Hotel living: 3 months, 2 suitcases, 1 room

Yesterday, I reached my mark of having stayed 3 months in a hotel in Maadi, Greater Cairo. Being a long-term guest of the hotel comes with many perks - guest relations manager always checks to make sure I am ok; deals urgently with any problems I may have; occasionally sends my room complimentary fruits and chocolates, and hotel staff already know me by name, from the front desk, to the restaurant waiters, the housekeeping people, the room service attendants,  the security people. In addition, they had given me a corporate discount for the daily room rate, which is reasonable but still expensive in terms of a monthly rate, almost equivalent to renting a 2 bedroom apartment in Manhattan NY! I deliberately chose to stay in a hotel, this particular hotel where I am staying, primarily for convenience. It is about 15 minutes of car driving distance to and from the Office. By being in a full service hotel, I didn't need to worry about changing bedsheets and towels, cleaning the room, and cooking (Dont get me wrong, I also love to cook when at home, and obviously not on mission!). The hotel also offers very good buffet breakfast as part of  the room rate; and  for lunch or dinner, I often order from the hotel restaurants. I have also relied on other hotel services - laundry, swimming pool, business center, etc. On top of all these, I enjoy the fact that my room rate, includes a free view of the Nile river and ancient Sakkara pyramids, on a daily basis (something I have written up in my earlier blogs). Being in a hotel is also practical in the sense, that for any consumables, like toiletries or supplies of cookies, drinks, etc., one can always buy them a local supermarkets (and there is one just next door to the hotel!). Here is my hotel room - nice to see a made up bed, when I get "home" from work; see also see some of the breakfast buffet offerings a selection of cheeses, breads, fruits, and middle eastern as well as continental hot food.

But being in a hotel this long also has its many downsides. After more than 90 days, I now do feel cabin fever and have started to feel "confined". I have also started to get tired of the food I tend to order frequently, either in the restaurants or through room service. Some of the ones I have gotten to like are grilled chicken with tomatoes and cucumber served with rice, mixed grill,  spaghetti (the Hotel's Little Italy restaurant offers great pasta and pizza); omelettes, all kinds of sandwiches and soup! By now, you can imagine how many times I have ordered these dishes! But I am still (and more so now than earlier) craving for homecooked meals, and more familiar dishes (Thanks to Ana who has brought me food every now and then..refer to my other blog).

The TV in the room has at least 10 English news and movie channels I can watch - far less than the over 100 network and cable channels I have gotten used to. I don't really have much time to watch TV during the week, but it would have been great to have more choices in the weekends. Interestingly, even with the limited channels, I have seen quite a number of old  movies here that have actually turned out to be good. (Among them, The Emperor's Club, the original  version of Arthur, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Guarding Tess, Swing Vote, In the line of Fire, Take the Lead, I am Sam, Stolen Lives, Hairspray, the Ugly Truth, and Insomnia....)

But one of the facts about hotel living that I have come to realize again during this mission is this - one can actually live with only two suitcases of clothes, shoes and  basic toiletries and cosmetics. Quite minimalist but very doable. It actually made me wonder why I have so much clothes and shoes in my house (both in the USA and  in Philippines) when I probably use only about 20-30 percent of them, max!

With only two suitcases of clothes, I have managed to maintain some style and variety, simply by doing "mix and match" outfits. You must have read about this in magazines - and I want to reinforce this practical approach. With the following items, you can dress up in style over a period of three months without giving the impression of having only a few clothes! Here  is what I had: : a couple of pairs of black pants, another pair of pants in another color (I have white); 3 plain colored blazers (I have red, blue, and fuschia), 2 different colors of undertops (I have one black and one pink); 5 wrinkle free, washable, soft silky blouses; and 2 different scarves. For shoes, I have 3 plain ones: one black, one red, and one beige; and a couple of sandals (one pair yellow, one pair white). And there you go : by simply mixing and matching I have dressed myself up in modest style (by my definition) for the last 3 months, without much obvious duplication.

This gives me an idea, that I should do spring cleaning of my closets every year. The style experts are correct in saying that if you have clothes that you have not used for at least 2 seasons (i.e. going by the American seasons, this means, something you may not have worn or used for at least two summers, or two winters), maybe you can consider giving away those clothes or even shoes away, rather than cluttering your closets. However,  because of today's retro styles, one never really knows when an old fashion may recur as a fad. I remember my girls when they were younger and  had to attend parties with retro motif would ask me, "mom, where are those bell bottom pants of yours".  Its true, the pants have come and gone from loose to tight to loose to tight. So some clothes may be worth keeping! Sure, fashion designers have to keep on changing styles to create new markets and business, right?

For the remaining period of my stay here, I am now thinking if I should move to an apartment, just for a change, but this would mean a little more time to take care of home keeping, and household details. I have seen a few apartment options (shown to me by brokers), but I havent made up my mind. Most of the flats I have seen are at least 3 to 4 bedrooms, each one averaging about 250 sq meters in size, something typical in Egypt (and many of them are particularly being made available to expats). Although great for hosting parties, I unfortunately don't have much time for this while on this short term assignment. I had experienced living in such a big apartment during my stay here 3 years from 2009-2011. But  being on that longer term assignment, meant that, even if I was in a furnished apartment,I  had to buy a number of things: my personal beddings, towels, china and silver ware, cooking and serving pans and platters, some personal decors, small furniture, etc.

Having been an international civil servant of the UN, I have travelled quite a bit and lived in all sorts of hotels in many parts of the world - ranging in duration from 1-2 weeks, to 1-2 months at the most. This is probably the longest I have ever stayed in a hotel; in one hotel, and the same exact room from the time I checked in!

So this is my current dilemma - continue to stay in my hotel for the remaining 2 months of my assignment, or to move to an apartment for a change of experience?  Hotel or Apartment? Both have pros and cons. Opinions are most welcome!