Adventures in the Arabian Desert

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We travelled to the second highest mountain in the UAE and then took a half day safari to the desert.

2007 Abu Dhabi Terry Fox Run

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Annual Terry Fox Run in Abu Dhabi on February 16, 2007. It's approximately 7 kilometres that follows part of the Corniche. This year had about 8,000 participants and a majority were not Canadian expats.

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As I write this (11:00 pm) the UAE has just defeated Saudi Arabia in the semi-final game of the 18th biannual Arabian Gulf Cup. The celebrations are reminescent of National Day in December. Cars honking and engines reving and backfiring. I can see that traffic on the Corniche is backed up too. The host team (UAE) was an underdog going into the tournament and they barely squeaked into the playoffs. The UAE has never wone the cup so the country is pumped up for the final. I don't know who they play though. The defeat of defending cup champions Saudi Arabia is obviously cause for celebration. Despite the loud celebrations it nice to know that virtually none of it is alcohol induced. Just good, clean fun unlike professional sports victories in the West!

I forgot to mention that we just started subscribing to the Gulf News newspaper. It reputed to be the best English language daily newspaper in the UAE. It features several articles from the New York Times along with good European and Arab coverage. It only cost about $100 USD for the year so it's pretty cheap.

That's all for now. I better get to bed as tomorrow's Sunday and back to work. I have to get up at 5:15 am....

What's New....

We've been busy digitizing our music CD collection since we bought a 500 GB hard drive. It cost about $300 USD and is more space than we need at the moment. But over time I'm sure that we'll take advantage of the storage capacity. The first bit of news is that there will be a Formula I race here on February 3. It's not an official F1 event but is organized by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority. However, the cars will be barreling down the Corniche so we'll have front row seats. So we'll try and take some video of it.

A friend lent us his dvds of the Canadian television sitcom called Corner Gas. It's pretty funny and the character of Hank seems like a younger Joe Pecsi. The latest new Canadian sitcom is the CBC produced Little Mosque on the Prairie. At the moment it's blocked in the UAE due to it's "controversial" content. The first episode is at Google Video. It's generated a lot of news in the U.S. as it's the first television comedy about Muslims.

A couple of weeks ago we bought a sofa bed for the spare room. I also put one of our carpets from the Caucuses in there so the room looks a bit more comfortable.

Darcy cooked a delicious picnic dinner that we had on living floor. This was before we moved our two carpets to our guest rooms. We turned out the lights and burned a bunch of candles so it really felt like being in a Bedouin tent in the Arabian desert. Below are some photos of the dinner.

I found an interesting article published in the New Statesman...a special report on the world's top ten dictators. I was a little surprised to find that Dubai's Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum was on the list! You can read their analysis of the "Ceo of Dubai, Inc" on this page

Now that Darcy is working we decided to split doing chores. I now sweep and wash the floors and will also try and cook dinner sometimes. We bought our plane tickets last week. We depart on June 29 and return here August 12. We also booked three nights at Alpine Village in Jasper (our secluded honeymoon site). Unbelievably they only had the one room cabins left for that date. The site just began accepting reservations at the beginning of the month so it's good that we reserved now! That's all for now.....

Friday Muslim Call To Prayer

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A twelve minute recording of the Friday Call To Prayer taken from our apartment bedroom window.

Update!

Well, not long after I wrote my last blog post, I got an email from the HCT asking me if I could start work Monday. So, I guess I have the job! I still don't know much about it, and I'm feeling nervous and a little out of my depth at the moment, but I just keep telling myself that they know they are getting someone with no experience and that I will pick things up and do fine.

Now I need to go clothes shopping! And fast! I got rid of most of my old worn-out work clothes before we moved and have not done much clothes shopping since we got here. Plus I will have to adjust to working again...it seems so strange but I've been unemployed for almost a year now. 2006 as a whole went by so fast it seems a blur.

More news next week on how things go.

Post holiday

Sorry it's taken so long for me to upload our Christmas photos and post them...they are on my flickr account now so you can take a look at what our Christmas was like by clicking here!

We are slowly getting back to normal after the holiday season. We ended up quite busy through the holidays with Christmas and New Year parties, so after all the eating and drinking and socializing it's time to get back to a more moderate routine! We are going to take our Christmas tree down this weekend. Late to have it up still, I know, but with few of the regular "holiday season" markers--weather, street decorations, and so forth--we feel like we just put it up!

