those first settlers. What will happen when we seriously turn our eyes to the stars?

The title of this blog is "sitting and waiting." To be clear, I'm sitting on the floor because WE HAVE NO FURNITURE! If we don't get it tonight, we have to pack back up and go back to the hotel until Monday. Not that I'm complaining about the hotel, but I was prepared to have my own space. Another American notion, perhaps?