Friday, October 22, 2010

Wrapping couches in IKEA (ee-kay-uh)

So as my plane was landing last week in Malaga, we flew in just after sunset over the Mediterranean. I soaked it all in...it was light enough to see the outlines of the mountains, the ripples in the water, and the coastline...but dark enough to see city lights dotted along the coast, up the mountains, illuminating the..ooooh IKEA! Who knew?? I was excited to see something so familiar and useful, really, when settling into a new place for an extended period of time. Tonight I had the chance to go to Ikea Malaga, and it is...the same as in the US. Well, I pretty much expected that. But it was still fun to walk around the model living rooms and kitchens and sit on multiple couches and watch fake tv. My friend Lily was in the market for some new furniture, and was successful in finding a pair of nice leather couches in the as-is section, at a nice discount! When we finally made it to the front of the line for delivery drop off, we were informed, however (after a few translation missteps and looks of confusion), that since they were not purchased new and had been final sale items, they weren't responsible if for any damages incurred (is that the word I want?) during delivery. Well, that's a bummer, but they've already been paid for..so over we go to the rolls of brown packing paper to wrap them to the best of our abilities! It was an interesting experience...(see picture below)
By the time we were done gift wrapping her couches, it was 9:30pm...which is dinnertime! So, off we went to have some tapas at a nearby shopping plaza. Yum!


Tomorrow, maybe some pictures of the town I'm living in...

2 comments:

  1. One of the trippiest experiences I had when I was living in The Netherlands was walking in to my first European McDonald's. It was like I had suddenly warped back home to the McD's I used to frequent next door to my high school. Except all the Dutch people were putting mayo on their fries. Gross.

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  2. oh -- in Denmark they put Remoulade on everything -- it's mix of ketchup, mayonnaise and thousand island dressing.

    But yes I think no matter where we go, the silly little familiar things, Ikea, McDonald's, Starbucks are the reminders that we are never quite as far away from home as we think we are.

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