My Inside Morning

It's raining. I really, really, really hope it stops. I'd like to do some exploring today. While I do have a rain coat, rain pants, and umbrella....it'd be so much nicer to roam around without worrying about getting the camera wet (although if it's really raining, that won't be such a worry because the camera will be tucked away on its shelf). Although I prefer taking photos outside over taking them inside, I'm posting a few I snapped this morning aorund my living room in a fit of boredom.

Exacty how does Kirsten spend rainy Saturday mornings in Kosovo?


She listens to NPR through her TV. I'm soooo glad I figured out that I have this service. German MTV still gets a little bit of time, but I like having radio on that I don't have to watch.

Often I have my curtains open during the day, but Iusually keep the sheers drawn. Even with the sheers, you can see pretty easily into my second floor.

The wet view from my living room window. Even at 8am, there are usually people out walking. But I don't see anyone today. Aren't all those power lines ugly? There are cables everywhere you look up.

It's too cold and too wet to be putting my laundry out on my balcony to dry (even though the balcony is well covered). I have my rack set up in my living room. It takes up quite a bit of space, but I can work around that.

My heater knob. Even when the power is out, the heater itself holds heat. I may not be able to get the fan to blow, but I figure that if it gets really cold and the power cuts out, I can just sit with my heater and a blanket to keep warm.

I have a tea table in my living room. I don't have enough room in the kitchen to keep the six or seven types of tea I like, so they stay in the living room. Plus, near my tea table, there is an outlet for my kettle. The kitchen is severly lacking in plug-ins. There is one outlet for the mini fridge and one outlet that the water heater is plugged into. There is another outlet on the wall opposite the stove, but the plug-in part of it comes out of the wall quite easily (trailing wires) so I don't like to use it.

Next to my tea table is my water stash. I use tap water for dish washing and cooking, but when it comes to drinking the stuff, I just buy bottled. I go through a lot of plastic bottles and I haven't yet figured out how I can cut back on bottle trash without reducing my water consumption. There's been some concern about nasties in the water like lead, which I don't think a filter can get rid of (this is moot anyways because I didn't bring my filter).

I brush my teeth in the kitchen. The sink in the bathroom is in the shower stall. As a result, I find it far easier to brush and floss at the kitchen sink.

Palmolive dish soap does the same job in Kosovo that it does in the US. This particular item is imported from Turkey.

My coffee set up doesn't take up as much room as all of my tea does, so it gets to hang out on top of my mini fridge.

My bookshelf contains mostly teaching-related books. However, on a whim, I bought "This I Believe" in the San Francisco airport on my way out. I'm glad I did because I may use it as the base of a writing project for my students.


This is the view from my couch. You can see the heater, my hanging laundry, my pantry cart, and the kitchen.


I hope it stops raining.