More Dubai random thoughts:
· All the public restrooms have what appear to be vegetable sprayers next to the bathrooms in lieu of bidets. Sometimes when you go into public restrooms they are completely wet all over and I wonder WHAT IN THE WORLD they do with those things in there!?!?!?
· Had to talk to Dubai Electric and Water Authority (DEWA) about getting our power turned on today. I found out that talking to customer service people in Dubai is no different than in the USA...they're ALL Indian.
· When you go into a restaurant as a couple they address you as "Ma'am-Sir" it's not "how are you?" "It's how are you this evening Ma'am-Sir?" "Thank you Ma'am-Sir." Hysterical!!
· I probably mentioned this earlier but they do not sell Alcohol in most restaurants. Only in hotel restaurants. Very unfortunate!
· Mitchell told me today that I drive like a Taxi driver. Not sure if that was a compliment!
· Many of the escalators here are motion activated. You walk up to them and it looks like they're off and then they start up right as you're about to start "walking up the stairs." Freaked me out the first time it happened!
· I eventually want to drive somewhere WITHOUT getting lost!
· I realized why most women here don't wear open toed shoes...it's not for modesty, it's so you don't get sand in your shoes!
· Canned soda has the old style pull tabs that come completely off. Very retro!
· Root beer is sold with the non-alcoholic beers at the grocery stores, not with other soft drinks.
· We didn't have an ice maker in our short-stay apartment and had to use the manual fill up ice trays. Mitchell had NEVER seen one of those and wondered what it was. It's so funny the things we totally take for granted.
· There are more luxury cars here than I've ever seen...Maseratis, Ferraris, Porsches, Bentleys, Lamborghinis, Land Rovers, Hummers, and the list goes on and on!
· There are vending machines that sell souvenir gold bars at the Burj Khalifa! Vending machines...for gold bars!!! We'll take 2, thanks!
· Mosques have loud speakers that play music and announce a call to prayer many times a day. We have seen busses of workers stopped alongside the road on the freeway during rush hour traffic with people outside the bus with their prayer mats praying...yes...on the FREEWAY...during rush hour!
· Mall food courts have GREAT food but it's not fast. Most times you have to wait 7 - 10 minutes to get your food even at KFC. If you don't come right away when it's ready, they have a "clacker" they shake to get your attention!
· After you're finished eating at the mall food courts, you leave your dirty trays right on the table and mall workers clean up after you. We're going to be so LAZY when we get home!
· Many of the people here appear rude, but I think they're just very self-centered. They will cut in front of you in line and just randomly stop walking in the mall and we have almost run some people over because we didn't expect them to stop. There are no "rules for walking" in the mall it's every man, woman and child for themselves!
February 4 - 5, 2011 - Shopping for household items.
Can I start this portion of the blog by saying...I HATE SHOPPING!!!! I never really liked it that much in Houston but it was easy because I knew which stores sold what and I could go, run in, buy what I needed and leave. Here, I don't know which stores I need to shop at for what things. Most all the stores are in the mall so you have to deal with the "mall madness" as I have deemed it to buy just about anything! I would KILL to have a Target here...that WASN'T attached to a MALL!
We decided to go out Friday morning to IKEA to buy as much as we could find there. Amazingly I was able to direct Chad to the mall without getting lost (no, not once!) We tried to find parking close to IKEA but really weren't sure because the roads and parking around the mall were confusing as can be. We parked, found IKEA and started our mission! About 2 ½ hours and two FULL carts later we were on our way...but to where? Where was the car? How were we going to get our shopping carts to the car? Luckily it's commonplace to push shopping carts from any store all over the mall and leave them wherever you want. So, we did like the natives and pushed our IKEA shopping cars to a completely different section of the mall, found a working elevator and amazingly found our car. (They do also have escalator type conveyors that will take you and your shopping cars from floor to floor in the malls. Pretty cool!) THEN came the tricky part of fitting two cartfuls of stuff into a mid-sized Chevy 4-door rental AND fit us in too! Luckily we managed and then headed to the food court for lunch... by this point we were all hungry and GRUMPY!!!
