Living Conditions

As people keep asking me where I live here:

 

No, I do not live in a hotel. I  have a room in one of the staff houses here on the grounds of Madinat Makadi.

So, let me give you a little tour.

This is wher the average tourist has to turn around and go the other way. The entrance to the staff quarters.

Once you got through the checkpoint you are an a little towmn of its own. Here are some impressions:

 

 

And from the roof of my house:

 

 

There, in the background, behind that red, white and black hat, that`s my house: Ramses. 

(All the houses carry the names of ancient Egyptian gods or pharaos.) 

 

I live in Ramses 103. Ground floor, about 40m² plus a little terrace.

The room is pretty much square shaped in total.

On entering through the door you find yourself in a kind of mini hallway.

 

 The front door is off to the very left in this picture.

 

As you can see, the bathroom is immediately to your left:

 

 

To your right is the kitchen:

If you wank straight ahaed with your bach towards the front door this is your view:

 

 You`re in my living room now.

 

Do a 180 here and you see this:

 The "winow" to my kitchen, the doorway to my mini hallway ( - except the bathroom door there are no doors within my room / flat - ), my mini hallway itself and my front door.

 

 Turn 90° to your right here and you are facing my bedroom:

 

 

 The best thing about it is to the right of the bed:

 

 

If  you return to the living room and turn your back to the front door,  so that the bedroom is off to your right you are standing in front of the door to my little partio:

 

 

Step out and have a seat if you dare, meaning if you don`t mind all the dead ants ( - due to all the insecticide that is sprayed every few days - ) or aren`t too tired and / or lazy to clean up before. 

 Also be aware that my partio os on the ground floor and right next to the entrance of the house  (off to the right of the foto below) so you are on display to everyone who happens to walk by.
 

So, now you have seen all of my room / flat here in Madinat Makadi. 

Good night!

XOXO

Anne

20 LE

Housekeeping (part 2):

My last post was on housekeeping and that I intended to leave 20 LE as a tip for the great cleaning, the flowers and the towel animal.
Well, as it turns out showing your apprechiation for services rendered can be incentive for further (extra) services. Check out this:

 He actually did my dishes!!!

 (Do I need to say that I was kind of shocked? - But in a good way, of course.) 

See you soon,

XOXO,

Anne

 

Mahlesh

Intercultural communication:

Yesterday when I came home  after a long day a pleasant surprise was awaiting me:

 a towel animal decorated with fresh flowers on my bed:

 

and a creatively used empty cola can which I had forgptten on my "living room" tabe:

And as always actions speak louder than any words especially if language is the weak spot. And that's apparently the Egyptian way to say "Mahlesh that house keeping was lousy recently." and "Hello, I'm the new person taking care of your room.".  Well, I guess the internationally understood and accepted answer to that is a note saying "Shokran!" and 20 LE  when the house keeping person returns in a few days.

Nocturnal greetings,

Anne

Finally... new shoes!

Hello everyone!

I know I haven't posted anything in quite a while but I was kind of busy here.
I have a new, temporary collegue, Nicole, whom I'm getting along with really well and since she lives here in Madinat Makadi as well, we spend quite a bit of time together.

If anyone still remembers some time ago I had a post about how most of my shoes are too damaged by the heat to still be wearable. Well, guess what: this week ( - or last week by now, as it is already past midnight now that I'm finally able to post this - ) I finally found a new pair - by accident in Senzo Mall. Black, my size and even affordable. Serendipity...

Aren't they pretty?!

XOXO

Anne

Staying hydrated

On drinking...

In a country where temperatures outside revolve around 40°C in the shade ( - which is a state that is just not foud anywhere in reality as the sun is burning down on the eath without any obstacles - ) and an agreeable room temperaure for an office is 26 to 27°C staying well hydrated is essential. The heat and the dryness of the air inside caused by air condition everywhere causes you to constantly feel thirsty. I had already used to drinking quite a bit back home in Germany, but in Egypt it's been taken taken to a whole new dimension.

Usually I have about half a liter water right after I wakig up because the night has left me feeling parched. Then I get up and have one or two tall glasses of tea before leaving for work. To the office I take a big 1,5l bottle of water and another big bottle of chilled tea.

I absolutely LOVE Egypt`s national drink: Karkadee, tea made from hibiscus blossoms. I used to take that to work, but sadly I have to stop and find something new to drink as Karkadee has side effects: it lowers your blood pressure - considerably. And even though my blood pressure is always measured to be quite high anytime I'm at a doctor's I think thats rather due to my almost dying of a near attack caused by feelings of panic and terror of being there than a natural condition. 

A colleague told me she really likes a blend of peppermint and green tea which is apparently available at bigger supermarkets here. I think I might give that a go and try it as I can't drink those amounts in fruit infusions which I used to love for it will damage my teeth too much. 

