Sweetie and I are back in UAE after a 6-day vacation in Jordan (and a very brief trek into Palestine which I only realized after! Not to worry, it was all safe.) We had a nice time, took about a million pictures/videos with our new cameras, ate good food, saw the sights, spent lots of dinar but we don't care, we enjoyed ourselves. Pictures and video to follow.
One of my friends from home (Randy) emailed to say he is stopping through Dubai next weekend. Looking forward to catching up with old friends.
Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes. I am now officially over the hill :-(
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Neglecting To Blog: Guilty :-(
Has it really been a month since I last posted??? Yikes! Things have been busy busy busy so here's a quick recap:
My Mom's Visit:
My Mom arrived on October 9th and she left yesterday evening. She enjoyed her visit although I don't think she relaxed very much ... my apartment is clean, laundry done, dishes washed, bathroom floor has no more icky mould!!!
I was woefully unprepared to show the sites of Dubai so she was graciously accepting of trips to the grocery store and a complimentary Arabic class which I have started attending every Saturday. She explored several malls around Dubai and Abu Dhabi when I (unfortuantely) had to attend some work-related meetings on my week off. For the most part she enjoyed the shopping but expressed a distaste for a place called "Wafi Center", described it as "snooty". We heard from our Desert Safari driver that many of the UAE royal family shop at Wafi, not really my Mom's peeps.
We had my birthday dinner at a place called "Nad Al Shams". It was highly recommended by one of my co-workers so on a whim, we headed the +45km out into the desert for an authentic Arabic experience. It was a unique place as far as hotels in the desert go and for 175 dirhams ($58CDN) per person, there were camel rides, a traditional Arabic show, traditional dancers, a belly dancer who was really quite good, music and decent Arabic food and sweets. Beverages and shisha were extra. The experience was a pleasant surprise ... until we got the bill! The 175 dirhams quoted when we arrived was actually 375 dirhams ($128); a 750 ml bottle of water, 30 dirhams ($9); a martiti (which I suspect was alcohol-free despite the ingredient list on the menu), 45 dirhams ($15). For 175 dirhams I could tolerate the "touristy-ness" of the photographers flogging their photos thoughout our meal and the entertainers' thinly veiled attempt to stage said photos with patrons. But for 375 dirhams ... well, I probably won't go back and I considered the 1000% mark up on the bottled water as their tip. Mom noted several times the similarity of the "traditional" dancing and costumes to Ukrainian traditions ... so the authenticity of the "traditional" Arabic part of the show is questionable.
Most of our other adventures were more pleasant (and less expensive). Some mosques allow non-Muslims to attend at certain times and we took advantage of two of such tours -- the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, which is a must see for the Architecture and Jumeirah Mosque in Dubai, which gives cultural talks about Islam and UAE and was very informative and well presented.
(I will add photos later, they are at home and ... surprise surpirse ... I am still at work).
Arabic classes:
As I said above, I am learning spoken Arabic from the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding. The teacher is a young Emirati girl whose English is only slightly better than my Arabic but she gets the lessons across and I am enjoying it a lot. This is only spoken Arabic of the Gulf region and I hope to be at least somewhat conversant with the basics by the end of the 18 week class; the written language is much more difficult so that will come later (if at all.) The Arabic language is definitely not a "romance" language, there are many sounds that do not exist in the English language except when one has to clear something stuck in one's throat.
I was brave enough to try a "shukram" (translation: thank you) on a store clerk in Abu Dhabi, the only phrase that has stuck so far. The response I got was a big smile that had an "I'm laughing at you not with you" kind of look. When I tried the same phrase on my Arabic-speaking colleague, he good-humouredly corrected me; it is "shukrun" ... with an 'n' on the end. Doh!
Work work and more work!!!
Probably the biggest explanation (excuse?) for not blogging is I have been very busy with work. It is going well, learning lots and for the most part, I am enjoying the challenges. My work load is far greater than anything I have had in my career at any one time. At the moment I have 3 projects consisting of 11 buildings on my plate ranging from 7 storeys to 54 storeys. The big boss of our department said to me one day, "that's not a work load, that's a career!"
Since I have not yet reached super-human status, I have expressed concerns about my ability to sustain this work load and my dwindling social life; my boss who recruited me over here has stepped in on my behalf and off-loaded the biggest of the projects however, until there is an official replacement, I am still "pinch hitting" where I can (which is not very much).
There is a huge (as is everything in Dubai) real estate property trade show called "Cityscape" held in the UAE in the spring in Abu Dhabi and in the fall in Dubai. It's a pretty big deal here, anyone who's anyone in the Gulf region (and beyond -- Cohos Evamy had a booth at the Abu Dhabi show) is there. Two of my projects were on display at the Dubai Cityscape 2 weeks ago and I managed to tear myself away from the office to see them which was gratifying.
Bellatora Residences in Dubai Maritime City were launched at Cityscape. That is the biggest chunk of my time right now.
The Shades on Reem Island in Abu Dhabi were launched at the Spring Cityscape event and apparently the first of the 5 towers sold out in 30 minutes!!!
What's coming up in the world of PZ:
My Sweetie arrives in Dubai on Thursday. He'll be here for 3 weeks.
Sweetie and I leave for 6 days in Jordan on Saturday. My first trip out of the UAE with the exception of a day trip to Oman.
