Moving – AGAIN

Well, actually, we are moving for the first time SINCE arriving in Cairo. AND the move is not that catastrophic, in that it is within the same building AND on the same floor. However…moving still sucks!

I’m not sure if I’ve posted about this before, but our previous apartment had a distinct flaw in its design. Namely, the end wall of the apartment, which was in the master bedroom, was shared with the elevator shaft. We live on the 9th floor. The building is only 10 living floors and the roof, where the elevator mechanism is located. The elevator is UNBELIEVABLY LOUD, especially when the brake mechanism is activated and the doors open or shut. This whine is transmitted INCREDIBLY WELL thru the elevator shaft wall, and into our (previous) bedroom. We’d asked others about it, some had been bothered by it (mostly on the upper floors), others had been annoyed by it, Jack and I were being kept awake by it – Frequently!!

We talked to housing. They replaced the motor oil in the mechanism and declared it fixed. Neither Jack nor I could ascertain any difference in the WHINE/THUNK that marked every elevator ride after the changing of the oil.

So….back in late-October, another faculty member on our floor announced that she was leaving her apartment. In early November, just after she’d left, I asked housing if Jack and I could move into her apartment. Her roommate was still in the apartment, and she is a friend, so we asked if we could have the apartment as soon as it was vacant.

Fast forward to January. The apartment is vacant!!! We begin making arrangements to move in when I get an e-mail from the office of the Provost asking if we’ve been promised the apartment, or are just asking for it. (Apparently a Program Manager was looking to get another apartment…) We sorta figured that all was lost, even though housing had said (and I had the e-mail) that we could move in as soon as it was vacant. In an uncharacteristic turn of events, the e-mail trumped the PM, and Jack and I began the process of having the apartment cleaned and readied for the move.

What housing called clean did not meet our expectations, so rather than moving LAST weekend, we had Genet clean and we started figuring out what each room would be used for. By Tuesday, we’d begun getting some of the little, personal stuff over. Wednesday, housing sent some guys to move big things, boxes, mattresses, rugs etc. Today (Friday) we moved over the last stuff. We are OFFICIALLY now in the new apartment.

And the elevator noise? In the living room, it is just as bad as it was in our bedroom in the old apartment. In the bedroom, it is audible, but barely. We are sleeping like babes!

I hate moving. Yet if it is for the right reason(s), it is SOOO worth it!