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Published: July 27th 2013
Construction Projects
One of the projects I inspect as needed. It has changed a lot in the last few months!I've realized my life here has revolved solely around work and will continue to do so. Fortunately, because we have so many exciting projects in the pipe, it makes me happy. But I guess this is my life for the next year and a half... We are expanding our company substantially, probably tripling in size! Very exciting stuff that I'll be talking about more in future blogs. Right now, I'm just trying to finish the rest of my projects so I can focus on training my geologists, hiring new geologists and engineers, and setting up our engineering department in preparation for the upcoming projects. Can't wait!
Last Tuesday I officially moved out of my Dubai apartment. When you move out here, you need to demonstrate that all the utilities have been paid up to your landlord before getting your deposit back. So, I spent all day going to the utilities: Palm (A/C), DEWA (electric and water), and Du (cable/internet/phone). The good thing was that all the locations were either in walking distance or just off the metro, so it was easy to get to even without a car. The bad news it was HOT. I mean HOT!!! I walked to
Palm in the Almas Tower in JLT, then went directly via metro to DEWA. When I was done there, I came home and peeled off my clothes... Ugh! Then I went to Du to finish and returned home just in time to meet the landlord's inspector. After I finished packing, I left the key under the mat and said a sad goodbye to my former home...
In the future, I will be staying at Jamie's in a reversal of the past year. I have her old comfy day bed and will pay a minor portion of the rent to have a place to stay whenever I'm in Dubai. It is nice to have a getaway from Qatar, which I will discuss further below.
As of July 10th, it is Ramadan. Last year in Dubai, I barely noticed as it hardly affected my daily routines. You could get just about anything to eat as long as it was delivery or takeaway. In Qatar, nothing is even open until at least 5:30 for delivery and you can't eat out until after 7. Even the first day in the airport, everything was closed. Though I noticed when I went back last
Labor accommodation
My lovely drive to work everyday week, the places were open. I don't know. Also, in Qatar, there is NO alcohol served. Nothing. Unless you are at a hotel and get it delivered to your room. The bars everywhere are completely shut down. In Dubai, they were just not open until 8pm or they may serve drinks if it was an area that is not viewable by the public. The malls really aren't effectively open until evening time either, neither are movies. I went to the mall the other day at 7pm and they were just opening up the stores! Those are the main differences in the two countries during Ramadan. I don't really have an opinion either way; Ramadan is just more noticeable here.
I've had a couple of Iftars. First was the iftar that we had at the Arjaan in Dubai. In Doha, I went to our favorite Syrian restaurant, which is always delicious. I was confused though because the iftar didn't start until 7:15 and 8pm, they came up to us to tell us that they were closing the buffet so to get the foods we wanted soon - really??? Very strange. Last week, Indiana picked me up from the airport and
we went to Moevenpick hotel for iftar and that was pretty dang good as well!!! I really have come to love arabic food, especially the appetizers (mezzah). I could probably just live off mezzah all day every day: fattoush, hummus, moutabel, arabic bread, falafel... yum! I tried my own hummus, but it was not that great - eatable, but not great. And I have a newfound love for moutable, which is an eggplant based dip similar to hummus. I had previously had it at a restaurant in Dubai and it must have been a bad batch because it was horrible and I refused to eat it again for a long time. Then I had it and fell in love with it! I love it better than hummus. For iftar in the Arjaan, my favorite of everything was the moutabel which was flavored with beets and was this pink color - it had a distinctive tart flavor that was incredible.
One thing I noticed is that I think I found the perfect grocery store - Geant at Hyatt Plaza, which is where I've been shopping since I moved into my apartment. Occasionally I go elsewhere if it's along the way
Ramadan Kareem
Villagio mall - Dean and Deluca's is getting replaced. :( or if I'm curious, but I haven't seen anything else with the selection Geant has and the produce is almost always good! Think I'll just stick with it! I love being about to buy a bag full of onions for about 4 riyal (about $1.15) or green chilies for about $0.07 for a small bag...
Ok, enough about food...
This week seems to be another sandstorm. Yesterday when I went to IKEA, there were places that I couldn't even see more than 100m ahead of me! Fortunately, with Ramadan on a friday, the streets were virtually empty. I had never been to Ikea before going with Jamie a few weeks ago and I went to town yesterday! I finally framed my pictures, got some plants, and some dishes... It was a nice way to spend a friday.
I have been looking at what I want to do for Eid holiday here, which starts after the end of Ramadan. You get a few days off and since I didn't take any of the Eid holidays off last year, i'm determined to do so this year, so I'm trying to decide where to go. I'm thinking Prague. However, flights
Villaggio Mall
Things just waking up at 7pm... just about everywhere are super expensive so I don't know... I do know that I don't want to be here during Eid. Especially because our big projects are starting soon and soon enough I won't be able to go anywhere! I looked at places like Paris, Germany, Bucharest or Dublin, but they were expensive and I want to go there when I have more time to travel about. Budapest or Vienna or also possibilities as I think a few days in those cities are perfect. What do you think?
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Wow!
It's trippy to think of things not being open all day, but that's the American way - all about convenience! I love the new clean architecture out there though! Very pretty! Miss you my dear! Facetime soon OK! :)