9.4.10

stumbling blocks

Moving is always a funny experience.  I don't think it matters if you move one suburb, one city or a whole continent there are always adjustments and changes that need to be made. No matter how prepared you are there are always things that stump you.  

In 2008 I thought I had handled my move to Boston relatively well until one day, two months after arriving, I went to buy a folder (binder) in an office supply shop and was momentarily caught off-guard when I realised that the US only has 3-ring folders.  You see, throughout my life I've always been a 2-ring folder girl. The prospects of studying with my papers filed by 3-rings and not 2 was for a split-second a mind bending experience.  I know this sounds pathetic, but it's really the little things that throw you, not the big stuff.  You're prepared for the big stuff - the language, the accent, the driving on the "wrong" side of the road, it's the small stuff that throws you.

In Berlin it's been the doonas/quilts/bedcovers, whatever you like to call them.  In german-speaking europe everyone gets their own doona.  Even if you have a double or king-sized bed, the doonas are 135cm x 210cm (single bed sized).  Two people in the bed - two doonas.  I'll be the first to admit that this immediately solves the near universal problem of "who stole the doona in the middle of the night".  It also allows for different sleeping habits; arm-in, arm-out, only covering your legs - the choice is yours.  But, well, I don't like it.  I don't like how it looks when you make the bed and I seem to always be falling through the gap between the two doonas at night.  


Quietly I'm plotting a way to reinstitute a single-doona policy in our house.  All I need is to find a big enough doona.

5 comments:

Jess said...

The bed would look funny. I don't think I would like it either.

Rebecca said...

i agree, i love a nicely made bed. a throw would solve the problem of how it looks when made i guess. i have a sleeping situation like this forced on me by my boyf. i have the whole double duvet and he has a tiny homemade thin quilt because he gets so hot at night. you'll have to order a larger one online, and don't forget the covers!

when i lived in madrid i had similar problems, its the little things that make all the difference but that you can de so little about

Anonymous said...

hey bear
use your wonderful craft skills and just sew or velcro the 2 together. Buy the next size up sheets to sew together to make the cover. ( i'm a legs out of the doona person!)Jenny w xoxo

emma said...

haha that's bizarre!!
i never knew that! it does make logical sense, true, but where is the fun of snuggling under the one?!

handmade romance said...

it is the small things isnt it. i found my move from country to city life had its moment, mostly to do with the smells and no one saying hello to each other on the street, oh and driving so quickly and impatiently. things i am so used to now but at the time they seemed so much bigger than they were : )
i like the sound of a single doona although i am the one in our house who is always hearing 'who stole the doona' : )