As luck would have it, Jim Tarum, his wife and their Dubai kids (his housekeeper and her husband) happened to be at the same mall that day. We called them and met up with them and they agreed to haul back some other things for us that we still needed to buy (all of our small kitchen appliances, towels, DVD player, etc.) We went our separate ways and filled up yet ANOTHER cartful of "stuff" for our new place. We met up with them and they passed their housekeeper's husband their car keys and we gave him our cart and they were off to unload our stuff into Jim's Expedition. We headed home and a few hours later they all arrived at our apartment to deliver our purchases. With all 6 of us carrying all we could manage, we were able to bring all our purchases up in one trip! They also brought us a housewarming gift of three bottles of red wine, two six packs of beer, some crackers and brie! They are a complete GODSEND!!!
We headed out to another mall later that evening where we stocked up on hangers and some food staples. We spent the night at our short-stay for the last night because we still weren't settled enough in the new place for sleeping (no sheets on the beds, no towels, etc.)
We were out of the old place and into the new by 9am Saturday morning because we were told that the cable/internet/phone company (Du) would be coming to install our service at that time. We worked getting things put away while we waited for the Du service rep that never did show up. While we were getting settled, we found the "king" sheets we purchased didn't fit our king bed. Luckily they fit Mitchell's queen sized bed because the sheets we bought for Mitchell's bed were WAY too small for it. Also, the only sheets we could find were 180 thread count and they feel like sandpaper!
We found out that Jim's housekeeper's husband (Gihan) also cleans and was willing and able to come clean for us on Sunday and Thursday afternoons. Jim's wife was nice enough to take them shopping for the cleaning supplies they wanted to clean our house. She bought them all and I picked up the supplies later in the afternoon and paid her back...have I mentioned how AMAZING and HELPFUL they have been!?!?!? On a side note, I got to and from their house and to the gas station WITHOUT getting lost...not once! As for buying gas, all the stations are full service and you can only pay cash! It's hard to find a gas station without a HUGE line. I think it took me about 15 minutes to buy gas.
About 11:30 am we were off to shop some more for new sheets and patio furniture. We found some nice patio furniture at Ace Hardware. We found a nice set of 400 thread count sheets for our bed and a dressing table for me since I can't dry my hair in the bathroom. That's going to work out GREAT! We finally got back to our place by about 5PM...enough shopping for a lifetime!
Luckily I had made an appointment at a nail salon on the street in front of our building for a mani-pedi!! It was wonderful!!! When they started working on me one of the ladies asked if I wanted a shoulder, neck and scalp massage too. DUH!!!! Of course! Have any other stupid questions?!?!? I felt like a princess as the three ladies pampered me! That was JUST what the doctor ordered! A little over an hour later, I was relaxed, refreshed and had almost forgotten about the shopping nightmare I had been living the previous two days!
We went out to dinner that evening and Mitchell ordered hot chocolate to drink with his meal. They brought out a tall clear-glass glass with chocolate chips in the bottom and a teapot full of steamed milk. We poured the hot milk over the chocolate chips and stirred it up. It was like drinking heaven!!! (Of course, I had to test it to make sure it wasn't too hot! I'm a giver!)
Sunday, February 6th
I couldn't wait to get back to work today because the weekend wore me out!!! I actually made it to and from work today without taking any wrong turns or detours! Yippeee!!!
Chad has been absolutely amazing! He's been getting up with us and cooking us breakfast. He's been working to get the apartment organized during the day and cooked us a delicious meal for dinner tonight. About the only things left to unpack are more of my clothes and some things from the air shipment that arrived today. It's slowly but surely going to start feeling like home!
Gihan came over to clean this afternoon. Umali (Jim's housekeeper) ended up coming over to help. They did some laundry and cleaned the kitchen and all the bathrooms. I think we're going to get VERY used to this VERY quickly!
February 7, 2011
Mitchell's teacher has the kids write down their homework assignments each day to bring home. There was one item on his list last night that we didn't understand because he had forgotten to bring his spelling words home. I sent the teacher an e-mail this morning to ask about that and also inquired about his behavior. His teacher's response is below:
"Mitchell has been behaving very nicely in school! His show and tell today was wonderful too :-) No one has ever brought in a book with lots of detail because we are talking about detail in our writing! Wow!"