I have spent a lot of the post-Christmas time taking care of pets and plants for people who are currently on vacation. Some better behaved than others! My friend Rachel's tomcat is a real hellion and is even learning how to open doors himself, so that one has been quite a "challenge". My Arabic conversation class has also started up again, so I am in the middle of learning how to say "hello, how are you" and count to 20. I have also started doing the exercises in the Henna Page's Index of henna pattern elements in an attempt to improve both my skills and my atttempts at creating original patterns. It would be nice to get proficient enough that I could do henna as a part time independent business someday.

I have also had a few developments on the job front. I met some people at the Higher Colleges of Technology Library this week, and actually ended up in an impromptu interview due to their critical need for new staff. The job is in Acquisitions, Cataloguing, and Technical Services. I really have little to no practical experience in those areas but it sounds like they are looking for a willingness to jump in and learn the job as much as prior experience, so I think my chances there are good if our previously planned vacations for this year don't get in the way (the contract is a temporary one for six months, so I'm not sure what the vacation rules are like). I also met the Dean at the Zayed University library this week, and while they don't have a specific opening right now, she encouraged me to send in a resume for their files in case of future vacancies. I would really ideally prefer something part time, but if I don't start working soon I will have a lot of difficulty getting back into the field, so I am starting to feel like in the short term at least I should take what I can get. Especially if, as in the case of the HCT job, it will provide me with a lot of new skills and experience I would be unlikely to acquire elsewhere!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2007! To back track a bit, we had an ejoyable Christmas as I had the day off unofficially. Officially I was on call but no Christians or very few came to work on Christmas Day. I managed to make my Mother's French Breakfast Puffs and my Grandfather's Sin Fizz drink. They were delicious but quite filling. Darcy spoiled me with buying lots of nice gifts including the new iPod Shuffle. I spent my four day New Years and EID long weekend copying old Napster songs to iTunes. The songs weren't recognized by the software so I had to search many in Google to get the names.

I also got books from Darcy and her parents. One is called The Middle East From Space. Another title is a revised edition by HVF Winstone called Howard Carter and the Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankahmun. We took some photos on Christmas Day and Darcy will shortly post a link to them. We spent New Years Eve at a friends place and it was a fun time. So this was our first holidays spent outside of North America and it was an interesting experience celebrating the season in a Muslim country. We hope that the new year wil be full of happiness and good health for everyone!

Forgot to mention...

...The Sheik was at the mall when I went to go grocery shopping today!

I didn't see him...just the entourage of black cars with single and double digit licence plates accompanied by police. But, it's my first brush with royalty so I will milk it for all that it's worth ;)

Yuletide

So, the Christmas Pantomime is over and I can finally turn my attention to other seasonal preparations. The play literally seemed to come together at the last minute--we did not have a good run though with all props and costumes and lines remembered until the dress rehearsal 3 days before the performance! Missing cast members and some disorganization throughout rehersals all contributed to the last-minute crunch. But, we pulled through and the whole thing seemed to go pretty well. Only a couple of my friends saw this one. A fellow Edmontonian from the PI said that I was "disturbingly good at playing a lecherous man", so I guess I managed to pull my part off. I was worried a little, because I had never done a panto before--or even seen one!--and so I was unfamiliar with the stock characters, mannerisms, and conventions. I seem to have got enough thigh-slapping in there, though, and ultimately if the audience likes it then you can't complain.

The one thing I was really worried about was making it through all the shows and rehearsals wearing the Instruments of Torture: four inch stiletto boots. I thought they fit when I first tried them on, but something must have been off because while I have worn heels that height or almost that height before, I have NEVER had such pain from shoes. After some of the rehearsals my feet were still hurting two or three days later! And that's from just going on stage for my scene, going off, and sitting down until I have to go on again. Anyway, FORTUNATELY I finally got enough padding and "stuff" inside them to make them marginally wearable. It took cotton balls in the toes, three pairs of insoles, gel cushions, foam padding for the balls of my feet, and thick socks, but I got there. I was still uncomfortable when wearing them, but when I took them off the pain went away shortly. The only other explination I can think of is either nerves exacerbating the pain beforehand or adrenalin helping me ignore it during the show.

