Kalamazoo to Dubai

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.

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.

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!!!

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!!

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.