So familiar, yet so different

Things that seem like normal, but work totally differently:

The oven:  seems to be a convection oven or something, the user manual the landlord left behind (thank the Lord she is as obsessive about keeping these things as I am) is really not very helpful at all, and I am more or less just guessing at what these things mean.

Hot water heater closet:  You know how you can't store anything near the hot water heater because it's, well, HOT in there?  Turns out this makes a perfect drying room!  They call it a "hot press", and it is the most awesome thing ever, and not just for laundry.  Also dried out my soaking wet sneakers, and perfect for hanging wet shower towels and giving you warm toasty towels in the morning.  There is towel warmer int he bathroom, but can't figure out how you are actually supposed to get your towels on there around the wall brackets without dragging on the floor, and only runs when the heat is running, which is almost never so far.  Also, the hot water heater doesn't run all the time, we have it set to only run a few hours in the morning and a few int eh evening in order to save on electricity.  So far not a problem, but worried about the inevitable cold shower I am going to get one of these days.

TV shows:  This one is pretty obvious, but I have actually been surprised by how many American shows are here.  Not just re-runs, but we seem to be getting a few of the new shows too, like Legend.  I have spent a lot of time watching Frasier, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Charmed, Rules of Engagement, Melissa and Joey, Friends, and some of the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon teenage shows which are my guilty pleasure.  Okay, so some are better than others, but the familiarity is comforting.  Also, the game shows have surprisingly low jackpots.  We watched one show where the jackpot was 1,000 euros, and the winners didn't even win that because they missed the last question.  What, you win a game show and walk off with no money?

Our microwave:  Apparently you can't cook something for a minute and a half without stopping and restarting.

The washer and dryer:  looks just like a front load washer, but actually a washer and dryer in one, and in the kitchen where you expect the dishwasher to be.  Also, and traps your laundry in until it is good well and done with it, never mind you are only on dryer setting and it has been saying there is only 1 minute left for the last 10 minutes.  The user manual was instrumental in freeing our "dry" laundry one time, and helped me figure out that you could, in fact, set it to wash then dry without any interruption, but expect it to take over 4 hours, and the clothes aren't usually very dry. Also, only about 1/3 of the capacity of a standard American washer and dryer.

Windows:  No screens and tilt out instead of sliding up and down.  Fresh air = portal for stupid indoor cat to jump out of window from the second story and get lost for most of the day while we imagined her being eaten by the foxes and badgers that live near here.  However, great for letting air in even when it is raining.  We have no central air, so this will be very important in the summer.

Deadbolt:  It is under the door handle instead of over it.  I think this bothers me because the door handle is kind of in the way when you are trying to fiddle with the lock.

Floor numbers:  We are not on the ground level, but we are the 1st floor.  The ground level here is called ground level, not first floor.  Keeps throwing me off.

The shower door:  Only half a door really, but swings in and out anyways, as if you couldn't just go around it.

Shopping!!!!!!!:  I am having so much trouble finding anything, like the shower organizer I wanted, screens for the windows, the light bulb for the bathroom, a freaking spatula to cook with!  I inevitably turn to amazon, but I have to go to amazon.co.uk, and many of the seller there won't deliver to Ireland, but sometimes they don't tell you that until you are at checkout.  I spent hours trying to find darned over the door hooks that were wide enough for these doors (and a few other things), just to fund out at checkout they wouldn't deliver here!!!!  Our local friend finally told me about Parcel Motel, which I just got my first package from today.  Works sort of like a P.O. Box.  For a small fee, you have the package sent to a Northern Ireland address (part of the UK, so most retailers will still send it here, and much cheaper than sending it just a few miles further to the Republic of Ireland, where we are), then they drive it down here and pop it in a locked box about a mile from our place, where I just put in a code to retrieve it.  Also awesome because other packages come from any of many courier services, most of which don't tell you when they are coming and none of which will leave a package at the door, so I end up having to arrange for re-delivery on another day.

Banking:  Holy Lord what Hubby had to go through setting this up.  All kinds of anti-money-laundering laws have made it very difficult to get an account set up and to get foreign money into the account.  They wouldn't accept my cashier's check, and wouldn't even accept cash to deposit until after a certain amount of time.  When he tired to electronically transfer our rent money to our landlord, he found out he had to get a card reader that plugged into the USB port and put his ATM card into it every time he wanted to do something like that.  Of course we had to wait for them to mail us this card reader.  Geeze, at least we have some money in there now and seem to have the hang of things, we think.