I definitely underestimated the difficulty of living in a foreign country. Last Saturday, I took on the adventure of getting my first Danish haircut. I’d been warned that this could be a tragic and even catastrophic event, but I’m short haired girl at heart. I’ve grown my hair long many times, but really, I’m a bob girl and nothing, not even a language barrier or the threat of dull scissors was going to get between me and a bob.
I’ll post more about that later, but the point of this post is to talk about another example of the learning curve of living abroad.
The easiest way I’ve found to style a bob is by using one of those hot air curling brush things. No matter how good a power inverter you have, it’s pretty much universally accepted that blowdriers and the like will not survive the conversion, and I’m really not into messing around with 220 volts next to my hair and face.
I could not find a suitable hot air curling thingy (magic hair wand?) locally, so I ordered one from Amazon UK. Even after getting scolded by post office demon for not speaking Danish, this seemed like an excellent plan until I opened the package and realized that UK plugs are different from Danish plugs.
Are they kidding me? It’s like 2 hours away by plane!I get that I ordered from a UK site, but this not so magic hair wand is available for shipment to all of Europe! It shipped from Germany! So why would I expect it not to work on mainland Europe??? Shouldn’t it have been clearly marked as UK only?
I can’t even think about the hassle of shipping this thing back, so I’ll have to find and use yet another kind of adapter with it. I miss the days when I could just plug my appliances into the wall and have them work. These days, at a minimum, I need a plug adaptor, but in most cases, I need a 40 lb. power inverter. Good times!
Fran says
Go on to amazon uk and get a travel plug, then you will be able to use your curler. Travel plugs are really cheap.
Sage says
Hi Fran,
I was hoping to avoid another run in with the not so pleasant Post office lady, but your suggestion seems to be the easiest option. Thanks for that!
~ Sage
P.S. Good luck with your falafel :)
Susie says
You might be able to find a travel plug locally – do you have DIY/ electrical shops? Or even in a biggish supermarket. (They are pretty much ten a penny here, travel plugs I mean).
smilingsurfer says
I hope that your Danish haircut experience went well.
Maybe you can buy a converter plug locally at an airport, a large hotel, or a luggage store?
Good luck!
Sage says
A fellow blogger and friend was in London for the weekend, read my blog, and brought me back an adaptor. How sweet was that?
~ Sage
Willow says
Reminds me of when I lived in St Martin, an island which is half Dutch and half French. 90 square km and the island is totally different on one side vs the other — different currencies, languages, laws, and yes, electricity. Strangely, my (Dutch side) apartment was wired just like the island: half Dutch, half French, so I needed a converter to move a lamp from one room to the other. Fun times!
Sage says
Hi Willow,
Wow! And I thought I had it bad! Thanks for sharing that story, I will keep it in mind because I plan to visit both France and Holland. Must’ve been quite an experience living there!
~ Sage