TELGEN NEWSLETTER 2

TELGEN NEWSLETTER 2.0: October 3, 1998:

Dear Family and Friends:

Here's the latest update on the adventures of the Telgens as they muddle their way through life in lovely England.

Adventures in Housekeeping: Okay, we learned to adjust to the smaller, less efficient appliances, but something was just not right with the dishwasher. It was brand new, but the dishes came out looking spotty and somewhat filmy. Then one evening, the power in the house shorted out while the dishwasher was running. From then on, the dishwasher got stuck in the middle of the cycle and would run for hours if you didn't watch it closely. A repairman had better come straight away to set things right!

Well, the repairman (wearing a Michigan basketball cap) did set things right—er, rather, set us right. It turns out that we were failing to put salt in the dishwasher. (Salt in the dishwasher?!!?) In many British homes, the dishwasher shares an unsoftened water source with the kitchen tap. So you have to dump in several kilos of special "dishwater salt" to prevent hardwater buildup inside the machine. Otherwise the slime covers the heating element and shorts out the machine. As we so cleverly demonstrated.

No Health Hazards Here, Thank You: Although our home isn't ancient (it probably dates between the 1920s and the 1950s), we do not enjoy the modern convenience of central heating. Apparently the British used to believe that central heating was unhealthy because it spread germs. Instead, we enjoy germ-free radiators in each room. Now, since we don't have central heating, there's no reason for us to have the convenience of a thermostat, either. So to regulate the heat in the house, it's either "on" or "off." We do have a timer to switch the heat on or off at certain times, but so far it's proven a haphazard system at best. It is nice, however, when your towel rack is right above the radiator, giving you nice toasty towels in the morning.

Cutthroat Kindergartners: David has started pre-Kindergarten at the American Community School and is loving it (on weekends he is disappointed when we tell him he doesn't go to school that day). He will quickly tell you about his two teachers, his bus (number 15), the names of all his friends (every kid in the class), and the boy who doesn't like him. It seems one day David was playing outside and another boy stuck out his tongue. David has taken this as a sign that the other boy doesn't like him, no matter how we try to explain that he was probably just being silly. David knows what he knows.

School is pretty fun, when you're a kindergartner. There are stories, painting and drawing, nursery rhymes, music class, playing on your own playground, cooking with moms, and field trips to the farm, the theater, and the zoo. David is learning all about letters, and will tell you all about how you make the letters to write his name. The other big event of this past month was a visit to see Thomas the Tank Engine. He came to a local steam railway so we all trekked out there. This makes twice that David has seen a variation of Thomas in person, and I think he's kind of disappointed. He keeps asking why Thomas doesn't talk, like he does in the video. We explained that the video is just interpreting the trains' whistle, but we think he is still suspicious.

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Portugal: Now that he's had some time to settle in to the job, Bill has been spending quite a few days travelling to various GM sites in Europe. (Just so you remember, England is not part of Europe, as the English won't let us forget.) Bill was gone a good portion of September, visiting Germany, France, and Portugal. In case you feel jealous, business travel isn't any better in Europe than it is in the States—in fact, it can be worse. The airplane seats are actually crammed closer together than back home, and then there's the lack of air-conditioning. Not just on the plane, but everywhere—even in the warmer areas. Nevertheless, Bill is gleaning good ideas of where the family should (and shouldn't) visit in the future.

Driving Me ... Crazy: Diane would like to tell you all about her adventures on the English roads, but a peculiarity of the British license plate system has kept her carless for an extra month. British license plates begin with a letter that indicates the year of the car; this year is "S," last year was "R," etc etc on back to "A." Because the letter changes in September, there has been a great demand for new cars at the company leasing center, and we've had to wait and wait to get our appointment. Note that this isn't a new model for the car—just a new letter on the license plate. So you're not getting any new features or anything—just the status of having a "new" car. Having to drop Bill off at work any time she needs the car during the day has led to several interesting adventures, including a slight conflict with another car over a narrow lane and a 45-minute detour near Heathrow Terminal 4 (I wasn't lost—I knew where I was, I just couldn't manage to get to where I needed to be).

When she finally gets her car (next week), Diane will be able to participate in all the school and club activities she's been walking and hitching to for the past month. Most of that has been either helping out with David's classroom activities or attending general and interest group meetings of the North American Women's Club. Fun things with the NAWC include weekly pub walks in the countryside, a book club, and an art club. Between these meetings and school activities, it's been hard to get an entire day's work in at once—but on the whole there's been a pretty good balance.

The weather is just fine, thank you. People keep wondering about the infamous English weather. We're actually enjoying it very much. Most days it gets to be between 60 and 65F; on the one or two days it rains during the week, it doesn't rain all day. Most of the time it's partly cloudy, with a very gently breeze. The only drawback we're discovering is that at this latitude it's starting to get dark much earlier than we're used to. Otherwise we're having a great time.

That's all for this edition. Cheerio!

Diane, Bill, & David Telgen

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