huff, puff, HOOKA!

While the Sheraton resort has been a great place to have some drinks and great meals, it's becoming quite costly.  Basically Sean has spent more dinars (Algerian money) in the past month with me here than he did in his whole first year.  So we've now ventured a little farther to the Safir resort.


Cheaper drinks are always appreciated, but it's also great to have a change of scenary.  Safir is definitly less hoighty-toighty than the Sheraton and a much better place to people watch.  Men in suits get boring.  Guys in buttoned down, satin polka dot shirts are ready to party!


Even more fun to watch is the working girl/creepy old guy interactions.  With the majority of the Algerian population being strict muslum, I don't expect to see much sinning going on.  But in the places where sins happen, like bars where alcohol is served, the sins are on full blast.  So by working girl, I do mean prostitute.  There are prostitues around the Sheraton too, but with wealthier clients comes more attractive women.  Those who aren't of Sheraton quality try their luck at Safir.  I do have to be careful when I look around the room.  The men aren't aggressive in their search, but are always trying to catch eye contact.  And because I can't understand what they are saying, I have no way of knowing if 
                                                    someone is asking me for the time, or my hourly rate.


 
Along with the drinks and people watching laughs, I also tried something new- smokin' da hooka.  When in Rome, do as the Romans do.  When in Algeria, huff, puff, hooka!  The hooka wasn't what I expected- very suprisingly minty.

 

One area the Sheraton has nothing on Safir is the food.  The boureks au fromage are amazing (think mozzarella cheese stick in a spring roll shell).  Yum!  Sean was excited to see chicken wings on the menu, although they are much smaller and less saucy than those at home.

 

                 

 

I am also increasingly impressed with my ability to read the menus, and can almost pick out my meals without Sean's help.  But when it comes to ordering, I still have to point to what I want, as my first grade phonetic reading dominates my speech and the waiters can't understand what I'm saying.

 

Good times at Safir!

New Apartment!

I'm sooo excited to finally be settled in our new apartment!!  This is the third move in 2 months, and I don't think Sean or I could have lasted another day in the hotel.  Between the shower with no curtain that left a small pond on the bathroom floor, and the air conditioner that rained if left on too long... it's so nice to be able to walk around without the fear of busting our asses!  It's funny how many times we've been told this is a much nicer area when it's literally a block away.  And while our new place is smaller, it's much cozier than the last apartment and feels more like a home.  So here are some pics of where I will be living for the rest of this adventure!

 

 

Our living room with a comfy futon couch.  After living in a hotel with no couch, and having a hard as a rock couch in the old apartment, we are loving this! 

 

We have somewhat of a view from the living room balcony.  I love being able to watch interactions between people, especially from a place where I'm not noticed.  Our last apartment was across from a metal shop, where we would wake up each morning to the sound of machines cutting metal.  In this apartment, the semi-annoying sounds we hear are from the kiddy rides outside the Fuji Film store.  Their sounds are a combination of arcade games and Christmas carols.  But when no one speaks english and most are muslum, this feels like a joke only we get.

 

 

 Our cute little kitchen.  Since moving in, we've moved the fridge to fit a washing machine in, and had to move the little table out into the living room.  It's still big enough for us both to be in it at the same time, and doesn't have pieces of the ceiling falling off like the old apartment.

 

Our bedroom with very pink sheets with what feels like 0 thread count... luckily we have our own that will be on shortly.  And our sheets will make Sean feel that his room isn't so girlie.  Unlike in America, there isn't a box spring and matress on beds, just 1 kind of combo, making the bed pretty hard.  But that's supposed to be good for the back, right?

 

We do have a nice size balcony off the bedroom... unfortunately this is the view from there...   

 

 

Before coming to Algeria, my parents and I redid our master bathroom to get rid of the blue toilet and tile.  It seems I can't escape it.  But at least there is a shower curtain!!!!  And this little oval mirror is the only mirror we have.  In America, I would probably look in my full length mirror more times than I should when getting ready (How do I look from the front?  How does my shirt look with my pants?  Does my butt look ok?  Should I wear the open toe shoes or the pumps with this outfit?)  In Algeria, I haven't really seen how I look from head to toe once.  It's probably made me less high maintainence, but wow I miss that mirror!  The lack of mirror results is me asking Sean for his outfit input more... and anyone that knows Sean knows that doesn't really help :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm still not used to the European/outside of America "water closet" idea.  A toilet in one room, and then leaving to go into another room to wash my hands??  Without a sink or a mirror in the water closet, I can't help but feel like I'm in time out.

 

 

 

So that's about it.  It's not much, but it's our space together.  After living the past year without Sean in a house with some rooms I only ever went in to clean, I kinda love this space that is no more than we need.  The last pic in this blog is us settled in... living what seems like the good life to us!

1. We have good internet, which we haven't really had since I got here.
2. We have more than 3 english speaking TV channels (the glare reflection on the door)
3. We have a washing machine (but no dryer, so our blue sheets are drying on the drying rack)
4. We have beer! (And to get it- since we don't have a car- we need to call someone, who calls someone, then delivers it to us in an un-marked box... imagine buying drugs in the US and that's what it feels like)
   

Life is Good!  :-)