Just realized that my last blog is over a week old ;-) Wifey is catching up :-) Again, so many things happened that I hardly know where to start. So let me tell you the story about our internet connection or “how to make three month to three days and again three month”… So the story is that we need internet at the new place. As we are used to have it through cable I thought we’d have the same thing here too. But, as many other things here, this also is different. So, we headed to the head office of a big ISP (Internet Service Provider) who offers the cheapest and best service. They asked me where we lived. I told them the name but they did not understand. Even worse, the needed the name written in Arabic, as their software, to check if the house has coverage, is in Arabic. Now I learned to take advantage of today’s electronic gadgets. I simply took a picture with my mobile from the street sign J So, whenever somebody asks me, I pull my cell and show him the pic! It’s written in Arabic and English. So at least from that end it was set. Problem: area is not covered by the ISP. Other solution is to have wire (cable). How do you find out if you have a cable? Is very simple…you ring the bell of your neighbor and ask him if he has a number. If yes, you ask him his number and the ISP can track you down… no joke! I already saw me ringing at the door of all our neighbors… and especially nowadays only few houses have landlines as mobile telephony is really cheap here. On top of it they told me that such an operation in case there was no cable would take some three month!! I already saw me without internet for the next three month (again, three month does not really mean three month…IBM…) Luckily enough I was at the desk with “my man” and when I heard this he immediately started to discuss the issue and the more he talked the faster they were able to install and at the end, believe it or not, and especially as my landlord has his cell phone with the same ISP, they told me that a) I had not to go to the neighbor (puuhhh…!) and b) they would be ready by end of the week! WOW…. Speaking Arabic really seems to help. Katja and I are looking for a school and we hope to be able to take classes very soon. In the meantime I put a page up the wall in my office from a flip chart and everybody who comes to my office needs to write something down. As the sheet is right in front of me I read the words on and on again all day whenever I look to the wall and learn them in an easy way :-) So, back to our Internet story…
We left, Katja and I all happy and for the next three days nothing happened… all the sudden the provider called if he could go to the apartment. Sure, please go ahed! He went there and he called us that there was a line and we should go to the head office to pay the deposit for the line (is not really expensive). So we went and paid and were told that within a short period of time we’d have our web. Cool! After two days or so, out of the blue a person calls that they’d go to our new flat to install it. To good to be true! And indeed… after long discussions on the phone on how and where to find us (first he calls me on my phone, I have to run to find a colleague who can talk to him as he only speaks Arabic then hang up and call Katja and tell her that somebody is coming…) So anyway, he managed to reach our apartment. I was a t work and hoped that everything just past smooth back home. After half hour or so Katja calls me and says that the gentleman left but the line was not set! I catch my man in the office and put him together with the man from the ISP. After a short but agitated conversation (“Habibi…! Yalla!...Mushkele…? (Problem?) etc…) he hung up and told me that the person just told him that our house had no line! No landline! I couldn’t believe it! What did the person the other day see? A ghost line?! So long story cut short… Promised that internet would work within three days, down payment paid, no line available, two weeks gone, back to square one…and still no internet!
So we started to investigate the other ISP’s. That means you have to go to the shopping mall and ask the sales clerks who, with all due respect are extremely knowledgeable about the whole thing…(“Where do you live? Yes, please sign the contract here! Coverage? Sure, mafi mushkele! (Sure, no problem!) Oh, next to the fee you will have to pay installation fee, buy a router, plus VAT etc….) I tell you, it is not easy to deal with them… Latest status; we asked for an offer of the ISP with whom we have our corporate account. Let’s see what happens. Keep your fingers crossed! We’ll get you updated…in the meantime sitting and surfing at Starbucks where they provide free internet :-)
The car… we still do not have our cars but we managed to get on one stage. Hopefully the situation will change within this or next week…once it is clear how and what, we should get them within two days.
This weekend I was away on business to a country where, when I landed at 2:40 a.m. they accounted an outside temperature of 36 degree Celsius!! It was not
The apartment gets more and more cozy. Boxes are almost all gone; visitor bedroom is ready and set and we start to feel “home”. We still need to get some things fixed with the land lord but this just needs time…
We are planning our next trips here in
That’s about it for the moment. We are sitting at Starbucks, sweating as we just have a blackout and the temperature outside is around 44 degrees. Happy August 1 to all and take care wherever you are in this world. A big hug from
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