I have too many photos to post as a blog entry, so I posted the pictures I took in my Flickr gallery. You can see them by clicking here.

Since then, I've been busy with other Christmas activities. I baked gingerbread cookies, and made ginger almond biscotti. I think I have finally finished my Christmas shopping, and almost done wrapping. I have also been out getting things for Christmas dinner. I was originally going to roast just a turkey breast, but I couldn't find one (turkey is not a normal product here). So we are getting the whole stuffed bird again this year, which means shopping for dishes and other necessities as well as for food and drink. We've also got a few more party invitations this weekend. It's hard to believe that Christmas is only a few days away!

Season's Greetings!

I can't believe that Christmas is less than two weeks away! Luckily the cooler weather and shorter days make the season feel a bit like the holidays. I went Christmas shopping today and a helpful clerk from Lebabon wished me a Merry Christmas. It probably doesn't sound like it's worth mentioning but it's the first time that I've heard the word Christmas spoken by a non Christian. I didn't expect to see as many signs here proclaiming Christmas and having photos of Santa. I saw one sign that had Happy Holidays in English and Arabic. A Marks & Spencer store has a three story Christmas tree! There's also a large model of Santa with his sleigh and reindeer.

We've had our Christmas tree decorated for a while and it looks nice. I haven't had a tree this big since 1993 while this is Darcy's first large fake tree. We're able to use diffusing pine scented oil in order to make our tree feel more natural. I need to wrap presents and put them under our tree. Darcy wants to do some Christmas baking next week. It's too bad that we both didn't bring our family recipe books!

Darcy's Old King Cole play finished its three day, four performances yesterday. It was interesting to be a backstage hand from my standpoint. However, my brief involvement in the play was a time committment whlile Darcy's was much bigger. I don't know how people can memorized lines and act at the same time. It was difficult enough for me to remember which props had to be moved around in between scene changes!

That's about all for now....

Catching Up

I see that Michael has not been posting on the blog...well...guess I will have to take on the burden of bringing everyone up to speed.

We spent the weekend of American Thanksgiving having a traditional turkey dinner with friends. Much good food was eaten, much wine was drunk, and much fun was had playing cards. I do have some incriminating video from the night in question, but I will be nice and not post it online for the world to see :)

Believe it or not, we have had MORE rain!!!! Last weekend it absolutely POURED all day Saturday. There have also been a few other scattered showers in the past week or 2. I think we have now had the equivalent of over a year's worth of rain...and all in about 10 days! Michael and I always seem to bring atypical weather with us wherever we go.

The rain put a bit of a damper on the National Day celebrations here, which took place from the 1st to the 3rd. National Day is the anniversary of the UAE becoming its own country independent from the British--previous to 1971 it was a protectorate. It's strange to think that the country is only about as old as I am, and that all this urban development has taken place in so short a time. Wind the clock back two decades and there was not much more than sand, small fishing villages, and beduin tribes living off dates and camel milk. It's amazing how much this area has accomplished in so little time.

Michael got a long weekend for National Day, which was nice. There were fireworks on Friday night...we could see them from our apartment building's front door, but sadly I forgot to bring my camera down with me when we went to investigate what "that loud banging noise" was. Both Friday night and Saturday night the Corniche road was packed to a standstill with people out celebrating. Cars full of people all hanging out the windows cheering; people standing up through the sunroofs and riding on the roofs and hoods of the vehicles; loud music playing, and lots of noise as people spun their tires or gunned their engines until they backfired. Some people were dressed up, and some people had decorated their cars with hearts in UAE colours, flags, and pictures of the late Sheik Zayed and his two oldest sons, the current ruler of the UAE and the crown prince and ruler of Dubai. There was dancing in the streets--even some women who uncovered their hair and tossed it around Khaleeji style!--and much fun. We captured some of the chaos with my camera, and posted a rough video of the night on our video site at darcyandmichael.blip.tv. Blip.tv does allow you to imbed your video on blogs or other sites now, but I haven't been able to get it to link up to this blog properly yet, so for now you will have to click off Inshallah to see it.

