travel – Page 6

A Buffet of Life

March 18, 2013September 24, 2013 by gina dillon, posted in Misc.

Abu Dhabi is home to the buffet. There are buffets everywhere and they are a regular pass time for both expats and nationals (the word National is defined as anyone from the UAE). Expats here in the UAE live a hotel life. Most restaurants, although there are a few exceptions, do not serve alcohol so we are forced to drink our booze at hotels. The fancy and over-the-top buffets at the hotels offer three options: 1. food only 2. food and drinks 3. food, drinks, and bubbly. Many have bands, chocolate fountains, oysters, lobster, sushi, and an enormous array of calorie laden desserts (more on this later). They are as beautiful as they are tasty.

But the hotel that the company put us up at during the interview process doesn’t have a chocolate fountain or even a band; it’s quite boring really except for the steady stream of people who support my never-ending habit of people watching. It’s a buffet of people. People from all over the world. Some are smartly dressed, others are mismatched, attractive, rich looking, poor looking, and then in walks what appears to be an American couple. So of course, I ease drop on their conversation and as it turns out they are from Arizona too. And they are interviewing with the same company as my husband. What a coincidence. By the end of the brunch we are all making plans for the joint yard sale we are going to throw in Arizona when we decide to move over. The family reminds me of the Partridge Family. There are several members of the family and they all play musical instruments. As I’ve gotten to know them better they will actually bust out in song at the drop of a hat. The kids are hippy intellects who wear flea market clothes and travel the world staying with people they don’t know. I learn that they lived in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The mother is English and was raised in the Middle East because her father, a psychiatrist, packed the family up and moved to provide counseling to abused women. And as an adult, she and her husband followed tradition and packed up the family and moved to Afghanistan where he provided medical care to Afghanis. They decided to move when taking an armed bus to the hospital seemed a little extreme. I am told she speaks really bad Urdu. Which, I must admit, is better than anything I could produce.

So what kind of people pack up and move to the Middle East? You would be surprised. So far I have met the Partridge Family, a few other well paid executives, and country hopping teachers. I feel like I have been introduced to a group of people that I did not know existed: the nomadic, countryless people. It is really difficult to classify these people. They are kind of from here but they’re really from there. Their accent is from here but they’ve lived primarily there. It’s odd to meet a Texan from Thailand or a New Yorker from Liberia. I meet a farmer from Tennessee who sold his cattle, auctioned his house and moved to Saudi Arabia in the 1970’s — that takes some serious kahunas. Seriously, who does that kind of thing? This being my first expat experience the idea at first seemed a little crazy to me but as I get to know these people it seems less crazy and more normal. Maybe the folks sitting at home in their recliners are the crazy ones?

On the last day of the trip we took a tour of rental villas with a real estate agent. The young guy showed up looking as though he was a leftover from last night’s party and he must have showed us four of the worst looking homes Abu Dhabi has to offer. Compared to our previous homes in the States, and these attractive villas above, these villas looked like squatters tents or foreclosed properties. Real estate practice in Abu Dhabi is different because the homes are not cleaned until someone leases them so the villas we looked at were disgusting. The lawns were overgrown with weeds, the pools were full of green slime, windows were completely missing and birds were flying in. Our first impression was not only no — but hell no! Why would we leave the comforts of everything we have worked so hard for in order to move into this mess? My husband, being far more diplomatic and courteous than me, tried to explain to the Realtor that this isn’t quite what we had in mind. Me, on the other hand, wanted to slap him for wasting our time. I gave him a serious what the hell is wrong with you look and we returned to our hotel with our excitement squashed and a sad feeling of uncertainty.

Immigrants and Bill

March 17, 2013September 24, 2013 by gina dillon, posted in Misc.

My first full day in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and I am all alone in the hotel. The most important task for me during this trip is to locate a potential school for Mini Max. This means that I have to leave the safety of my hotel room (remember in my head I am still envisioning that this place is the wild, wild Middle East) and wander out into the masses of immigrants – and there are thousands of immigrants. Of the two million or so people who live in Abu Dhabi only 25% are Emiratis. It takes an enormous amount of immigrants to build and sustain this city. The city is packed with low-income, uneducated workers and these people typically roam around keeping quietly to themselves because it ‘s probably their first time out of their home country and they don’t speak the language. Most of the immigrants are from India, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and some (not many) are from different regions of Africa. At first they are a little frightening because as Americans we are not used to seeing people from areas that are so poor and so under-developed. At first, they appeared barbaric but eventually I got used to seeing them and realized that I have nothing to worry about because the crime rate here is very low and the place is extremely safe. (Bicycle pic below shows my compound in the background).

