8:12 PM Thursday 26 March 2009
It’s Thursday night here – which makes it “Friday” night for us. The day began as windy and dusty as last night. We attended a business dinner last night at the Sheraton Corniche. We had to walk outside past the pool to the “beach” restaurant. The wind and dust made the walk unpleasant - gritty. The dinner and conversation were most excellent, so I did not mind the difficulty getting there. Getting to the Sheraton Corniche for dinner proved challenging.
We still don’t have our own car to drive. This makes us dependent on taxis to venture outside of our neighborhood. Last night, we assumed we could catch a taxi as easily as we can during the day. Wrong. Mornings and afternoons, taxis are plentiful; just raise your arm a bit to signal the taxi driver you need a lift. Easy, peasy. Last night we spent 20 minutes, in the blowing dust, trying to wave down a taxi. Reluctantly, fearing we’d be late for the dinner, we called for a driver. Our apartment building is new and not known by name; most drivers have no idea where we are. This makes it rather difficult to get a ride. Even with advance notice, it was looking grim. There’s also that pesky issue of the language barrier.
English is the most common language spoken in the UAE. Abu Dhabi is a cosmopolitan city with a diverse population. I’ve read that around 80% of the population in the UAE is non-native. This makes English the lingua-franca. You want to communicate with the majority of the population, speak English. Except… Except, this is an Arab country and one should expect to have to interact with native Arab speakers. Many of the taxi firms and their drivers are native Arab speakers. Calling for a driver can be challenging, we don’t speak Arabic, yet, and as I mentioned, most people don’t know where our apartment building is. Six phone calls later, directions were given during each call, and 25 minutes more passed. Our driver eventually showed and rushed us to dinner. Dinner was most excellent and well worth the effort to get there, even if we were a bit tardy. Having a car available to drive, soon maybe, will help. Speaking Arabic would help too, but the car is going to happen first.
Today I had lunch with my expat friend R. He’s from Colorado and has lived in Abu Dhabi about four weeks too. We went to a local restaurant called Idioms. It’s a short walk from the apartment to Idioms, which also serves Shisha. The restaurant was dark when we arrived, but the door was open, in we walked. Once our eyes adjusted to the dim interior, we noticed a group of five Emiratis in the corner, with Shishas, smoking. I found a waitress and she informed us that the power in the building was out. They were not able to serve food, but we could smoke Shisha instead. Hmmm…Shisha.
R. and I sat down next to the group of Emiratis, and joined in with the Shisha. I don’t think they minded, but I’m not always sure about the social rules here. Shisha, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is a water pipe you use to smoke a tobacco and treacle mixture (sugar water), flavored with fruit. We chose the mint and grape mix to smoke. It was the first time R. had Shisha and only my second time. This made me the Shisha expert. Inhale sweet smoke, exhale sweet smoke. So smooth, cough, cough; it was smooth smoking most of the time, although, even one of the Emirati’s was coughing a little. Shisha is a social activity, much like drinking coffee or tea with a friend. I’d never have Shisha by myself – it would feel wrong. R. and I spent the next 70 minutes smoking and talking. Power was restored to the building about 40 minutes into our Shisha. 70 minutes seemed to go fast, and by then we’d had more than enough Shisha activity (we both felt it).
We set aside our water pipes and moved into the open dining area to order lunch. Service at Idioms was excellent. Staff was friendly, polite and quick to respond. We both ordered sandwiches, mine was turkey on a baguette, and it was superb. I also had the mushroom soup and it was perfect! Even the mango smoothie was just right, and chilled too. R. and I plan on returning to Idioms. I recommend them for food and Shisha. Googling Idioms, I discovered that Idiom also has free WI-FI. Cool.
My time in Abu Dhabi has not been all swimming, Shisha, cafes and business dinners. I’ve been enjoying an excellent book I purchased at Al Wahda Mall, http://www.alwahda-mall.com/. The book is called, “Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times” by Margaret Nydell. Ms. Nydell writes very well, and I find her book engaging. It’s already getting dog-eared. Living in an Arab country makes the subject of Arab culture and mores, obviously relevant to me. That being stated, in today’s world of global tension, wars in the Middle East and a variety of voices, on both sides of the fence, demanding attention – this book is more than relevant to all of us who lack an understanding of what it means to be an Arab and what it means to be a Muslim. I strongly recommend this book to everyone I know back home in the States. Actually, I recommend this book to anyone reading this post. See the link following:
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Arabs-Guide-Modern-Times/dp/1931930252
If you are finding fewer spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, it’s because I’m composing this post in MS Word. The spell-checker built into my blogs text editor has not worked since I moved to the UAE. I can’t guarantee I’ll compose all of my future posts in Word, so don’t be surprised if the spelling mistakes and other errors crop up again.
I can still smell the sweet Shisha smoke lingering on me, time for a shower. The wind outside has stopped – good.