The rehearsals for the Christmas Pantomime continue, though I am starting to be afraid that we will NOT be ready for our opening on Wednesday! Michael has been recruited to work backstage, so he will be back there with me during the shows, which is nice even if it will impede our ability to get photos of video of the show in progress. I have all my costume bits finally, and with the waistcoat, ruffled shirt, four inch stilletto boots, and tricorn hat with feather I look more piratical than Lord Chamberlainish, but my costume is less embarassing than some so I am DEFINITELY not complaining. Just this week, we finally managed to find a song for me to sing...Woman in Love from the movie version of Guys and Dolls. Cutting it close much? whew! I am also a little worried about the fact that I have to spend much of the first act hopping in high heeled boots that don't seem to fit very well. BUT, the show goes up on the 13th, and three days later it will all be over, so I am trying not to worry about the incidentals too much.

Last night we attened a wine tasting hosted by one of the local liquor shops, which was fun. It was in the same hotel we were staying at when we first got here. They provided grazing food and desserts, which were quite lovely, and there were 10 tables of wines from different countries to be tasted and compared. Nice to be able to sample some expensive wines, chat with the experts, and compare all the different varieties. I know, what a decadent life we lead :)

Apart from that we are just trying to get ready for Christmas. We have finally mailed our cards, and we are putting up our tree this weekend. We do have a couple of parties to go to already, and after the play is over I will have to seriously start cookie baking and planning our Christmas dinner. Michael is being his usual UNHELPFUL self as far as Christmas wish lists goes...he always asks for boring things like socks or shirts or other things he "needs." I keep on trying to tell him that presents are not for things you NEED but things you would LIKE--fun rather than necessity--but he seems to remain unconvinced. Well, at least he can't ask for a cheque this year! Any money I gave him would be his already!

Enough for now...hopefully Michael will provide the update next time!

It's raining!

We got quite a surprise today. It rained at about 1:30 this afternoon! I noticed the sky getting dark...then the rumble of thunder...I grabbed my camera and got outside just as conditions went from a sprinkle to a full-on downpour. The clouds were very low, and moving incredibly fast--I could see them being pierced by a tall building across Khaled bin al Waleed street. Winds were gusting very high; high enough that a chair at the side of our building flew out into the parking lot and hit a car! Trees were whipping around and I could see fierce gusts of rain and wind whipping down the street. The gutters and streets were flooded. I felt right at home, back in the middle of a typical Florida afternoon storm!

Apparently the UAE gets about 6 to 10 cm of rainfall yearly. After today we should be at least halfway there...

happy housewarming!

This has been a pretty party-full weekend. We had our own housewarming party last night! We think it went fairly well...we didn't really run out of anything, lots of people came, and everyone seemed to have a fairly good time. The last guests did not leave until after 3am, so it was a pretty late night!

I had to do some last-minute shopping for decorations and such, and I was also lucky enough to find some household things that I actually liked in the stores. Maybe it was just that the seasonal stock and end-of-range sale stuff this summer was not to my taste...or maybe after a couple months off from house shopping I don't feel so burnt out on it all...but I like a lot more of the things on offer right now than I did when I was out every day trying to find the "least offensive to the eye" furnishings. I got some new curtains for my sanctuary, some cushions for the couches to match the ones from the souk in Sharjah, and some nice candleholders and accessories. We also borrowed a drill and managed to hang one of our divider/curtain thingys that we bought at IKEA months ago...we tried to hang both but encountered problems drilling into the solid concrete seems to comprise our ceiling and all our walls. As it is, to be honest, I am not really 100% convinced the one we did manage to hang will not fall down at some point. But at least it held up for the party!

So between shopping for the house, shopping for the food, shopping for the drinks, uploading music to our computer and figuring out how to set up iTunes to be our DJ for the evening, cleaning, decorating, rearranging the furniture and preparing our buffet I was pretty busy this week! By the time the party was set to start I was almost ready to go to bed for a nap! But, we had a good time and it was all worth it in the end. Bigger parties like this one actually may not be as common here as we are used to. Michael said more than one person commented during the night that smaller dinner parties are more the norm. Both types have their charms but every once and a while it is fun to get everyone you know together and have them meet each other!

I've created an online gallery from some of the pictures we took...you can view it by clicking here.

