back to the future and the past

This whole full-time employment thing is having a negative effect on my blogging, not to mention

wreaking havoc on my pool time! But here goes: a midweek catch up post from last weekend. I joined

mad max beyond the dubai metro

a Chinese ZU faculty member living here at the apartment hotel on an outing to Heritage Village, a showcase for traditional Emirati crafts and arts. The outing was put on by a local Islamic Cultural Information Center that she's been frequenting so that was our first destination. We took a shuttle to the metro station near our local mall. Metro stations have a distinctly space age feel. The end of the line metro stop is actually within walking distance of the apartment/hotel but there's no service out here yet- it's like something out of the movie Dune- so we shuttled to the closest stop with service. The metro was super clean and sleek and even beautiful and runs above ground, providing cool views. For double the usual fare you can ride in the gold class car (we didn't) or, if you're female, there's also a car only for women and children (we also didn't ride in that one.)

At the Islamic Center, an earnest young man made an unsuccessful attempt to convert me and then we went on the the Heritage Village.

my Chinese colleague

It's a pretty area right on the creek with people demonstrating different aspects of traditional life. There was an older guy who'd been a pearl diver back in the day (50 or 60 years ago) when they used nose clips made from goat hooves and held their breath for almost 2 minutes at a go while plucking oysters from the beds.There were women weaving bands used to decorate cuff and necklines of Bedouin
style clothes. Some of them wore the full face covering, some wore the mask-like thing they call a burqa here in the UAE. They indicated that it was fine to take photos and some of the women pulled the niqab (covering) over their face for the photo, others were fine with the burqa showing. I drank Arabic coffee (with cardamom) and ate fried dough balls flavored with rosewater. I got a little henna on my hand much to the delight of many of my staff come Sunday at work. There were youngish girls and boys doing traditional dances. One of the moves common in the girl dances was a dramatic hair fling, first to one side, then to the other. When I was in the grocery store last week, I noticed quite a few shampoos were designed to combat "hair fall". I wondered if dramatic flinging might lead to "hair fall" but apparently, it's a thing here. Caused by water that's been de-salinated. Hmm will have to watch for "hair fall."

Deck the Halls

fa la la lobby!

I came home from work one day this week to find that the apartment hotel had put up a Christmas tree in the lobby. It made me smile, so cute and festive. The next time I walked through the lobby, I noted that they had added some wrapped boxes under the tree, how jolly! The next day, they'd hung greens and bows and ornaments all along the railings in front of the building and around our bamboo thick koi ponds. Whoa, they are INTO this Christmas decorating thing. Next day, wreaths and swags in the breakfast room and later that afternoon, also by the elevators! What next? Housekeeping in elf suits?! Front desk carolers? What a hoot.

garland for goldfish (koi pond under the bridge)

Zed U

looking into courtyard at sub tower

Last week, after the National Day holiday, I started work at Zayed University, or Zed U. The campus is striking, It's basically a big square of buildings around the outside, making open space in the center that is split down the middle with a central building to make an open air courtyard on one side and a covered atrium on the other. I really want to take pictures of the atrium side- it's so lively with coffee shops, cafes, a perfume shop! and students, but I have to find a way to get a shot where you can't make out students faces. No random photographs of the girls allowed. I think I can get something from above where you can't see any faces. The middle building has a quirky tower that strongly resembles the smoke stack on a cruise ship or the conning tower on a submarine. This houses the grand staircase entrance to the Library.

grand stair library entrance

I've met a dizzying array of people and I'm frantically trying to keep everyone's names and faces together in my mind. My staff is made up of the following nationalities Emirati, Egyptian, Iraqi, Italian, American, Canadian and more. I have a big empty office so far (with TEAL upholstered chairs for visitors right in front of my desk which my Westminster colleagues will appreciate!) and a login with an email inbox that's rapidly filling but no desktop or laptop computer yet. Insha'allah (basically means God willing, and gets used fairly constantly with a little shrug when things aren't going according to plan) on Sunday when the work week starts again. We work Sun - Thur. Friday mornings are a bit like Sunday mornings in the states. I've been told that's a pretty good time to go out exploring by car when you're new because there's basically no traffic- maybe some other expats roaming around getting brunch.

