A Typical Day part 1

A typical day:
5:45 a radio alarm blasts off, sending us like cannon balls from our beds. After donning some coverage and washing the sleep from our eyes, we trudge down the 5 flights of stairs in semi-light. The mornings are grey and cold. We walk to the Obesendling tube stop and catch the 06:20 U4 on the U-bahn. We change at Odeonsplatz to the U3 to Arabella Park. We read non-stop on the 40 minute journey. At our stop we emerge like Dr. Who into a different world. Towering above us as we glide up the steps of the underground, is the HypsHous - a bank which is silver and grey aluminium and glass. Very tall science fiction like building of 3 tubes and triangles.
We walk towards the great S in the sky (Sheraton) and enter at the same place as the frozen chickens. However unlike the chickens we have to click a little card into a machine. Then we bang through the grease covered doors to the canteen. An endless stream of caffeine and pumpernickel, and a good book settles me for the day.

07:30 we go to the locker-room where we have a locker and a uniform. Pale blue stripe sacks. Once in these, and now camouflaged completely so no one will suspect we are attractive in any way, we go to the housekeeping department and get a clipboard with a worksheet on it. It tells us which floor we will be working on and how many rooms we have won in the lucky draw. We also get a pass key for the floor (so that if anything is stolen we can get blamed).