No time to post…

But here’s a photo of me on a camel. More updates as soon as it’s not a toss-up between posting and getting a few more minutes of precious sleep.

Cheers.

Food in the mall

I’ve been charged by my favorite economic theorist to post more about about my adventures here. I know that as hard as I work on my prose, what people really want are pictures. I’m not a genius when it comes to the camera, and I lean toward experiencing things rather than documenting things, but I’ve grabbed a few shots along the way – mostly of food, which either speaks to a year of food blogging (and sheer habit) or the fact that I just really like food (and sheer pigginess).

The best place I’ve found so far to shop for food is a place called LuLu’s Hypermarket. I haven’t yet gotten a photo of LuLu’s sign because it involves a death-defying stint in the middle of the street to be able to snap one, but I do happen to have a photo of the sign for the mall where LuLu’s is located.

Yes, the best market I’ve been to is located in Al Wahda Mall (my assistants like to laugh at me when I try to say “Wahda” – they say “no it’s “Wada” and I say “Wada” and then they laugh). The mall is really similar to anything I would expect to find in Glendale, CA, where I usually do most of my mall shopping. If you go to Al Wahda at night, it’s about as hot as Glendale is in the middle of the day as well. Throw in the fact that I don’t understand most of what people in the Glendale Galleria are saying, and Al Wahda Mall is pretty similar experience, all told.

Palm trees too!

These photos were taken was on the last night of Ramadan, right before the last prayer before Iftar, so the place was virtually deserted. Usually, the mall is teaming with people.

I think the fact that LuLu’s is a “hypermarket” is hysterical. It’s quite big. In fact, I don’t think I’ve actually seen all of it. There’s a whole section full of electronics and other non-food items that I haven’t wandered into, mostly because it’s always night when I go there and I don’t really have the time to explore. Even still, it really has nothing on Costco, size-wise. Then again, Costco has nothing on LuLu’s food-wise.

Need some cheese?

How about some labneh? (I recommend it)

Or maybe some fish?

I’m seeing a cheese theme here with my photos. The reality is, there’s not a lot I can cook in my room. I have a “kitchen set” that consists of some things to eat out of (plates, bowls, etc.) and a cook pot that I can reheat things in, but nothing much to really do any cooking. So most of the beautiful foods at LuLu’s are beyond me. They do have a serious Indian takeaway counter with dishes hotter than I’ve ever had at any “authentic” Indian cafe at home. It’s very reasonably priced so most of what I eat is just take out from there. I seem to have neglected to get any snaps – I’ll try to remember to get some next time.

Other than food (as if there could be anything other than food), I’ve been getting out and about a bit. I made a rather long trip to the bank on Saturday, which involved taking a taxi farther than I’d even taken one on my own so far.

Cab passing me by

Strange thing about cabs here. Even though westerners tip pretty reliably (we can’t help ourselves), when you flag cabs, they often just change lanes and speed on by, even though they are empty. I have no idea what that’s about. Cabs are fairly plentiful and dirt cheap (you can get almost anywhere for about 10 dhs, which is maybe $3), but there are times when it’s nearly impossible to get one.

While I was standing on the corner, trying to get a cab, I grabbed some photos of the buildings where I was.

Lots of tall buildings here. Long blocks. With little businesses at the bottom of the tall buildings. Reminds me a lot of Southern California, except with a strange New York kind of tint. The buildings are tall like New York, and some of the stores in the bottom have a New York sensibility too – little shops tucked away in random side streets. But the weather and the big streets scream Southern California. Only hotter. So hot that on Fridays, no one does business until 5 p.m. But more on that later.

Cheers.

Weekend recap

So the plan for today was to actually go outside. Lingering jet lag and a 14 hour day at work yesterday (plus a washing machine that is taking forever) are conspiring to keep me in so far, so we’ll table the adventures and give the blog a long-overdue update.

