TAIT!!! (thank Alla it's Thursday- the weekend is here!
I decided to get my hair cut at the Dubai Mall earlier this week...I was looking scruffier than normal, so there is a hair salon on level LG called "Super Trim". I walked in expecting a full staff of Phillapino women, doing their sing songie "good afternoon sir, would you like a haircut?" I was suprised to find a full complement of Lebanese men (I think there were 8 of them). I normally prefer a member of the fairer sex to give me a trim, so I hesitated, but all of a sudden it seemed more awkward to walk out then to check my homophobia at the door and get spruced up. I sat down and the hairdresser asked me to wash my hair, after a nice shampoo, he moved me to his chair where he did a decent job clipping away with his scissors. Then he applied a little goop. wallah, we were finished...no? Not so fast, he cleans the hair from my ears (yes it's growing faster there than on top of my noggin) brushes off my neck and shirt. and as I prepare to reach for my billfold, he firmly grabs my shoulders and starts a massage....now this is totally out of left field for me, and I quickly scanned the room to see if anybody else was watching this guy...the next thing I know he has moved from my next to my hair, the perfect coiffed that I had enjoyed suddenly became "bed hair". It was a very uncomfortable 5 minutes. but after my scalp massage, I suddenly felt goo,m I paid my 60 Dirhaims and skidaddled out of there...I shared this with the guys at work the next morning, and they got a chuckle out of my discomfort.
I had run out of cold medicine and needed to go to the pharmacy ( there are several in the mall). I have never met a more tenacious sales lady. I walk into the store and this 20 something Phillapino Lady(detecting any trends?) approaches me and asks to help me, I tell her that I have this cold and need some medicine to help stop the miserable hack that I have developed. We walk to the "cold remedy counter" and she says, "Kind sir, I have what you need to grow your hair back" Ouch. that was a gut shot, so. I mumbled no thank you, she replied "no problem, how bout a drink to get rid of your fat belly...yes, you are correct to assume, I will not be returning to that store, as the truth did not set me free.
As previously noted, it has probably averaged 113 or so degrees this July here in Dubais. at night in July and August it doesn't always cool to the 80's...yes it is hot..So with the incredible heat. we found out the water deal. When you want warm water you turn the knob to cold. The outdoor pipes that run the water into the house heat up so much it that they turn their water heater off and bath in that very warm water. Now for cold water, they use the hot side, and since most commercial washing equipment is indoors and the water heater is turned off, that water chills a little more each day due to the air conditioning blowing on the powerless hot water heater.
Well. I am old and tired, it is time to go. This weekend I move into my new pad...
Hope you are doing well,
John
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Shamsudine
I have been thinking about my new friend "Sham" and how we interact. Sham is the "office Boy" here at work. He comes in at 7am and is the last one to leave. I have been working late quite a bit, and I feel guilty when Sham has to lock up at 8:30 or 9 pm.
Sham is in his young twenties, and has a smile that rivals David Letterman's. He is from Bangladesh, and has come to Dubai for a better life. He wears a uniform, and if I need an envelope or bottled water Shammy is who takes care of it. I decided early on, that I would befriend Sham. His wages are about 1/5th of US Minimum wages, so I try to be generous w/out belittling...(it is tougher than you think). Last week one day I told Sham I didn't want to eat alone in the lunch room, so I ordered KFC for both of us (I was tempted to steal a piece of chicken from his snack box, but I successfully resisted :-) ) He seemed appreciative, but I can feel his pride being stretched. He has a desk in the back of the building by the bathrooms, this week I went back to just say hi, and chat with him for a couple of minutes. He shared with me that he doesn't always understand my words, but is embarrassed to ask me to repeat in front of others...I have work to do on my relationship with Sham.
This may just seem like incoherent ramblings, but Sham is actually very similar to so many others that I meet here in Dubai everyday. I have been here for 3 weeks now, and other than Bob I have ran into two different Americans. One at my hotel (here on business) and a guy from Texas that I meet in line at Taco Bell in the food court at the Dubai Mall.
So this is a country full of "foreigners" that are mostly just like me, here seeking a better financial opportunity,and I am a novelty, an American living and working in the Middle East. I am reminded daily, that I represent the USA, and I am having an impact on some hearts and souls and hopefully bettering our image more than I am damaging it.
I worked at a couple of American companies that I spent a while with where I was not welcomed with open arms. Here, I am warmly greeted as I walk around the building. and have been invited for lunch by somebody almost everyday. On my 2nd week, a couple of very nice and very cute co workers invited me to lunch, then insisted on buying as their guest. They took me to a local Lebanese restaurant, and were great company. A manager in another department took me shopping for apartments and volunteered to help if I needed in picking out furniture.
I can hear the cautionary thoughts that are running across your lips, I am being careful...
I don't know if I am a curiosity piece, and this warmth will wear off, or I have just miscalculated what the reaction would be to an American in Dubai.
Have a Great day and keep me and Sham in your thoughts,
Warmly,
John
BTW guess who bought a camera????
