Wednesday is our off day from the Institute. This morning we inspected the apartment of the young sisters below us. There were no major issues, but a couple of things that would be nice to fix. The mission is kinda backlogged on non-critical problems, so we'll see what happens.
My wife then walked to the open market and bought herself a bunch of things for cold weather: pajamas, socks, a sweatshirt, sweaters, and a coat. It was all amazingly cheap (e.g., the coat was only 5 euros), even without bargaining. She was so excited -- my wife loves a bargain! The temperature has been in the mid-40s overnight, which isn't all that cold, except that it's almost that temperature inside our apartment! We really don't have heat that we can run overnight, so we are sleeping with a bunch of blankets. It's pretty chilly here when we wake up and try to shower and get dressed, so this was very nice for her.
I worked on trying to get our second chip-and-PIN card set up. Andrews Federal had contacted us a couple of weeks ago and then never followed up, so I spoke with their guy in Belgium who sent out a form for us to fill out and return. Not sure why they didn't do this earlier, but anyway it was good to get that done. We already received an ATM debit/VISA card for the account, which we didn't want or need.
I also tried to set up an online bank account here so we can get a Bancomat card, which would make our life easier for some things. Someone here had told me a bank to try, but the bank won't let met set up an account online apparently unless I'm an Italian citizen. I will try to go into a bank in person soon and see if I have any luck. Our main US bank, Bank of America, has a partnership with Banca Nazionale di Lavoro (BNL), so I'll try that to see if it helps.
In the afternoon, we went to the Auchan (think Target), where we bought a few staples, plus a sweatshirt, a bunch of sweaters, and a nice coat for me. Much more expensive than the open market, but not too bad, and I'm worth it ☺. When we got home, we asked the apartment manager about the heat. It will be turned on in one week, but only from 11am to 10pm each day! Yikes. That doesn't really help much, as morning is when we need heat the most. I suspect it's because electricity is so expensive here. We would happily pay for more to be comfortable, but that apparently isn't an option. Sigh.
We also went to Leroy Merlin (think Home Depot) and bought an piece of wood to extend the depth of my desk, plus mounting hardware. They cut the board to our specs for only 50 cents, which was awesome. Sometime soon I'll mount the extension and have a nicer office setup here.
Tonight we had a few small dramas to manage at my in-laws' home, so there were a bunch of phone calls between here and the US. My mother-in-law is out of the hospital (she had pneumonia and an infection) and into a rehab facility of sorts. She really wants to be home, understandably. Anyway, lots of little and big concerns there, which took some time.
Back to work/fun tomorrow!