The weekend, in quotes:
"It's as though India is empty..." -K, gazing around Wild Wadi and making an astute observation about Dubai's demographic composition
"Come on, I work for the Ministry of Education... it's a start-up!" -JA, discussing the level of incompetence she encounters at her new job (and prompting us to remember that we live in a country where sure, the Ministry of Palm Tree-Shaped Island Construction is an established institution, but the Ministry of Education... eh, that's a start-up)
[Discussing the Taj Mahal replica that will be featured prominently in my development]
E: "Is it going to be life-sized?"
Me: "No, it's going to be bigger, actually... it'll be the biggest Taj Mahal in the world!"
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Pimp My Flat
It's a good week in the desert. K arrives from Yemen today, the Burj overtook Tapei 101 as the tallest building in the world a few days ago, my boss leaves for a 3-week vacation this evening, and most importantly, E and I signed a lease last night for The Best Flat Ever. If you want to get technical, we didn't really sign the lease per se because we can't legally do that until the UAE government processes our residence visas (cf: herding cats, beating dead horses, waiting for Godot), but we made a multiple thousand-dollar deposit to secure it in our name, so inshallah everything is settled - just don't talk to me about "cash flow" for the next few weeks.
The tall building is ours - we're on the 39th floor.
Me frolicking in the bigness of our living room.
E in his element - the sleek, beautiful kitchen.
The real "OMG you're all coming to visit me" moment will come when I post pictures of the view and the rooftop pool, but let's pace ourselves for now.
Fun facts about the building (all of which were actually used as selling points by our leasing agent) include the following:
1. It's the only building in the world that takes its shape from a perfume bottle. (Okay...)
2. The furnishings/decor were personally selected by the sheikh/royal family higher-up who owns the building. (Cool.)
3. It currently has the world's fastest elevator. (Very cool!)
4. One of our co-tenants is an American bodybuilder who is the personal trainer to Big Mo and his sons... said trainer will apparently be hanging out in the building's gym a lot, which means yallah royal family connections! (Beyond cool.)
The flat is a 3BR, so we are now thrust full-force into the roommate market lest we be left to pay the entire rent check by ourselves, which would bankrupt us in about 17 seconds. The candidates have included some interesting characters - a sketchy Lebanese architect who wanted to know if he could have guests stay with him "for a short while... you know, 6 months or so," an Argentinian with a South African accent who told us at great length about the small fortune he had just amassed in the Jo'burg real estate market, and an American engineer who has lived in Riyadh/Dubai for the past 25 years and comes bearing a fancy espresso machine and nice Persian carpets but hails from a slightly awkward age bracket - we think he's like 45?! The top candidate right now is a personable Aussie ad exec, so there may well be Foster's and Vegemite in my Middle Eastern future.
All men, in case you haven't noticed... oh, the joys of living in a city that's only 25% female.
Not that I'm complaining. ;-)
The tall building is ours - we're on the 39th floor.
Me frolicking in the bigness of our living room.
E in his element - the sleek, beautiful kitchen.
The real "OMG you're all coming to visit me" moment will come when I post pictures of the view and the rooftop pool, but let's pace ourselves for now.
Fun facts about the building (all of which were actually used as selling points by our leasing agent) include the following:
1. It's the only building in the world that takes its shape from a perfume bottle. (Okay...)
2. The furnishings/decor were personally selected by the sheikh/royal family higher-up who owns the building. (Cool.)
3. It currently has the world's fastest elevator. (Very cool!)
4. One of our co-tenants is an American bodybuilder who is the personal trainer to Big Mo and his sons... said trainer will apparently be hanging out in the building's gym a lot, which means yallah royal family connections! (Beyond cool.)
The flat is a 3BR, so we are now thrust full-force into the roommate market lest we be left to pay the entire rent check by ourselves, which would bankrupt us in about 17 seconds. The candidates have included some interesting characters - a sketchy Lebanese architect who wanted to know if he could have guests stay with him "for a short while... you know, 6 months or so," an Argentinian with a South African accent who told us at great length about the small fortune he had just amassed in the Jo'burg real estate market, and an American engineer who has lived in Riyadh/Dubai for the past 25 years and comes bearing a fancy espresso machine and nice Persian carpets but hails from a slightly awkward age bracket - we think he's like 45?! The top candidate right now is a personable Aussie ad exec, so there may well be Foster's and Vegemite in my Middle Eastern future.
All men, in case you haven't noticed... oh, the joys of living in a city that's only 25% female.
Not that I'm complaining. ;-)
Just your average day at the office...
This morning, I decided to document my drive to work:
The entry to my office compound in the desert... and yes, you enter through the largest roundabout in the world (no, I'm not kidding). Doesn't the gate remind you of Jurassic Park?
What's that in the distance? It's a bird... it's a plane... it's... my office!
No... seriously. I'm supposed to do work here?
What, you mean youuuuuuuuu don't have to pass by giraffes and elephants on your way into the office?
1 of the 2 famous DL tigers, inspiration for the famed "Tiger Escape Protocol" PowerPoint presentation. (Note to monkeys: The tigers are real. The giraffes and elephants, not so much.)
Part of the "conceptual model" of what DL will look like in the future.
