Making the Flat more Homey and Flat like

After being here for approximately 24 days, Carolyn (my flatmate) and I have officially unpacked all but about 10 boxes, which contain art and ornementals for the decorating of the flat. We have chosen to not unpack these because we are getting the flat painted! FUN! Our fabulous Karima (cleaning lady) has a husband that is a painter. What are the odds, I mean really, does this woman have no end to her amazingness?! Anyway, she and her husband came by Friday (remember this is a weekend day for us) to look at the flat and see what we want done. Carolyn told him and briefly discussed colors. He actually knows a place with exact color matching technology, so we just gave him a few examples of what we were looking for. The living/dining room will be a light sage green, my room gets to be blue (yea!), the craft room is a lime green fiesta and Carolyn chose a peppy purple for her room. We are also having the molding painted white, the housing guys who repainted the place just before we got here painted all the molding on the floor the same off white/creamy color as the walls, but left the top crown molding white... go figure. So soon we hope to have a painted flat with art and such hanging, essentially to be all moved in! Our must be done goal is in October, because Carolyn would like to host a B-Day party for herself and wants the flat looking fabulous (who wouldn't?) I am going to also take another moment to discuss how much I love Karima. I think she may actually be able to read my mind. For example, last wednesday, I woke up and thought 'gee, I need to move the furniture around in here, this is not the best set up at all!' I figured that was the task for me when I got home, something to be a little bit motivating. So I get home, appreciate how clean and shiny the house is, how sparkly the floor tiles are; pass down the hallway and open my door. I walked in and said, out loud mind you, "Did I walk into the wrong room?" Now, seeing as how I am one of two door options on the left side of our hallway, the other being the bathroom, I obviously did not walk into the wrong room. Karima had rearranged my furniture! To exactly what I was thinking of when I woke up!! It's almost creepy I tell you! So there I was, amazed and thrilled, when I went to put away my teacher shoes, when I notice that not only has Karima washed, dried and ironed all my clothes, she has put them in the exact order that I keep my clothes. Seeing as how I am anal retentive about silly things, my clothes are organized by type (skirt, capri, pant, heavy pant; light weight tee, tee, sweater like, etc) and then by color, lightest to darkest. You can think I am crazy, go ahead, but when you only have enough clothes to make it two and a half weeks, this makes it look like I have so many more options! It works, really. So here I am, thinking that Karima cannot do any more to improve my life and then I go to run errand with Carolyn. I put my feet in my flip flops, and discover that they are kinda damp. At first I was grossed out, but upon further investigation I discovered that I could see all the colors in the design on my straps and realized that KARIMA HAD HAND WASHED MY FLIP FLOPS! I will leave it at that. Basically, I don't know how I am going to come back to the states and live without Karima. I can already tell that it is going to be a rough transition when I get back! I mean, doing my own laundry, washing my own veggies (this doesn't sound as bad as it is, here we have to bleach our veggies soon upon getting them, and they are delivered when Karima is in our flat, so she washes them) and even make my own bed! I think not! I will just have to revert back to that slovenly nature that everyone who has ever seen my room in the states has come to know and love! Hopefully I will have more pictures to post about the flat soon, depending on when we get it painted and all that. Hope all is good in the states!