More Unpaid P.R. for the Nile Hilton

Last night, Roommates 2, 3, 4 and I went to the Jazz Club at the Nile Hilton so as to commence our raging night of debauchery (we were home by 12.30). Well, to be precise, we went to one of the jazz clubs at the Nile Hilton. There are, apparently, three of them in the place. Here is #2 carefully scrutinizing the bill (please note that all the Hilton photos are courtesy of my charming Roommate 3 and her convenient camera).


The band was live and pretty entertaining, but more entertaining was the arrival of my charming pals H and I. Please reference the below photos from some samples of the hilarity



After a while downstairs, we ventured to the roof to take in the Nile views.


The pseudo-Spanish roof restaurant turns into a bar at night which we were assured is Muy Caliente, and for which there is a hundred pound cover on weekends.







We got around that cover, thankfully, by claiming to only want a drink at the bar. Roommate 2 is very clever.


I look like a giant in these pictures; it's not my fault the roommates and pals are all of the midget size they like to call "average."



After the excitement of roof-sneakery, we headed for home with a brief stop at a local liquor store.

There are liquor stores here, although Islam forbids drinking. Perhaps they are run by Coptic Christians? I didn't interrogate the proprietors. The store sells Egyptian beers and wines, as well as some harder liquors the purchasing roommates scrupulously ignored.

Next morning, I went to study at a local coffee shop since my foray into the library yesterday was not enough to finish the million billion pages of reading I've got for next week. (I also went to the gym, which was underwhelming but will have to do. Can you believe, in a city where stores are open until midnight or later and people stay out until breakfast that the gym closes at 6 p.m.? It is also closed on weekends, as is the library - hence my coffee shop trip). At nine a.m. I was the only customer, but by noon I was surrounded by chain smoking Egyptians.

Dang and nab it.

So I came home for a room-switching extravaganza. See, one of the rooms in our apartment was (and is) significantly smaller than all the others, and it has only one working outlet. Despite these drawbacks, it had been made into a double, also despite the fact that only one desk would fit and, with two beds, the inhabitants could barely walk around. So I traded rooms with the two roommates in the tiny space so that they can actually have such luxurious amenities as desks and electricity, and at the simultaneously!

For one person with one bed, this room is more than enough. In fact, after we moved one of the gigantic wardrobes into the living room, I have enough room for a couch or chair on which to sit while reading, should I so desire. It seems silly to buy an entire chair for my four month stay here, but perhaps I'll encounter one I can't resist. Like the gold-painted throne chairs displayed in a storefront nearby: I could be a queen! Queen of the Nile!

And do not make denial/de-Nile jokes, please. We are not eleven.