The entry to my office compound in the desert... and yes, you enter through the largest roundabout in the world (no, I'm not kidding). Doesn't the gate remind you of Jurassic Park?
What's that in the distance? It's a bird... it's a plane... it's... my office!
No... seriously. I'm supposed to do work here?
What, you mean youuuuuuuuu don't have to pass by giraffes and elephants on your way into the office?
1 of the 2 famous DL tigers, inspiration for the famed "Tiger Escape Protocol" PowerPoint presentation. (Note to monkeys: The tigers are real. The giraffes and elephants, not so much.)
Part of the "conceptual model" of what DL will look like in the future.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Back in the UAE
And so: here I am again!
Rather than trying to detail the events of the past two weeks since I touched down at DXB, I will simply say that things are great - crazy, but great. Moving here "long-term" (I use quotes because when do I ever do anything long-term?) is definitely different from the heady no-rules-no-responsibilities intern days of last summer, but with that caveat aside I have no complaints. Work is great, the beach is beautiful, it's good to reconnect with old friends and - as always seems to happen in Dubai - make a random and multicultural assortment of new ones. E and I are signing a lease tomorrow, inshallah (for a flat so beautiful that I cannot talk about it until it's confirmed, for fear of jinxing the blissful utopia in which we will live), K arrives from Sana'a on Wednesday for a weekend visit, and there's talk of a trip to Doha for the "Ascension of the Prophet" holiday in August.
So in short, life is good. For sure, any 8000-mile relocation is bound to be fraught with bewilderment at the incompetence of the people on whom you have to rely to make it all work out - on the phone with a certain US bank today, for instance, I first had to explain what I meant by using my check card abroad ("yes, 'abroad' means 'out of the country'") and then had to spell the UAE's name a dozen times before the woman could figure out what country I was talking about ("that's 'United,' you know, like 'United States'... Arab, that's A-R-A-B..."). This was topped only by a moment over the weekend when - while waiting expectantly to see a flat that was meant to be left unlocked for us, and after repeated cell phone calls to the absent landlord who kept insisting that the locked flat was indeed unlocked and we were just on the wrong floor - M and I suddenly heard E yell into his phone "Yes I am sure we're on the 34th floor! 34! As in: 1! 1-2! 1- 2-3! 1-2-3-4! Is that how your numbers go, too? Then yes, we're on the right floor!" Priceless.
And so with those anecdotes (haha, can you tell the settling-in is getting to me?), I will close and head to bed to count camels ("1! 1-2! 1-2-3! 1-2-3-4!")... more updates soon!
Rather than trying to detail the events of the past two weeks since I touched down at DXB, I will simply say that things are great - crazy, but great. Moving here "long-term" (I use quotes because when do I ever do anything long-term?) is definitely different from the heady no-rules-no-responsibilities intern days of last summer, but with that caveat aside I have no complaints. Work is great, the beach is beautiful, it's good to reconnect with old friends and - as always seems to happen in Dubai - make a random and multicultural assortment of new ones. E and I are signing a lease tomorrow, inshallah (for a flat so beautiful that I cannot talk about it until it's confirmed, for fear of jinxing the blissful utopia in which we will live), K arrives from Sana'a on Wednesday for a weekend visit, and there's talk of a trip to Doha for the "Ascension of the Prophet" holiday in August.
So in short, life is good. For sure, any 8000-mile relocation is bound to be fraught with bewilderment at the incompetence of the people on whom you have to rely to make it all work out - on the phone with a certain US bank today, for instance, I first had to explain what I meant by using my check card abroad ("yes, 'abroad' means 'out of the country'") and then had to spell the UAE's name a dozen times before the woman could figure out what country I was talking about ("that's 'United,' you know, like 'United States'... Arab, that's A-R-A-B..."). This was topped only by a moment over the weekend when - while waiting expectantly to see a flat that was meant to be left unlocked for us, and after repeated cell phone calls to the absent landlord who kept insisting that the locked flat was indeed unlocked and we were just on the wrong floor - M and I suddenly heard E yell into his phone "Yes I am sure we're on the 34th floor! 34! As in: 1! 1-2! 1- 2-3! 1-2-3-4! Is that how your numbers go, too? Then yes, we're on the right floor!" Priceless.
And so with those anecdotes (haha, can you tell the settling-in is getting to me?), I will close and head to bed to count camels ("1! 1-2! 1-2-3! 1-2-3-4!")... more updates soon!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Setting the Stage
A few pictures - some from last summer and some from this one - of this crazy place that I'm now calling home (?!)...
The desert (obvi).
Sheikh Zayed Road skyline.
View from my hotel room of Sheikh Zayed Road, down which I (bravely! fearlessly!) drive.
View out to Jumeira and the Gulf from my room.
McDonald's and Sheikh Mo... they go together like ice cream and apple pie.
Miscellaneous sheikhography on Sheikh Zayed Road.
The famous sparkly camel, emblematic of all that is Dubai.
The desert (obvi).
Sheikh Zayed Road skyline.
View from my hotel room of Sheikh Zayed Road, down which I (bravely! fearlessly!) drive.
View out to Jumeira and the Gulf from my room.
McDonald's and Sheikh Mo... they go together like ice cream and apple pie.
Miscellaneous sheikhography on Sheikh Zayed Road.
The famous sparkly camel, emblematic of all that is Dubai.
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