I guess they have been teaching the kids about writing at school and how very good writers use lots of detail and descriptive words to help the reader understand. He kept talking about the detail in a book we were reading because of what he learned at school. He decided all by himself that he wanted to bring that book to school for show and tell today because of all the detail. Already brown-nosing the teacher!!! He IS his father's son! Ha!
February 13, 2011
Well, another week has come and gone here in Dubai. We're slowly but surely finding our way around AKA getting lost less and less! My job is going well. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing, who I should be working with and what in the HECK I've gotten myself into! Luckily I have wonderful co-workers who are answering all my questions like "How in world do I make phone calls to other countries?" and "Where are the paperclips?" It's the little things that count! Our company is still not officially formed so we're quickly running out of time on our 30 day visa. I've conveniently had to schedule a business trip to Belgium from February 20th to 24th so my visa will be renewed for another 30 days upon my return. Our runner at the office will take Chad & Mitchell's passports and get them extended for another 30 days (sorry Sucka's...I get Belgium...you get NOTHIN'!)
Mitchell is loving school and seems to be doing well, other than he has a homework folder FROM HELL that is giving us (mostly Chad) FITS! The homework folder has a homework log, a reading log, a spelling folder, a writing notebook and the list goes on and on. It seems SOMETHING is always left at school "on accident" that he needs to complete his homework. He's not having any better luck with his lunchbox. Mitchell left his lunchbox on the bus one day and the driver had to find him in class and bring it to him so he wouldn't starve that day. He's also left his empty lunchbox on the bus and we've had to pack his lunch in a shopping bag. It's always something! Also, the teacher has the students write down their own homework assignments so it's an adventure in and of itself trying to read his handwriting and figure out what exactly he's supposed to do for homework each night. Luckily he's behaving GREAT in class. I received a call from the teacher one day last week and my heart just sank thinking "OH, NO!!! WHAT DID HE DO!?!?!?" Unfortunately, he was bitten by another student. I hate to admit it but I was so HAPPY that it wasn't something he did for me to get the call! Luckily he was OK and had already forgotten about "the biting incident" by the time he got home from school! Whew!
We are still enjoying our neighborhood. One evening last week we went for a walk after dinner down to the Marina area and sat outside and had dessert. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to all the different cultures and languages you hear on a daily basis. I was in a store and heard someone speaking Spanish and I felt like I was right back in Houston! It was great hearing a familiar language (other than English!)
Since we had been dragging Mitchell shopping every weekend we've been here, we decided to do something special for him. There was a special event called "Ben 10 Live" we had received a flyer about. For those of you who don't have a young boy in the house, Ben 10 is a cartoon about a boy who has a special watch that lets him change into different aliens to fight against evil alien forces...FACINATING! So, I bought tickets to go see Ben 10 Live on Thursday evening and the tickets were about $150 for all three of us to go. Mitchell was THRILLED and loved every minute of it...Chad & I will NEVER get those 2 hours of our lives back...NEVER EVER. It was PAINFUL to sit though. That was true parenting love! Chad was kicking himself because I offered to take Mitchell by myself because I anticipated the pain and suffering. He was regretting not taking me up on my offer.
After our 2 hour torture, we headed to Festival City Mall (close to the Ben 10 venue). We ate at a delicious Lebanese restaurant. Best Hummus I've ever had in my LIFE! Then we walked around the waterway at the mall. They had a huge movie screen set up outside that was playing Bolt. There were bean bag chairs and tables set up for people to lounge around and watch the movie. Mitchell found a boat ride he wanted to go on. They were little plastic boats that had turn handles to "power" and steer them. They actually had life vests for the kids to wear (safety is not high priority around here.) It was funny because I was watching the man who worked the booth put life vests on the kids and he put a vest on a little 3 year old boy that would have probably been too big for ME! I also saw a dad trying to put a vest on his son backward! We finally got home that night about 10PM and we were all EXHAUSTED!
