Early Birthday and Ramadan!

I board a plane heading back to the US in T minus 8 hours (to the minute ironically). I've had a great day today because I'm surrounded by such loving and caring people here in Abu Dhabi. With my Birthday just 2 days away, I found two puppy stuffed animals and a card from my great friend/roomie/coworker waiting on my bed after I got out of the shower this morning. These should make it a little easier to sleep at night without my Chloe.

Today is also the first day of Ramadan, which to me means reduced hour work days and not eating or drinking in public while being sensitive to those who are fasting during the day time. My wonderful coworkers also served me with chocolate cake. More would have been in attendance but I hear it isn't much fun when you are fasting and watching others enjoy some chocolate cake. Weird! Bless Rasha's heart, she walked in with it and watched the rest of us eat it. I admire your will power, Ms. Rasha! I on the other hand have chosen to fast at nightime and pig out during the day, :) Rasha also gave me a new shirt and necklace (she knows that I have been trying harder to accessorize.) Tonight we will go celebrate at Benihana's. Yum!

I also have some other news. I have been extended an offer to stay in Abu Dhabi for a year or more. So my trip home is now more of a vacation away from home I guess. I have decided to accept and will be here at least until December 2011. This is all possible and bearable with the help of Jennifer and Rasha! We keep sane together in this heat.

Overall a great day and a great way to pass my time before I catch my flight. I will miss you girls for the two weeks that I'm gone!

Al Ain Weekend and The Need to Know Arabic Part 1

I just got back from a weekend trip to relax and checkout the nearby City of Al Ain, UAE. Jennifer, my friend/coworker/roomate, and I planned a couple days away to explore the Zoo and take a quick drive across the Oman border to extend our entrance date into UAE.

Friday was quite uneventful. We left Abu Dhabi at about 10 and arrived in Al Ain at noon to check in to our hotel. Abu Dhabi is a city in UAE and is also one of the 7 emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. Al Ain is in the Abu Dhabi Emirate so it is not too far away but the pool made a good excuse to get away and take advantage of the hotel amenities which I think we managed to do quite nicely.

First impressions of Al Ain from a traffic signal engineer's point of view....the traffic signal left-turn arrow displays are inverted and the mastarms are placed on the wrong side of the road so when you sit at an intersection, the signal heads are above you not in front of you.

Well now that I got work observations out of the way, I can enjoy my mini vacation...








Upon arrival at the Rotana Hotel (a huge hotel chain in the Middle East), we were greeted outside of the lobby by the gentlemen at the hotel yelling "Madams, Don't be silly. Put your luggage down. This is our job!" At this point I've come to the conclusion that this is the start to a fabulous weekend!

A coworker is out of town and let us borrow his Rotana card which we waved around the whole weekend to reap tons of the benefits and discounts. We first presented this card at the lobby and received an upgraded room. I'm not sure what our room would have looked like had we not presented that card but we arrived to a room with a huge deck! While exploring the room and the wonderful assortment of miniature liquor bottles in our mini fridge (It's been a while since we actually had the control to drink whenever we felt like it), our luggage arrived. The bellboy entered and asked if he could show us what was available to the review. We said "Sure." He started with the TV and the remote, found us some English speaking channels. He showed us the huge balcony then proceeded to the night stand. He opened the drawer and said "Here is a prayer rug" realizing who he was talking to and closed it before he had practically opened it, and said under his breath "This is for the Muslims." Then he proceeded to the Mini bar (which we had already toured for ourselves ;) ). The TV was still on the channel that the he earlier left it on and Jennifer and I heard a very familiar word at the same time and looked at eachother. Hoquiam! Only Pacific Northwesterners would know where the hell this was! It was a show about logging aired all the way on the otherside of the world! The bellboy didn't notice a thing and had no clue why we both repeated the word and went on with the tour like nothing ever happenned. He showed us where the robes and slippers were, showed us to keep the lights on we must place our key into the switch. He showed us the fancy phone with the buttons that you push to tell the maid help to not disturb. This was the life!

Our first stop...the pool of course. We jumped into our swim suits and located the pool. We found a couple of chairs and as we started to place our towels on the chairs, the pool boy ran over with a couple of comfy chair covers. We sat to relax and one of the bartenders brought around fresh fruit on a stick. So refreshing! Then another bartender walked around with ice cold wash clothes. Again, so refreshing! Another bartender walked around to take drink orders. We ordered a couple of Gin and Tonics. One more time, So refreshing! We were on our way to relaxing. The heat occasionally became a bit too much but the chilled pool was only steps away. The pool bar came in rather handy also! The pina coladas weren't the best to my normal standards but my 'haven't had very many drinks over the past couple of month' standards said it was excellent! ;)

We have been to so many malls since in the UAE that it was time to head out. I beleive that I've been to about 12 malls in this country. Malling is a common pastime because there is not much you can do outdoors in the Summer time.

