So, we had a little Thanksgiving dinner; no turkey though, we actually went to this really, really good Lebanese Restaurant, and in the great Thanksgiving tradition ate WAY too much food.
For the Dominican peeps, yep, that's fried cheese. Its the same type of cheese that is fried in DR, tastes the same. I guess we got it from the Lebanese.
The evening after we went to YAS Island (Ferrari World) for a Nelly Furtado show. I know, I know I'm not exactly known as a Furtado fan, but it was live music, some friends invited us and we had a blast !
The arena was enormous !
We stayed close to the "all drinks" and probably drank back all the lbs I've lost at the gym, but oh well, back to the gym !!!
Even met some Dominican guys !
Lil clip of the performance:
I'm going to be alone for the next couple of days. Made leaves tonight to Bahrain for work which is good for her, but sucks for me. 1) I'll be alone here for a couple of days 2) and more importantly, I want to go to Bahrain also !!! : ( Maybe next time. I have to work, so cant go.
Forgot to put this pic up, this is from when we went to see the Berlin Philarmonic at the Emirates Palace. This is how crazy Abu Dhabi is, on your way to see the BERLIN PHILARMONIC you pass by an exhibit of Alberto Giacometti.
By the way we got these new friends that always come to our ledge.
A couple of weeks back me and Made went to the Corniche to check out some bands, and they had this huge campaign going on. Yep its people playing a sideways soccer game while hanging from ropes. Pretty cool. Think they're trying to get the World Cup? You bet !!
So, we've been living here for over a month, and while we're not Abu Dhabi "experts" I would still like to address some questions/concerns/misconceptions that our friends and family brought up before our trip.
So here we go!
- Is Made going to have to cover her head?
This was by far the biggest question brought up. No, Made doesn't have to cover her head. While there are many women in the UAE that do cover their head or even wear a burka, its not mandatory. So when you see here women covering themselves it is more of a choice, or basically an embrace of their culture.
But if women go to a Mosque (yes, you are allowed to enter a Mosque regardless of being Muslim or not) they do have to cover their head, and of course men are not allowed to enter in shorts or sleeve-less shirts.
- Alcohol !!??
..and you know I lovesss me some drinkage.
Yes, you can drink here, BUT you can't drink everywhere. Alcohol is mostly sold in hotel bars. So, to get your drink ON you have to go to a hotel. The nightlife here revolves around hotels.
You're not allowed to keep alcohol in your house unless you have a liquor license. To get a license, you have to do some paperwork. Basically your boss has to approve your license and based on how much you earn you're allowed a certain amount of alcohol a month (from what I hear its a substantial amount) to keep in your house.
We don't have a license, but its ok since we have a bar practically on our backyard....hehehe.
- PORK
Yep, you can get that too ! Some Delis/markets have a "Pork Section." Muslims are obviously strictly forbidden from entering there, (trust me there's a big sign reminding them) but you could basically get your bacon on ! I love Pork, but I honestly have not had the crazy urge to go and get pork, so its ok. Plus, it doesn't really look fresh, probably been sitting on that freezer for months. But if you want pork you could get it !
- is it dangerous?
Nope, its not Iraq. Basically, there's almost 0% crime here, and I LOVE IT !! Of course if you commit a crime here you pay dearly, so I guess people think twice before committing a crime. And again, its not 0%, there is crime, but very little. Most common crime is a mugging of some drunk expat walking down a lonely dark area by himself at 3 am. At that point you almost deserve it.
That's one thing that makes you almost stay here. Think about this, going to an ATM and not having to watch your back, leaving your car outside unlocked, kids leave their toys in front of their houses and no one touches it, unlocked bikes, etc, etc.
Yeah, I can get used to that.
- Other religions
Since I'm not really religious don't have much to say about this, but there are churches in the UAE. In fact, just a couple of days ago I read this article on The National
- Women can't wear revealing clothing
You can, but its best not to, mainly out of respect, but trust me I've seen mini skirts in this city that would make New Yorkers blush, and yes, Arabic women wearing them. This of course is mostly at nights going to the clubs and things like that. Again, you could wear it, but it's still best to respect the local custom.
Plus some people might assume that you are a "lady of the night" and yes, they got those too.
- Holding hands and Public Displays of Affection
Yep, you can hold hands. You shouldn't go around making out in public, but its ok for me to hold my wife's hand or hug her. In fact, its not completely out of the ordinary to see Arabic couples holding hands.
- Family life
No one really brought this up since we don't have kids, but I do want to say something about it. If you don't like kids, DO NOT come to Abu Dhabi. This is one of the most children-friendly places I've ever been to. It seems like children can pretty much go to any restaurant; so everywhere you go there's always large families with their kids; and waiters, it seems, are almost required to play with the kids and take care of them. A common sight here is to be at a restaurant and see a family eating dinner while two of the kids are running around the restaurant playing, and this is completely normal here. So its great for families.