Sham is in his young twenties, and has a smile that rivals David Letterman's. He is from Bangladesh, and has come to Dubai for a better life. He wears a uniform, and if I need an envelope or bottled water Shammy is who takes care of it. I decided early on, that I would befriend Sham. His wages are about 1/5th of US Minimum wages, so I try to be generous w/out belittling...(it is tougher than you think). Last week one day I told Sham I didn't want to eat alone in the lunch room, so I ordered KFC for both of us (I was tempted to steal a piece of chicken from his snack box, but I successfully resisted :-) ) He seemed appreciative, but I can feel his pride being stretched. He has a desk in the back of the building by the bathrooms, this week I went back to just say hi, and chat with him for a couple of minutes. He shared with me that he doesn't always understand my words, but is embarrassed to ask me to repeat in front of others...I have work to do on my relationship with Sham.
This may just seem like incoherent ramblings, but Sham is actually very similar to so many others that I meet here in Dubai everyday. I have been here for 3 weeks now, and other than Bob I have ran into two different Americans. One at my hotel (here on business) and a guy from Texas that I meet in line at Taco Bell in the food court at the Dubai Mall.
So this is a country full of "foreigners" that are mostly just like me, here seeking a better financial opportunity,and I am a novelty, an American living and working in the Middle East. I am reminded daily, that I represent the USA, and I am having an impact on some hearts and souls and hopefully bettering our image more than I am damaging it.
I worked at a couple of American companies that I spent a while with where I was not welcomed with open arms. Here, I am warmly greeted as I walk around the building. and have been invited for lunch by somebody almost everyday. On my 2nd week, a couple of very nice and very cute co workers invited me to lunch, then insisted on buying as their guest. They took me to a local Lebanese restaurant, and were great company. A manager in another department took me shopping for apartments and volunteered to help if I needed in picking out furniture.
I can hear the cautionary thoughts that are running across your lips, I am being careful...
I don't know if I am a curiosity piece, and this warmth will wear off, or I have just miscalculated what the reaction would be to an American in Dubai.
Have a Great day and keep me and Sham in your thoughts,
Warmly,
John
BTW guess who bought a camera????
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Summer Cold in Dubai
Yes I feel crappy. I have caught a terrible cold. How in the world when it is a 112 degrees outside do you catch a cold? Oh well, so I had lunch delivered in (KFC) and I thought I would blog instead of taking a lunch.
There is a ranking order of Nationalities in the UAE. You will be glad to know that Americans are at the top, on the same level as the Emiritians and the Lebanese and other Middle Easterners. Europeans seem to be at the same level, then the class structure goes down. Almost 85% of the residents of Dubai are not citizens. The only way to be a citizen is by being born to Emirate parents. If you are born here it does not give you citizenship like in the US. As a non-citizen almost every thing I do requires my passport and my resident visa. I had to have a sponsors working visa to come here, then apply for a resident visa once I settled in. I found it interesting that the first thing I had to do was have a blood test for HIV and Hepatitis. If you are found to have either one, you are immediately quarantined until you can be deported. The authorities are in complete control, censoring the Internet sites and generally protecting the residents from physical and moral health issues. It is estimated that 80% of the people here are Muslims. I have yet to see a prayer rug for they have prayer rooms they go to when they are called to worship. In the malls, at work or anywhere in public. The calls to prayer are broadcast over loud speakers like our tornado sirens back in the US. The times vary, as right now the first call to prayer is at around 3:45 in the morning. It would wake me up every morning at my hotel, but I have not heard it at my Apartment (yet). Saturday, while walking at the mall (yes Yvonne that is the number 1 thing to do when its hotter than Haties) the call to worship came and it reminded me of the way the movies portray the chanting of Monks, very melodic as it echo'd off the walls. Sadly, it is apparently live as sometimes it sounds like Rose Ann Barr singing the National Anthem...
Oh well, my lunch break/blog is over, back at it...(are you bored yet...???Wait til I tell about my lunch date....) That is my blog teaser...lol.
Best wishes from the Gulf Tower B in downtown Dubai,
John
There is a ranking order of Nationalities in the UAE. You will be glad to know that Americans are at the top, on the same level as the Emiritians and the Lebanese and other Middle Easterners. Europeans seem to be at the same level, then the class structure goes down. Almost 85% of the residents of Dubai are not citizens. The only way to be a citizen is by being born to Emirate parents. If you are born here it does not give you citizenship like in the US. As a non-citizen almost every thing I do requires my passport and my resident visa. I had to have a sponsors working visa to come here, then apply for a resident visa once I settled in. I found it interesting that the first thing I had to do was have a blood test for HIV and Hepatitis. If you are found to have either one, you are immediately quarantined until you can be deported. The authorities are in complete control, censoring the Internet sites and generally protecting the residents from physical and moral health issues. It is estimated that 80% of the people here are Muslims. I have yet to see a prayer rug for they have prayer rooms they go to when they are called to worship. In the malls, at work or anywhere in public. The calls to prayer are broadcast over loud speakers like our tornado sirens back in the US. The times vary, as right now the first call to prayer is at around 3:45 in the morning. It would wake me up every morning at my hotel, but I have not heard it at my Apartment (yet). Saturday, while walking at the mall (yes Yvonne that is the number 1 thing to do when its hotter than Haties) the call to worship came and it reminded me of the way the movies portray the chanting of Monks, very melodic as it echo'd off the walls. Sadly, it is apparently live as sometimes it sounds like Rose Ann Barr singing the National Anthem...
