The Sound of

I may sound a little naïve but I never thought about how sounds might be different in Europe.  I know the basics, like the sirens on the polizia sound different from watching National Lampoon’s European Vacation (look kids, Big Ben, Parliament) but I didn’t think anything of it.  Now that I am here, many of the sounds are different.  The first time our doorbell rang, we didn’t know what was happening.  I can’t even really describe the sound.  And when our gate phone sounded, it was a new sound that we both stopped and looked at each other. Luckily the screen on the phone lights up so we were able to figure that one out pretty quickly. The dog barks at the timer on the stove because she has no clue what that sound means! I think the one I felt the most “blonde” about was the phone.  When we were in TLA on Little America, I had to call to find out about the baby’s doctor.  Simple enough task right?  I looked up the number and picked up the phone to dial.  Before I dialed, I checked with the front desk to make sure I was using the right phone number (there are two numbers for each base phone-one that is DSN and one that is commercial.  You can only call the DSN from other DSN numbers and the commercial from cells and local lines.)  Then I dialed the number.  It made a weird sound that sounded like a busy signal or maybe when a phone number is not dialed correctly.  I quickly hung up and tried another number.  The sound was the same.  I put the phone down and then I thought I would try the first number again and not hang up immediately…..good thing I did.  The sound that was the busy signal was actually the phone ringing! OOPS!  I really felt pretty stupid after that event.  I am not even sure why I am sharing this moment of shame…maybe it will help the next poor soul who can’t figure out why the phone makes different sounds!