Hallowe'en party

This evening, our friend Rachel hosted a Hallowe'en party. It was a relatively small gathering...a dinner party rather than a big event. I got to meet some more people from the PI and FINALLY see Rachel's apartment and her two new kittens, who are very tiny and VERY cute!

I didn't know about the party until a couple days before, so it was a bit of a last-minute scramble for me to get a costume. I ended up improvising an "American Tribal Bellydance Lite" costume from some things I brought from home and a few pieces of fabric I bought in Sharjah. Michael wore his biking gear and went as Lance Armstrong.

Here are a couple photos of my costume, and a group photo from the party. You can see my new sanctuary curtains in the background of my photos!

post vacation details

Well, we are just back from a week in Sharjah and Al Ain. Sharjah is an emirate to the north of us...so close to Dubai that they are kind of blending together as construction expands the sprawl. It markets itself as the cultural capital of the UAE because of it's many heritage and arts attractions. It's much more conservative a culture, and still dry, unlike Dubai or Abu Dhabi. We were in the older area of town, which was interesting to say the least. The kind of place where you have a restored historical fort next to a normal looking highrise bank building next to a crumbling slum where the poorest labourers live. I would stay in this same location again, actually, because it was a facinating mix of places and people within walking distance of the galleries, historical and heritage areas, and souks, but I would NOT stay in the same hotel. we were right above a taxi stand and a square with a tent market selling cheap goods where hundreds of the local Indian and Pakistani men came to socialize and hang out every evening. So very noisy 24/7, very crowded, and extremely difficult to drive in and out. Strangely, the traffic and the crowds disappear about a block in every direction! Also, the restaurant in our hotel was terrible. I actually got sick one night we were there, though fortunately it came on quickly and did not last long and I was fine for the remainder of the trip.

We saw many more men holding hands and walking with their arms around each other than you do in Abu Dhabi. Actually, we saw very few women on the street period! I don't know if the population in this district was made up more of men who left their families at home to work here, or if it was just because more of the women were at home or running home-related errands, due to the more conservative mindset, rather than out on the street with the men. We saw very few other Western expats there.

We paid a visit to the central souk and ended up buying a couple of Caucasian carpets--deep reds and greys, and bolder tribal patterns. The souk is also known for its jewelry stores...I don't think I have ever seen so much gold in one place in my life! Beautiful Asian styles, totally unlike the things you see at home. We also visited some historic buildings and a couple art galleries.

After 3 nights there we travelled on to Al Ain, an oasis city in Abu Dhabi that borders on Oman. *Much* nicer accomodations there--the only options in Al Ain are 5 star!--and it is a quiet, peaceful, relaxing city. Unlike the other places we've seen in the UAE so far, the city is made up of low rise buildings, and since it is an oasis there are lots of trees and working date palm farms. There is also a mountain--Jebel Hafit--that we could see from our hotel room balcony. The woman we had our first UAE job interview with lives there, so we got to meet her in person; she took us up the mountain and out for dinner one night and met us for coffee the next day, where she introduced us to some other librarians that live and work there. We visited local coffee shops, the Al Ain Palace Museum, a couple of the oases, the Al Ain National Museum and Sheik Zayed Fort, and also managed to find time to relax by the pool and hang out.

So for the most part a very good vacation.

Almost every woman I saw had lovely henna for Eid. I wonder about it though...whether it was wholly natural or not. The colour was such a uniform mahogany, and often little to no variation from fingers to hands to wrists and forearms. It would be sad if adulterated henna was the norm here. I still haven't gone out and found a salon to do henna on me, so i don't have any personal experience yet. Mostly the very flowery Gulf/IndoArabic style, with a lot of dipped fingers.

Lots of the little girls were out in their sparkly new Eid clothes...so cute!

where we were this evening

Turkish coffee, shisha and chocolate...mmmmm....

crazy streets

Well, since we have a new car it was time for me to bite the bullet and start driving. Not a wholly comfortable proposition. Traffic here is....well....slightly less than sane. Especially during Ramadan when everyone is lightheaded from hunger and dehydration! Tailgating is routine, as is speeding and merging without warning or ensuring you have enough room. Add to all this the fact that if an expat and a national get in an accident, the expat is automatically at fault...and...you have a recipe for nervousness! However, after a couple of successful short trips to the mall and the grocery store, and a drive from Michael's work back home (a half hour highway drive), I am feeling a little more confident on the road. So far so good! Michael has created a video about the car...take a look for it in our video postings at http://darcyandmichael.blip.tv.

