Marvelous Morocco!

So, I've been in Marrakech for about 30 hours, and so far I love it- the scenery is beautiful, the air is clean and and the weather is perfect (about 25C). I was a bit worried that we'd be so busy interviewing that we wouldn't be able to see anything, but the GM and the HRD from Mecca have us doing, seeing and EATING so many things that it's almost as if hiring 1000 people for the hotel's opening in 2 months is an inconvenient side activity that occasionally gets in the way of our sightseeing. We've already done and seen a ton of things, but it's after midnight and I'm exhausted and we have another 200 people to interview tomorrow so, for now, I'll post some pictures and try to write a longer post tomorrow.

Miss you all, over and out from the 'kech. xoxo C

PS: please try to focus on the interesting sights and activities in the photos, not how fat I am now. thanks, the management.

lazy Saturday...

So it's almost 4pm and I am still in my pjs. Any motivation I had when I woke up this morning to accomplish anything was killed by the heat. Actually, I just checked the weather network and it's only 34C, but with the humidity apparently it "feels like 37"- I actually think it feels waaaay hotter than that- my laundry dried in about 20 seconds when I hung it outside.

The weekend is almost over, which I would usually not be happy about, but I only have one day of work at the hotel and then I fly to Casablanca on monday morning. yay!

The weekend went quickly- yesterday was spent sleeping and shopping- I had to get some blouses etc since we're wearing "business casual" while recruiting, which, for women, is not as easy as it sounds- for men it's fine, they can just take of their tie and jacket- but for us it's a tough balance- there is a science to doing it properly, one I have yet to master. I also got my haircut yesterday- I was planning to wait till I got back to Victoria and go to my usual hairdresser, Christine, but since I'm now not sure when I'll be back, I decided to just do it here. I actually went back to the same place that gave me the Farrah Fawcett layers, because it's easy to get to and you don't need an appointment, but I got a different stylist this time and using a little of the arabic that I know, and a lot of charades... I made it VERY clear to her that I didn't want any thing on the front of my head to be cut. She seemed to understand and all in all the whole thing went pretty smoothly. I even got a discount for being a Cairo resident- ( one of the few times I've been happy to live in Cairo!!!! ) and an employee discount, so the whole thing was less than $20. sweet.

Abdou (my driver) doesn't know it, but we're in a fight right now- this week he insulted me twice!

A few days ago, he asked me why I wasn't married yet, I told him because I'm waiting for the right person, and he said "but miss catherine, you old." Thanks Abdou, thats really nice of you. THEN, yesterday, I got in the car wearing a tank top and he squeezed my arm and said "ohh miss catherine big!" I shot him a dirty look and he said "number one time I look you (trans: when I first met you..), you small {and held up his pinky finger}... now you bigger... Egyptian food good for miss catherine!!" I think he was trying to pay me a compliment since egyptian men like woman with some meat on their bones, but I did NOT take it that way. I was going to make him a soft rock cd today, but now I don't think I'm going to... (He likes soft rock almost as much as he likes Michael Jackson and the Dixie chicks).

Last night a few of us had dinner at the hotel in Heliopolis- I had bruschetta that was really good and sea bass that was not so much... good conversation though.

Okay I should get my fat, old, unmarried self into the shower and actually try to get something done before the day is over, but don't forget about the triathlon tomorrow in Vancouver- if you're there, go down and cheer for our Canadian elites, and if not, you can still follow the live tricast online.

over and out, C

Wanted: Muslim men

So, I found out yesterday that I'm off to Morocco and then Tunisia on a recruiting trip in search of Muslim men to work in our new hotel in Mecca. I'm pretty excited since I've never been to either place!

I'm sure you are all much more knowledgeable about North African geography than I am (I had to check to see where exactly I was going!) but here's a map just in case. I'll be in Casablanca for 4 days and Tunis for 2. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have a lot of time for sightseeing as we have to hire about 1000 people in the next month which means A LOT of interviewing. I leave on Monday morning, so if you need anything from there, let me know!

C

Getting hot...

Ugh, so, it's 10:15pm and 30 degrees in my apartment right now, and it's supposed to be 40 degrees tomorrow. Yes, yes, I know, it's a "dry heat", but it's still frickin' hot!! I am really not made for this weather. I'm trying to stay cool by pumping the A/C and trying to distract myself by watching the OC on one of the 5 english satelite channels I get.

