Exciting things are happening....in my bathroom

Hi All,

I had intended to update this daily, but as you may have gathered from my apartment pictures, things are still getting settled in the Helmy-Shahat household. Over the last couple of days our home has had some extremely notable (and positive additions).

After 14 days of constant searching, that twice would have led to fights between a very exasperated Lisy and some very sassy salespeople had Wahied not intervened, we found white bathmats. The euphoria I experienced upon finding them led me to become greedy and I purchased every single white bathmat that exists in this city of 25 million people. We now own five. (For those of you who are underwhelmed, please refer to my previous pictures and the picture below for the before and after shots of my hideous pink bathroom.)

Next, as you might have noticed in my 'after' shot in the pink bathroom picture, we have a washing machine. The box it came in confirmed what we had been told: that this washing machine is "Number 1 in Egypt". We actually purchased it last Tuesday, but it took them a week to deliver it, then we had to wait 2 days for someone to come to install it, and then, when it still didn't work because the power source it had been hooked up to wasn't good enough, waited another day for a new cable. But it works now--it works fantastically! And it is currently just finishing its second load of laundry.
The washer does a fantastic job of washing but it is not a dryer. It produces very clean, slightly damp clothes that I then take out to the second balcony (the one with the ugly view) to hang on little tiny strings with cheap clothespins, 7 stories above the courtyard below, desperately hoping that I don't drop my trousers on an unsuspecting sheik's head and that strong a strong breeze will not leave me underpants-less. So far, so good.

My last great improvement is my new Nokia E51. For those of you who know me well, this is perhaps the most drastic change for me. I am notorious for basic, inexpensive, technology. Sure it's nice that my phone has a great camera and excellent sound/video playing ability and speakers, but I really got the phone because I need a phone that enables me to communicate, and this one does that really well. It has notoriously amazing internet capabilities. The browser is fast. It has bluetooth, wi-fi, and super-fast normal internet. It has e-mail, adobe reader, a 2mb memory card, and internet phone. But best of all---it's really, really easy to use, not-flashy looking (though it is very very slim), and has a 5 day battery life. I feel like a really well-connected career woman. Now, all I have to do is set up mobile internet service with Vodafone Egypt.

Those are the only photograph-worthy improvements of the moment. Other, less photogenic improvements, such as "order" "relative cleanliness" and "groceries" are making their way into our lives, but those need little explanation.

I will update more soon, hopefully with stories and pictures of the world outside of our apartment. In the meantime, all of you be well, and to those of you finishing school and/or starting your summers---enjoy! and keep me posted about what you all are up to.