Now Taking Donations

If you've been following all of our bragging about what a warm and pleasant winter we've been having, you will find this story particularly ironic.

About a month ago Dante promised to check our meter to let us know what our gas and electric bill was, since we had yet to pay any utilities since moving in. We reminded him again this weekend, and yesterday we got the news. Our gas and electric combined has totaled 900 euro. That is no typo. Somehow we have managed to rack up a bill far beyond comprehension.

Now, let me explain. First of all, here in the humid south we have discovered that the walls of our dear cottage are very subsceptible to mold. That said, we were advised by some of our students that the best way to combat the mold is to leave the windows open and let the fresh air circulate. SInce we are gone most of the day in Rome for work, this is precisely what we've been doing, and when we get home in the evening it is quite cold in the house, and so we crank up the heat.

Mariella provided us with a winter blanket back in October, and although it feels very heavy, it doesn't do much to keep in the heat. After a few cold nights of not very good sleep we decided it would be a good idea to keep the heat on a low setting throughout the night. This helped us sleep more comfortably, but it obviously added to our high bill.

Finally, we didn't realize (although we should have) that the price of petrol is about 3 times higher here than it is in the good ol' uS of A. Sometimes we forget that things are not the same as they are back home, and Dante sometimes forgets that we don't know how things work in Italy. It is unfortunate that he forgot to check our meter for so long, because if he had told us a month or so back how much gas we were truly using, we could have corrected the problem and saved ourselves a lot of extra cash.

So, we have learned yet another lesson the hard way (thankfully Dante is understanding and will let us pay in installments), but we have lost 900 euro, which could have been a really fun trip somewhere, and that just sucks.