On Friday, we headed to the Dubai Desert Classic golf tournament that was at Emirates Hills Golf course. It was really close to our house so we decided to take the train. It was only one station down from where we live. We walked to the train station and thought it was weird that none of the escalators or moving sidewalks were working. There were security guards around and none of them said anything to us. When we finally made it to the area to purchase tickets we realized it was closed. With Friday being holy day, the trains don't start running until 1PM (or whenever they get around to starting them up). So, we ended up taking a taxi. We were able to walk right in and buy tickets at the door. Less than $50 per person to get in and Mitchell was free! The course was beautiful and the crowds were light, except around Tiger Woods. I think about 75% of the crowd was following his group. They did sell alcohol at the tournament...I think I had an Amstel Light before 11AM just because I could! A few funny things I saw at the tournament:
1) I saw a sign for the men’s and women’s restrooms and the men’s showed a man from the shoulders up wearing the typical head dress (I can’t remember what it’s called) the sign for the women’s restroom had a woman wearing an abaya showing nothing but her eyes! That was a first for me.
2) Even port-a-potties have vegetable sprayers in them here!! EVERY bathroom has one but I realized I DON'T have one in my KITCHEN!!!! Ha! Now there's a cruel twist of fate! I'll tell you I WON'T be cleaning my fruits and veggies in the bathroom!
3) They had a prayer room set up at the entrance to the tournament. They actually have them in all the malls and larger stores.
At the tournament, we saw a boy wearing an A&M hat and Chad started up a conversation with his dad. Coincidentally, the dad worked for a company that helped build our plant in Saudi and his two friends worked for other companies that did the same. They exchanged phone numbers with Chad and hopefully Chad (and maybe me too) will get to go play golf with them sometime. Chad also met another man who worked for Sysco foods in Houston and now works for a competing company here in Dubai. They’re looking for sales reps and he also told Chad about one of his customers who’s looking for a procurement person. He’s still not sure if he wants to work, but at least he has some contacts now in case he gets tired of his job as a personal chef.
Friday evening we went to a dinner party at Jim and Denise Tarum's house. They invited all the expat couples from the office over. We had a lot of fun. The food was delicious, the wine was flowing and the company was very interesting. After dinner we played Bunco. We had a blast! Mitchell had dinner with us but spent most of the evening watching movies on Jim's IPad and eating chocolate rocks. He was having a good time too!
Saturday morning we decided to venture out to DragonMart, a Chinese shopping mall with tons of stores that sold just about everything under the sun! It was a huge maze of stores that had a main pathway down the center of the mall with many side isles snaking off to the right and left. I would guess the entire mall was over ¼ mile long. They had everything from toys, bikes, clothes, shoes, bedding, jewelry, furniture, restaurant supplies, tools, and the list goes ON and ON and ON!!! We found some metal storage shelving for our laundry room and a pair of "wheelie" shoes for Mitchell. I've seen the wheelie shoes in the US for about $70 a pair or more. The pair we bought for Mitchell cost 45 dirams (about $12!) That's what I call a bargain...especially since he doesn't seem coordinated enough to use them. I'm sure we'll be practicing! We'll see if gets the hang of using them before he grows out of them!
After DragonMart, we were going to head back to Festival City Mall but we took a wrong turn and somehow ended up on the freeway back toward our house (surprise, surprise!) So, we changed plans and headed to a store called LuLu's Hypermarket. It was three stories tall and about 3 times the size of a Wal-mart superstore. The top floor was all the clothes, electronics and home goods, the second floor was the grocery and the first floor was a food court, banks and other small stores. While we were at LuLu's I ventured to the "restroom". My friend Nancy warned me that I would encounter some strange bathrooms but I wasn't ready for it. When I looked in the first "stall" I didn't see a toilet so I went to the next one...it was the same! I realized the "toilet" was a big plastic rectangle thing in the floor with a place on either side for your feet and a small hole in the middle...YES JUST A HOLE!!!! Now THAT was an adventure I could have done without! Let me tell you though...they couldn't afford actual toilets but there was, of course, a vegetable sprayer in there! I will definitely be going to the restroom at HOME before heading out to LuLu's the next time. I will probably bring my camera because I'm sure my description doesn't do it justice! Taking pictures is the ONLY thing I'll be doing in LuLu's restrooms! That's FOR SURE!
Well, it's Sunday afternoon and my first workday is about ½ over. It's really strange that when my work day is over on Monday, I've already worked two full days and the folks in Houston are just starting their week! The Sunday - Thursday work schedule is something I'm not sure I'll ever get used to.
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