So work this week meant abbreviated days- thank goodness because I'm not quite right on sleep yet and trying to process so much new stuff is exhausting- and lots of housekeeping tasks. Like any new job there was paperwork and a nice little welcome lunch reception, meeting staff and getting tours... Unlike other new jobs, this one also required processing steps to get my residency visa and Emirates ID. On Thursday, I was taken around to set all those processes in motion. Luckily I had someone from ZU's HR staff holding my hand, I don't envy people trying to work this out on their own when they are new to the county. Even with Shaimaa's help, we hit a snag that everyone says is pretty typical of the way things work here- extreme patience required and a trust that it will all work out in the end. So in order to get an Emirates ID, you need to have a local cell number to receive texts to learn when and where you have to pick up and/or submit materials. So we started at the the local phone service provider planning to grab a sim card with prepaid minutes that will work in the unlocked iPhone I've got (thanks again, Becky and Jim- eventually this is going to work out awesomely.) But just this week! Of course just this week! They changed the computer system so that there's no way to activate a sim card unless the purchaser can provide an Emirates ID. Catch 22 here: need a phone for the ID, can't get a phone without the ID. Everyone in the room acknowledged that this is a problem, but it's how the computers are set up now. Probably won't last, someone will realize that visitors and others without the ID card provide an important market, but right now, we had to put Shaimaa's phone number in my ID application and now she gets my texts. Oh well, I'm surviving with an apartment/hotel phone, a work phone, and mostly email for now and it's fine. After the ID application, it was on to have my lungs x-rayed, my blood drawn, all 10 fingertips and multiple palm prints digitally recorded, my picture taken and a bunch of forms completed and submitted. It costs 370 Dhs for the ID (about $100) which ZU reimburses me for. Not sure if there are also costs for the work visa that the University is paying. I only mention that because I was struck, while waiting on line for the chest x-ray in particular, how many thousands of people come here seeking work and have to figure this all out on their own and pay for it on their own. So many of the guest worker residents here are paid so little, and yet it's still worth all the trouble and cost because even from low wages, there is money to send home to India or Pakistan or the Philippines or wherever home is for so many UAE residents.

Happy Birthday UAE

flag in the historic district

Yesterday, December 2, was National Day. Think 4th of July in the US, and then think about how the celebrations would feel if the US was just 42 years old. There are parades and fireworks and wearing
of the national colors and decorating cars and buildings with flags, bunting, the national symbol/crest (a stylized gold falcon), and pictures of Sheiks like the founding president, the current president and vice president and other guys I can't ID yet. I thought National Day would be a perfect time to go check out the Dubai Museum. While it's only celebrating the accomplishments of a single emirate, not the nation, it's still pretty representative of the crazy growth and progress of the whole country. And there's a shuttle that goes there from my apartment hotel.

The museum was pretty cool. I knew a bit about the history from my reading but they did a nice job displaying the shift the area has made from a small but busy center for pearl diving and a stopover for nomadic Bedouin people and tradesman to the fantastical global showcase it's become. And they had a camel bladder bagpipe on display and I learned that gerbils are part of the indigenous fauna.

tea house lunch

I had lunch in the leafy courtyard of a tea house- a salad with local greens and herbs and pomegranate seeds and a little plate of pastries and dates. Now I have had excellent dates before in CA, fresh off the tree but these dates were like candy. Insanely soft and sweet. Just wow.

Wandered around the recreated historic district with old style courtyarded places that were once homes but now are galleries and cafes and weird little government houses like the tiny stamp museum I wandered into. Then followed the "creek" (now it's dredged and is a major waterway through the city) to the textile souk, and on to the abra (small

an abra on the creek

on the abra

wooden boat used as a kind of taxi/bus) dock where I caught a ride over to Deria (the opposite side of the creek) and the spice souk which was closing up early for the holiday. Grabbed a taxi home because despite waking up each morning convinced I'm over the jet lag, I find myself seriously in need of a nap each late afternoon.

spice souk

Post nap I did a little skyping with family. I'm 12 hours ahead of Vegas, 11 ahead of Salt Lake, 10 ahead of Chicago and 9 ahead of Michigan until daylight savings ends there, then it's one hour less difference. Also, the weekends here are Friday and Saturday. Sunday is the first day of the work week. 