This leads me to talk about our next stop...the Zoo! I know what you must be thinking...are you crazy, the Zoo, it's 110+ degrees out. We thought the same but an article in the Abu Dhabi Weekly had me thinking differently. The Al Ain Zoo which is a sister zoo to one of my all time favorites, the San Diego Zoo, is opened from 4pm to midnight. You must wait for the sun to go down to see any of the animals doing anything other than laying in the miserable heat! We arrived at the Zoo at about 7:30 when the sun was down. It was then that I realized what a poor idea this really was. The cost was only about 15 dirhams ($5USD) to get in. Animals in the light are sometimes difficult to locate but animals in the dark are impossible. Oh and I did manage to snap a few photos. Check em out!

If you would like copies of these, please let me know. So going to the zoo at night was not the 'brightest' idea...literally. ;) I did manage to snap a few photos that kinda sorta showed up. Please don't ask for copies they just appear to be too good to be handing out to everyone.

The highlight of the zoo was the bird show in Arabic. Birds are cool and everything but a bird show in Arabic is not worth attending. Jennifer had to remind me that we are in their country as if I had almost forgotten. Next time, I'll go during the winter and find a translator to take with me! ;) Or better yet, it's time I learn some Arabic.

After the Zoo it was late and we were hungry. We made it back to the hotel and dined at a restaurant called Zest. It was a buffet to feed a king and we tried it all! I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures but there was food stacked on other food as if another plate was hard to come by or something.

We planned on going to Trader Vics but after dinner we were too full to consume anything else, so we called it a night.

No thanks to my alarm going off at 6:30am, we were able to make it to the pool bright and early. We made up for the alcohol-free night before and drank a Bloody Mary while relaxing by the pool. It was here that we met a 22 year old young local Emirati lady. She had some interesting views on a young muslim woman's life. She was definately not the most strict Muslim woman and had some very strong views. She believes that many of the women that marry at 18 or 19 go crazy because they didn't experience much of their young adult lives. So she has decided to spend her young adult life having fun and being free until, as she put it, she gets married and goes crazy. We exchanged numbers and business cards and we are hoping that this local Emirati can show us the ropes. She will be an interesting young friend to have as she is definately not the norm.

We then headed up to the room and got ready to head to Oman for our re-entrance visas. Stay tuned for my next blog about that.

Lamb

This is an advertisement from the grocery store near my apartment. Doesn't the picture really make you want to go buy a lamb?

Bon Appetit

About a month ago I was eating lamb chops at the food court in the mall and watched two guys both delivering a package which was held on their shoulders. They walked right through the front door of the mall and up 3 flights of escalators with these packages. I took a closer look and noticed 4 hooves hanging out the back side of each package. I felt a little guilty for ordering the restaurant's last order of lamb chops. Maybe I wouldn't have felt so responsible for them having to order a couple whole lambs to restock their supply. :(

An Emirati Wedding

The PR guy, Abdullah, who works on getting work visas for the Transpo Group invited myself, Jennifer, May (Hicham, the Principal's wife) and May's daughter, Eman to his wedding celebration. I have seen him about three times and only for very short amount of time so we felt very privileged that he asked us to attend this occasion. We arrived home at 1 last night and this was like nothing I've ever experienced before. Truly a fabulous honor and experience to have attended.

The gulf wedding celebration is held on 3 separate days. The first day, about a week ago when the contract is decided on and the marriage becomes official via Islamic Law. The second day is the men's celebration in which the guys in my office attended on Thursday night. The third day in which we attended was the women's celebration.

We did our research and read random strangers' blogs to try to prepare ourselves for what to wear and what to expect. There are no photos on the web only descriptions of what may happen. For the majority of the party only women were present so the Muslim women are in their ball gowns and out of there Abayas with their beautiful bodies and faces showing. Out of respect for their religious views, no photos were taken and I will have to describe what I experienced last night. I've placed photos that I've found on the internet that closely resemble some of the dresses that were witnessed although the dresses seen in person seem to have been more elaborate and exotic in colors and embellishments.

