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.