Summer Vacation En Provence Day 1: summer evening stroll around Apt(iPad pix)

The Cicada make a symphony all day and all night, they are the local/regional emblem.  The French describe them as "crickets, but more beautiful".

Fig (pink) sorbet & Lavender sorbet- heaven dances on my tongue.

UAE Day 85: now I'm cookin

Goooood lookin'.  Broccoli and bowtie pasta for the first real meal in my new place.

UAE Day 78: what's cooking? Not me!

The evening started out with the delivery of the stove, which could not be installed because of some problem with the wrong kind of electrical outlet.  Then the electrician was summoned and installed a new outlet for just 150 USD.  Stove people have to come back to do the installation.  No idea when that will happen.  While the electrician was doing his thing with the handyman/doorman, I noticed that a bathroom I don't use often had urine-water leaking out of the toilet somehow.  It smelled really nasty, so I pointed that out to the doorman/handyman who smeared it about with toilet paper and noted the issue.  No idea if that was the solution or not.  

Wires being run from the hallway through my ceiling and into my kitchen.

Adding another support to the counter since they knocked one out to make space for the dishwasher installation a while back.  Yellow hat is my electrician.  During the work, my neighbours came to complain (around 7 pm) about the noise.  They were disturbed from their afternoon naps.  These are the same neighbours whose children run the halls shrieking at midnight.  I just shrugged and said they had to do the repairs.  They tossed some sour words in a language I don't speak to the men.  Ladder and tools were finally collected at 11 pm.  

UAE Day 58: bed

After 57 days in this country, I finally slept in my own bed I my own apt for the first time last night. To be fair, the first 26 days were in a hotel, so I wasn't sleeping on floors/couches the duration. Still, weeks of floor- dwelling has happily come to an end. Sweet slumber! 

UAE Day 45: everything but the kitchen sink

Yesterday the bed people were supposed to come again. They failed to show. I sat on hold on the phone (I pay per min) for 2.5 hours and when they finally answered the delivery department was closed. Dishwasher connection began leaking again. Still don't know where to find epoxy glue. Then my ceiling began raining, like a rain forest. Thought it might be related to the air con so turned that all off. That made it an oven. I slept on the mat on the floor. Air bed was too hot, the plastic just radiated the humid hot like cooking in a tagine. Slept badly. Woke up congested. Got to work. Someone stole the chocolate bar off my desk that I had brought as a gift for my coworker. I worked late so someone had to have come very late to steal it.  

UAE Day 45: So Close...Yet So Far.

Today the folks from the bed shop brough my bedframe by.  

Unfortunately, they didn't have all the obviously necessary pieces, so this is what I got.  

They are supposed to come back another day with the rest (thursday).  

UPDATE:  Thursday came and went, not a peep from the company.  Will have to go to shop on Sunday and have a chat.  :(  

UAE Day 44: afghan baker

I met a kid (don't know his name) in the elevator who spoke English and had fresh naan in his arms.  I said it smelled good and he ripped off a piece for me right before I reached my floor.  He quickly explained directions to the bakery (it doesn't have a name, its just a hole in the wall).  

So I had an adventure finding it and practicing what little language I have left.  Naan was wonderful.  Had a piece and some Ocean Spray cranberry juice for dinner.  Success!

