Living here

You learn by doing. 

Lesson 1

One of the things I have learned is not to hang washed clothes outside.

1)   It is supposed to be illegal?! Still you can see people hanging clothes outside. It makes me wonder why…

2)   There is too much sand. The wind picks up the sand and your clothes are covered. So you have to start all over.

3)   Racks are not always strong enough to stay standing when there are winds. Yes, I have seen my wash fall down on my sandy balcony, as the rack could not withstand the wind.

Lesson 2

Always have smaller cash available. A lot of taxi’s, restaurants and even shops do not seem to have change for 100dhr (20€) – 200 dhr (40€). Which can be very annoying. Check with your taxi driver if you do not have smaller change, as he might have to make a stop at a petrol station to change the note.

Lesson 3

The first few times you might go somewhere with colleagues to eat, you might be shocked how the relation is between the waiter / client. Although we often say in Europe “the client is king”. There is no way of you believing that after spending some time in Dubai. People here in the service industry, excluding taxi’s, are very friendly, smiling and trying to please your every need. I wonder if they developed this way because the customers are so demanding. In Europe some restaurants have very crappy service, especially in Paris. Still we as a customer take this. We might not go again, but on some level we are used to it.  What I have noticed here is that people can really push the waiters. Examples: Where is my food? Be quick I am hungry. I want ice, lots of ice This is not enough ice …. And so on. It is really hard to explain by written word. You will just have to experience it yourself when you come to Dubai.  The only thing I do hate here is paying the bill. They come bring you the bill soon enough, but they take ages to bring your change back. I think it is a strategy. They hope you will get fed up with waiting and you will leave the change as a tip. Trust me I have walked out of places sometimes, as I just cannot be bothered to wait for my tips. Of course you can have the upper hand by ordering the bill the moment your food arrives.

Lesson 4

Another service I am not used to is the help at the supermarkets when you are putting your groceries in bags. Most cashiers have an extra person standing there to put your things in bags. At least they tend to put more than 3 items in a bag unlike the US where they waste plastic bags.  In the beginning I had the tendency to still put my own shopping in the bags. Now I just stand there, as it is this person job, which is a plus point. It might not be the most challenging job, but at least this person is getting paid. The customers on the other hand are being conditioned to be lazy bums.

How to meet people

My dear readers

I am so sorry for keeping you hanging these last few weeks.

I have been caught up meeting new people, discovering places and working that I have not made time for you.  I will make it up to you by doing a regular update every week (holidays do not count though ;) ) and for the fun of it, I will be uploading some extra long posts this month.

My post today will be about “How to meet people”.

It is a daunting thought moving to another country all alone, without really knowing anybody there you can rely on. Most people do not like the idea of having to be alone, which I completely understand. It can be lonely for some. You do not have anybody to talk to at night except your Skype buddies. You have to go to restaurants alone. Or wander by yourself at the mall. On the other hand if you do go alone to a new country, you will be forced to be more social and make friends soon.

The website I used to meet new people is couchsurfing.com. The concept is really easy: If you have an available couch you let others from all over the world sleep on it and you teach them about your country & culture. If you do not have a couch available, you can sign up to offer to go for a drink or a coffee. So I went off to search the many profiles on there. I focused on girls between 20 – 30 as I didn’t want to hang out with guys who use the website to find dates. Next up I screened their profiles to see if we had things in common. Yes, I screened on pictures too if they were too posy or it looked like picture for on a dating website I did not even continue to read further. Call me superficial if you want, but the whole point is to find people you click with. Next up was a look at the references they got. In total I contacted about 5 girls and asked them to go out for drinks, as I was new in the city.

I ended up also subscribing to meetup.com as one of the girls I met through couchsurfing recommended. I joined the group “New in Dubai” that often organizes events. My first event with them was a picnic with a bunch of food and people from all over. In the future I will go to some of their other events.

I guess you must have other websites where you can meet new people but these two worked for me. For example: I am going to sign up to my old student organization AIESEC for alumni. I might be able to attend some of their activities and reconnect with the AIESEC spirit I loved so much at university.

Another easy way is colleagues and the network of your colleagues. One of my good friends I met through couchsurfing, let us call her Beach babe as I know how much she loves the word babe, has really nice colleagues who have taken us out and have shared their experiences with us.  My colleague Prince has also been so kindly to point out events to go to, although our tastes seem to be quite different. Another colleague of mine, Electra, is making me a small list of club places to go to. So definitely ask your colleagues what is hot and what not, if they can share experiences, etc.

Last way to meet new people: just start talking to people who seem friendly enough. It can be at the pool, beach, restaurant, bar, club, even waiting in line at the women’s toilets. Yes, I have made a friend like that.  

First impressions

In the middle of my first week in Dubai, I moved to a studio at the beginning of Jumeirah Beach. The apartment block is called Royal Oceanic. 