I am in the process of booking flights back to Canada for mid-November to attend the trial of my dumb-ass ex-boyfriend. As I posted earlier, he was finally arrested in September for his assault on me and although I have very low expectations for the outcome of this whole thing, the trip home will be nice. To see my Grandma, have a birthday beer with my friends, play a little volleyball and surpise my nephew and nieces with early Christmas presents will be worth the trip.
My Mom's Visit:
My Mom arrived on October 9th and she left yesterday evening. She enjoyed her visit although I don't think she relaxed very much ... my apartment is clean, laundry done, dishes washed, bathroom floor has no more icky mould!!!
I was woefully unprepared to show the sites of Dubai so she was graciously accepting of trips to the grocery store and a complimentary Arabic class which I have started attending every Saturday. She explored several malls around Dubai and Abu Dhabi when I (unfortuantely) had to attend some work-related meetings on my week off. For the most part she enjoyed the shopping but expressed a distaste for a place called "Wafi Center", described it as "snooty". We heard from our Desert Safari driver that many of the UAE royal family shop at Wafi, not really my Mom's peeps.
We had my birthday dinner at a place called "Nad Al Shams". It was highly recommended by one of my co-workers so on a whim, we headed the +45km out into the desert for an authentic Arabic experience. It was a unique place as far as hotels in the desert go and for 175 dirhams ($58CDN) per person, there were camel rides, a traditional Arabic show, traditional dancers, a belly dancer who was really quite good, music and decent Arabic food and sweets. Beverages and shisha were extra. The experience was a pleasant surprise ... until we got the bill! The 175 dirhams quoted when we arrived was actually 375 dirhams ($128); a 750 ml bottle of water, 30 dirhams ($9); a martiti (which I suspect was alcohol-free despite the ingredient list on the menu), 45 dirhams ($15). For 175 dirhams I could tolerate the "touristy-ness" of the photographers flogging their photos thoughout our meal and the entertainers' thinly veiled attempt to stage said photos with patrons. But for 375 dirhams ... well, I probably won't go back and I considered the 1000% mark up on the bottled water as their tip. Mom noted several times the similarity of the "traditional" dancing and costumes to Ukrainian traditions ... so the authenticity of the "traditional" Arabic part of the show is questionable.
Most of our other adventures were more pleasant (and less expensive). Some mosques allow non-Muslims to attend at certain times and we took advantage of two of such tours -- the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, which is a must see for the Architecture and Jumeirah Mosque in Dubai, which gives cultural talks about Islam and UAE and was very informative and well presented.
(I will add photos later, they are at home and ... surprise surpirse ... I am still at work).
Arabic classes:
As I said above, I am learning spoken Arabic from the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding. The teacher is a young Emirati girl whose English is only slightly better than my Arabic but she gets the lessons across and I am enjoying it a lot. This is only spoken Arabic of the Gulf region and I hope to be at least somewhat conversant with the basics by the end of the 18 week class; the written language is much more difficult so that will come later (if at all.) The Arabic language is definitely not a "romance" language, there are many sounds that do not exist in the English language except when one has to clear something stuck in one's throat.
I was brave enough to try a "shukram" (translation: thank you) on a store clerk in Abu Dhabi, the only phrase that has stuck so far. The response I got was a big smile that had an "I'm laughing at you not with you" kind of look. When I tried the same phrase on my Arabic-speaking colleague, he good-humouredly corrected me; it is "shukrun" ... with an 'n' on the end. Doh!
Work work and more work!!!
Probably the biggest explanation (excuse?) for not blogging is I have been very busy with work. It is going well, learning lots and for the most part, I am enjoying the challenges. My work load is far greater than anything I have had in my career at any one time. At the moment I have 3 projects consisting of 11 buildings on my plate ranging from 7 storeys to 54 storeys. The big boss of our department said to me one day, "that's not a work load, that's a career!"
Since I have not yet reached super-human status, I have expressed concerns about my ability to sustain this work load and my dwindling social life; my boss who recruited me over here has stepped in on my behalf and off-loaded the biggest of the projects however, until there is an official replacement, I am still "pinch hitting" where I can (which is not very much).
There is a huge (as is everything in Dubai) real estate property trade show called "Cityscape" held in the UAE in the spring in Abu Dhabi and in the fall in Dubai. It's a pretty big deal here, anyone who's anyone in the Gulf region (and beyond -- Cohos Evamy had a booth at the Abu Dhabi show) is there. Two of my projects were on display at the Dubai Cityscape 2 weeks ago and I managed to tear myself away from the office to see them which was gratifying.
Bellatora Residences in Dubai Maritime City were launched at Cityscape. That is the biggest chunk of my time right now.The Shades on Reem Island in Abu Dhabi were launched at the Spring Cityscape event and apparently the first of the 5 towers sold out in 30 minutes!!!
What's coming up in the world of PZ:
My Sweetie arrives in Dubai on Thursday. He'll be here for 3 weeks.
Sweetie and I leave for 6 days in Jordan on Saturday. My first trip out of the UAE with the exception of a day trip to Oman.
I am in the process of booking flights back to Canada for mid-November to attend the trial of my dumb-ass ex-boyfriend. As I posted earlier, he was finally arrested in September for his assault on me and although I have very low expectations for the outcome of this whole thing, the trip home will be nice. To see my Grandma, have a birthday beer with my friends, play a little volleyball and surpise my nephew and nieces with early Christmas presents will be worth the trip.
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