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

Hurghada downtown

Hurghada downtown


So, sometime last week ( - the heat seems to melt away what little sense of time I`ve had - ) my new collegue and I decited we had to get out of Madinat Makadi aka tourist town and visit the "real world" for once.
So we took the shuttle bus to Hurghada after work.

Can anyone say "tourist trap"?

We were dropped off on the main road with two hours to spend before returning to Makadi. Turned out the main road consists of shops selling t-shirts, perfume, cheap jewellery and/or other souvenirs specially designed for tourists only intermitted by several pharmacies...


There was a highlight though. Check out the amazing trees we found by the roadside:

 

 100% plastic, I promise.

But al least we were "successful". My bounty:

 

a pretty bracelet

(Black of course. Really, what have you expected?)

some mango tea 

(I have yet to try it, but I was told it`s made of the leaves of mango trees and it smells fantastic)

2 pieces of purmice 

(for cosmetic reasons only girls can understand)

 a shoulder bag 

(which has an amazing purple colour)

and something I was told is rosemary`

(You`re supposed to put it into a bowl of water to scent the room. And while it does smell really nice, it doesn`t look or smell like any rosemary I have ever known.)

Ok, enough about Hurghada.

See you later, bye bye.

Anne

HEAT!

There`s a number of things Egypt is currently short of:

      - petrol / diesel

- water in general

- bottled water (see my last posts)

- electricity

Since I don`t have a car I am personally only concerned with the water and power issues.

It`s a common occurrence that the power suddenly wavers or goes out altogether a couple of times a day. All you can do is hope to be quick enough to hit the “save” button bevore the computer is off. But right now I`m sitting in the office and the AC broke down hours ago (probably due to said ups and downs in power which are hard on any type of machines and gadgets connected to it).

The window is open so we have some movement of the air and not only the sun shining through but it`s still HOT, SERIOUSLY HOT!

BBC weather says:

temperature: 38°C

wind: 40km/h 25mph Northerly

Humidity: 41%

Observed at 16:00, Thursday 26 JulyObservation station: HURGHADA INTERNATIONAL

I am melting!

Sweaty greetings,

Anne

Water

I have water again!


Apparently last afternoon there was a delivery of water - finally. So when I went to the shop after work expecting to be told water would arrive "2 hours later" there was water. We have water again. At least for the moment. I hope my writing it hasn`t somehow jinxed it now.


Anyway, I stocked up on water so I am prepared if / when water runs out again:

XOXO

Anne

Water is an issue!

Water...

40°C and more outside and Egypt is running out of drinking water.
I will have to go to the (small and way overpriced) tourist supermarket after work in hope of getting a refill for my empty fridge. My usual shop hasn`t had water for days and even the cafeteria in the office building I work in has only a few more small bottles.
Apparently some dangerous bacteria or other has been found in bottled water by several big brands lately which as a result had to shut down.
Thus: no water for Egypt; - none you can drink anyway.

Greetings,

Anne

Egyptian lifestyle

Egyptian Lifestyle 101:
 
The IBM-Rule:
I-nsha'allah (as God wills / maybe)
B-ukra (tomorrow)
M-alesh (don’t worry / doesn’t matter/ 

               you’re welcome / shit happens)

Found it while looking for Egyptian proverbs for the new TUI bookmark. Quite fitting.  

So is this:

Allah (God) has given us time,
he hasn’t said anything about haste.

XOXO 

Anne

Only in Egypt...

Curiosity:

employee of a bookstore who can neither near nor write but speaks at least 3 foreign languages almost perfectly. No joke, met him yesterday when I was looking for a book like "Arqabic language for dummies".

XOXO

Anne

Discovery of the day

Discovery of the day:

in Egypt it's so hot that the glue in my shoesmelts. 13 dayshere and 2 paors of shoes are ruined. Need to find someone to fix that. Or consider wearing those cheap one-piece flip flops for the next 4 months...

XOXO

Anne

Welcome!

Hello everyone,

welcome to my all new little blog now that I’ve finally managed to write something. So, as you can see I’m still alive (for everyone who might have been wondering those last few days) – but only barely at times if I may say so. Summary of the past 11 days here in Madinat Makadi:

- the AC in my accommodation was broken (at almost 40°C outside)

- got a nasty stomach bug (which certainly is not due to the food which is absolutely lovely)

- found out that my shampoo doesn’t work well with Egyptian water

- got eaten alive by mosquitos from hell which leave bites of the size of a small country

- Facebook won’t recognize me here and I can’t log in

- My camera’s batteries died after I had taken the grand total of about 5 pictures.

So, I think I have been appropriately and most of all sufficiently (- Do you hear me, God? - ) initiated here so it could actually stop now.

But besides that everything’s just fine:

- The sun is shining and it’s warm (and not humid for a change)

- Everyone’s so nice to me

- I’m learning a whole lot

- The food is great

And if you believe it or not, I’m learning Arabic.Just a little. One or two words a day. But I want to be able show some respect and courtesy and know a few basics. Besides that, I have the impression that I’m doing a pretty good job at entertaining everyone around me with that. I counted last night and came to a total of 21 things I can say:

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Sabah el Chier! è Sabbah el Nur!	Good morning!
Mess äel Chier! è Messä el Nur!	Good evening!
Salam Aleikum!	Good day!
Ahalanbik!	Welcome!
Forca saida!	Nice to meet you!
Aschufa bokra!	See you tomorrow!
Ma salama!	Goodbye!
Lele saida!	Have a lovely night!
La	No
Aiwa	Yes
Mäsch	Ok
Schokran	Thank you
Schokran aui!	Thanks a lot!
Lau sama Men fadla	Please
Afuan!	You’re welcome! / No worries!
La schokran	No, thanks
Malesch!	Sorry!
Belhana wi schife!	Enjoy your meal!
Enta aben e?	How are you?
Kuais	Good
Kol sche tramam.	Everything’s good.
(Ana) Esmi Anne.	My name is Anne.
Bi käm?	How much?
En schah Allah	As God wills / maybe
Chodar	vegetable (thanks Tarek)

You don’t have to tell me that that’s not the proper way to write the Arabic words. But it’s only my notes and I have to know how to say it and not how to write it and this way it makes sense to me.

Bye bye from Egypt! C u later!