Sunday is the day to return to work. Of course, I am back into the groove of not wanting to go back to work after a nice weekend. But there it was. At least there was no real pressure at work right? Well, I had to make sure that a test was being done that should have been done weeks ago. I trained an intern and a young engineer in how to log a borehole with mostly sand samples. I was tasked with taking care of an intern (and later, two interns) and was planning to take them to a job site in the heat of the summer to observe drilling operations. And last, but not least, I heard AGAIN from a project that I thought was complete weeks ago. I wound up talking to my ... read more

I apologize for lack of pictures, but since I do not have internet yet at my new place, it is not as easy. I will take some good pictures for you this weekend and upload them Sunday. Yesterday was another slow day at work, so I actually left early with my Muslim coworker to go to the mall. I wanted to transfer some money, start my internet/cable service and get some more necessary supplies. First, I grabbed a ticket from Du, where you get your internet/cable/phone set up. My ticket said H383 and the board indicated they were only on H343, so I decided to walk across to the UAE exchange to send some of my cash to my home bank account, since I still do not have a bank account here and I wanted to ... read more

I was kind of checked out of work today. I finished the pile analysis (yay!!! Actually doing engineering!!!!), set up some lab tests and worked a little on some report corrections. Then I had to go to DEWA to get the electric and water turned on and switched to my name at my new apartment. The taxi came to pick me up and took me to the metro near where it was supposed to be - he had no clue where it was. So, I went inside the metro terminal and asked a few people; fortunately the ticket seller knew that it was directly across the street (Sheikh Zayed Road). And very fortunately, each metro has an indoor pedestrian bridge across the highway and the outlet to DEWA was right next to the building. I walked ... read more

Today was another day of having my head down, eating at my desk (daily lunch with Ivan - noodles for me today), and trying so hard to get all these blasted reports done. But nothing could hide my pleasure, when I hesitantly called my realtor to ask if I could have something Jamie bought for my apartment delivered to the apartment tonight, since the movers were adament it HAD to be tonight. I was worried he would say no, but instead he said he would just go ahead and give me the keys when I gave him the checks, which I did have. So, I hurried up my reports, scheduled to have the other engineers review and send them out on their way. Then at 4, Zenah gave me a ride to the realtor, I signed ... read more

The other night at midnight I was woken to a popping sound. Yes, there were fireworks going off near the Palm or Burj al Arab. I guess a Ramadan celebration? Very weird for a Saturday night. Yesterday was the usual work day. I had reports, smiled a lot, and looked for apartments. I was getting very frustrated with the apartment hunting; after sending a few emails or calling agents, I had little to go on. IF I actually got someone on the phone, it was usually "Oh that is unit 3602. Just tell the security desk and go on up." They had no intention of meeting with me, or volunteering any information or anything. It's just "Oh, go look for yourself, call me, and give me 5%." Utterly ridiculous. Then, a beam of light shone upon ... read more