Tue 2 Mar 2010

Water everywhere

Posted by Heidi under dubai
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In the news lately: 30 million gallon aquarium within the Dubai Mall springs a leak, requiring the gigantic mall to be evacuated. Sharks are circling just above where water is gushing out. This happens only hours after our first visit there.

And rain. Two days of crazy, heavy rain with thunder, blowing sideways and making a huge scattered mess of the construction sites that surround us. Scaffolding chunks blowing around, temporary fences crumpling, who knows how all the laborers who live in shanties on those sites are faring. In front of our building is a puddle wider than 20 car lengths, at least as deep as their wheels. No storm sewers here so two guys in bobcats come and shovel it into an empty lot, where it runs off and blocks another road…

Somehow I got to work, with a leaky ceiling and sand and water streaming into automatic doors that malfunctioned during the storm.

And now on to Abu Dhabi, where we are staying in a hotel with a swim-up bar.

Here it is: For living in the desert we’ve been dealing with a lot of water lately…

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Sun 21 Feb 2010

Doing the groceries

Posted by Heidi under consuming, dubai
[3] Comments

I like that every weekend we have been making a trip to a new store for groceries. Here they like to call them hypermarkets–they are pretty much the Meijer model of one-stop shopping complete with juice bar, appliances for sale, and even underpants for the whole family. Usually they are connected to shopping malls.

So far we have been to:

  • Hyperpanda, a Saudi chain. Prices are decent, it’s in Festival Center which is the mall connected to the hotel we stayed in on arrival, so it was our first hypermarket experience. They have the best sesame bread, only 3dhs (around 85 cents) for a generous fresh loaf, and I have not been able to find similar bread in any other store. Also, good laundry detergent choices.
  • Carrefour, a French chain though nothing especially French about the products offered. I went to the one in the Mall of the Emirates and I thought it was kind of trashy, like Kmart with groceries.
  • Mini Spinneys, UK chain, kinda pricey but if you want Lyle’s Golden Syrup or clotted cream this is your place. We are kind of bound to it because it’s within easy walking distance and there are no other stores inside a 15-minute drive. There are larger Spinneys scattered about (and their parent company, Waitrose, the true posh British grocery, in certain neighborhoods), Rodney has been to a couple but I have not.
  • Auchan, new French store weirdly located in a giant Chinese discount complex called DragonMart. And by giant I mean 3,950 stores under one roof. The market is decidedly not French but Rodney got some Egyptian dry basturma meat there which he enjoyed.
  • Lulu, a regional chain, very nice produce and good prices, unfortunately not too conveniently located for us. They had vegetarian bouillon and some really nice fresh juices.
  • Worldmart, no idea who runs it, and this is my chance to say holy crap does this place need some SEOs. Lots of places have their own sites but they’re buried under a ton of other hits and I get tired of digging for them. Anyway Worldmart happens to be in a mall I recently discovered called Arabian Center in the Mirdif area, which is what I would call a “normal” mall by small-town midwestern standards. The prices are a little higher than Lulu or Hyperpanda.
  • Union Cooperative Society, locally owned, slightly more progressive business model than the others. Prices are supposedly low and the one in Ras al Khoor near the big fruit and vegetable market* is not too far away, but I heard they have no parking.
  • Choithram, another gulf chain that I thought was UK but maybe I’m wrong. I have been in but did not stop to buy anything. It was in an older part of town and was kind of tired looking but they had the biggest display of Valentine goods in any store I’ve been to. Supposedly more pricey, and if we go to the fancy expat neighborhoods like the Greens those branches are probably nicer.

*The fruit and vegetable market hasn’t been on our radar because essentially all produce is imported from somewhere except hothouse peppers, mint, romaine lettuce and sprouted beans. It’s apparently full of hawkers who follow you to and from your car in addition to throughout the market, and with a little kid we already have enough shopping hassles.

I still want to try the undoubtedly overpriced Organic Foods & Cafe which we may get to this week as it’s connected to the Dubai Mall. Just noticed they have online shopping and home delivery…worth remembering when it’s 125 degrees outside.

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Wed 17 Feb 2010

The Adventures of SuperMaeve & Rodman

Posted by Rodney under Uncategorized
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While Heidi has been working to pay for our lifestyle here in Dubai, Maeve and I have been doing our utmost to keep a vacation mentality. We rented a car, a none too impressive Nissan Tiida and have hit the highways and byways of Dubai, mostly looking for parks, playgrounds, and beaches to eat up the hours and tire out the wee one. Something to be ever mindful of with the parks in the UAE is that there is usually at least one designated day where only women and children are allowed at the park. This is I assume because of the gender divisions that are a part of the islamic lifestyle, especially in the conservative Arabian Gulf. So depending on where I go, I have to rotate my choices so that I don’t end up as the proverbial fox in the henhouse and cause cross cultural pandemonium. Generally Dubai is permissive as long as you keep a low profile, but I haven’t been here long enough to really know when to bend the rules here.