The event was held at the Ball Room at the Beach Rotana Hotel in the Tourist Club Area. The four of us girls exited the cab and entered a large room just outside of the Ball Room at about 9:30pm for the 9:00pm start time (Fashionably late). We saw ahead of us about 20 beautiful women in the most extravagant gowns I have ever seen in person lined up along both sides of the door. With no men present, May at this time felt it comfortable to remove her scarf from her head. Thank goodness she was here because she speaks and reads Arabic and confirmed that the sign outside the door was in fact for Abdullah's wedding. As we approached the women, May explained to the women greeting us that we were invited by Abdullah and worked with him. I followed May's lead and greeted each women by kissing first their left cheek and then the right. (In the weeks past, May has been saying good bye to me in this manner after helping her and her family get moved and settled into their new home. The last time she went to say goodbye, I first leaned on the right side not knowing any better and she went to my left which almost resulted in a kiss to the lips so she explained to me that you kiss to the left first. So glad that I learned my lesson before this night.)

Abdullah's sister was very quick to welcome us when she heard that he was who we knew. She asked us to follow her and she will show us to our seats. We entered the ball room and there was about 30 tables with half mannequin centerpieces decorated in flowers and feathers. This room was packed with about 350 guests. We walked along a red and gold carpet that lead from the back of the room to the front where there was a T-shaped stage. We started to get confused as she lead us all the way to the front right next to the stage. We had the best seats in the house. We were convinced that they would soon realize the mistake that they made by seating us here and we would soon be escorted to

the back but instead was treated like royalty throughout the night.

As we sat at our table, we were quickly greeted by Turkish coffee servers in a gold gown. Our empty glass was soon filled with water and our plate with hummus, tabbouleh and flat bread. Everything was happening before we could blink and it was difficult to eat the food before the next appetizer arrived but we managed somehow. :) The table was already set with Moutabel (an eggplant like hummus), potato salad, fattoush, tomato based eggplant, cheese filled pastries, and kibby appetizers. Then we were greeted by a plate of lightly sweetened syrup donut holes that could throw you off if you were expecting sweet and sour meatballs (like me). They spooned up Omani Sweets, which is like a date sticky pudding, onto our plate.

Note: This may be a long blog because I'm about 5 minutes into our night at this point.

There was definitely no shortage of food or non-alcoholic drinks at this party. We drank Turkish coffee, ginger flavored hot tea, apple juice, orange juice, tapioca hot tea, a cardamom flavored tea ... on to total about 10 unique drinks. Each drink served from a gold carafe held by a women and a tray with gold cups and saucers held by her assistant who followed closely behind. I noticed about 3 date and treat trays throughout the night completely covering the 3ft x 4ft tray that was beneath.

A bowl of smoking incense made it over to our table. We used our hands to wave the smoke to get a whiff. Then a bottle of pure perfume oil was brought over and we used the glass stick to place the wonderful smelling oil onto our wrists.

The T-shaped stage in front of us had a back drop of turquoise and gold with a red and gold fancy sofa couch in the center. About 20 of the guests danced on top of the stage throughout most of the night. I have never seen so many sequences, jewels, appliques and bright colors before. I would have felt under dressed wearing an old prom dress to this event. This was a completely different level of sophistication. They wore makeup heavier than I have ever seen. Many of the women had henna decorated hands and arms and hair extensions. They were having a great time dancing. These were the most beautiful women I have ever seen with their large brown Arabian eyes and beautiful faces. Absolutely gorgeous and to see them without their veils was truly a honor to me.

Throughout the night, Abdullah's family members approached us one by one to say hello. His very friendly cousin and her daughter who had just arrived from England was very nice and inviting. She asked us to join her in dancing. At first, my shy side said no but I felt this would be insulting to such kind and generous people. Jennifer and I got up and attempted to move our hips in the same smooth motion that these Arab women so successfully mastered. A few more gulf weddings and Jennifer and I will learn these moves. We were in fact the only 2 blonds out of the large room of about 350 women so I'm sure all eyes were on us. After the song ended, we quickly sat at our tables. When you dance at a wedding like this, you are dedicating your dance to the new marriage so the groom (not here at this celebration) heard that we danced and was very thankful for it.

Abdullah's cousin kept pointing out and introducing us to other sister's of Abdullah and his mom. I leaned over and said "Wow, how many siblings does Abdullah have?" She counted on her fingers and thought in her head and whispered to me "There are 11 kids." I leaned over to May and said "I can't believe that his mom looks so great after 11 kids." She leaned over to me and said "she is probably not his dad's only wife." :)

With the exception of the young boys (under age 6) running around, there were no other men present. The two camera women (although one's gender questioned) took photos throughout the night of the bride. When other women posed for a picture with the bride, they covered up their hair with their scarves. A band played throughout the night never to be seen as they were located behind the scenes somewhere.

