Exploring Dubai (done right)

So I'm completing this a good week after my return from UAE -- the end of the trip was busy, busy, and life has been 10x crazier since returning to Baltimore and my research.

After a drive-by tour (at 2am after 20 hr of travel) from Dubai to Abu Dhabi the night I got into the country (I remember nothing), and some glances New Year's Eve and Day, I finally got my official tour of Dubai on my second-to-last day in the UAE.

I should start by mentioning that the weather, while great for an East Coaster, brought nothing but complaints from the residents. 65 degrees instead of 75, and edging on rainy. Still beautiful, but could be more so. Anyway, I'll include a mix of my photos and some from my bf's mother's previous visit.

The drive in: I truly believe that the skyline will be gorgeous in about 3 years, but right now it's pretty overridden by construction.
Dubai Internet City: No photos here, but you can find information here and here. 800-some companies, and were I to move here, my best hope for finding a suitable job, probably.

Burj Dubai: mentioned in previous post. With my bf's mother's connections we got an exclusive tour through the sales office to see what the mini-city will offer in the future. To the right you can see current progress in its construction -- about 100 of planned ~160 floors built. It was interesting to learn about how it had been designed specifically to direct wind to support rather than threaten it, etc. It's more than a tower though -- there's an entire gorgeous though overwhelming mini-city that is slowly being constructed immediately around it.

Emirates Towers: (link) We continued our tour, heading to the Emirates Towers. Two triangular towers, one a hotel and the other and office building, and both amongst the world's tallest. Between the towers was an exclusive shopping mall -- it's annual huge 20-60% off sale dampened a bit by the $1000 price tags on a cute pair of shoes, etc -- and a huge lobby where we had coffee, both western-style and traditional Arab style.


Bur Dubai: The central area of the city. A lot of neat old shops and traditional style buildings, the Dubai museum, and what's referred to in a dramatic understatement as "the Creek".


Jumeira: Jumeira is the jaw-dropping area of Dubai that everyone hears about: the unbelievable resorts, the (completed set of) Palm Islands, and of course the Burj Al-Arab.

We started our tour having a late lunch at Madinat Jumeira resort, followed by a ride on the resort water boats (abras) which carry you to your destination (again, only meant for guests). We then walked through the "souk" or market -- I expected something traditional, but here of course everything was very upscale and beautiful. A lot of wares from India and Pakistan.

From Madinat Jumeira, we had a lovely view of the Burj Al-Arab, the world's first seven-star hotel, where we had some expensive coffee and dessert.

Views from inside Burj Al-Arab

Royal Mirage: more beautiful buildings filled with more beautiful people. :-)

Palm Islands: Three sets will be built, but so far only one set of islands has been completed: The Palm Jumeira (building construction still in progress). We saw them at night, and construction pictures aren't so pretty to show, but here's a sight from the sky... (real and envisioned)


All right folks, that's enough for now... I'll try to post my closing thoughts sometime before I leave the country again. ;-)

Exploring Abu Dhabi

Day 5 in the UAE -- I leave the morning of Day 7. So soon!

Days 2-3 were spent (mostly) traveling to Dubai for a New Year's Eve celebration (Paul Oakenfold DJing at the World Trade Center), which didn't turn out nearly as interesting as I'd hoped, and moreover didn't turn out to let me see much of the city. Evening 3 and Day 4 were spent exploring Abu Dhabi, and in about an hour I will go with my boyfriend and his mother for a much more thorough exploration of Dubai.

Abu Dhabi's economy is 90% oil-based, and it's fairly obvious that they don't quite give a rat's ass about tourism yet. :-) Yesterday we went to the main tourism "highlights" of the city -- an old fort which is the oldest building in Abu Dhabi (1793) and the "Heritage Village" which features a reproduction old Bedouin village and is supposed to describe what the area was really like before the oil and skyscraper train hit them. Either would have been far more interesting if there had been pamphlets or information posted somewhere --heck, in any language -- telling us what we were actually looking at, but the few workers we could find were worse than useless.

• Qasr al-Hosn (the Old Fort): Oldest building in Abu Dhabi meets the modern city.
  
  
• Heritage Village: "Excuse me sir, can you tell me if there is a camel to ride somewhere [as advertised] in this Bedouin village?" "Uh, no m'am." "Are there animals at all?" "Uh. no, sorry." 10 meters later, there is an uncaged camel along with caged donkey, caged horse, and caged dog (yes, dog), and 30 meters on the other side, there are cages full of goats, sheep, and a water buffalo. Thanks, guy.
  


