January 2011
35 posts
5 tags
4 tags
5 tags
3 tags
3 tags
4 tags
3 tags
4 tags
Conversations about Nationality with Filipinas in...
(Last month when I was in the US, I wrote a post on conversations about Dubai with hairdressers in Tennessee. Back in the desert, though, I face an entirely different set of challenges in trying to remain blonde.)
On the phone with the salon -
Me: Yes, I’d like to make an appointment to get my highlights done. The problem is, I don’t remember the girl’s name who did them last...
4 tags
Let's Hear It For The Boys
You guys, something exciting happened recently.
Something momentous, even: I realized that that there was a running path I didn’t know about in Dubai.
Now, this may not seem like much to write home about if you live in a normal city. But Dubai has pretty limited options for the running-inclined - I spent the first 6 months I lived here confined to a treadmill, and just last week someone...
5 tags
Expat Must-Watch: John Adams
Let me preface this by saying, I know what you’re thinking.
If you’re anything like me, you’re grumbling to yourself right now: “Sure, as much as I’d like to think of myself as a budding young intellect who comes home after a 12-hour work day and voluntarily watches an excruciatingly detailed 7-part miniseries on the life and times of the second American president,...
4 tags
4 tags
Dubai is...
… a map that gets updated every day.
… 195 nationalities to practice your language skills on.
These bus stop ads have been up for ages now (not pictured is the third installment: “Dubai is… finding an excuse to go shopping”) but I’ve never managed to snap a picture of them until today.
Call me corny (I know, I know), but I kind of love them. For all the...
4 tags
4 tags
In Which I Have an Epic Week of Ticket-Booking
Y’all, it has been quite the travel-planning week in these parts.
First, I booked my tickets to go to Amsterdam next weekend.
Then today, guess whose flights I confirmed to come to Dubai in March and be the first family members ever to visit me during the 3.5 years I’ve lived in the Middle East…
… Mom and Seester! (Um, yes, as per this picture, we love processed...
3 tags
Know When to Walk Away, Know When to Run
I have to say, the Dubai Marathon and I have had a pretty good “run,” if you’ll excuse the horrible pun.
For three years now, I’ve woken up before dawn on a balmy January morning, taken a little 42km / 26.2 mile jaunt up and down Beach Road with a few hundred of Dubai’s running faithful (oh, you know, and Haile Gebrselassie - no bigs), puked a bit at the finish...
5 tags
3 tags
2 tags
Gulf News, "Ladies-Only Evening at Dubai Hotel" →
“Arab ladies are lifting the veil to party on the dance floor… however, this is Dubai’s party scene with a traditional Muslim twist: no men, no alcohol, and no prying eyes, but plenty of spirit. … Muslim women will step out on the town and out of their traditional abayas to wear party outfits for a night with the girls, without compromising their religion or morals.”
...
5 tags
In Which We May Have Lived in the Arab World for...
Discussing the potential project in Israel that I mentioned below -
Me: I'd really like to do it, but I just think geopolitically it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Alex: What?!
Me: You know, I'd have to get a second passport, and I'd have trouble getting back into places like Saudi and Syria and Lebanon if they figure out I've spent a lot of time in Israel, and there's no way of getting there directly from Dubai... geopolitical problems.
Alex: JEW POLITICAL PROBLEMS?!
Me: GEE-OH-POLITICAL.
Alex: Okay, whew. I was gonna say, man, we've been living in the Arab world for too long
8 tags
GPOYTW*: “Goin’ All Biblical Up On the Crowd” Edition.
A recent conversation with the staffing folks at work about whether or not I could take a project in Israel as a Dubai-based consultant (verdict: not worth the geopolitical hassle) got me thinking about my vacation in the Land o’ Milk and Honey a few years ago.
It was a fun trip, that one.
Drinking wine by the Sea of...
4 tags
In Which a Pakistani Engineer Affords Me a Betty...
Our internet at the new apartment has been chronically fritzy ever since Etisalat set it up in August (shocking, right?) so today we finally had an “engineer” out to look at the problem.
He was (as you would expect in these parts) Pakistani, and he was also (as you grow accustomed to, living in Dubai) somewhat incompetent - in fact, the interwebs crapped out again about 5 minutes...
4 tags
5 tags
4 tags
An Awkward Moment
So, you guys. I wouldn’t usually ask this.
In fact, it is making my skin crawl with awkwardness to even bring it up.
But since it is Tumblr Tuesday and all: if you are on Tumblr, maybe you would like to recommend me for the travel section of the Tumblr directory?
[Sighs in relief, burden of self-promotion lifted from shoulders.]
I only ask because, in perusing the travel section just now...
4 tags
4 tags
2 tags
“It looked like they owned you, instead of you owning them.”
– Alex, on why he didn’t like a pair of particularly egregious wedges I brought back from the States and teetered around in over the weekend.
Well played - although in all fairness, it’s not the first time he’s hit the nail on the head when it comes to fashion.
6 tags
3 tags
Thursday Night Sads
The only thing sadder than being stuck in the office at 9 PM on a Thursday night (and remember people, Thursday is our Friday because of the Friday-Saturday weekend) is listening to a half-dozen of your colleagues willingly hanging out at the office at 9 PM on a Thursday night, laughing and shooting the shit because their slavish devotion to work is such that they have nowhere else to go.
...
6 tags
5 tags
Jet Lag, You Cruel Mistress...
… robbing me of sleep and normal bodily functions; awakening me at 4 AM to ferally scavenge on tuna fish and pickles, the only food left in our apartment after 3 weeks on the road.
… and yet, jet lag - ephemeral foe! - even as I curse you, you provide me with the gift of discretionary time through your sleepless nights. Time to watch the complete DVD boxed sets of Seasons 1 and 3 of...
2 tags
Home Sweet Multi-Ethnic Home
We made it back to Dubai last night safe and sound, and this morning when I awoke and groggily fired up my laptop to begin a long, jet-lagged day of work catch-up, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the multi-ethnic melange of wireless networks that pop up in our building.
Oh, my sweet, culturally confused desert home… we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto! (I mean, not to say that my...
5 tags
4 tags
December 2010
34 posts
14 tags
2010: A Year of the Travels
Below is a rundown of my international travels, listed chronologically by country, in 2010. I don’t count the UAE, since, y’know, that’s home, and I don’t double-count places (like Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the US) that I visited more than once… those are my rulz, y’all.
Tanzania: Alex and I kicked off 2010 on the island of Zanzibar, in a little down-market beach...
5 tags