Workers_Khalifa_A-Abu_Dhabi

The hotel arranged a driver to take me to my appointment for a tour of the school we would consider enrolling Mini in if we moved to the UAE. All expat children attend private school because the public schools are for Muslims only. There are schools with different curriculums from different countries, and I am on my way to a new school that was recently opened, and the ribbon cut, by none other than President Clinton. The school is, by no stretch of the imagination, the most beautiful school I have ever seen. It has a 3D planetarium, indoor swimming pools/gym, astroturf soccer fields, tennis courts, a black box theater, a production studio, Apple sound/video labs, dance studios, science labs etc. I could go on and on…but I think you get the picture. I finished the tour and had one thing to say, “SOLD!” If we move here this will be Mini’s school.

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My First Arab

March 14, 2013September 24, 2013 by gina dillon, posted in Misc.

Part of the interview trip for the super important governmental company that my hubby interviewed for included a dinner with some very important people. This included an Arab who sat across from me at the dinner table. This was the closest I had ever been to someone in a dishdasha, the Arab men’s national dress, and I found it intriguing. It was truly difficult not to stare and I found myself having flashbacks of George Bush holding hands with the Arab on the White House lawn. Of course, people are people and it’s not truly accurate to stereotype, but I have found Arabs tend to be very soft spoken, quiet and extremely polite. I could envision myself holding hands with this man on the White House lawn. Why not? And I must say, some of these guys are extremely handsome. And it doesn’t hurt that they drive Ferraris.

Arabs in Dishdasha

Handsome Emirati Man

Arabs in Dishdasha

Handsome Emirati Man

So I am sitting across from the super important Arab man and he says to me, “This is your first time in Abu Dhabi?” And I reply, ‘Yes it is.’ And he says to me, I kid you not, “Have you seen the Sex in the City movie?” And I responded ‘Yes, I have. And it was horrible but I loved the scenery.’ He laughed. I laughed. And we didn’t say another word to each other all night because he got up several times to talk on the phone. This is the odd thing that I have noticed about the Arabs, they are ALWAYS on the phone. Quietly talking to someone about something. That’s why I chose the picture of this handsome man above because it is perfectly accurate.

The Interview Trip

March 13, 2013September 24, 2013 by gina dillon, posted in Misc.

Did I oversleep on the plane and wake up in the Phillipines? I thought to myself as I walked through the Abu Dhabi airport and noticed there were very few Arabs and hundreds of Filipinos. It was odd. I also found it interesting that there were people from all over the world dressed in a variety of different styles: fully covered, semi-covered, and not covered at all — not at all like I was expecting. Where are the swordsmen ready to behead me if I show my shoulders?

Having only experienced the Middle East through American news channels, I was thinking to myself on the way to the hotel that this isn’t at all like I have seen on TV. I was worried about roadside check points and potential car bombs, and mobs of protesting men throwing rocks. I wasn’t really thinking about huge malls, amusement parks and swanky resort hotels but as we drove away from the airport advertisements of smiling blonde models were everywhere. To my surprise all of the road signs were in both English and Arabic and the entire city appeared to be under construction. Due to this, the hot humid air was filled with concrete dust which created a paste that was stuck to all the palm trees giving the entire place a dirty look. Being accustom to the beauty of the Arizona desert I remember thinking the landscaping here needs serious help.

We arrived at one of the many luxury hotels that sit along the beach in Abu Dhabi via our Filipino driver. The lobby of the hotel was filled with marble from top to bottom along with photographs of the current Rulers and other important Arabs hanged prominently on the walls. It looked extremely official. The first thing I noticed in the hotel room was the arrow beside the bed instructing me of the direction to pray and the neatly rolled up prayer rug laying on the divan for my use. But even these items, which are totally foreign to someone raised as a Southern Baptist, didn’t hold a candle to the oddity in the bathroom which was the lack of electrical outlets near the sink. For some reason, of all the things the Arabs could be concerned about, their greatest fear appears to be that someone will electrocute themselves in the toilet. Electricity here is a highly regulated — in a highly unusual way. For example, there doesn’t appear to be a requirement for junction boxes and things of that nature but there are different plugs for different things such as; toasters, hair dryers and appliances etc. But the crazy things is if you stick a fork into the outlet, and this is common practice here, you can pry the plug of your appliance into any outlet. To this day, I have not stuck a fork in the electrical outlet. I prefer to buy adapters. Oh, hey, it was about the time that I heard my first Call to Prayer. At first, I heard it faintly over the hum of the traffic and thought to myself, what is that? Take a listen.

The Plan

March 12, 2013May 6, 2013 by gina dillon, posted in Misc.

Oh, Shit, Am I Lost?

“I moved out of house 1 and into house 2. Have to unload/release 1, 2, 3 cars, sell the stuff in 1, 2, 3, 4 storage units that have been gathering dust since 2010. Obtain 1, 2, 3 visas to a country that doesn’t give them away liberally. Plan 2 vacations, 1 to bribe my parents to take 1 of my 2 dogs and the other to restore my sanity. All of this and more… in 18 days. Ready, set, go!”

Desert to Desert

March 12, 2013October 7, 2014 by gina dillon, posted in Misc.