Oh well, my lunch break/blog is over, back at it...(are you bored yet...???Wait til I tell about my lunch date....) That is my blog teaser...lol.
Best wishes from the Gulf Tower B in downtown Dubai,
John
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Almighty Dirham
The first thing many of you ask me about is money, so let's talk about money. The National Currency of UAE is the Dirham. It is actually regulated against the dollar and has not changed in value verses the dollar in years. It takes 3.675 Dirhams to equal $1 US Dollar. So the trick is to do quick math in your head to equate values. Lunch typically costs 25 Dirhams (sounds like a lot, but it really is about $9 dollars. You can have food delivered to your office or apartment, and a guy on a bike delivers it for a service charge of 5 Dirhams, yes a little over a dollar. So if I don't want to go out in the 115 degree temperature for lunch, I can have KFC, McDonalds, Hardees, Burger King, Pizza Hut or a number of local restaurant's deliver for a 5 Dirham service charge. The tipping is minimal, with 10% being considered generous. Several times at lunch my companions have left no tip, as they will say that service was nothing extraordinary. I am doing my best to be a generous American, and help with our image with one server at a time lol.
The handling of money is also quite different than what we are accustomed to. To rent an apartment for a year, you negotiate on the total dollars for the year. My apartment (signing contract this morning) is going to run $65,000 Dirhams. It is considered to be a huge bargain. The real Estate market here has depreciated by 2/3 rds in the last 3 years. You have to pay a deposit and the first 6 months in advance. The building I am in downtown, is about 2 years old, and 1 bedroom apartments initially rented for $200,000 Dirhams. My timing as far as housing could not be any better.
Money does spend differently. I cashed a relocation bonus at the bank, and they gave me $1,000 Dirham bills, $500, $200, $100, $50, $20, $10 and $5 Dirham bills. They use silver coins for $1 Dirham, and cents are called "Fills". I can grab a taxi to the mall and with a tip it costs me $10 Dirhams - yes $3.68 US Dollars. On the other hand, blue jeans cost over $900 Dirhams, so I need to wait for the "Winter wardrobe sale".
Well it is Saturday, and I need to get some things accomplished before work tomorrow. Please excuse the grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, and please let me know how you are doing. Anything you are curious about send me a note, or post it here, I will cover some basics, then endeavor to spin yarns about my adventure in Dubai....
Much Love,
John
The handling of money is also quite different than what we are accustomed to. To rent an apartment for a year, you negotiate on the total dollars for the year. My apartment (signing contract this morning) is going to run $65,000 Dirhams. It is considered to be a huge bargain. The real Estate market here has depreciated by 2/3 rds in the last 3 years. You have to pay a deposit and the first 6 months in advance. The building I am in downtown, is about 2 years old, and 1 bedroom apartments initially rented for $200,000 Dirhams. My timing as far as housing could not be any better.
Money does spend differently. I cashed a relocation bonus at the bank, and they gave me $1,000 Dirham bills, $500, $200, $100, $50, $20, $10 and $5 Dirham bills. They use silver coins for $1 Dirham, and cents are called "Fills". I can grab a taxi to the mall and with a tip it costs me $10 Dirhams - yes $3.68 US Dollars. On the other hand, blue jeans cost over $900 Dirhams, so I need to wait for the "Winter wardrobe sale".
Well it is Saturday, and I need to get some things accomplished before work tomorrow. Please excuse the grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, and please let me know how you are doing. Anything you are curious about send me a note, or post it here, I will cover some basics, then endeavor to spin yarns about my adventure in Dubai....
Much Love,
John
Friday, July 23, 2010
Greetings from Dubai
Well hello all,
I have taken the challenge to create a blog. I am a novice at this, but there are interesting things occurring around me everyday and other than sharing them with Bob, I need an outlet. I also miss the USA already, but that being said so far Dubai is a spectacular place. It is incredibly clean, and it has a feel of safety (more to that on a future blog).
So many stories to share, but first I wanted to set this up. and give everyone a chance to subscribe. I will endeavor too add posts frequently, with stories and pictures.
So are you ready? Let's start the adventure....
I have taken the challenge to create a blog. I am a novice at this, but there are interesting things occurring around me everyday and other than sharing them with Bob, I need an outlet. I also miss the USA already, but that being said so far Dubai is a spectacular place. It is incredibly clean, and it has a feel of safety (more to that on a future blog).
So many stories to share, but first I wanted to set this up. and give everyone a chance to subscribe. I will endeavor too add posts frequently, with stories and pictures.
So are you ready? Let's start the adventure....
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