Our home is 2 Malcha Marg FF (FF means first floor, which to us Americans is really the second floor). Anyway, our home is brand new. There are four apartments total and we are only the second family to occupy the building. The other two apartments are still being built. I would argue ours is still under construction as well, though it seems as if noone wants to work on it. The first night in the home was fine - the girls went to bed around roughly midnight, soon after arrival. I put some things away, showered and got into bed at 12:45. The girls slept until close to 4:30 and I laid with them for another hour until I decided we were all to excited to explore the house and look out our windows to sleep more. Furthermore, there was a beeping that occurred all night long, about every two-four minutes and I could not wait to get it to stop.
I sucessfully made coffee and fed the girls bananas and toast with peanut butter and then put away all their clothes and my own before we were picked up to go to the Embassy for check in. I thought maybe I would do check in, say hi to my colleagues, and head back home for some more sleep but it turned out I worked most of the day. I did leave the office a half hour early (at 4:30). When I got home Raj had managed to get us hooked up with Wi-Fi and a plumber came to look at one of our bathrooms that was unusable. Both girls had been sleeping for over three hours and we couldn't wake them so I took the opportunity to try and sleep. But that BEEPING!
Turns out it was our alarm. It was beeping because the kitchen window was not locked. I thought - easy fix! Nope, the window would not lock because the mechanism was not properly aligned so I had to disarm the alarm. Easy again! Not. Nothing worked. So I called the Embassy and someone was over in a matter of minutes to disconnect the alarm. Great! But not...because then, all of our A/C units went out as did our refrigerator and most of our electricity in the master bedroom. Another call to the Embassy...only this time noone came right away. I figured, its after hours so we will make an easy pasta dinner. By this time it was almost 8 at night (the girls woke from their six hour nap just minutes before). However, we could not get the stove to light. I eventually got my camping cap on and decided I could just light the gas stove with a match - amazingly I had those packed in my suitcase - and was able to boil some water. During dinner I had about four interruptions of phone calls regarding our lack of power which was great that people cared but unfortunate because I was just tired and hungry. Finally at 9pm electricians arrived and fixed MOST of the A/C units except for the one in our bedroom...MOST of the lights, except for one in the kids bathroom, and taught me how to use the stove. By 9:30 I was toast. Anya stayed up to watch the Little Mermaid, Elia fell asleep at 9 and I went to bed.
Unfortunatly bedtime didnt last long. The girls woke at 1:50am and Raj stayed up with them in their room until 4:30. Again, coffee being made, we enjoyed an early morning of learning our house and how to use the million lightswitches (that is what I needed to do to turn on the stove...hit a lightswitch...what?!) Breakfast for the girls consisted of mangoes, apples, and goldfish - breakfast of champions! and I stuck to peanut butter and toast. The rest of the morning was spent shopping at the commissary where things are cheap, just kidding! You can get a jar of miracle whip for about 9 USD. What a steal, who even likes miracle whip?! Being conservative we found some basics and essentials that we couldn't be picky about (like laundry detergent). I also got a ton of sticky pads to label our lightswitches so I know which ones go to lights, fans, appliances, and which ones do nothing.
We also fit in some pool time and the girls finally went down for a nap at 1:30 again...after being up for 12 hours I think they might want a long nap but that is not going to be allowed! No Sir! At 3:30 these girls are getting up and going to the park and having a GRAND time before a more reasonable 7:30 bedtime.
I. Am. Exhasted.
I sucessfully made coffee and fed the girls bananas and toast with peanut butter and then put away all their clothes and my own before we were picked up to go to the Embassy for check in. I thought maybe I would do check in, say hi to my colleagues, and head back home for some more sleep but it turned out I worked most of the day. I did leave the office a half hour early (at 4:30). When I got home Raj had managed to get us hooked up with Wi-Fi and a plumber came to look at one of our bathrooms that was unusable. Both girls had been sleeping for over three hours and we couldn't wake them so I took the opportunity to try and sleep. But that BEEPING!
Turns out it was our alarm. It was beeping because the kitchen window was not locked. I thought - easy fix! Nope, the window would not lock because the mechanism was not properly aligned so I had to disarm the alarm. Easy again! Not. Nothing worked. So I called the Embassy and someone was over in a matter of minutes to disconnect the alarm. Great! But not...because then, all of our A/C units went out as did our refrigerator and most of our electricity in the master bedroom. Another call to the Embassy...only this time noone came right away. I figured, its after hours so we will make an easy pasta dinner. By this time it was almost 8 at night (the girls woke from their six hour nap just minutes before). However, we could not get the stove to light. I eventually got my camping cap on and decided I could just light the gas stove with a match - amazingly I had those packed in my suitcase - and was able to boil some water. During dinner I had about four interruptions of phone calls regarding our lack of power which was great that people cared but unfortunate because I was just tired and hungry. Finally at 9pm electricians arrived and fixed MOST of the A/C units except for the one in our bedroom...MOST of the lights, except for one in the kids bathroom, and taught me how to use the stove. By 9:30 I was toast. Anya stayed up to watch the Little Mermaid, Elia fell asleep at 9 and I went to bed.
Unfortunatly bedtime didnt last long. The girls woke at 1:50am and Raj stayed up with them in their room until 4:30. Again, coffee being made, we enjoyed an early morning of learning our house and how to use the million lightswitches (that is what I needed to do to turn on the stove...hit a lightswitch...what?!) Breakfast for the girls consisted of mangoes, apples, and goldfish - breakfast of champions! and I stuck to peanut butter and toast. The rest of the morning was spent shopping at the commissary where things are cheap, just kidding! You can get a jar of miracle whip for about 9 USD. What a steal, who even likes miracle whip?! Being conservative we found some basics and essentials that we couldn't be picky about (like laundry detergent). I also got a ton of sticky pads to label our lightswitches so I know which ones go to lights, fans, appliances, and which ones do nothing.
We also fit in some pool time and the girls finally went down for a nap at 1:30 again...after being up for 12 hours I think they might want a long nap but that is not going to be allowed! No Sir! At 3:30 these girls are getting up and going to the park and having a GRAND time before a more reasonable 7:30 bedtime.
I. Am. Exhasted.
