After much thought and consternation, I have decided to blog some of my experiences. Thank you to my wonderful wife for pushing me to start this. Typically blogging would not be my cup of tea, but not too long ago, I would have said the same thing about visting the Middle East. So, here we go.

So I've been in Abu Dhabi for about two days now. My flight left SFO on Monday and I arrived Tuesday night after a 15 hour non-stop flight to Dubai. The international terminal at SFO has an impressive roof structure. (Typical engineer - checking out the structure!) The plane had an entertainment center in each seat with many options such as on-demand movies, on-demand TV shows, and video games. I finally watched Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - both very good. The entertainment center was also linked to cameras on the plane. I was able to watch the take off and landing as if I was sitting in the cockpit. The down camera allowed me to view Greenland as we passed over. I knew that some flights flew over (or near) the North Pole, but for some reason, I was really surprised when my plane headed North. My flight path included flying over Canada, Greenland, Sweeden, Finland, Russia, the Caspian Sea, and finally Iran.

I had a 1.5 hour taxi ride (in the dark) to Abu Dhabi from the airport in Dubai. The city of Dubai looks crazy (in the dark)! I passed the Burj Dubai (the tallest building in the world) but it was just a couple of lights very high in the air. I will have to go back on the weekend to explore the city more.

The AD office is small but very nice. I've attached a few pictures of the office. Gorka Garbayo is from Miami and has been here for about three months. He has been my guide so far, and I really appreciate it. The view from the office balcony includes the Corniche, which is the waters edge and runs the length of the Abu Dhabi. The Cornice is a road, but also a waterside walking and biking path. I have not yet walked along it, but plan to this weekend. I've attached a couple pictures of my room. It's very comfortable with it's leather couch and flat panel TV. The bathroom is private and attached to the room, but the kitchen is downstairs in the office. It feels a bit odd to be in the office in my PJ's making my breakfast before works starts, but, I suppose I will get used to it.



Hotels are where they serve alcohol to non-Muslims. So I guess you can say that I bar hopped last night as Gorka and I visited two or three hotels. Each location was very elegant and friendly. I spent a bit of money though! Cost for a night on the town is as much, if not more, than a night out in San Francisco. Taxi's are inexpensive and the main way to get around. Plus drinking and driving will get you imprisoned and then deported, so it seems like a good idea! I watched a football game (soccer) at one of the hotels and Chelsea beat Liverpool 1-3 (like I even care! ha!) It was fun though!


People here are "normal" enough. The national or traditional dress for men is the Dishdasha or Khandura, an ankle length shirt, typically white. Dishdashas are usually worn with a white or red-checkered head cloth known as a gutra and a twisted black rope-like coil, the agal. Under the headdress is a skull cap (gafia). National women wear a black abaya, a long, flowing black robe that covers their normal clothes, plus a head scarf, called a shayla. Many of the people here are not locals (or Expatriate) and dress like we do in the US, however, more conservatively. (http://www.zu.ac.ae/employment/html/histcult.html)

Today is my "Friday" because the weekend here is Friday and Saturday. The work week starts on Sunday. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do this weekend, but I'm sure it will be an adventure!

(by the way...uploading photos to this site is very difficult. Maybe I should post pictures somewhere else.)