So we went to watch soccer at the Emirates Palace last night. The palace is a huge seven-star hotel--so large that you need to travel to and from your room by golf cart! They have a grass amphitheatre cut into the grounds behind the hotel, and they put up a huge projection screen in the centre for the World Cup. Then they arranged red and yellow couches all around the amphitheatre for seating, and raised a big air-conditioned tent on top of it all. 150 Dirhams--about 40 US dollars--gets you in for the night, plus four drink tickets and all you can eat at the outdoor barbeque buffet, all with attentive service from the many available hotel staff (who really lucked out by being able to watch the Cup on work time!). Only here would something like this happen....just a little surreal!
In between the games (there were 3 played last night), they had a raffle to pick people to come up and compete in a playstation soccer game competition. I was picked to do this last night, and ended up playing against an Emerati man. Even more amazing, given my lack of experience with video games, I actually won! For my pains, I got to go home with a small gym bag filled with goodies: a World Cup water bottle, an Emirates Palace soccer uniform (shorts and shirt), an inflatable soccer ball, referee foul cards and whistle, and...a copy of the playstation soccer game. Too bad we don't have a playstation! I will have to find someone to give that to.
So, an interesting night overall.
We are otherwise still waiting for our apartment to be ready. I've been to a couple of places looking for furniture, but haven't found much yet. Not that I have a place to put anything yet anyway--or any money from our furniture allowance, which will only be released after the PI finishes with our lease. It will be nice to have a place of our own again after 3 months of living out of a suitcase, though, no matter how bare it is.
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