My first full week in Abu Dhabi is officially over. The end of the week here is Thursday, with Friday being the holy day (somewhat like the U.S. Sunday) and Saturday being like…well, Saturday. Except that it comes after the Sabbath. As workaholic westerners (and in the throes of producing a film festival), most of us will work tomorrow. And I’m a day ahead of most of the people who will read this. So for you, it may be the downhill side of Friday, but I’ve already had my weekend…

Are you confused yet?

I’ve said this already, but I’m in a very interesting place. Getting work done at a time when no one eats or drinks during the day (it’s against the law for me or anyone else to do so in public) and everyone cuts out of work early (somewhere between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.) to sleep and prepare to eat after the last daytime prayer can be tricky. As we’re going into the end of Ramadan (exact end TBD by the moon committee – more on that later), I thought it would be a good time to recap some of the challenges of GTD in the UAE during the holiest time of the year.

Setting up meetings (or how I learned about the moon committee)

The main thing I’m in charge of here is gathering together the army of volunteers required to make this festival run. Just as in the States, one of the best ways to do that is to hold recruitment meetings. With any luck, 50-100 people might show up to a meeting, so you need a fairly large space that’s well-known to anyone who might want to come. The space available to us is at ADACH (the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage), sponsor of the film festival. Having been told about the hours people keep during Ramadan and the big holiday that happens at the end of Ramadan – called Eid – I decided the best thing to do was to plan a meeting on Thursday 9/17 (that was yesterday) at 9 p.m. (in order to let people pray, have Iftar, and then go out again) and one the following Thursday, 9/24, two days after the end of Eid (giving people enough time to get home after the holiday and turn their attention to local events). I am a genius! Great planning on my part! Sensitivity to local customs! Making it work, go me! So I thought. While hammering out details for reserving the space, Amer, our amazing facilities coordinator (who lives here) comes to me and says “Kathlyn, I have some news bad and some news good.” Our conversation goes something like this:

Me: “Hey Amer, what’s up?”
Amer: “You can have the room at ADACH on 9/17 but maybe or maybe not on 9/24. It will depend on Eid. ADACH might be closed that day if Eid comes later.”
Me: (pointing to my handy calendar on which I’ve oh-so-smartly marked the end of Ramadan as 9/19 and Eid as the following three days) “But I planned the meeting so it wouldn’t conflict with Eid.”
Amer: “Yes but it depends on when Ramadan ends.”
Me: (again pointing to the calendar) “But it ends on the 19th.”
Amer: “Maybe. But maybe it ends here.” (pointing to the 20th)
Me: “What do you mean maybe it ends on the 20th?”
Amer: “It depends on the moon.”

So here’s where I’m thinking “ok, fine, it depends on the moon, I get it.” Except that I don’t. I think it all depends on the lunar calendar, which it does, but it’s not just a matter of knowing the lunar calendar, as I find out.

Me: “Right, ok, but don’t they know what the moon is going to do?”
Amer: “No, it depends on if they see the moon.”
Me: (thinking he means it depends on if there’s a new moon or not) “So when will we know if they see the moon or not?”
Amer points to 9/19.
Me: (still not getting it) “But they know if there’s a moon that night now.”
Amer: “But they have to see it. In the sky.”

A little more back and forth and it hits me – someone has to actually see the moon in the sky to declare the end of Ramadan. It’s not just about whether the moon is new or not, it actually has to been seen by a person. I somehow manage to not let “Oh, you mean like Groundhog Day!” escape my mouth, likely offending and possibly alienating one of my best allies at work so far, and suppress my urge to giggle at my own ridiculous analogy. When I go to the American school the next day with one of our interns to meet with the volunteer program there, we also meet her mom (who’s British) and she explains to me that it’s not just one person who has to see the moon, it’s a whole committee. A little further digging finds an article that tells me that there are sometimes big arguments about the beginning and end of Ramadan, because the committee can’t agree. Members of the committee are all over the world, and one place might be cloudy (obscuring the moon) while others are clear. Thus ends my lesson on the moon committee. For completely selfish reasons, I have my fingers crossed for a world-wide clear sky on September 19 and an early Eid this year.

