One of those moments

Today I had a "moment." One of those moments, when you think to yourself, what the $%# is going on? I had expected to have these types of moments when I got lost in a train station, or couldn't read a menu or a street sign. I didn't expect to have one of these moments doing typical household stuff like laundry or heating up leftovers in the microwave. The funny thing is that in general I've handled the "big" stuff alright, it was trying to figure out the washing machine that threw me over the edge a bit. Looking back its kind of funny that I couldn't figure it out, but at the time I just stood there thinking what is this?

I went to do a couple loads of laundry and I had figured I would find maybe some dials with chaud (hot) froid (cold) but instead I found three different temperatures. I had no idea what temperature to use, and then there were multiple temps under three different sections. I tried to figure out what the different sections were using my limited French skills, but I'm pretty sure I washed colors in hot water and whites in cold water. I also learned that opening the washing machine is a little different here. I've always had washing machines where there is a little handle for you to just pull the door open. Here there is a release button that springs the door open. I of course spent too much time looking for the handle and then tried to place my fingers into the grooves to pull the door open. That did not work.

I eventually sent Steve pictures of the machine at work and one of his co-workers helped write a detailed description of what all of the settings meant. She must think I'm an idiot.

Now I have never been a whiz in the kitchen, I will be the first to admit that, but I could always at least trust in my microwaving skills to get me something fast. Not so much here. My first question when I looked at the microwave was, "where are the numbers?" There are no numbers on the microwave, but there is a chicken drumstick button and a pizza/pizza slice button.

There were no directions anywhere, so I just did what I normally do and started hitting buttons until something makes sense. After hitting all of the buttons, I hadn't actually started the microwave. Instead I erased the clock, which was the only clock we have in the apartment. Eventually I figured it out, but for those who know me well, you know how much I hate anything that gets in my way of eating.

I'm still making guesses on the oven. One dial is temperature which is in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit, but I can get over that. I'm still trying to figure out what the other dial is. To me, its just boxes and squiggly lines.