
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that our unfurnished apartment was lacking not only in furniture (as expected), but also in appliances!! So we had to buy a fridge (being delivered above) and washing machine in the first week as well. We decided not to get a dryer, so all laundry gets line-dried. There is a funky clothesline apparatus in the bathroom that is getting much use now that it's too cold to hang the clothes outside. And while I'm thinking of it... washing clothes in the UK is a bit different. First, all the cycles on the washing machine are _very_ long. 70 min is typical! (There is a fast-wash option which is only 50 min). Second, there are a million wash cycle choices!! I have to look at the list of programs before each load I wash 'cause I haven't gotten the hang of it yet. But, the best feature is by far the delay timer. I can delay the start of a wash cycle for 2 h, 4 h or 9 h. This comes in very handy as I don't have time for the long wash cycles most weekdays, and I don't want to spend an entire Saturday just doing laundry. So I've found that I can load the machine at night (by 9 pm), delay it for 9 h, and the wash will be done by 7 am. Then it's just hang the clothes to dry and head out the door for school. Not bad, eh?