Day 53 - A day of work

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Today was an early day, report writing all morning, lunch at my desk while discussing a project, engineering calcs that afternoon, and report finalizing before the shuttle left. I kept my head down and my ipod on all day long. And you know what - it was a pretty good day!

I came home and rested for a bit before meeting a friend of Brian's - a fellow Ole Miss graduate. She and i had dinner at the Marina at some Peruvian place. It was ok - very smoky from the grill, loud and poor waiting. The food was ok. I had a grilled veggie pita with hot sauce. Kim paid and I vowed to take her out again. She works in JLT, where my new place is, and we seemed to get along pretty well, though I was starting to drag - it had been a long day and tomorrow will be much of the same!

Jamie already got her bed... now I just have to figure out if my landlord will let us put the bed in the apt before I even get the keys. Apparently, the delivery guys insisted that it HAD to be tomorrow, NO EXCEPTIONS. So crazy. And it was the last one left, half price, so it was a good deal. Hopefully, we can swing this!

So, not much else to talk about today. Oh - I almost got hit by a bus! Our shuttle used to let me and my coworker off by pulling over on the freeway to let us off near the metro station, where we could just cross the grass and walk in. But the other shuttle driver got a ticket the other day for doing a similar thing so now the drivers have to stick exactly to the routes. Which means putting us in an even more dangerous situation actually. Since all the roads here are one way streets, you'd think they'd have shuttle stops on the right side. Nope, they're on the left in many places. I heard the driver say be careful, but I thought he just meant the general danger of stepping down, and walking across two crazy ass intersections where speeding cars race around the round-about to get on the freeway. No, apparently he meant "Be careful - there is a giant bus coming down the lane." Haha! I'm sure I'll get some crap tomorrow.....

Today, I leave you with pictures of the Dubai Marina at night. This was the place I really wanted to live, but JLT is just across the freeway and you get much more for your money. It has a nice walk around the water areas with restaurants and hotels lining the area, and gorgeous buildings lit up at night. I saw lots of people out running, street vendors, and about three guys trying to sell me some weird pop up plate or something...

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Photos

JLT
The northern end of the place I'll be living; across the main freeway, Sheikh Zayed Road, from the Marina

Into the metro
Nice and cool inside!!!

Marina Walk
lots of good restaurants and scenery around the marina

Tall buildings
I would have loved to live here, but it's pricier

Long walk...
... across Sheikh Zayed Road to the metro station

More pretty buildings
They completely surround the marina

One of my favorite buildings...
..in the city, under construction