Dubai is very cool; I dig it, yet somehow I seem to like Abu Dhabi more. Dubai is of course spectacular, and we were only there for about a day in a half so we only scratched the surface. The thing about Dubai is that its not really a city; or at least it doesn't feel like a city. It looks more like what a city in the future would look like, but in a kinda' spooky way. When you enter the city there's tons of buildings and roads/bridges everywhere but it almost feels like you are in the set of a Sci Fi movie of the 70's.
Our fist stop of course was the Dubai Mall, which is the largest mall in the world, and its amazing. Needless to say they got all the big stores, and they added an aquarium, a souk, ice rink, etc, etc, I mean its huge.
They also have the biggest fish-tank I've ever seen, maybe the largest in the world, its like 3 stories high! Huge !
That first night we met some friends at a very cool outdoor bar near the beach and that was a lot of fun. I didn't take any pictures 'cause I guess we were having too much fun.
Next day we went to the Gold Souk and that was very cool.
We were seeing gold pieces worth thousands of dollars, pretty crazy how there's not that much security around. Maybe they are undercover??
We also tried to get to the top of the Burj Kalifa.
This is the tallest tower in the world and Made's company built it, but it was all sold out; so we had to appreciate it from the outside. Maybe next time.
Drive back was cool, by the way its about an hour drive. Our cab driver was this really nice man from Pakistan who apologized numerous times to us because it was almost time for his prayer (you know, 5 times a day?) and he had to stop at the gas station to pray.
(That's him on the left, prayer room on the right)
We stopped and he went and came back running. I always wondered how long the prayer takes but its only about 5 minutes.
There are prayer rooms everywhere here, even malls ! But when you hear the call to prayer is not like everybody rushes in; I guess its more like a suggested time to pray? not really sure. It seems like you can pick on your own 5 times of the day you're going to pray. I do like the call to prayer. As a "Western musician" I love hearing the Arabic melodies that they sing when they call to prayer.
Dubai - Abu Dhabi Road
Arriving to Abu Dhabi
My teaching job is going well. The kids can be a bit much, but over all its a pretty cool job, and I am enjoying myself. You're NEVER bored at this job. I've heard from the School Principal that they are enjoying the music class, so maybe they're also learning something.
The kids are funny. One little girl always hugs me when she comes to class, she's REALLY excited about class, can barely sit still.
The Six graders are funny as well, they keep asking me if I speak Arabic. The other day they asked again and I said "I'm sorry I don't speak Arabic" and this girl replied, "well, we ask because you look Arabic, but that's a good thing ! We don't mean it in a bad way!".
Last night we went to the Emirates Palace to see the Berlin Philarmonic Conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Man, that was AMAZING !!
They have these great concerts here as part of their "culturization" of the UAE, so you get to see all these amazing bands, and orchestras for practically half the price you would pay in the States or Europe and there's tons of free concerts !
By the way next week is a holiday here, we get 3 days off for the Hajj Pilgrimage. Thankfully the Education Department of the UAE decided to just give the kids the entire week off, needless to say us teachers are pretty excited as well.
Oh by the way last night we experienced our first (thankfully mild) sandstorm.
Its kinda scary, and again this was mild, but the sky gets kinda cloudy and the wind is blowing this very fine grain sand all over.
A student of mine told me that last night his older brother left the one of the windows in their car open, and well, this morning they found tons of sand in it ! That's gotta suck !
This pic actually makes look worst than it was:
Here's a quick video I did. You can tell it wasn't that bad, but at times it really blew, and it went on all night.
I got the job !
Well, temporary. Basically I am the Substitute Music Teacher. I'll be there until the December break. Teacher is on Maternity Leave.
I am working at a private school and I teach children from Kindergarten (yes ! I know!) to 6th Grade.
This school? wow, I wish I had gone to a school like that. The Music Room, (yes, they have their own Music Room) is bigger than some of the "big" classrooms at Berklee !
They have tons of percussion, 2 pianos, guitar, full sound system for playing music, I mean, this is what a music room should be !
So I started on Tuesday (which is 3rd day of the working week here)and I was a little intimidated, but it went great ! The kids actually have a music education; they can already read music, so that makes it easier.
Now the Kindergarden kids? whoa, those are a little scary, but luckily their teacher is there and helps me out, they have the most fun though, they get a blast just by clapping loud or fast or slow.
So yes, definitely more blog posts to come about my new job.
By the way the school is in Khalifa City which is close by but the area is developing so its got a desert feel because of the distance between buildings.
Oh and speaking of buildings, from the front of the school you get a side view of this famous building: (by the way NOT MY PIC).
Also Masdar City is only about a 5 minute drive from the school. Made and I are eventually going to Masdar but we're trying to get a tour of the city.
Plans for this weekend??? DUBAI !!! baby.
We're finally gonna' go this weekend just from Friday to Saturday.
Its going to be hard leaving the hotel in Dubai. Made is going to cash in on her free hotel days, so were going to stay in a very nice place.
.