• Formal Garden: One of many "garden" parks in the city, where my boyfriend's mother used to take him when he was a boy. Fantastic for small children I think -- everything from the normal slides and swingsets to huge moonwalk-type inflatable rides and games, and all this for 1 dirham (27 cent US) admission price in the middle of the city.
  
• Other things we didn't get to see much but are nice: The Emirates Palace hotel (most expensive hotel ever built, built specifically to be a meeting place for leaders of the Gulf Countries and foreign dignitaries) and the Corniche walkay along the northern edge of the island.
  

All in all Abu Dhabi is a nice little city though. Not a lot to see, but clean and compact, and being surrounded by water makes it more lovely. I wish it wasn't quite so commercial -- both Abu Dhabi and Dubai bombard you with advertisements literally every 20 feet on the roadways, but other than that, okay.

Dubai I haven't been too impressed with so far, though seeing it thoroughly today may change that. The prime development of the city is along one (Sheik Zayed) road, which means it's fairly one-dimensional, prone to high traffic, and completely unwalkable. The development rate is ridiculous --for every skyscraping hotel, you literally see 2-3 more being built. On the other hand, once that building is complete and there is less construction about, the skyline will be impressive and beautiful, if overwhelming. Right now there are only pieces here and there that stand out, the Burj Al-Arab hotel (I haven't seen it up close yet) and Emirates Towers included. On the sillier end -- Mall of the Emirates (the largest mall in the Middle East, complete with an indoor Ski Slope -- yes, really) and Burj Dubai, one of several buildings in the world claiming it will be the world's tallest, with actual plans not being released so no one will scoop them but rumors of 162 habitable floors -- 100 built so far.

More to get to later

• Signs in Abu Dhabi: "Buy one of our luxury apartments, and we'll throw in a free Jaguar". Que ridiculo. ;-)
• Posters everywhere of UAE's founder and late ruler, along with the current. Respect is nice, but this borderlines uncomfortable for me.
• More about division of the natives
• UAE's 90% ownership of Crabtree Valley Mall, my hometown mall a mile from where I grew up.
• Food
• Stray cats. They run around everywhere in both Abu Dhabi and Dhabi... kind of crazy when you see it.
  

In the Middle East! (first impressions)

Today is the beginning of my second full day in the United Arab Emirates*, visiting my boyfriend's family who live here. I'm staying in Abu Dhabi, though will be spending some time in Dubai (images) as well. I'm only here until Jan 5 -- there's a lot to see in not very much time!

Travel was long (12 hours from Dulles to Kuwait City on United -- bad food, okay service, limited movie selection, but an Ambien from the guy next to me helped me sleep through most of it. 2 hours from Kuwait to Dubai. Both flights full.) but not unbearable. It's a nine-hour difference here -- highly unlikely I'll recover from jet lag before I leave though, so I'm just making the most of it.

First impressions: Many, and my thoughts are a bit jumbled so sorry for that.

• So far, everything feels very modern and western. Buildings and streets feel about the same, the supermarket/mall felt the same, the crowds haven't felt too different.
• English: Is everywhere -- almost every sign, building, etc is translated in both English and Arabic.
• Airport: Dubai's airport was incredibly crowded, especially considering that my flight arrived 12:50am! The lines in passport control reminded me of US control at peak times. Several women on my Kuwait-Dubai flight were covered up to their eyes, though they interestingly did seem to be co-mingling with men. Perhaps the men were family members though.
  
• "Natives": I've seen very few native Emiratians so far. Of course, they are only 20% of the population here, but it still feels odd. There is not a lot of intermingling, primarily I gather for the cultural reasons that the native population is far more conservative in their Islamic traditions than the greater population, though a good portion of the 80% expatriots are indeed Arabs.
• Westerners: Are everywhere. My impression has been biased of course, as I am staying in a Spanish-Syrian household and last night his mother held a dinner party for friends -- probably 2/3 Spaniards and the rest a mixed crowd of expatriots. His mother works at the Spanish embassy, so in turn much of the crowd was Foreign Service related. It was interesting to meet a related ambassador, but even more interesting to meet people ~my age who were the children of embassy workers. The three daughters of the ambassador were 19, 21, 22, were very close, were obviously privileged though also grounded, and had lived a variety of places -- Cameroon, Guatamala, China, the Netherlands, Spain, US, no where more than 4 years at a time. I met a man who works at the Canadian embassy and has moved his children to Ghana, Cairo, and more. In addition to foreign service workers, I met families associated with the energy industry (I tried not to make a face) -- moving throughout Middle East, UK, Spain, Netherlands, etc.
  
