We're headed to Luxor today immediately after getting home from site, so I thought I'd have a post ready for you. I've been promising pictures of our apartments for some time now, so here they are! These pictures were taken after we've been living here for a few weeks, so disregard the general clutter. I think you'll all agree that it's better than last year's place!
Here's our bathroom (we have 2 this year! Each has its own hot water tank). Two things you should not about this: 1) there's a shower curtain, and 2) there's a holder so that we can actually take a shower, as opposed to sitting in the tub and holding the shower sprayer over us while we bathed. You take those for granted at home, but here, they are a luxury. The thing at the bottom right is the agitator, where they wash our really dirty site clothes. You basically pour boiling water in with the clothes and detergent and it, well, agitates the dirt out.
And those are our apartments! We have a big room on the ground floor where we eat meals together.
As I mentioned, we're in Luxor for the next few days. I've got a few things pre-planned to post (like this one), but I might have to save some of the Luxor photos and posts for next week. We do have a lot of fun things planned, including hiking the gebel over Deir el-Bahri again, visiting the Ramesseum, probably hitting Medinet Habu and Deir el-Medina before our hike, having dinner at Chicago House, and having a meal at Eslam's (our reis) house on the west bank, plus some stocking up of supplies from our favorite import store. It will be a busy weekend and I'm sure I'll have lots of fun stories and pictures to share!
Here's our bathroom (we have 2 this year! Each has its own hot water tank). Two things you should not about this: 1) there's a shower curtain, and 2) there's a holder so that we can actually take a shower, as opposed to sitting in the tub and holding the shower sprayer over us while we bathed. You take those for granted at home, but here, they are a luxury. The thing at the bottom right is the agitator, where they wash our really dirty site clothes. You basically pour boiling water in with the clothes and detergent and it, well, agitates the dirt out.
The kitchen in the other apartment. The one in ours isn't finished yet (which isn't so bad- we've been using it as a bedroom, though I feel bad for Lindsey, since it's terribly hot in there and there's only a curtain as a door). The appliances and cabinets are actually nicer than mine in Chicago. Just at the bottom left, you can see a washing machine! It's a really finicky European one that takes 3 hours just to run a wash cycle, but hey, there's a washing machine for our nicer clothes!
This is the living room area of our apartment. See our super comfortable chairs? (Psst they are not comfortable). The bathroom is just to the right, the red curtain is the kitchen area where Lindsey is sleeping, the door straight ahead is my and Tasha's room, and the door in between mine and the kitchen is where Jon and Aaron are staying. Of course, this will all change after Eid (except for me and Tasha) when we get new members and lose other ones.
Here's what my room looks like! Mine's the far bed, though I know it looks like we just share one big bed. The beds are VERY close together. The big brown thing on the side is a room-long closet thing. Plus we have a dresser AND a nightstand. This is totally different from us living out of suitcases and using old boxes for our alarm clocks like last year.
This is the living room in the other apartment. The pink couch actually is quite comfortable. The closed door is Nadine and Greg's room. The open door is another bedroom.
This is the inside of said other bedroom. The main reason I took this is to show you two things: 1) see the Winnie-the-Pooh border paper? Yeah, that glows in the dark. 2) The yellow wall paper in the back has animals on it, but the rabbit is super creepy. He seriously looks like he would eat someone. I would not feel safe in there as a child.
And those are our apartments! We have a big room on the ground floor where we eat meals together.
As I mentioned, we're in Luxor for the next few days. I've got a few things pre-planned to post (like this one), but I might have to save some of the Luxor photos and posts for next week. We do have a lot of fun things planned, including hiking the gebel over Deir el-Bahri again, visiting the Ramesseum, probably hitting Medinet Habu and Deir el-Medina before our hike, having dinner at Chicago House, and having a meal at Eslam's (our reis) house on the west bank, plus some stocking up of supplies from our favorite import store. It will be a busy weekend and I'm sure I'll have lots of fun stories and pictures to share!
