1. Decide late the night before that you need to do your laundry
2. Go to bed before transferring said laundry to the dryer
3. Hope your mother (aka the laundry fairy) discovers the laundry in the washing machine and transfers it to the dryer.
4. Don't wake up the first time your mother (aka the alarm clock) comes to your room to tell you to get ready for school.
5. Finally wake up and shower.
6. Be shocked to discover that the laundry you left in the washing machine the night before is not dry. (keep in mind you have lived in Belgium for several months now - you know a dryer cycle of 1.5 hours is just enough to make them only damp. This dryer cycle is usually followed by at least half a day of the clothes hanging on the clothes line.)
7. Decide to wait for your clothes to dry before going to school.
8. Eventually capitulate and wear a combination of dry (but unwanted) clothes and damp (but really want to wear it) clothes.
9. Miss bus
10. Decide to ride bike
11. Spend several minutes hunting chain and lock
12. Realize you can not get on base without a helmet on - find helmet
13. Get ready to ride bike to school only to discover tires are flat
14. Spend several minutes hunting bike pump while implying that your mother and sister have conspired against you and put it where you can not find it. (Keep in mind neither the mother nor sister ride bikes or use a bike pump for anything)
15. Finally concede things are not going your way and ask the laundry fairy/alarm clock for a ride to school, knowing full well rides to school are not free and missing the bus has consequences.
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, September 24, 2010
Travel
The opportunity to travel was one of the reasons Kyle and I were excited about coming to Belgium. Within a couple of hours we can be in several different countries, just like many of you in the US can be in several different states within a couple of hours.
What makes travel even easier for us is that SHAPE has a couple of organizations that do all the organizing for you. There is SHAPE Trips and Tours which runs trips on Saturdays and longer ones during school vacations and there is SHAPE Travel Group which runs week day trips.
Trips and Tours offers Saturday day trips to England, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Luxembourg. Typically these trips leave early in the morning and involve a bus ride of 2-4 hours, some structured tour time and some free time to do as one wishes. During school breaks they organize longer trips - for the Christmas break they are offering a trip to Egypt and during spring break they are offering a trip to a resort near Barcelona.
SHAPE Travel Group is more of a wives' group. Yes men are allowed but it is typically the women who are free to travel in the middle of the week. When I went to Versailles I went with this group. Their upcoming trips are to a spa in Belgium and for shopping in England and in Germany.
It is easy to travel when someone else does most of the work - picking the place, the activity and arranging transportation and driving. We just pay the money and get on the bus.
While we dreamed of frequent travel, we aren't getting out as much as we'd like for the same reasons many of you don't bop around your neighboring states - you and your kids are busy. Even so, we are trying to push ourselves to find the time and make the effort - after all Flat Stanley is begging to have his picture taken in front of more landmarks.
What makes travel even easier for us is that SHAPE has a couple of organizations that do all the organizing for you. There is SHAPE Trips and Tours which runs trips on Saturdays and longer ones during school vacations and there is SHAPE Travel Group which runs week day trips.
Trips and Tours offers Saturday day trips to England, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Luxembourg. Typically these trips leave early in the morning and involve a bus ride of 2-4 hours, some structured tour time and some free time to do as one wishes. During school breaks they organize longer trips - for the Christmas break they are offering a trip to Egypt and during spring break they are offering a trip to a resort near Barcelona.
SHAPE Travel Group is more of a wives' group. Yes men are allowed but it is typically the women who are free to travel in the middle of the week. When I went to Versailles I went with this group. Their upcoming trips are to a spa in Belgium and for shopping in England and in Germany.
It is easy to travel when someone else does most of the work - picking the place, the activity and arranging transportation and driving. We just pay the money and get on the bus.
While we dreamed of frequent travel, we aren't getting out as much as we'd like for the same reasons many of you don't bop around your neighboring states - you and your kids are busy. Even so, we are trying to push ourselves to find the time and make the effort - after all Flat Stanley is begging to have his picture taken in front of more landmarks.
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