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August 18, 2012

Ineffective is an understatement

Well, the air conditioner is still not fixed. I know that the maintenance people have been in the apartment because they have moved chairs around so that they can use them as ladders. One chair has a footprint from some ineffective man who does not know how to fix air conditioners, but knows how to make his presence conspicuous.

Thus I'm still at my friend's apartment. An apartment to which some other maintenance people have keys. Earlier the doorbell rang out, followed by the door opening before I had time to move the five steps from the living room to the door. The men did not seem to have a purpose, per se, and just stood there being confused for a moment before excusing themselves. And since I was clothed in my scandalous Western clothes (shorts and a baggy tshirt,) the doorbell rang again five minutes later, with the door opening simultaneously. They pretended that they were confused and did not realize it was my apartment again, while giggling like school children.

Then I went to the mall and ogled at the fact that it was so empty. Summer and Ramadan combined to make the place more or less deserted. And walking through a food court that isn't serving food, even though it's 5pm, is fantastically surreal.

9 comments:

  1. Wow is all I have to say about the maintenance men. My two cats simply can't be around one another so they are separated. The lovely maintenance men in my building, entered my apartment and let both cats loose all day together. Needless to say, my apartment was a mess.

    Sorry about your air conditioning!

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  2. oh Good Lord. I think I would die without A/C in this heat we've been having!! Atleast you have somewhere to go! Even.. if creepers like to stare at your western giddup hah.

    I have never been in a mall that was even remotely desolate but it sounds like a really awesome experience.

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  3. Those maintenance people sound awful. Fortunately, I haven't had any bad experiences with maintenance guys, but I'd be annoyed if they were moving my things around. I hope your AC gets fixed soon though!

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  4. The maintenance men sound very childish it's ridiculous. P: The air conditioning thing is a problem. I'd ask why they haven't fixed it already, but they don't seem to be a part of the most clever men on Earth since they're acting like school children and all, so...

    Why did they even go in there in the first place? And they're able to just come in after ringing the bell and a twist or two of their wrists with the key? That's annoying, and I'm going to assume that privacy doesn't really exist there.

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    1. Well, they came because they had seen me going into the apartment the day before and wanted to scope out the girl, I believe. Privacy does actually exist a lot, but since I am American, I put up with a lot more privacy invasion than others and they know that. If I was a different person, I probably would have bitched them out and found a man to threaten them... but I don't really care that much. American woman stereotype verified, oops.

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  5. I HATE maintenance guys. All they know how to do is mess up your entire place with their dirty clothes and footprints. We had renovations for several months last year and I was close to using the c-word. One time they came into my room while I was in bed.

    Do you get a lot of attention for wearing Western clothes in UAE? Do you dress by the Muslim code in a place that hot? By that I mean only face, hands, and feet allowed to be shown bare. I have a friend from Egypt, though it might be different for different cultures.

    Ramadan used to be in the fall several years ago and I noticed recently it's always been in the summer. I wonder why. Must be similar to Chinese New Year, but that usually alternates between January and February.

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    1. I never cover everything. At work I try to cover my knees and elbows, or at least shoulders. All women get attention, but yes, the more slutty my clothes, the more attention I get.

      Ramadan changes by like 11 days every year because it's based on a different calendar than the one we use. Eventually it will be in fall again.

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  6. I have this one family friend who makes maintenance men put plastic bags around their feet when walking in the house so that they won't leave footprints everywhere. It sounds like a high-maintenance thing to do, but I would assume that it's taken better than asking them to take off their shoes or something.

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  7. Let's hope that everyone gets their act together after Ramadan! Also, maintenance men have keys to people's houses? That sounds creepy... (but then again, American real estate agents have so many keys to so many places that they can't keep track of which keys go where)

    I am still amused by the fact that a baggy t-shirt and jeans is scandalous. It must be extremely easy to turn on Arab men if they're not used to seeing a good deal of women's skin!

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