Calling all volunteers, calling all volunteers…please don’t call me back!

People here aren’t all that into email. They’re into their phones. They call and they text. Wanting our first meeting to have some people in it, I set my wonderful new senior assistant Noor the task of going through our list of volunteers from last year and calling everyone who didn’t have email. I figured for the first meeting, we’d get who we could through email and the rest we would call and that should yield us enough people to do kind of a test-run meeting and get a sense of how the meetings would go. Noor was up for the task and started calling people about 2:30 p.m. She was doing fine, getting some people, collecting email addresses from others, finding out that some had left for university. She was using my phone because we hadn’t gotten her a work cell yet. Most people here don’t seem to have voice mail – I’m not sure if it’s just not the way or if it’s an extra expense that most people don’t want to pay for, but whatever the reason, most people (including me) don’t seem to have it. So when Noor can’t reach someone, she just hangs up. Not a big deal. Around 5:00 p.m., she turns to me and tells me that the last hour she hasn’t been getting anyone. “They are probably sleeping before prayers,” she tells me. Ok, that’s fine. She offers to make some more calls at home, after Iftar, when people are more likely to be awake. That’s a great idea, we agree, and I give her some other stuff to do. A few minutes later she looks at me wide-eyed and says “oh, no, Kathlyn, all those people are gonna call you!” “What?” “All those people who don’t answer, they’re gonna call your phone later!” Because people don’t have voice mail, they tend to return missed calls, even if they don’t know who the caller is. About 6:30, after Noor has left, the calls start. All Arabic speakers, very little English, and no one really understands me. I manage to find most of them on our list by their phone numbers and email Noor (who thankfully does use email) asking her to give them a call later. The last one comes in at about 11:30 p.m., but by that time I’ve turned the ringer to silent, knowing that it’s better to have Noor just call them back in the morning rather than confusing people by having them talk to me.

God forgives you if you drink water by accident

This story isn’t so much about work but it happened at work, so it’s sort of related. Noor, my assistant, is a very quick and funny young woman whose parents are from Lebanon, so even though she was born here, she’s still considered Lebanese. She’s Muslim and is fasting, along with most of the country. For some reason we were talking about fasting and I’m sure I was saying something silly, trying to be funny, like “I don’t think I could do that!” when we started talking about the women who make Iftar during Ramadan. Iftar is basically breakfast, which right now you’d eat at the end of the day if you’re fasting. We got to talking about how hard it would be to make food after fasting all day. She said it is hard, especially not to taste the food, which is something you do almost automatically when you’re cooking. I laughed and said that I couldn’t do it, that I’m sure I would taste something by accident. “Oh, no, that’s ok,” she said. Turns out that it’s ok if you are cooking and taste something without thinking about it, out of habit. She also told me that it’s ok if you get up in the morning or after your nap and accidentally drink some water before you are fully awake. If you do it on purpose, then it’s a problem. But if you do it by accident, God forgives you. Little dispensations from God. It’s ok – He knows you didn’t mean it.

Cheers.

Facebook in Arabic

Face cream, an MBA or…some gold bullion? This is a screen shot of the sidebar from one of the Facebook pages that came up on someone’s profile. The ads are in English and in Arabic and much of the content is similar, but then every once in a while, something like an ad for gold bullion will come up.

Cheers.

The call

Oh what a day! No photos or musings tonight because today I spent 10 hours of my life trying to get to Oman and back in order to get a work visa…details to come.

Instead, you can enjoy this video clip – I made it last night. The quality isn’t great, but it gives you an idea of what is broadcast over the city at prayer time. It’s called the adhan and it goes out over the city several times a day, letting everyone know that it’s time to pray. The video is just of the street below the hotel I’m living at right now and has nothing to do with the call, but it’s kind of interesting…

Cheers.

