Time flies when you're having....fun!???

So, somehow it's the first week in april already, which means I've been in cairo for almost 2.5 months!! Although the time went slowly at first, the last month and a bit has actually flown by and I realize (partly in spite of myself!) that I am actually really starting to like it here. I think my problem initially was that I was trying to impose Canadian/western ideals on a place that is so completely at odds with the way things work...well.... anywhere else actually! Once I started accepting this crazy city (and its inhabitants!) for what it is, and what it has to offer, things became much more fun! After re-reading some of my whiny culture-shock posts I decided to give myself a good talking to, which basically went like this: "okay self, if you wanted things to be exactly the same as they are at home, then you should have stayed there. You are here to learn and experience new things, so you'd better stop being such a baby and make the most of this experience." {I know, I can be a real jerk sometimes....} Of course some things still annoy the heck out of me, but I think now I just approach everything with a sense of humour and even the tough things become much more manageable......

Stuff at work is getting really exciting- the hotel is due to open in about a month and a half so our team is getting bigger every day- we have about 75% of the leadership team in place now (including Sparticus and Troy, two turtles belonging to one of our admin assistants) and our offices are getting pretty cramped....we usually work about 11 hours a day, but the team is great and things constantly happen that keep me amused, so it's usually fairly enjoyable. I thought I would share a few stories with you....

-We are still receiving about 200 resumes/day...going through them is often very entertaining...most of them come with a wallet sized picture that looks nothing like the real person and there are usually a few spelling mistakes- some of them a little worse than others... for example, our director of rooms had a fellow the other day whose resume proudly announced: " Manager, I sex people" (we think he managed 'six' people), but my personal fav is the resume where the "hobbies" section simply said: CHEESE

-In Egypt, hotels provide medical treatment for their employees on-site, of course this falls under the compensation and benefits umbrella, so I have been meeting with our hotel doctor (who happens to have a VERY impressive comb-over, it starts about an inch above his right ear and swooshes right over to the other side of his head!) to set up our medical clinic. He is also responsible for conducting the pre-employment medical checks for staff, so the other day Rachel and I met with him to talk about this process and I think he was trying to impress us with how thorough the examinations would be, because he started telling us about exactly which body parts he would examine and casually mentioned that "you can tell a lot from a man's testicles" .... of course we were both nodding along trying to look very serious and professional, but of course the second he left, we were both killing ourselves laughing....the whole scenario wasn't helped by the fact that every time he said the word "genitals", he gestured to his own!!!! Needless to say, this is now an office joke!

-Last weekend I ended up at a Coptic christian church with the architect from the hotel- it was his family's church so he was really excited about showing me everything. Then we got to a room where there was a picture of a really old guy with a white beard...he explained that this was the former priest at this church and he was much loved by everyone but sadly, he'd passed away in 2003... And then he explained that he was still there. "Yes," I said, smiling, "he'll always be in your hearts and memories..."

And he said, "no, no, he's right here!!"

and he pointed through a little piece of glass at about knee level, so I looked through, and there was a COFFIN!!!! um yeah..... I got out of there pretty quickly!

Those are only a few of the amusing things that happen every day.... if you want another perspective, you should visit a cairo post on this blog written by Chris, another recent BC hotel industry import...(lots of cool hotel articles there too!)

Okay my hour of net time is almost up so I should sign off, but I hope you're all doing well and having as many laughs as I am.

miss you all!!!!!

C