About an hour and a half into the event and the bride finally made her appearance. It took her about 15 minutes to make her way down the aisle and up to the stage. Her dress was very long and looked very heavy. Every forward step she made and someone had to drag the dress forward so she wouldn't step on and trip over it. Her dress was white and red and full of schwartzki crystals. The camera followed her along as she slowly approached the stage.

Once she made it to the stage, the photographers continued to take photos of her for the next hour at least. While she was being photographed, the dinner plates arrived at our table. Served to us was Mixed Grills (beef, chicken, and lamb), lasagna, tortellini, baked eggplant, and many other dishes.

As we were eating, a beautiful woman who had been dancing on the stage most of the night came up to us with a bag full of gifts. She said "Abdullah's sister told me to pass out gifts but start with the girls over there. They are very special guests." So she reached into the bags and gave each of us her favorite smelling perfumes. They were so welcoming to us. :)

Not long after we finished eating, a plate of chocolate cake, baklava and other sweets arrived for us to snack on (as if we weren't full enough). An Arabic song started to play in the background. Small laughs and giggles throughout the crowd could be heard and May translated the Arabic to English for us. She said that he is coming now. They are singing "Is that the sun I see? It's so bright. Oh wait, that's not the sun...It's Abdullah coming." Apparently, it was a poem that was written and sang for this event only. All the women started putting their scarves and abayas back on. You find yourself looking to see him coming over and over again. This probably lasted about 30 minutes before he actually walked into the ballroom. His pace closely resembled that of the bride. He took about 15 minutes before he made it to the stage where his bride awaits. I kept glancing up at her only once making eye contact and sending a smile her way. She was once overwhelmed with the attention of photographers, friends and family members and now stood looking very lonely. As the groom approached I was interested in noticing that she never really looked at him and he never really did the same. It was at this point that I was sure that this was an arranged marriage. When the groom arrived on the stage, his father and her father stood beside and the man marrying them talked for about 5 minutes in Arabic. May again translated that he talked about what great families that the bride and groom both come from. As they stood side by side (never touching or holding hands) photos were taken of the bride, groom and the fathers. At one point Abdullah leaned over and whispered something to his new bride and both smiled at each other and this gave me a sense of relief that this marriage can and will work.

The time was about 1am and our bodies couldn't handle any more food. Maybe the next Gulf wedding I attend, I will be sure to save room for the cake and see how their cake cutting compares to what I'm used to. We tried to sneak out which is rather difficult from the head table but others were leaving "early" too. I wished to congratulate Abdullah but nothing was moving super fast so I'll send my best wishes the next time I see him.

Truly an amazing evening that I will remember always. Thank you and congratulations to Abdullah and his beautiful new bride!

You know it's HOT when....

To all of my friends experiencing the "heat wave" in Seattle. I would spend all day commenting on your facebook posts so I decided this would be a better use of my time. :)

You know it's hot when.....wall paper peels off the wall near windows.

You know it's hot when........birds open their mouths.

You know it's hot when.......parking lots are covered.

You know it's hot when......bus shelters are air conditioned.

You know it's hot when......you add 30 degrees onto the 90 degrees that you are complaining about. :)

Abu Dhabi Initiation

The Abu Dhabi Initiation - Drink camel's milk upon arrival. CHECK. Let's just say I'll be sticking with cow's milk from now on .... :)

The Maid

The hardest thing for me to get used to while in the UAE is that typically your nationality determines the class you are in and the type of work that you will do. You typically see the Pakistanians driving taxis, the Indians as construction workers, and the Phillipino ladies as maids. The money to me doesn't seem like much but to them, they are able to get sponsored to come here, sign a 2-3 year contract to work and save money. Maybe they are played plenty compared to where they are coming from and what they would ave made if they stayed in their home countries.

Today I went with a friend who recently moved here to go to an agency to pick a maid to come live with her. She had two to choose from and has a 1 week trial period to see if she is the right fit. The maid will make $200/month and will work for 2 years before she can return to the Phillipines for vacation or to return home for good. The "owner" pays the agency and keeps her passport hidden away so she can't leave the country before her contract is up. The "owner" accepts the liability that if the maid runs, the "owner" will pay the agency a fine.

When we were leaving the agency, the man working htere turned to her and said "Be good, do as you are asked, and don't go outside."