• Status of Women: Again, so it doesn't feel much different here than at home. There are many mixed messages --at the grocery store for example there are checkout lines "Reserved for Ladies and the Disabled" (this is apparently bc many native women are not comfortable sharing a line with men). Culturally here women not only stay veiled -- everything but face and hands covered and no pants allowed -- but also cover all of their face but their eyes when in public. As I mentioned, I've seen little of this though.
  
  On the other hand, manequins in the mall had hard nipples sticking out, and American TV of all sorts is broadcast here -- my bf's 14 year old sister is a devoted follower of "So You Think You Can Dance", which somehow felt a bit risque. :-) Also, I went to a bar last night, where "natives" and westerns were both around and my bf told me it was very new that natives would even feel comfortable to be seen drinking in public. Note that we only saw men, no native women.
  

I'm going to try to go back to sleep (hasn't worked for the past hour or so). Tonight we head to Dubai to celebrate New Year's Eve... should be an experience! :-)

Back to Prague

Last night I left Saarbrucken for Frankfurt, where I met up with my friend Ashish from undergrad (lots of fun, despite transportation fiascos), and this morning I flew from Frankfurt to Prague.

I try to keep these blog entries from ever getting too long or wordy, and with that said it's difficult finding the best words to describe the sense of peace I feel to be back in Prague. It's more than an appreciation for the beauty of the city (which during the Advent season it certainly is, even if the streets are overwhelmed with tourists more than the 40 degree weather would typically suggest). More also than the thrill of seeing old friends.

I admit, a part of me was excited about leaving Prague to return to the U.S. last May, though I knew I'd miss the views and some of the people. Returning today though, I find a sense of belonging and completion; I feel like I've returned to a home. I love Prague for both the castle and the ugly graffiti, the rich culture and the frustrating tourists who clog the streets but never bother to learn where the real values of thee city lie. It's like loving a sibling for both friendship and flaws. There is a certain satisfaction in my heart as I navigate across town through the clogs of tourists, knowing that to them the city is only a beautiful stranger, but I've experienced a touch of its intimacy.

The feeling surprised me a little. Living in Prague for my brief four months, I reached the conclusion that I would never be really happy living abroad long term; always feeling like the outsider trying to adjust and fit in. This makes me reconsider a bit whether I could adjust and live long term as an expatriot. I'm not convinced that I could... but I've never believed that home is simply the place where you've grown up when it comes to the U.S., and I'm at a place in my life where I'm debating opening the circle a bit further.

Hello, Prague. I've returned, and I've missed you.

Fool me once...

Drats, foiled again!

First off, I admit that the title of this post was just a little bit of an excuse to call attention to one of my favorite Bush quotes.

With that out of the way, I really did have a point here. :-P And that point, it turns out, is mushrooms. If you know me, you know that I do my best to be open-minded with food... but mushrooms and olives are where I draw the line. Or at least try to.


Back in August 2004, I was just beginning to start traveling (my only previous lone trip to Europe was Prague in March 2004 -- who knew I'd be starting a trend?). I was in Geneva, Switzerland for a conference, and went out to dinner with some colleagues. The menu was in French, as that's what most of the western Swiss speak. I asked the girls I was eating with to translate the menu, and I chose what I wanted. When it came time to order, I wanted to be self-sufficient so I ordered for myself, in French. And it turns out, I remembered the wrong thing! ;-) I was one line off. The meal arrived, and I was expecting something like pasta... and it's a bowl of mushrooms! only mushrooms! in some sort of gravy sauce! I was horrified. I ate nearly half of it, then finally confessed to the other girls what I did and one was nice and traded the rest of her meal with me. ;)

Of course, after that experience I was certain to memorize the word for mushroom -- champignon in french -- and since then, for each country I visit, I make sure to learn the word for mushroom so I can avoid it. A foolproof plan.

And THEN -- Germany foiled my plan!

A few nights ago in Germany, I again went to the restaurant below my hotel to get a pizza for dinner. Straightforward, yes? After almost two weeks in town, I knew a few German food words, and "Champignon" (just like the French work) was early on my word-spotting list. Based on my confidence, combined with cheapness, I ordered one of the more simple pizzas from the menu. Pizza arrives... COVERED with mushrooms!!