So far I have learned that the concept of "letting someone in traffic" is definitely not understood. I tried to let someone merge my first trip out and caused confusion, to say the least!

Of course, we do still have to take taxis to go out anywhere where we will be drinking. There is an absolute zero tolerance policy for drinking and driving, due to Islamic views on alcohol consumption. Being caught in a car with any alcohol in your system at all is an invitation for legal problems. Apparently the current city taxis are going to be phased out during the next year, which will mean that taxi fares will go up by a lot. But then if you double the price of a one or two dollar taxi ride, you ar still getting around pretty cheap!

This weekend was a pretty busy party weekend for us. The tradition of Ramadan house parties continues even if bars do now open during the holy month. On Thursday night, the cast of The Flesh Game met for a belated cast party/potluck dinner. Our director had gifted us with a bottle of champagne on the final night of the show, and this is the first time we had been able to get together to drink it! Last night we were at the home of a couple we met through the PI (the husband works there) for dinner and drinks. They've posted some pictures on their blog...if you'd like to see us and some of the people we know here you can click here.

Other than that, we are looking forward to our vacation trip to Al Ain and Sharjah at the end of the month. There are supposed to be a lot of good souqs in Sharjah, so we are hoping to get some Christmas shopping done!

Celebrating Thanksgiving and a new addition to our family

Happy Thanksgiving to our friends and family in Canada! Darcy cooked a delicious dinner and we had nice Chilean wine. Big news is that I drove home our new car on Saturday. Darcy had a name picked out for it - Galahad. The car is really nice and it seems really strange to be driving a brand new vehicle! I have to pay the interest free loan back over four years. The price was about $28,000 USD which is pretty good. We took some photos of the car and we're in the process of making a video of our new addition to the family. Stay tuned...

a new bike!

Well I continue to spend money like there's no tomorrow. Last weekend I went with my work colleague to Dubai to the only reputable bike store in the UAE. It's called Wolfi's . I decided to buy a road bike as my previous bikes have been mountain bikes. This way I have two different types. I had no intention of buying one but I test road two (rode around the block) and really liked the light weight feel. So I decided to treat myself (again) and bought a Scott CR1 . The gave me free clip shoes and clip pedals. But I also needed to buy one pair of shorts, fancy bike shirt, gloves and a helmet. But I think it's worth the high price tag in the long run and I told Darcy that she can spend that much on herself too.

I'll put the bike in the car and drive to work sometimes to ride near the university. My colleague rides out there and there's not too much traffic yet. It's a new development area and It's flat like South Florida so I should be able to get a good cardio workout. The timing is good as the Calypso cardio machine that I've been house sitting for will be picked up in a few days. I can also bike on the corniche bike path that follows the water. It's about four miles long but I'll have to watch out for pedestrians. People often walk on the separate bike path.

The citation for my journal article is:

Article title: A Library of One's Own: A Survey of Public Access in Florida Academic Libraries
Subjects: Academic libraries, Library resources, Public access, Polls & surveys
Author(s): J Michael Shires
Document types: Feature
Document features: Tables, References
Publication title: Reference & User Services Quarterly. Chicago: Summer 2006. Vol. 45, Iss. 4; pg. 316, 11 pgs
Source type: Periodical
Text Word Count 7261
Abstract (document summary): Public users represent a small but growing clientele in academic libraries. Many academic librarians grapple with the issue of serving public users, partially because of shrinking academic library budgets and growing user demands. This article presents data from a 2002 survey about public access in Florida academic libraries. A Web-based survey consisting of nine questions was sent to sixty-six libraries, of which thirty-six responded. Results show that while a majority of publicly and privately funded academic libraries allow public users to access their resources and services, many do not actively promote themselves to the community at large.

I'm still waiting for the new car to arrive. It should be ready to be picked up by this weekend. The big news for Darcy is that she auditioned for another play called Old King Cole and won the part of Lord Dan. The character is called a principle boy where a woman plays a man. It should be interesting for her. Since she has a role that means that I will be a stage hand in the play. I'm not sure how good I will be....