Ikea Adventures

Since Michael took his last final last week, we have been focusing on finally furnishing what used to be called my "office" but was essentially the room without the beds filling it up. With some help from Ikea experienced friends, we managed to make our first trip out there. It is on the opposite side of Metz from us, so our trip involved one bus trip into the main stop in Metz, then we caught another bus out to Ikea. Our first trip out was essentially an 8 hour day, including an hour out there, an hour back, and the 6 hours in between that we actually spent picking out stuff. For those of you who know Michael, you know that 6 hours is not an exaggeration. But after finally picking everything out, we had a new problem -- getting it all back to our place.

At first, we were planning to rent one of Ikea's trucks to bring everything home. It was a very appealing idea to me since it has now been 4 months (4 MONTHS!!!) since I last drove and I am starting to miss it terribly. In the end though, another GTL couple were able to help us out in their "large by French standards" car. After getting everything back to the apardorm (my new word for where we live)...

 ...and clearing out what had mainly been used as temporary Christmas tree storage...

...we got to work assembling the tables (in the background) and the couch/futon.

 After everything was put together, we ripped open some more bags...

...and finally put the whole room together.

And the next night, we thoroughly enjoyed our new room along with a finger-food feast while decorating our Christmas tree (photos of that to come later, when we get a tree topper and it is finally finished).

And no, we didn't intend to wear matching outfits in that picture :-)