For example : Driving here in Dubai in my experience is not as horrible as expected, but I am also out on the road at off peak times of the day and evening which I think helps with the traffic. But, speed limits are completely disregarded by some people. Can you imagine somebody blasting by you at 70 or 80 mph on a mall service drive? Or on a highway off ramp? These are the sorts of situations that driving in Kalamazoo or even dare I say it Chicago did not quite prepare me for. To make matters worse, you have to keep your road rage inside because swearing or gesticulating in a vulgar way is against the law. I suppose it has something to do with Arabic hospitality where previously in the desert a stranger was offered a minimum of three days food and water no matter what the family or tribe thought of them. We all must keep a calm and pleasant demeanor in our mixed country where misunderstandings are the rule rather than the exception. Fair enough, I’m here to learn and adapt and I’m not so sad to leave the coarser aspects of life in the US behind. But I don’t want to die in a fiery wreck or go to prison because some fool smashed into me on the highway and got himself killed either.

For an Arab country you don’t see that many out and about, at least in the areas I’ve been thus far. The parks nearby are filled with Filipino nannies and their western charges. The beach has tourists from all over the world. My doorman is Nepalese and the guys who do all the flunky work are Indian, generally. The expats I’ve met thus far have tended to be British, Australian, Indian, and Canadian. There are some Americans as well, but they tend to be pilot families from Emirates Airlines so they are a little more insular, I think. There are also large portions of expats from countries like Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria etc although we have yet to make any connections with those families yet. Still, nothing like a three year old kid to force interactions with people! Lately Maeve has been going through a dress up phase, so we are often going places with cat ears, capes, magic wands and odd mishmashes of clothes. My attitude is what the hell, if it helps with the adjustment I’m all for it. I suspect she will be the one who adjusts quickest of all.

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Fri 12 Feb 2010

Diaspora

Posted by Heidi under consuming, dubai
[2] Comments

There is this crappy tabloid newspaper here called 7Days that is distributed free. It’s the worst kind of sensational nonsense with a heavy British tone, car wrecks, rugby news, celebrity drama, plastic surgery ads galore, obnoxious letters to the editor, but they do have periodic features on odd things to check out in Dubai.

Last week an article about a shop called Daiso appeared–a Japanese “dollar store” they called it. Nothing in Japan was ever a dollar when I lived there 12 years ago, but still. I am a freak for all the totally practical and totally impractical things that come from the minds of the Japanese so we decided to give it a try.

And wow it was super!!!

I think I have raised a little Japanophile too. Maeve and I are squabbling over who gets the little fruit and vegetable sporks in many colors, the hamster notepad, the goofy stickers… And we got a bunch of fun useful things for the house like melamine plates and cups, a tiny broom, bamboo clothespins in regular and mini sizes, yakitori skewers, and cute magnets.

It seems funny to move all the way to Dubai and then go nuts for a Japanese discount store, but here we are. Can’t wait to go back!!

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Wed 10 Feb 2010

More on Toilets

Posted by Heidi under dubai
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Some locals have made themselves known as readers… Now is really the time to crawl out of the woodwork if you are out there.

Initially we were baffled by the 3br-4bath setup in our new place. I grow increasingly baffled by what is the standard use of these toilets, and the ones in public places. So, some observations and questions:

1. Do people flush toilet paper here? Are we bringing eventual plumbing disasters upon ourselves if we continue our western ways?

2. Regarding the toilets at work… There is a cleaning person in there all day. The room has maybe ten individual toilets, and she literally goes in to clean the minute someone comes out. The seats are always up on these toilets. Is that because of the incessant cleaning?or some other aspect of the users’ habits that I don’t know about?

3. Also w/r/t work toilets, at break time between classes a ton of students will be in there but I never hear anyone flush. Do they use the spray hose in the stall for pee and only flush for poo? I never see pee left behind in a toilet but then, we have that cleaning lady. Everytime I flush I come out and think, they must think all I do in there is the big jobs.

4. In the work bathroom there are paper towel dispensers in the wall across from the sinks, but also always a roll of toilet paper next to each sink. Is that so you don’t drip water in the way to the paper towel? This I ask because of the omnipresence of the (non-English speaking) cleaning lady who stands there staring and making me wonder if by not using the TP I’m somehow making more work for her.

Help!

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Thu 4 Feb 2010

Five Four Three Two One

Posted by Heidi under dubai, work
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Ever get so bogged down with too many details that you don’t know which way is up? That’s about where I am at right now. It is like 99% job related. And it is making it hard for me to just slow my mind down and think about what I want to say.