post-bakery expidition

UAE Day 42: the great flood of 2014

So after the dishwasher debacle, I set about scrubbing my bathroom so that I could shower in the morning in a sanitized loo.  Using copious quantities of bleach, I scoured my walls, bathtub, toilettes  and floor.  LOTS of brown gunk (probably sawdust) came off so it took more than 3 hours to clean.  Then I went to bed, slept for 90 minutes and then took a cold bath.  Of course the hot water heater wasn't working.  So the bath was very short.  Then I made the critical mistake of draining the bath.  The bath water, mixed with all the dirty water from the day the men swished about the saw dust + six years of dirt and then crammed it down the floor drains ALL came up.  At 5 a.m., I had no choice but  to leave the water standing on the floor and go to work.  Ick.  My brand-new bathmats were ruined.  I was cranky and headachy from the lack of sleep and all the stress.  Wrote a nasty email to my apartment management company.  Called.  Hourly.  No Answer.  At 10 am they finally answered and said they saw my email and would forward it to the right department.  Was not a very fun teacher.  So several hours after I got home, they came to service the drains.  At first they said there were rocks in the drains.  I insisted that they do some common acid treatment and after tinkering for a while, they finally agreed.  First, they pumped all the trapped water that had previously washed the floors out of the pipes.  Then they did this acid treatment that snaps, crackles, and pops with puffs of smoke.  Like fireworks fighting grime.  I got them to do it in all my drains.  That made me believe that the problem was solved and I left and slept on a friend's couch to avoid breathing in acid-smoke puffs.  So after waking up the next day and running errands then returning to the apt, I commenced the bleaching-of-all-surfaces, part 2.  Then I filled the tub with water and a quarter bottle of bleach so i could clean that (since it is there that the pumped-water-out-of-drains-that-was-used-to-wash-the-sawdust-into-them went).  I naively pulled the tub plug thinking things would function as they should.  Well, did I think wrong!  This image is the start of the great flood of 2014, part 2.  I called the emergency number for the apts.  After 2 hours, the guy came.  His suggest solution was this:  Madam, you don't need to take showers.  Just use the sink.  I explained once again that I am a crazy american and that we wash ourselves everyday.  Sometimes more than once a day.  And I insisted that the pipes get fixed because drain water should always go down, never never never ever up.  Not exactly how I planned to spend my weekend.  The bright side of not owning a stick of furniture and sleeping on a foam mat is that clean up is manageable-ish.  

UAE Day 38: the dishwasher debacle

The dishwasher is 3 inches taller than the under clearance of the counter.  

How many men DOES it take to install 1 dishwasher?  

And then there were 7.

In the end, they took the dishwasher and left.  They tried removing the feet and removing the top and nothing worked- and removing the top violates the warranty.  So no dishwasher.  I called the apt management company but no answer.  I emailed them and 3 hours later they called and gave permission to cut a hole in the counter.  Too bad the dishwasher left hours before.  Now I have to go back to the store, return the first dishwasher, then buy the same one again to get the delivery rescheduled.  

UAE Day 37: home sweet home

The unit I am teaching this week is called Home Sweet Home.  Timely, since I just got the keys for my apartment.  

UAE Day 34: Apartment Adventures

Living/Dining room area, with balcony

Kitchen

Random guest bath I discovered near the front door.  Its just barely big enough to stand in.  

Master bath

Internet Installation Man

"Cleaning"

Repairs in the kitchen

So the men working on repairs/cleaning use common methods of cleaning for this part of the world.  Unfortunately for me, this system of cleaning causes a lot of OCD-ish panic.  They fill a bucket with water, add a tiny splash of windex, a spoonful of bleach, and the swish the dirty water about to ensure all the grime is everywhere, then they squeegee it into a bathroom drain.  Gag.  After the poor guys were done "cleaning"  I set about doing what I could to sterilize everything.  Layers of nasty gunk came off nearly every surface and took a lot of scrubbing.  I cleaned for about 4 hours, just attacking the surfaces (inside and out) of the closets and door frames, and my kitchen walls.  I started the kitchen cabinets but didn't finish.  I got distracted with unpacking boxes.  Got 30 unpacked.  The boxes (not collapsed) filled five tashbags.  Still about 15 more to go, but everything takes time.  

spare bedroom

2nd bath, with shower.  

You could awkwardly climb out the spare bedroom's window to get to the balcony

Master bath.  Wondering if they will let me remove the bidet so I have a place to install a clothes washing machine.  Apparently they are not common place in my area, people send their laundry out or wash it in their tubs.