It’s Thursday night here – which makes it “Friday” night for us. The day began as windy and dusty as last night. We attended a business dinner last night at the Sheraton Corniche. We had to walk outside past the pool to the “beach” restaurant. The wind and dust made the walk unpleasant - gritty. The dinner and conversation were most excellent, so I did not mind the difficulty getting there. Getting to the Sheraton Corniche for dinner proved challenging.
We still don’t have our own car to drive. This makes us dependent on taxis to venture outside of our neighborhood. Last night, we assumed we could catch a taxi as easily as we can during the day. Wrong. Mornings and afternoons, taxis are plentiful; just raise your arm a bit to signal the taxi driver you need a lift. Easy, peasy. Last night we spent 20 minutes, in the blowing dust, trying to wave down a taxi. Reluctantly, fearing we’d be late for the dinner, we called for a driver. Our apartment building is new and not known by name; most drivers have no idea where we are. This makes it rather difficult to get a ride. Even with advance notice, it was looking grim. There’s also that pesky issue of the language barrier.
English is the most common language spoken in the UAE. Abu Dhabi is a cosmopolitan city with a diverse population. I’ve read that around 80% of the population in the UAE is non-native. This makes English the lingua-franca. You want to communicate with the majority of the population, speak English. Except… Except, this is an Arab country and one should expect to have to interact with native Arab speakers. Many of the taxi firms and their drivers are native Arab speakers. Calling for a driver can be challenging, we don’t speak Arabic, yet, and as I mentioned, most people don’t know where our apartment building is. Six phone calls later, directions were given during each call, and 25 minutes more passed. Our driver eventually showed and rushed us to dinner. Dinner was most excellent and well worth the effort to get there, even if we were a bit tardy. Having a car available to drive, soon maybe, will help. Speaking Arabic would help too, but the car is going to happen first.
Today I had lunch with my expat friend R. He’s from Colorado and has lived in Abu Dhabi about four weeks too. We went to a local restaurant called Idioms. It’s a short walk from the apartment to Idioms, which also serves Shisha. The restaurant was dark when we arrived, but the door was open, in we walked. Once our eyes adjusted to the dim interior, we noticed a group of five Emiratis in the corner, with Shishas, smoking. I found a waitress and she informed us that the power in the building was out. They were not able to serve food, but we could smoke Shisha instead. Hmmm…Shisha.R. and I sat down next to the group of Emiratis, and joined in with the Shisha. I don’t think they minded, but I’m not always sure about the social rules here. Shisha, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is a water pipe you use to smoke a tobacco and treacle mixture (sugar water), flavored with fruit. We chose the mint and grape mix to smoke. It was the first time R. had Shisha and only my second time. This made me the Shisha expert. Inhale sweet smoke, exhale sweet smoke. So smooth, cough, cough; it was smooth smoking most of the time, although, even one of the Emirati’s was coughing a little. Shisha is a social activity, much like drinking coffee or tea with a friend. I’d never have Shisha by myself – it would feel wrong. R. and I spent the next 70 minutes smoking and talking. Power was restored to the building about 40 minutes into our Shisha. 70 minutes seemed to go fast, and by then we’d had more than enough Shisha activity (we both felt it).
We set aside our water pipes and moved into the open dining area to order lunch. Service at Idioms was excellent. Staff was friendly, polite and quick to respond. We both ordered sandwiches, mine was turkey on a baguette, and it was superb. I also had the mushroom soup and it was perfect! Even the mango smoothie was just right, and chilled too. R. and I plan on returning to Idioms. I recommend them for food and Shisha. Googling Idioms, I discovered that Idiom also has free WI-FI. Cool.
My time in Abu Dhabi has not been all swimming, Shisha, cafes and business dinners. I’ve been enjoying an excellent book I purchased at Al Wahda Mall, http://www.alwahda-mall.com/. The book is called, “Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times” by Margaret Nydell. Ms. Nydell writes very well, and I find her book engaging. It’s already getting dog-eared. Living in an Arab country makes the subject of Arab culture and mores, obviously relevant to me. That being stated, in today’s world of global tension, wars in the Middle East and a variety of voices, on both sides of the fence, demanding attention – this book is more than relevant to all of us who lack an understanding of what it means to be an Arab and what it means to be a Muslim. I strongly recommend this book to everyone I know back home in the States. Actually, I recommend this book to anyone reading this post. See the link following:
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Arabs-Guide-Modern-Times/dp/1931930252
If you are finding fewer spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, it’s because I’m composing this post in MS Word. The spell-checker built into my blogs text editor has not worked since I moved to the UAE. I can’t guarantee I’ll compose all of my future posts in Word, so don’t be surprised if the spelling mistakes and other errors crop up again.
I can still smell the sweet Shisha smoke lingering on me, time for a shower. The wind outside has stopped – good.
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