 View from my balcony.

I have made a small list of my first impressions of Dubai.

Like:

-       Shops & supermarkets are open until 10pm  (Hooray, shopping after work)

-       Multicultural for example two friends: 1 in a Burka and the other dressed like a western woman.

-       Cheap taxi’s

-       Friendliness of everybody

-       Sunshine ( Vitamin D!) … It’s perfect minus the summer.

-       Vibrant, city with the lights & skyscrapers

-       The beach is so close by … 5 minutes max. (I know you are jealous)

-       Diversity in activities (you can even go skiing!)

-       Men are still gentlemen; opening doors or letting you pass first.

Dislike:

-       Construction work everywhere (especially right across my studio)

-       Stares of the male population

-       Taxi men that don’t know where they are going (you better know the way yourself)

-       Need of a car as walking is not an option during the summer and the public transportation is not the same as home. (Still have to try it out)

-       Starting end of May until end of October this place will be hell as it gets reaaaaally hot &  humid

-       Planning of the roads (can be a bit confusing for people new to the roads)

-       Fresh fruit & vegs, a lot is flown in, but it does not taste the same like we have at home.

That is it for my first impressions. Hope to discover more in the next weeks. 

Job

The next step was going to our local partner in Dubai to meet the team. Most of my colleagues are Lebanese or Filipino’s. First impressions: friendly bunch, like to laugh and don’t take life too seriously. You can tell the work atmosphere is different here than in Belgium.  People are more relaxed. It also made me aware that not speaking “Arabic” is a small set-back. My colleagues often switch to Arabic. I can’t blame them, as it comes natural to speak in your mother tongue.  Once I am settled in, I will look for an Arabic course. I’ve been told the Lebanese accent is the loveliest one… So it’s swell that most of my colleagues are Lebanese. Hopefully I will be able to understand something after my course.

At the end of the year I should be an expert in Lebanese food, as at lunchtime we always seem to go to Lebanese restaurants. At the end of the year I will also be showing redrawal symptoms because of the nicotine. All my colleagues smoke. They tend to smoke during lunch for an anti-smoker like me…it’s not something I am used to. Not to say that I was so happy that finally a complete smoking ban is planned in Belgium for pubs & restaurants in June. Lungs, hang in there!

And whenever I hear “Lebanese”, I have to stifle a laugh because of our dear friend Barney Stinson. The HIMYM fans know what I am talking about. *blog five*

Arrival

Hi there,

First of all, welcome to my new blog.  Microsoft deleted my previous one, which I wrote in Germany, when they switched from Windows Livespace to Wordpress. So here we are, ready to start with a clean slate. In this new blog you will find information about Dubai, the people here as also the culture. Mostly you will be hearing about my experiences in Dubai.

It all started about 4 months ago, when I heard that my company was opening an office in Dubai.  I always wanted to work abroad and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Mind you, I never thought my first abroad work experience would have been in the Middle-East.  Somehow I always pictured it to be a European country or the USA.  I guess it made the opportunity even more adventurous. I informed my boss that I was interested to move there… and to my surprise a month later I was told I would actually be going to Dubai.

Time flew by, I was saying my goodbyes, packing my bags and on Sunday the 6^th of March it was time to leave. I hopped on a plane to Abu Dhabi from Brussels with Etihad. Ready to discover the unknown, I would be calling home for 1 year. I arrived at Abu Dhabi airport  late in the evening. As I did not feel like hanging around, I went straight to border control.  The border control took a while. I really wished I already had a resident visum, so I would be able to use the e-gate card, which is much faster. Maybe next time…

My new boss told me that changing money, prior to the trip was unnecessary.  I should be able to use the ATM machines. (Tip: For those of you coming to visit me. Most banks needs to unlock your card, as most of them have increased security. Which means you cannot use your card outside of Europe.) I was pleased to see my Maestro card working in Dubai. As this meant I would be able to handle my Belgian finances here without a bank account in Dubai. You need a resident visum to open a bank account. So this temporary solution is much needed, while I wait for the resident visum procedure to start.

My first thought when I stepped outside, as I was searching for the free Etihad shuttle bus: “Good thing I am wearing a jumper because the night is not as hot as I was expecting it to be.” The shuttle bus to Dubai took a bit more than an hour. As it was nighttime I could not see much throughout the bus ride except for the desert sand and some palm trees.  I did notice that the roads are larger and the driving is more aggressive. Once we arrived in Dubai I could marvel at all the skyscrapers and lights.

From the drop off I still had to take a 20min cab ride to my hotel (Amwaj Rotana) at Jumeirah Beach Walk. What I learned about the taxi’s that night:

-       You can only pay cash

-       Tips are expected

-       They do not always know how to get there

I got to the hotel and went straight to my room.  I fell asleep immediately.