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.

Emirates National Auto Museum

Today I went to the Emirates National Auto Museum which is located about an hour south of Abu Dhabi. "Operation Sight a Camel" was unfortunatly a failure but I did get to see some pretty cool cars. The museum contained the car collection of Sheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan a member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family. He has one of the largest car collections in the world with 200+ cars all customized to suit his preferences and has opened up a museum to display his collection to the public. Included in his collection is a motor home in the shape of the earth which is scaled to 1 millionth of the actual size of earth.

He has the world's largest truck which is scaled to 8 times the size of a Dodge Power Wagon. Inside is a complete 4-bedroom house. Note the vehicles parked under the truck. We made small talk with the guy at the door and he opened up the door (at about the same place as the oil pan ;) ) to the truck so we could take a look inside.

Many of the cars are painted with a rainbow and he has 7 mercedes each painted a different color (colour - depending on which country you are in) of the rainbow so he could drive a different color car every day of the week.

His collection specializes in 4x4 offroad type vehicles. My favorites of course...the sparkly one and the zebra one!

He even had one that had tubes running to each of the tires of the vehicle so when he was done off roading in the sand dunes, he could pump the tires back up at the flip of a switch.

This Mini is for you Jennifer. :)

Which car shall I drive today?
Oh to be a Sheikh.....