Our flat

This is not a complaining post. It's more so I can remember, and laugh about it in the future.

We live in a really nice apartment. One day, I'll post the pictures I took the first day. We have a fairly absentee landlord. He's a nice enough guy though, especially compared to other Egyptian landlords. He keeps trying to send his maid to clean, but we're always gone (but this week is the magic week, I think it will come together!) But... no matter how nice he is, he's kind of a slacker fixer landlord. Meaning, many things broken, few things fixed. So far, these have happened:

1. Our washer broke (fixed once, broken again)
2. Our light in our bedroom broke (still not fixed)
3. Our bedroom door broke and we still can't shut it, which makes for awkward roommate moments
4. Our bathroom door is sort of broken, still can be shut, but sometimes needs to be opened from the outside
5. Our air conditioner now leaks water continually, onto our bed so we have a bucket to catch it all night long (drip. drip. drip. you get the picture)

The most annoying things are the bedroom door and the A/C. The washer is usable still, if you stand next to it the whole cycle and make sure a part doesn't come loose (I usually have to stand next to it the whole cycle for fear of forgetting the water is on and flooding it, which happens pretty much once a week). The light in our bedroom almost feels normal because it stopped working the first week we moved in. The bathroom door thing isn't that annoying as long as someone is close to open it when you bang on it. I never shut it when I'm home alone.

Something else that happens frequently: we lose power. And it's SO. HOT. It usually comes on within the hour, but occasionally will be off for longer. That's when I jump in the cold shower with my PJs on and hop into bed completely wet. It works.

I like to think I'm living authentically Egyptian, albeit upper-middle-class Egyptian. I often have to repeat this to myself when the frustration mounts.







Things that work great in our flat: the TV.