Apart from always being too hot, what else has been happening lately? Well, on Sunday we had a team of government inspectors come to decide whether we got our operating permit, so starting at 7:30am, we split up into teams to get the rooms ready, I ended up making beds with a guy from sales ... since neither of us had ever worked in HK before, I think we were the least successful bedmakers there- plus it was about 35C since the A/C wasn't working in the rooms, thankfully the inspectors weren't checking for technique!! We don't know yet if we got the permit, but it seemed pretty positive so we're crossing our fingers.

It seems like most of the ex-pats suddenly and simultaneously hit some sort of invisible wall and the majority of our time lately is spent scheming about how we can escape from Cairo for a few days here and there, I think we're off to Soukhna again this weekend, although London was definitely thrown around too. These pictures are the ones I said I'd post from last weekend in Soukhna, I finally got them to load properly...

What else...oh, last night I had the best sushi I've ever had here, which was a refreshing change-- and to top it off, nobody was sick afterwards, which is always the sign of a successful dining experience here.

Besides that, I have been trying to make it to the gym every morning, which has been making me feel a little better- but as I've said before, it's really hard to be active here, in Victoria, I went from walking everywhere, to Cairo where you have to drive every single place you go (actually not even drive, but be driven)- and I am really noticing a difference. The physical change (which is about 10lbs-- seriously, I'm like monica in the fat suit in friends!) is obviously upsetting, but even worse is the way I feel mentally, it is a real struggle to force myself to leave the house in the evenings....I think part of it is the heat, but I can't remember ever feeling this unhealthy.

On a more positive note, it sounds like I will be helping with recruitment for our new hotel in Mecca for the next few weeks so it'll be nice to get out of cairo for a little while and see some places I've never been. I don't know exactly when and where yet, but it could be as early as next week.

One last thing- this weekend, Vancouver is hosting the BG triathlon World Championships- if you are in Vancouver on Sunday you should definitely try to check it out- the best triathletes from all over the world will be competing, including Victoria's own Simon Whitfield (aka, "my boyfriend"....although I think it might be over between us as I heard he doesn't like fat girls...) and teen sensation, Kirsten Sweetland. Simon already has a an Olympic spot, but if Kirsten places in the top 8, she'll be going to Beijing too! So if you can make it, get out there and cheer for our canadians, and if not then at least send some good vibes on sunday. I will be!!

Okay off to bed, hope you're all doing well.

xoxo C

another weekend over :(

I was going to get an early night tonight but since it's 9pm and 31 degrees in my bedroom I thought I'd turn on the A/C and let it cool down for a while before I went to sleep.... so right now I'm burning a Michael Jackson/Dixie Chicks CD for my driver as he loves them both....sort of strange taste in music, but since he has my life in his hands I figure I should let him listen to whatever makes him happy...

This weekend, after what felt like one of the longest weeks ever, Stephanie and I escaped to Ain Soukhna at the red sea. I'd been to the resort before, but this time there were only rooms at the Golf hotel, which is newer-but further from the beach (we had to take a golf cart there) I could only get one picture to download, for some reason- I'll try post a couple more tomorrow {note to blogger programmers- can you please do something about the photo posting- I consistently have issues with this feature- it's not just Egypt's slow internet connection, or my MB, I had the same issue in Canada, with a PC...please!!} It was nice to be away, we didn't really do anything but swim, sleep, read and eat, but as with all weekend escapes, it was over way too quickly.

Last week was tough, we found out there will be a government inspection tomorrow to see if we get our operating license, so the contractors were working 24/7 to get some stuff finished- this led to a huge amount of dust in the air, which resulted in a lot of people getting really sick..including me....I feel a little better now after a weekend away from it, but I'm still not 100%.

In other news, I may have to adjust my plans to come to BC as I have put my name forward for a task force that will be doing the recruitment for our new hotel in Makkah ( the holy city of islam- we spell it, Mecca)- I won't be allowed to actually visit the hotel because I'm not Muslim, and am not allowed in the city, but I might be needed to travel to other muslim countries to hire the staff for the hotel. I have really been looking forward to coming home, but this is a really great opportunity to meet some other HR people from the company, and to travel somewhere I've never been and hopefully it would only mean postponing my vacation by a few weeks, so I'm hoping it'll work out. I'll find out this week if I've been accepted, so I'll keep you posted.

