Washing Machine Goes Buck-wild!

Anyone ever try to wash their clothes in a foreign country? I swear it wasn't this hard in Europe. But here we are trying our handy-dandy washer/dryer combo for the first time. First of all, it's in the kitchen, which may be perfectly normal, but not for most Americans. We were smart in that we only placed one towel and a nightgown in the contraption to test it out. After really looking it over, and of course there's no user's manual, we thought it'd be no problem. We push the start button and realize we've chosen a mode that will take 3-4 hours, so we cancel the load and try it again, and again, and again...nothing really helps bring that number down. So, we go ahead and start the machine and let it do it's thing, hoping for the best! Much later that evening, we arrived at our flat to find that our washing machine had danced it's way into the middle of the kitchen, wrenched the water hose out of the wall, and drained water all over the floor under the refrigerator and such.  Apparently, during the spin-cycle, our machine goes buck-wild! We eventually got all the water mopped up, and set the washer back in it's place, but sadly, can't get the stupid machine to work properly. So, today, on our only day of rest, we are currently spending a few hours at another teacher's flat washing and drying our very dirty clothes! This one incident describes our first week here in Lagos quite aptly!

FOOD

We were under the impression that American food would be hard to come by in a third world country, but Britte' & I have been to numerous shops in the past few days, checking out the selection and prices of those items and have been impressed at the large number of westernized products available: Hershey's syrup, Comet, Clearasil, Raisin Bran, etc. The list goes on and on! That being said, most of our self-provided meals have been Top Ramen - it's like being in college all over again! Last night we actually baked a cake (Betty Crocker in a box) after finding out that we were expected to bring something to share with the staff for our first day at the beach! Although a little put out seeing as we barely can fend for ourselves yet, we managed to whip up the cake mix in a pot that Britte' fortunately brought with her, and bake it in our new oven (only after making a guess at how many degrees Celsius is 325 F).  Britte' just about had a stroke when I used regular tap water to mix the cake! We had quite a laugh, but now that it's been frosted, she's excited to eat something comforting:)