I’m definitely an 8-to-5-plus wage slave now, a role I haven’t held in, um, ever. This job is far more demanding than any I’ve had in the past. Everything from taking work home at night right down to the requirement for professional dress. Did I ever wear anything “professional” at Kalamazoo College? Or even Rush? There’s no shortage of shopping options here though. I’ve already availed myself of the Mall of the Emirates H&M, which is priced similarly to the US.

My week has involved mostly campus tours, meeting all the senior administration, trying to get the framework for a university-wide records management system in place. Oh yeah, the first week! Never mind the settling in to a new home/foreign city/totally different way of life/whatever. Never mind the seriously mindboggling bureaucratic processes. Like how people keep moving boxes in and out of my work area (the same ones–not archival material by the way), and bringing me cube furniture pieces, taking them away, and just now showing up with a whole bunch of desk pieces and cabinets. What is going on??? Nobody really seems to know. Whatever. Oh and have I mentioned that although this is the archives there is no shelving. Just a big room.

I got a driving licence though. It’s good for ten years. But you have to have proof of three months’ salary before you can buy a car, so we’re just going with Rodney’s rented car for now. Public transportation is not good and although taxis are cheap, getting them to find our apartment is a hassle, and it would cost much more getting to work that way.

Today we’re getting our first taste of a sand storm (minor so far), and it’s becoming a bit warmer every day. Around lunchtime it’s probably close to 90 degrees in the sun, but by afternoon it’s back to a comfortable 75 or so and evenings are still in the 50s. We’ve been warned to test our A/C before it gets really hot. Being the first in our building means many things have never been used before, and if it’s over 100 we certainly don’t want to wait two weeks for that to be repaired.

Maeve has a new friend named Ava who lives four floors above us. She is from Nova Scotia and her birthday is only a month after Maeve’s. Her father is a reference librarian. We’re also looking at an all-girls American school for Maeve that is nearby, for preschool this fall. It is probably twice as much as the Kazoo School at home, but children’s tuition is one of the perks of my job.

On the weekend… Sharjah Discovery Centre with all sorts of stuff to do. Also buying a TV and braving the main post office to pick up some packages. If you want to send anything to me, leave a comment because it’s quite an ordeal getting it delivered directly to us.

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Tue 26 Jan 2010

Settling

Posted by Heidi under dubai, moving
[6] Comments

First post from the new homeland. Internet time is 1 dirham a minute in the hotel business centre so here are some highlights:

  • My university’s campus is beautiful. Really really beautiful, with all these tiled blue water pools everywhere, palm trees in the courtyard, etc.
  • They have rat and snake traps by all the back doors. Apparently scorpions can be a problem too.
  • The food here is great. If it’s not awesome middle eastern fare, it’s European. But they do have things like Outback Steakhouse and Krispy Kreme too. Of course that’s the stuff we wanted to get away from, so bring on the hummus and all the tasty salads.
  • We are the first people to live in our apartment, which is in a building known as “White Apartments.” I don’t think this designates the breed of people who live in it. It looks like a boring office building but the layout inside is totally spacious and it seems quiet. We have a view of the pretty Emirates compound which is a block of townhouses built for the Emirates Air pilots. In the middle of that is a little grocery, book shop, cafe, etc. all in walkable distance.
  • Jet lag sucks.
  • We spent a big pile at IKEA last night, approximately 1/3 of the pile of cash they gave us for furnishing the apartment. We got a bed for us, a sofa with hide-a-bed, a table, a desk, chairs, and some other stuff. We also had to buy another dishwasher. This seems to be the trend for us any time we move. At least it was only about $300, and everything here comes with free delivery and installation.
  • Getting the kitchen gas hooked up is turning into a problem. I called the main office, who told me to call the delivery agent because he didn’t know where our building is. The delivery agent couldn’t understand what I was saying and told me to call the main office. Lather, rinse, repeat. So, we will be picking up an electric toaster oven the day we move in so we can at least warm things up until this is sorted out.
  • Didn’t unlock my iPhone before we left, which is a crucial thing to being able to get service on a local carrier. I can’t do this without connecting it the internet, I think, and since the home computer is still packed up, and we can’t get home internet service until my residence visa is done (2-3 weeks) we’re kind of in limbo with telephones.
  • There are three nights left in our cozy hotel. Have I said the food is great here? The restaurant Zaytoun has a swell breakfast buffet. Maeve especially likes the tiny individual Bonne Maman jam jars so we’re building up a stockpile to take to the apartment.
  • Today I’m shopping for work clothes. The mode here is definitely more professional than what I was used to before (or at least what I was willing to do, with a small kid who had a tendency to smear snot or cream cheese on me consistently). I am going to go to H&M in the Emirates Mall. My orientation group goes there together today, and then we also are going to ride around on the new Metro trains.
  • If Dubai is to Chicago, then Silicon Oasis (our neighborhood/district/whatever) is to Schaumburg. Except the major stores are in the city and where we are includes mostly residences, a few offices, those few small shops, plus a ton of half-done construction.
  • Silicon Oasis was apparently modeled after Silicon Valley (duh) but the tech firms have not exactly been lured out there yet.
  • My new office is going to be in the Tech Services space, which is separate from the main library. I’m excited about sharing workspace with other people regularly. I haven’t seen it yet but I have a week of on-campus orientation coming up.
  • There is a full-service hair salon and spa ON CAMPUS.