So I packed a nicotine smelling, mismatched bag of clothes and boarded an Etihad business class flight from Chicago to Abu Dhabi for my husband’s interview. Having never visited a Middle Eastern country, I was a little apprehensive about what to wear and how to behave. Although I considered myself somewhat well-travelled, I have to admit that there was a little voice inside my head that was thinking crazy stuff. For example, I was unnecessarily preoccupied with the thought of bombs. When deciding on an airline for the trip my logic was that we should book a flight with a Middle Eastern airline because they wouldn’t bomb their own planes or how I felt threatened by the drunken Indian grandmother in the business class lounge because she could be a suicide bomber. Obviously, this was a silly American stereotype against people with dark skin because Indians don’t usually blow themselves up.

So we left the coziness of our business class lounge (complete with buffet and back massages) and made our way to the gate to board our flight for Abu Dhabi. Immediately the smell of body odor punched me in the stomach. The odor was so strong it felt like someone jabbed fondue forks up my nose. It was almost as though the lining of my nostrils was disintegrating as I stood there. For the most part, Americans do not have body odor because we generally bath on a regular basis (yes, I know…remember this is a humor blog; not a sociology study), wear deodorant and don’t eat foods that permeate from within and expel in a blue fog of funkiness. Some people, on the other hand, are another story and since Abu Dhabi is in route to so many places — the gate was was packed with smelly people. So right before the big buffet came back up to greet everyone, I was ushered by an attractive lady aboard the plane into the smell free zone referred to as Business Class.

Wow! I thought. So these planes do exist! All these years we have been saving up American Airline frequent flyer miles to simply move up to a bigger chair closer to the pee closet. Wow! (mouth dropped open) This plane puts the American air industry to shame and this isn’t even first class! Immediately a very coiffed flight attendant approached me to help with my bags and guide me to my seat. As soon as I reached my seat I was being forced fed cold beverages and gourmet food by one of the most attractive and best mannered flight attendants I have ever experienced. (Sadly, picture below does not include the mandatory Marilyn Monroe red lipstick).

Immediately memories of the tenured and weary American flight attendants in worn uniforms pushing a large, heavy beverage cart were gone. The fear of suicide bombers was gone. I settled in for my 18 hour flight and the only thing I was thinking about was my champagne and my gourmet meal, my seat that reclined to a bed, my big fluffy blanket, the French movie I was getting ready to watch and this once in a lifetime experience.

Flipping the Bird to the Awesome House

February 25, 2013September 24, 2013 by gina dillon, posted in Misc.

So how did this all begin? It began like a storybook but it soon became a nightmare. After six months of searching I finally found my dream house. It was awesome. It was the kind of place that would look like a magazine spread with a little hard work. It had twenty-seven of the most beautiful palms trees sitting on a one-acre backyard with a resort swimming pool and trees with lemons the size of a coffee cup. We turned in the keys to our rental house, gave the seller a 40k deposit and a couple days before closing moved all of our things into our new garage. The previous owner was an older lady who had chained smoked in the house for twenty-five years, and consequently, was dying of cancer. The walls were caked with nicotine and the house reeked like a roadside bar, but I loved this house. It had an 1970’s sophistication — old money, like before the construction boom of the 1990’s. I pulled out the carpet, blinds, curtains, and anything else that was harboring the nasty odor and had the place professionally fumigated. The next two days prior to closing we slept on a mattress on the floor preparing to begin the big remodel. The day before closing we received a call from the title company informing us that according to the title search the seller did not own the house. What! It was owned by her dead boyfriend’s children who hated her and apparently they were planning to take her to court, and here we were stuck in the middle of this mess and sleeping on the floor of a disgusting cigarette pit.

We spent the spring and part of the summer hanging onto the hope that something was going to work out with this house. As it started to become clear that it wasn’t, we began thinking of alternative plans. “What the hell are we going to do?” I asked my husband. I refuse to look at other homes for sale. I am exhausted, my back hurts, my spirit is broken and I want to seriously slap someone. What do we do now? “Remember the Arabs?” my husband asked. “The recruiter called me again. What do you think? Do you want to move to Abu Dhabi?” Yes, Honey that is exactly what I want to do since in the ten years we have been married I have packed up moved across country 4 times! The plan was to buy this awesome house and never move…ever…again. But the reality was, I was forced to move somewhere. The question now was — how far? “I think you should put your research skills to work and take a look at Abu Dhabi,” my husband said. Moving half-way across the world was not on the top of my list, but we needed to do something — quickly. So I started doing my research on the United Arab Emirates (which I could not pick off of an unlabeled map prior to my research). One thing you should know about me, I am an excellent researcher. I am the kind of person who does research for fun. I am constantly amazed at how intertwined the world is, so, for me, research is a rabbit hole that leads to all kinds of interesting places where I can become easily lost for hours upon hours.

So off I went into my rabbit hole of the Middle East called Abu Dhabi.