Blogs from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 4

Emirati nationals snubbed their collective noses at that piece of advice. Whatever you may think of Dubai, you have to be impressed with what has been achieved building on sand in a relatively short period. The city actually found itself in deep water a few years back when it was blindsided more harshly than anywhere else by the global financial crisis. Fortunately for them, they had the original Sheikh Of Tweak riding shotgun. Sheikh Khalifa bin-al Nahyan stepped in and bailed Dubai out with a countless billion or so from government coffers. Dubai barely missed a beat. It's titanic building ethos continued to charge full throttle. A lot simpler when you have a well-healed guardian angel looking down on you. The good Sheikh isn't a bad chap to have in your corner when you have a ... read more

I woke up (with Sam's help) early this morning to get ready for the main reason to return to Dubai this weekend. The Rugby Sevens. This was Sam's big adventure and since she'll soon be leaving to move to Australia, this is the last time I'll get to really hang out with her. The day was pretty eventful and i hope you like the pictures. We picked up Sandra via taxi and headed way the heck out - a good half hour drive - to where the sevens are played. They probably did this because it is basically an drunken expat festival. Sam and I had trouble earlier finding a taxi and had to walk in the rain, so we prepared for a wet day in the backseat by fitting ourselves into large garbage bags like ... read more

It was an extremely busy, hectic week at work, with meetings, new projects and trying to finish one huge report. Nothing special report, but observations of life in Qatar, or the Middle East in general. First of all - fried chicken. Always! There is KFC, MFC, SFC, etc. But instead of mashed potatoes and biscuits, they come with french fries and a hamburger bun - really? Fast food here is very very prevalent. I'm not a fan of fast food, but I've had more than a fare share, especially since this is served at work. Another observation is having children ride in the cars in crazy traffic and not be in their car seats. I don't even know if there is a carseat in the car. I get behind these cars with kids standing up between ... read more

After almost three straight weeks of working in Qatar, long days of course, I decided to spend a weekend at my beautiful apartment in Dubai. Not to mention I had lots of errands to run. The week was full of lots of work on two major projects. Wednesday, my coworker came to visit for a different project and to help out on one of mine. That evening, he, Indiana and Tony and I went back to this arabic restaurant in the middle of town where we had more appetizers and shisha. Definitely a good atmosphere- I like that instead of the bar scene, you see lots of people smoking shisha and drinking coffee. I got back at about 4am on Friday morning in Dubai, taking the Ladies taxi home. Seriously - what a difference!!! You don't ... read more

We played our third league game on Wednesday. Unfortunately, we were creamed again, but we actually played a great team - both skill wise and personality. Many of the girls on my team have never played soccer before, so they are still learning (some of the basics need time to take hold), but it is amazing to see how much they've improved every week. I had a few shots on goal; one of them, I admittedly panicked and probably could have gotten it otherwise. Grrr. Stupid alexis! Sadly, my shin splints which have been bothering me since our first game three weeks ago have only gotten worse, so I'll be taking it easy until they go away. I'm too old to play injured! And they friggin HURT during the game. Bad. One way to ensure I ... read more