A little Q&A

Today is Thursday November 15th and I have the day off because it's the Islamic New Year.

 

And no matter where you are, gotta love a three-day weekend!

 

Had some questions from Kathleen in an email, and am copying and pasting my answers.  I figure if she is curious, others probably are too.

 

The weather ... the weather channel says we were 93 degrees today; probably close to correct. After today it looks like we move into the mid-80's, which for here is cool. Here, you expect it to be hot, so hot and cool are relative concepts! And you also have to be prepared for cold inside; some places are air conditioned to very chilly temps. I've been warned even by people born and raised here that the summers are stifling hot (and humid). You get as quickly as you can from one air conditioned thing to the next. So, am making sure I enjoy this "cooler" weather, knowing that come June or so it will be hotter than Hades!

 

Weekends ... I'm starting to get into the rhythm of Friday/Saturday weekends. I did go ahead and put "weekend" on my calendar, because you spend 50+ years of weekends being Saturday/Sunday, and mentally it's quite the paradigm shift. More than every I have to stop and think about what day of the week it is, and what the date is.

Shopping ... some of the malls are kind of normal in scope. Some are SCPlaza on steroids. Like the malls in Dubai. I've only been to one (Dubai Mall; the other one is Mall of the Emirates and that is the one with the indoor skiing), but it was quite overwhelming in size. "Malling" is a favorite past-time here; something to do inside where it's cool. But I think people simply enjoy shopping and wandering around. I went to a mall this afternoon to pick up a couple of things (I wanted a second and different pair of eyeglasses), and realized that that mall -- and some others -- have small amusement parks within them for the kids. I was picking out some glasses, and felt and heard this rumbling. If I was home in California I would pause and wonder if it was an earthquake. Nope, was a roller coaster! Not huge, but a roller coaster in a mall nonetheless. I'm doing a mental count ... I can think of at least 7 malls of various sizes in Abu Dhabi alone. If you've looked at a map, that's a lot of malls in a pretty small area.

Today I also visited the Central Souk.  It's a re-built wood building (I read somewhere that the original burned down), with lots of small shops, many with traditional items from the Middle East. Scarves, ceramics, hand crafted furniture, wooden boxes, lanterns, and the sort. Jewelery stores are popular, and perfume and incense stores, both in the Souk and in the mall.

In the malls there are stores unique to the Middle East, but many American and European brand stores as well. So there is a variety of affordable and crazy expensive.

The bigger grocery stores are mostly attached to malls as well, and have both food and other goods. Kind of like a Target is when it has a food section ... but not quite Target. Fruits and vegetables can be a bit more expensive, and they don't last as long because they aren't covered or full or preservatives; and a lot of the fruits and vegetables seem to be from Africa and Australia. There are familiar brands, like Crest. Things are labeled in both English and Arabic. Many items are a bit more expensive. Others, pretty cheap, like a bottle of water is about 28 cents (1 dirham), and gasoline. We can fill up one of the cars for about $30 dollars.

 

GPS ... not as helpful here. I haven't used it, and folks have told me that it's hit and miss here. So many streets that aren't really named, and that GPS voice probably has conniption fits. 

Most people speak English. All levels of English. The people you have to do the most simple English with are folks from Southeast Asia; not as fluent as the Emiratis. In the UAE, students learn both Arabic and English, throughout school. In some cases if I were to get lost, and if I was in a remote area, it might take awhile to find someone who could help me. But within the cities and along the roads at gas stations, it's easy to get by. I need to nail down a few key words (thank you, God willing, congratulations are common Arabic phrases); I need to just practice them. I've avoided trying them out on people because I don't want to inadvertently say the wrong thing, or, sound like an idiot! And I need to start back on the Rosetta Stone Arabic.

 

Let me know if you have more questions!