Okay, it looks like my room is now a frosty 28 degrees, so I'm going to try to get some sleep.

Hope you're all doing well, miss you.

C

"Sorry, I can't....I have a gala...."

A few of you have been giving me a hard time about having a driver and people who do things for me all the time, and say that I'm turning into a princess.......welllllll the following is just going to add some more fuel to the fire, so enjoy.....

Last night I went to a fund-raising gala/charity ball at the British Embassy-- the guy who is in charge of my running club was organizing it, so we were all encouraged to attend. I wasn't planning to go since I don't really know the group that well (read: I haven't been running much lately! Bad, bad bad!) but he convinced me that I should come as his guest, as it would look good for "the cause" (a burn centre in a small town in Upper Egypt) to have a nice "Canadian business woman" there with him (aka, he needed some arm candy). I agreed since I've never been to an embassy party and also, because it was kind of cool to say to my co-workers "oh sorry, I can't go out on Friday, I have a gala at the embassy.."

Before I continue, you need the backstory: So, In Cairo, they have these society magazines that exist for the sole purpose of photographically documenting the social events of Cairo's upper echelon (maybe they have them in Canada too, but obviously I don't belong to the correct echelon!)- at every event there are tons of photographers- who take pictures of everything you do and then ask you to write down your name afterwards-- it's actually sort of annoying....... well, I didn't see it, but our favourite server in the restaurant we go to for lunch every day said she saw my picture in one of these magazines from the Valentine's Day party I went to when I first got here.

Anyway, yesterday I was about to head out the door for the gala and then I realized that, OMG, horror of horrors........I was wearing the same dress I wore to the V-day party!!!!!!!! ( I KNOW!!!! can you IMAGINE!!??) Obviously, I did the only thing I could under the circumstances (and what any of you would have done!) - my heart racing, I threw open the closet, frantically looking for something else to wear.... after what felt like hours, I finally spotted it, the pink and black sleeveless number with the uneven hem.. it wasn't ideal... the trim on the dress was coral, and my nail polish was more of a fuchsia, but what could I do??!! Desperate times call for desperate measures and this was clearly an emergency!! I quickly tore off the other dress, changed my earrings, necklace, shoes, and pashmina and pulled it on, my fingers fumbling with the zipper, still shaky from the adrenaline racing through my body!! Whew, crisis averted...If I'd been photographed in the same dress twice, it would have been social suicide- I wouldn't have been able to show my face for the rest of the season. ;)

Anyway, after that harrowing ordeal, we arrived at the embassy a bit early because my "date" had to give a briefing to the Young Rotarians (I know!) who would be selling raffle tickets, so I looked around the embassy garden-- the place was beautiful- it's right in the heart of cairo, but the grass and high walls make you feel like you're somewhere else entirely (England, perhaps!?). I knew I would be sitting at the ambassador's table, but somehow I actually ended up sitting right beside him and across from the president of Vodafone's Egyptian operation. They were both really nice and we had a good time talking about the "old country" (okay, we actually talked about the hotel and cell phone industries...). Despite having to dance with a series of really sweaty, old men, who all wanted to dance a little too close for comfort, I actually had a good time and I think I held my own pretty well- not bad from a girl from "some island" in Canada... ;)

According to my new countdown widget, I will be in BC in.....25 days, 3 hours and 39 minutes....can't wait to see you all then!

xoxo C

This guy again!?

When I was doing a co-op at the Westin in Whistler in 2001, this guy stayed with us for 2 months- he always acted really strangely and we had a bad feeling about him, but besides having a new woman with him every night, there was nothing concrete.. he was just creepy (and we were 21 and he tipped us well, so who were we to say anything?!). A couple of days after I left Whistler he was arrested for taking millions of dollars from a vancouver couple and was put in jail for a few years in Canada and then in France for some stuff he pulled there-- apparently he's out now and is hanging out with Naomi Campbell in Cannes and has written several books. I guess crime does pay....