Back to National Day! wrapped things up watching some fireworks from my balcony and tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour since today was my first day of work! But that's going to have to be another post because I'm too pooped to process any more right now.

fireworks from the balcony

mall madness

mall christmas

Given the focus on shopping in my new town, it's probably appropriate that most of my adventures in the first few days revolved around malls, though I'm hoping to change that up a bit tomorrow. There's a shuttle from my apartment hotel directly to a very strange mall called Wafi. Wafi is a small complex
with pyramid shaped buildings adorned with obelisks and sphinxes and the like. There's a spa and some fine dining, some high fashion-y shops and then glow in the dark mini golf! There's a re-created souk or middle eastern market in the lower levels- feels a bit like being in the shopping area at the Alladin in Las Vegas just before they changed it over to Planet Hollywood. The mall was decked out half in Christmas and half in National Day bunting and decor. After dark they do a big sound and light show in the courtyard that was conveniently timed and located exactly where and when I needed to be to wait on the shuttle back to my apartment hotel. Not sure I would have sought it out as one of my first sightseeing stops other wise, but it was kinda cool, if a wee bit over dramatic. Drama, and

light show projections

crystals, seem popular here. It's a very blingy place. I'm not much of a sports car person, but I looked up to see which model Lamborghini it was that was so arresting at the mall valet- it was a very fine Aventador LP 700-4 I think with the cool doors that open upwards. Lots of Land Rovers and Porsche SUV type thingys out there, but this was the first seriously monster powerful looking sports car I've seen so far.

more mall light show

Met some coworkers for lunch (at a mall) and learned a few helpful things, one being that my apartment hotel is not findable with Google maps navigation and that I probably better figure out some kind of landmarks to direct taxi drivers (though I am kind of out in a weird undeveloped- for now, until they finish the semi-nearby Versace resort- patch of desert.)

pool with cave

In apartment hotel news: I opened a different cupboard today and discovered that I have a dishwasher! I also spent about an hour this morning at the pool. The water was a perfect temperature and there's a cave behind a waterfall that I can swim into!

Marhaba, Dubai

I'm on the balcony of my short term digs, watching the sun set behind the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. I'm here.

The days prior to take off were a little anxiety-making: rapid succession emails saying first
-you'll have an apartment here. and then next
-there are no available units there, so somewhere else. and then
-you might be in this hotel longer than anticipated. and then
-you won't go to that hotel after all but instead you'll be in more of an apartment style extended stay hotel in case you have to stay a month...

sharp dressed attendants

there were also back and forths about the impossibility of the anticipated cat shipment date but co-workers came to the rescue and so all systems are go for Butternut to arrive Dec 18 (he'll stay with a cataloger I haven't even met yet.) For a few days there, I didn't get much sleep.

the view flying in

After some teary goodbyes and largely uneventful long flights (I am a big fan of the snappy uniforms of the Emirates Air flight attendants, they call to mind more of a golden age of air travel), I was met at the airport by the Marhaba (welcome)  Service. I was escorted through immigration, baggage claim and customs- it was crazy efficient and I felt a little rock star taking special lines and lanes and the lovely young woman who was my escort mentioned that the University didn't even spring for the top of the line service so I can't imagine what a real rock star- as opposed to a librarian- experiences. she took me to the driver who then took over ferrying me here- to my hotel/ apartment.

I've spent the afternoon here, mostly taking a long bath and epic nap but also checking out breakfast and doing a little unpacking. I'm going to venture out shortly to a mall on a shuttle bus to hit up an ATM and find something for dinner.

sliding doors go to balcony

My room is pretty amazing. I suppose at the end of a month, I might be less impressed but upon walking in, I was wowed. I have a full kitchen, a little dining area, a guest bath as well as the master bath, my balcony, and the bed is super comfy. The shuttle that goes to the mall leaves shortly so I'll end for now, but there's a chance this will be a two post day- especially if that meg-nap leaves me awake this evening.

my kitchen  has a tiny little washing machine

my bedroom

Last days in SLC

It's my last day as Library Director at Westminster College. I'm leaving things in the hands of an amazing group of colleagues. I'm proud of what we've done together with this lovely little library. We've worked hard and played well together. I thank you all.

I also go sign the papers on the sale of my house today.I really lucked out when I picked the Cleveland Ave. house. Oh, I knew going in that it was cute and historic and had nice trees. I didn't know how amazing my neighbors (both those just 'cross the street and those a little bike ride away) would turn out to be and how much they'd bring to my whole SLC experience. I'll miss you guys a bunch! And I'll miss sitting on the deck watching the dog walkers headed to "the" park (because Liberty Park is the only park for me) and having the perfect spot to view the Pioneer Day fireworks and raking massive piles of bright yellow leaves to jump in in the fall.

But it's on to camel markets and palm trees, new friends and colleagues waiting to be met. I head to the midwest for an early Thanksgiving with family and to take my cat to MI and then I fly back to SLC for a brief 24 hour window. I leave in the evening on Thanksgiving, November 28th. I stop in JFK and then on to DXB on Emirates Air's big double decker airbus. Wheee!