The maid that was chosen speaks very little english. We asked her about her education and she said she stopped school in 6th grade. She is now 37. Her passport says that she entered the UAE in April. We assumed this meant that she has been returned after her weekly trial period. The "owner" asked her about this and she said that she was with a lady that would beat her so she escaped and went back to the agency. I'm told that it happens that they will not be treated well. At least I know now she is in a better home.

At the grocery stores and malls you often see a mom shopping with her children and a maid following behind with the bags. I recently read an article written by a maid about how much she enjoyed her job. It gave me a different perspective and not all of them are as unhappy as you think they would be. Most are treated like a member of the family (maybe like the step child though doing all the chores.)

It is all still a little strange to me. ..

Note: I used the term "owner" for lack of a better word. This isn't meant to offend but instead give a clear picture of what things are like here.

The Grand Mosque

Last Saturday, I visited the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nayhan Mosque (Grand Mosque) in Abu Dhabi. The design and layout took 10 years to complete. The construction began in the late 90's and the mosque is still under construction in areas. The archtectural details were absolutely amazing. The artisans and materials are from Italy, Morocco, Germany, India, Turkey, Iran, China, Greece and the UAE. The mosque site is the size of 5 football fields and can accomodate approx. 41,000 worshippers. There are 28 different types of marble used as details throughout. The main prayer hall houses the largest chandelier in the world. (It wouldn't be in the UAE if they didn't try to make something the biggest or tallest in the world. :) Which leads me to write about the carpet in the main prayer hall. It is the larest hand-knotted carpet in the world. It was made by 1,200 artisans in small villages in Iran where they are known for their carpet making expertise . The artisans were flown to Abu Dhabi for the final stitching and fitting. The carpet is valued at $8.2 million and consists of 2, 268,000 knots. The Qibla, facing towards the holy city of Mecca, is 75ft high and 50ft wide and is subtly decorated so that it doesn't distract worshippers from prayer.


Words can't posibly describe the amazingly beautiful details, so I will let the pictures show off the details.

Driving and Parking

Earlier this week, I got my first oppurtunity to drive in this crazy city. Manuel is in the process of getting his visa so they took his driver's license to process the paper work. Rose and Dan needed a ride to the airport. Did I do good? Depends on who you ask. ;-)

Within two minutes behind the wheel in the same block that we live, I got in a traffic jam that lasted about 3 minutes. I had to sit and wait while everyone around me laid on their horns. I figure it wasn't helping so I chose to not to add to the ruckus.

I made it out onto the big street and realized that we needed gas. In Abu dhabi, there is only one gas station company. So we went to one of their many stations. It was so crowded that the line to get in backed onto the main road. I had to do some tight maneuvers to make it to a gas pump. In the process, my back seat drivers had no faith in my maneuvering skills and I received a scream from Rose and a "Watch out! Watch out!" from Dan. I wasn't even close to that other car. They made me so nervous, that the rest of the trip they tried to rebuild my confidence level by telling me what a truly great driver I was. :)

In the end, I got them to the airport in one piece. :)

The driving here is very chaotic though. I refuse to drive in the fast lane because in the blink of an eye, people will fly up behind you and I honestly don't think they will wait for you to move out of the way. In AD lane lines are like guidelines, they are treated as optional which makes driving very....interesting.

There is very little police enforcement so people drive at their own speed. They have speed cameras that are not discreet so the drivers speed between them and drive the speed limit near the cameras. Most intersections have red light cameras.

The parking is also horrible. If you can't find a spot, you make one on a centerline or in an intersection. Take a look at the pictures I've taken from outside my apartment.

Prayer Day

Today I experienced and observed my first Friday Prayer Day since I've been in Abu Dhabi. I really didn't know what to expect, I just knew from what others have told me that people will line up outside the Mosque. So I specifically chose to stay in today so I could see what Friday Prayers is all about. Once I heard the call to prayer, I hurried over to the window with my camera in hand. I thought wow this is what they meant by people lining up outside the Mosque. There were about 2o people outside (and many more people inside, notice all the shoes sitting on the steps.)....
















Then there were 100...
















Everytime I went to my window there were more and more people showing up to pray....
















And then I saw what everyone was actually telling me about. Forget all the pictures that I took prematurely. This is what it was all about. There form was amazing. It was like watching synchronized swimming. I'm glad I stayed inside today to watch this for this was quite interesting to watch.

























And just like that, it was over and there was no synchronization about it! Everyone scattered in all different directions.