Another project?

Well, I found a website that I was kind of excited about.  It talks about taking a photo a day for a whole year.

http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

Wow!  I love taking photos.  I love projects.  I love detailing things.

But.... we all know I'm a little on the lazy side right?  So will this work?

Well, we're going to find out.

I decided that instead of posting the photos to this main page, I'll make a side page either uploading the pictures there (like I did for my vacation photos) or I'll make a side page that talks about the project and links to my flickr account if I decide to upload them there.

Of course, today is the 7th so I've missed a few days, but there's no reason I can't go 7 days into next year right?  The 365 days doesn't *have* to start on January 1st.  It's just nice when things work that way.  From the start.

So, I'll be taking pictures and when I have this figured out, as to where I'll upload them, I'll link to the page where I talk about it further.

*Edited on the 8th to add that I have made the page, Project 365, listed on the top right under the heading "Pages".  Check it out!

:::

This being Friday and all, I'll probably save this post for Monday (*edited, nope, it's only Saturday but I decided not to wait!), but I wanted to kind of get this down while it was fresh.  There have been too many things that I didn't write about right away that I then never wrote about because I lost the details and the freshness of it.  I really hate when that happens because I get so excited about things sometimes and hate the feeling of losing that.

Anyways.... today, well, I really *did* have some adventure.  :D

The first part was going to a hospital to visit a sick relative.

I have never been to a hospital here in Egypt but I have heard bad things about them.

The hospital we went to was not top of the line but not bottom of the barrel either.  Supposedly somewhere in-between.

The first thing of note, is that they charge an admission fee to visit people in the hospital!!!
Wow, I thought that was not only ridiculous but outrageous!!  It's only 5 pounds a day, but I still think it's crazy.  I was told the fee was to keep out the riff raff but I'm not sure if that's the only reason or not.  I can understand the hospital not wanting homeless people trying to sleep inside but still...

Then before the shock of the admission fee had worn off, I got the shock of... wow, this hospital is.... dirty.

Not filthy trash all over the floor dirty but... kind of grimy, old and dingy dirty.  The floors are marble but worn and once you leave the main hall, well... it goes downhill from there.

The walls in the rooms look like they've never been cleaned and the paint is who knows how many years old, so there are spots and stains.

The furniture is also old and dinged and dented and worn.

There was a worn metal hanger where a t.v. should be, but apparently you have to pay to get them to put the t.v. in.

Hubby and I took a walk down the main hall, looking out through all the windows to areas outside the hospital and I saw so much garbage and crud and just WOW!  This is supposed to be a hospital.  Where people come to get better.  And it's just so dirty!

As to the actual care, well, that's another matter.

It seems the nurses only check on patients at shift change.  There is no regular care.  Unless you complain to the management and fill out forms.  I guess the nurses don't like to work?  But they must be doing something??  It certainly isn't cleaning.  lol

All in all, this was kind of a scary experience, if only for the fact that I really really REALLY hope to God that I never need to stay in a hospital in Egypt.

And you better hope you never need to either.  At least not this one.

I've taken a bunch of pictures, though why I would want to remember these things I don't know...

First up is a view from the main hallway.  I'm not sure what floor we were on but I think it was the third or fourth.  To the right there is a hotel with a roundy building on top that might be a restaurant or something.  And looking out across you can see the Nile, though you might have to click on the picture to get a bigger view to see it well.

Next is another shot of outside.  You can see more of the Nile in this picture.  Also, if you look across, kind of in the middle, there is an orange colored building.  I think this is a courthouse of some kind?  Hubby told me and I promptly forgot.  All the building you can see around the photo belong to and are part of the hospital.  There were quite a few buildings.

Here is another shot of outside.  This one is showing the Galleria shopping area right across the way from the hospital.  I'm not sure if this is connected with a hotel?  Maybe the backside of it.  All the grunge you see is, of course, part of the hospital.

And another outside shot.  I only got one of the inside. 
This is a nice garbage pile somewhere on the grounds. 

And here we have one of my favorite shots.  They have used a door to cover a giant hole in the ground.  I'm sure the intention was good but....
You really need to view the picture larger to get a good look at it (just click on the photo).

Here is a general shot outside, showing some lovely loose roofing tiles and some scaffolding off to the left side.

And here are some nice piles of old pipe?  They add just the right touch, don't you think?

Last photo of the hospital and it's looking down the main hallway, which was actually really really quite long.  Floor looking a bit dingy and ceiling looking even dingier. 

I did take quite a few more photos but I decided to limit them to just those above.

:::

The other part of the excitement today happened after we left the hospital.

We walked across the Nile, and were going to walk up the road that runs along it.  But at the end of the bridge and kind of before you get to the street, there is an embassy for a country that much of the Middle East (if not all of) has no love for.  I hate to censor myself by not mentioning the country but I don't particularly want to draw any attention to myself either. 

In any case, the building next to the building that houses the embassy was really fantastic looking and I wanted to get some pictures.  I'm sure hubby said it was fine, but there were also some police trucks next to where we were so hubby made us walk down a little bit so it didn't seem like I was going to take pictures of the police (which I think is illegal here?).

So, there I am, taking pictures, and you know I can't take just one, I need a couple angles and what if one comes out blurry so I'm a few shots in when someone from the building starts yelling at us.

Oh crap.  lol

So, hubby said something like "okay okay", and we were obviously quite done taking photos of that building.

Which I will now show you below.  I love the white with all the blue windows.  Very nice.

And after that I just had to take some pictures of a building just a little further down.  lol
I think it was an embassy but not exactly sure and not wanting to list country name, again.  But a very interesting building.  I got a shot of the whole thing but I'm just showing some detail, which is the part I really liked anyways.  The building was quite tall though.

I really don't understand what the issue is here with taking pictures and why they are so paranoid about it??  Maybe I'm missing something but I really don't think my pictures are of any national concern.  :p

So... that was our exciting day!

We were going to go to the zoo, but there were supposed to be police all over the place because of the incident that just happened in Alexandria, and today being Christmas for the orthodox Christians here.

In fact we did see more police about but less people.  Maybe everyone was afraid to come out today.

So, zoo another day.