On top of that, I'll usually have 4 cans of diet coke from the cafeteria. - Yeah, I know, not exactly the healthiest beverabe around, but 'm hardly having any coffee as I cannot stomach the stuff they brew at the office (way too strong and too much acid) and I need some source of caffeine.  

So, I have quite a bit to drink at the office (and writing it all down it appears even more). But then, I don't drink very much after that. When I'm in my room, after work, I'll maybe have another half a liter of water or a glass of tea and that's it for the day.

Still, quite a bit more than I ever used to have in Germany. Especially noticeable since I cannot drink the water from the tab and have to carry every single bottle I drink home from the shop.

Greetings from Egypt,

Anne

Saturday

Saturday...

So, since I had the day off from 1pm I had some time tro spend on my hands.

Thus I finally managed to go to the hairdresser`s and have my hair cut. Just the ends so it looks neat again. And then, on the way back to my room I bought a dress - unlikely as it is in those tourist oriented shops around here. I instantly fell in love with it and had to have it (even though it was way overpriced):

I don`t think I have ever recieved so many compliments for a dress.

Now I only need new black sandals to match it...

Sunny greetings from HRG!

XOXO

Anne

Ants!

My room is an ant cemetery.
Seríously, its not funny. Yesterday I found probably some 100 dead ants under my bed and behind the curtains - plus maybe 10 live ones. Yuck!!
Wrote a note to the guy from housekeeping who hopefully comes today.

XOXO

Anne

Uniforms and power

All tied up...

Yesterday I got a new accessory ( - and a fitting blouse, yay - ) for my uniform  which I had to wear to a hotel this morning.
Check out this:

Isn't that the most ugly tie you've ever seen? Looks suspiciously like clown's wear. And I had to wear it - in public too, to make it even worse.


Picture of proof:

 1000 thanks to my ney collegue Hamdi from Luxor. He saved me some serious embarassment and did the knok ast night - after I had failed to notice that the tie isn't one of those already tied ones - because I wouldn't have had the slightest idea what to do with it myself. Thanks Hamdi, I owe you!

Please excuse the slightly shiny look I have on those photos. I took them after first walking about 20 minutes to the hotel and then sitting in the lobby for 3 1/2 hours when the AC had stopped only minutes after my arrival due to yet another power blackout (which lasted until I left at 1:30pm). And that at 32 to 34°C with 60% humidity outside and what felt like 40 to 45°C inside with zero air movement or oxygen. At times I seriously felt like I was not getting any oxygen at all and dangerously close to fainting.
And of course - no guests. 3,5 hours sitting, smiling at noone in particular, sweating and suffocating in a clown's costume. Great start for a day. 

In the afternoon I was supposed to be at the office. I went early to escape the lack of power (and thus lack of  AC and running water at my room). Only to fnid out that the office had been affected by the blackout as well (which is not always the case). But after a few minutes power came back on - for a while. After the power (and all our computers) had gone out another 6 or seven times by about 4:30pm we stopped counting. 
And when does such thing occur? Sure, on the busiest day of the week when everyone's coming in for the weekly settlement day when the whole week's worth of work is accounted for. Fun...

Worst day concerning power so far. 

Greetings from HRG,


Anne

Senzo Mall

More shopping:

last night after work I finally managed to get to famous Senzo Mall.

After everything I had heared about it I was expectinng great things - and was a bit disappointed by the reality. There is a big supermarket (Spinney`s),

a small book store, several shops for cloths and some for accessories. There's also a small food court with a variety of fast food available and a cinema. And some cafés similar to Starbucks. My all time favourite, plain coffee with ice, looks like this here:

Only slightly cooler than room temperature and a lot of foam. I had to ask twice that there really is no milk in there, as such thing as lactose-free milk or even soy milk seems unhearea of in Egyptian coffee shops. No milk in there though. And it was relly good, yum. Later before leaving the mall I had to return for another one.

So, I went to the big supermarket and got all this:

As you can see the main themes to my purchases turned out to be:

cleaning,

washing,

the attempt to get through the day without smelling as sweaty and gross as you feel,

skin care,
(the choice of sunblock was astonishingly limited)

 and snack foods and containers for taking lunch to the office.

And of course:

 some more jewellery. 2 rings and a bracelet. 

(But that's not from Spinney`s of course.)

Many of the shops at Senso Mall were either closed or under construction which was a little disappointing. But I think, either way I managed to spend enough money for a day there. Because on top of all my purchases I had to pay for the cab back to Medinat Makadi. 60LE! From downtown Hurghada I paid 70LE the other night, - and that`s 10 minutes further away...

And least but not least - or rather most important: 
I finally got this:

 

an internet stick!

(which is why I`m able to post on my day off - which is today, yay) 

Stay tuned for more! ;)

XOXO

Anne