This way…

This photograph shows the corner of the dresser in the hotel room I’m living in.  I have a feeling I’ll say this over and over again while I’m here, but this place is so familiar and yet there are things about it that are so unusual, like this decal.  I know there is one in every room in the hotel and it’s quite possible that it’s located in the same spot in every room – that the right hand corner of the dresser is “the place” you’d expect to find the decal that points to Mecca.

Earlier in the evening, I decided to check out the pool.  One of the reasons I was excited to stay in this hotel is that is has a rooftop pool and I love to swim, but never manage to in spite of living only 20 miles from the ocean.  I went up around 6 or 6:30 and swam in the very warm water with a very warm breeze, and it was really delightful.  There were a few other guests around – not too many, but a few.  A couple of French women, I think a Russian man and I’m pretty sure one of my coworkers, who didn’t recognize me as he watched the sun go down from the edge of the roof.  There was also an Indian family with four kids who were learning to swim.  I took a break to let the kids get their ya-yas out in the shallow end of the pool and was thinking how pretty the light was on the water as the sun went down and was sorry I hadn’t brought my camera with me.  That was when I heard the call.  Evening prayer.  Right before Iftar.  It’s broadcast over the city and lasts for more than a few moments.  It was a little difficult to hear over the children and just the noise of being on the roof, but it was there.  At the risk of sounding like a cheesy squishy-heart western liberal, it was beautiful.  And another reminder of how I am in a place that is familiar, yet different.

Tonight I’ll eat a room service pizza that is just like every other room service pizza you’d expect to get in any decent hotel anywhere (that is, edible, but not exactly good, and manageable price-wise, but certainly not a deal) – except that there is no pizza on the menu that includes sausage.  Just like home…except not.

Cheers.

Good morning

View from the hotel

That might be the Persian Gulf in the distance.  It’s around here somewhere.

Cheers.

Iftar

I’m in Abu Dhabi and jet-lagged like never before.  The time difference is 11 hours…or it might be 13 hours.  I’m not entirely sure.  The 16 hour plane ride (direct from Los Angeles) was as pleasant as a 16 hour flight could be and the first day of work was as productive as it could be under the circumstances.  Given that it was really the middle of the night for me most of the day, I held up pretty well.

Abu Dhabi celebrates Ramadan, and we’re in the thick of it right now.  Those who observe fast from sun up to sun down and then break the fast with a big meal, around what I would normally think of as dinner.  Tonight the parent organization for the festival – ADACH (which stands for something with the words “Abu Dhabi,” “cultural” and “heritage” in it, but I’m far too brain-dead to remember at the moment) – invited all of its employees to Iftar, the celebratory fast-breaking meal of Ramadan.  Hosted at the Emirates Palace (which is a little like a Vegas hotel that has outdone itself, only with no gambling and no liquor), we feasted.  Literally.  There were 10-some tables full of all kinds of foods, mostly middle-eastern in flavor (surprise!), some of which had ingredients I’d never seen before.  All were quite good, although I’m told that Iftar at a hotel is something akin to banquet fare.  If that’s true, I’d highly recommend getting married in the UAE – some of the best hotel catering I’ve eaten.  I’ll post some photos of the impressive spread later.

General first impressions of Abu Dhabi – it’s not like anything I’ve seen before and very familiar at the same time.  There’s a quality to it that is very similar to Las Vegas – the newness and the largeness of the buildings, the heat of course, and the dustiness of it.  At the same time, there is something that is singularly not like any city in the US, but I haven’t quite put my finger on it.  It’s not just the women in the full-ninjas and the men and women’s prayer rooms at the airport.  There’s something more to it than that.  I’m hoping I’ll be here long enough to figure out what it is.

Cheers.

Leaving for the airport…

in just over an hour an a half.  The next time I write anything here, I’ll be in Abu Dhabi, half-way around the world.