I think that’s all for now. I must run to meet my orientation group–two nice German women, a Moroccan-American, and a man from Quebec, all faculty, and all really nice.

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Tue 19 Jan 2010

Finished

Posted by Heidi under moving
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Last night we wrapped up the last of the home emptying. It was a LOT of work made somewhat easier by the facts that family are still around to deal with anything (like selling it), and I have hired someone to thoroughly clean it for us.

Bye little house

For the last several days, my small camera has been missing in the heaps of pack/store/donate/give away that consumed practically every room. It was for the best, maybe, because everything was so torn up and it was not a very comfortable time. And one of the problems in that house all along has been the lack of natural light. Who really wants to see or remember this crazy final time in the house, especially with bad exposure in winter-gray light? Not me so much. I would rather think about how so many friends from a cross section of our lives made it to the “housecolding” weekend to sit around and talk, tell us they’ll miss us, and wish us well.

I am not too sentimental about the house, but I certainly am about the life that went with it.

For the next couple days we stay with my parents and re-sort all of the packed things for our move. I dread this–I am so over organizing things at the moment–but we have to get our bags under 50 lb unless we want to pay Delta a billion dollars.

Then a couple days in Detroit with Rodney’s parents, with a highlight being dinner at the Lord Fox for Beef Wellington and flaming desserts. Maybe a trip to the bookstore for some plane magazines and books, if we have room.

Friday, we are on the plane. FRIDAY!!!

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Thu 7 Jan 2010

Flushability

Posted by Heidi under apartment, dubai, moving
1 Comment

Here is a direct quote from my new HR office, about our apartment:

The place where you have been assigned is a 3 bedrom apartment – Apt. 112. The building is a low rise building and it’s about 5 minutes to [employer] so short commute! There are about 7 [employer] families housed in the apts. so there is opportunity to carpool. I have met most of these families and three of them have girls about your daughter’s age – 2 of them go to Bradenton Academy for pre-school which is about a 15-20 minute drive but it is pricier than other schools.

Each bedroom has a bathroom plus there is a separate powder room. There is one room with space for family room and dining area. The kitchen has a little space for an eating area. All rooms have decent sized windows.

After you live in a place for a while, the tiny flaws you missed when deciding to live there in the first place become obvious. Our current house, for example, is very short on southern-facing windows. With all the dark wood and furniture there is never enough light for good photography. Pictures of Maeve opening gifts on a dark xmas morning always turn out like crap. It’s hard to get nice shots of craft items. When we moved in, I thought, the house has no A/C, it will be cooler in the summer, and that trumped my need for craft photography. But then a year later we put in central air. I have known for a while now that wherever we move next would need to have better natural light AND air conditioning. We will have that in Dubai.

However, I never thought more than 1-2 bathrooms would be necessary for us. I’m sure part of the reason for the excessive bathroomery is the gender division in the UAE. Rodney doesn’t tend to make a mess in the bathroom so I have never been bothered by sharing with him. Also, when it is common for middle class and up to have domestic help, I guess it makes sense to have a ton of toilets to clean. I wonder if that means three or four bidets too. Yay bidets!!

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Mon 4 Jan 2010

And a home

Posted by Heidi under dubai
[3] Comments

So, they’ve put us in Silicon Oasis. This is only 5 minutes from my work, which is very good since the commutes around Dubai can be nothing short of awful. But I do have some concerns about things to do there. At least there are apparently a pool and gym in the area, but not so many things as in other districts like a movie theater, older town center, etc. I read about a park that has play equipment and nice paths, but one key problem is the fact that men are restricted Sunday through Thursday, effectively meaning Rodney can’t take Maeve there during the work week. I wonder how much he will struggle with ways to keep her entertained.

They will probably be the ones with the car (we plan to just have one). Of course I am paranoid about the high rate of accidents, and the safety of my small child. No car seat laws–but we’re taking one.

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