02 September 2006

isn't it ironic?

I would h8 Dexia entirely if it weren't for the super nice young lady who works in the office and always remembers who I am and what I do and often sports cool necklaces. When I came in the day before I left asking to reregister with NetBanking, she manipulated the system in order to give me the nifty new bank card reader immediately and without my having to pay the 25 € fee (why the bank would make people pay so much just to use online banking is beyond me).

Now that I've got my desk and chair set up, I'm trying it out and it works like a charm. For the first time, I'm able to do all my banking business online. The software doesn't even work for the current version of IE (t3h 3vi1) for Mac, so I have to use Safari or Firefox, which is awesome. Dexia finally got something right. And of course, fate would have it that I no longer live in Belgium.

In other news, my formerly unfurnished room is finally starting to feel like home, thanks to my parents driving around everywhere and buying and assembling stuff with me. I don't know what I'd have done without them; moving into Mechelen was way easier because I could walk or bike to everything I needed, and anyhow the room was furnished. You ain't gonna walk to no strip mall here. I can even sleep on something besides air (mattress) tonight. My new bed came by delivery today, and it is sweeet. I have a headboard for the first time (also ironic--I've moved away from my parents' house). Hopefully this swanky bed will encourage me to sleep more. Now what will get me to start practicing the organ?

I'm still apprehensive about paying for my apartment. It's probably relatively expensive because of the proximity to campus and the fact that it has appliances that until now have been unheard-of luxuries for me, including a dishwasher, working oven (for the first time in my higher education career), and laundry machines. But yesterday I met a student renting for $650 a month. I can't stop wondering how all these in-debt graduate students shell out so much.

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