For all you fellow mushroom haters who may choose to wander Germany in the future: it turns out there's a second, secret word! "Pilzen". I felt tricked :) I saw that word on the menu (with the words for cheese, tomato, and pepperoni which I knew), but thought of the beer ("Pils" in German, "Pilsner" in Czech") and figured it was just a spice of some sort.

Again, I sucked it up and ate the mushrooms. Ay de mi. :-P

Something in the water...

Is there anymore much more distasteful than, thirsting for water, you take a big swig and find it salty and carbonated? For whatever reason, the Europeans appear to love this stuff. Not only is tap water almost never served (though in countries like German it is quite safe), but the bottled water is by a large majority (and definitely by default) carbonated. Perhaps one can develop a taste for it... but I don't find it at all refreshing, and what's more, find myself burping far more that usual. :-) How ladylike, eh?

You've got to love a country where finding a glass of uncarbonated water is on level with acquiring a PhD, and yet you can buy a "glass" of Jägermeister in the university cafeteria!!

To review, Jägermeister is

• (German translation) anise- and herb-flavored digestive
• (English translation) a huge post-frat party hangover mechanism

Party on. :-) But don't drink the water.

Maybe I'll become a coin collector :-)

Cool only to me (probably), but feel free to read on. :-)

Seven years ago, the governments of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and some other ones gave up their national currency to form the euro, one unified currency set, which by the way continues to kick the US dollar's butt. Until today, I always thought that the bills and coins were identical throughout the region. Just now though, while avoiding work to productively examine the edge inscriptions on the two two-euro coins in my pocket (one said "2 EURO", and the other a much harsher "EINIGKEIT UND RECHT UND FREIHEIT"; surprisingly the translation is quite friendly), I noticed that there are actually notable differences. Avoiding work already, I decided to investigate more.



It's interesting to see which countries really put effort into it. (Hint: Not Ireland. And Pope Benedict XVI must be feeling a *teeny* bit inadaquate about now...) Obviously, all coin types are accepted throughout the euro-using region (there's an actual name for that -- the "Eurozone"), and they gave up national expression when it came to bills, where having a single standard is maybe a little more important.

One more way to draw in the coin collectors, I guess (and speaking of that, I've passed a few coin collector shops in Saarbrucken alone -- I guess there's a crowd still mourning the loss of the Deutsche Mark). Not that Americans can speak.

Currency check

Today, the US dollar hit a 20-month low against the euro. 1 euro now equals $1.37 US, 11% more than at the beginning of the year. As if things here weren't too expensive anyway, this tidbit definitely helps to explain the dull ache in my wallet these days.

But, could be worse... the pound has now risen to $1.94, a FOURTEEN-YEAR high!!! (In April it was $1.78) Good thing I'm not heading to London anytime soon. :-)

Native Americans making a comeback... in Germany?

As I wandered Saarbrucken this weekend, I was struck by what seems to be a (recent?) trend here: Native American performances and paraphenilia. Street performers, Lakota tribe dream catchers, little collectible teepees...

Anyway, seemed a little left field. The music and traditions are beautiful, I just never expected to see them pop up in Saarbrucken!

Not such a bad little city

This weekend, the weekend between my two weeks in Germany, I'd intended to duck out of Saarbrucken, a population 150,000 small city no one's heard of, and head to Paris again to see my friend Ben and/or former exchange student Audren, or to Munich to explore, or maybe day trips to Luxembourg or Strasbourg or Heidelberg...

Instead, I decided late last week that I would just stay here. Once I made the decision, it made sense. I had work to do. Weather forecasts weren't pretty. Et cetera. It seemed like a shame to lose the traveling opportunity while I'm out here, but then again I'm definitely not wanting for travel this year, and then there's the matter of traveling to Europe last weekend, traveling to Prague next weekend, returning to Baltimore the next weekend, flying to see my family in NC 12 days later, and flying to Dubai a week after that. Even typing all that tires me out, so the idea of sleeping in a bit, wandering the city, and getting some work done sounded nice.

And it turns out, for all the complaining about Saarbrucken from the locals about how little there is to do, I've had a really nice weekend. Nothing flashy, but some history, some lovely buildings, the annual Saarbrucken Christmas market celebration, and the free bicycle the fantastic hotel staff here let me borrow to wander the city have contributed to a great weekend.

On the bad end, work has been worthless this weekend, due more to software problems and the issues of working remotely than lack of trying... hopefully I'll keep productive this next week in Germany.