Life in Abu Dhabi

I've touched on this briefly already, but I'm currently ensconced in a furnished studio apartment. Which is fine, it's rent free and I have until the end of September to find a place to live. The only problem right now is it's Ramadan and life truly slows down here. The work day is shortened to 6 hrs and some people actually work split shifts. They may work from 9am - 12pm and then work from 7:30 - 10:30pm. It's just different. My boss wanted to meet with a gentlemen about some sports possibilities and the options he had for an appointment were 11:30am or 10:30pm. So seeing places to live has been tough.

I did look at one place that provided furnished apartments. Three bedrooms completely furnished, maid service, cable etc... Within walking distance of my office and the Downtown Campus classrooms, but they want just a little too much. Here you pay the whole years rent up front and in the case of NYU employees the school pays that for you as part of your housing allowance, but this place would have cost me money out of my own pocket and even though it's convenient and I wouldn't have to worry about furniture I decided to pass on it.

The few places I've seen are all pretty modern, marble floors, big windows, possibly great views of the water. There really aren't too many places that are old here since most of the buildings have gone up in the last 40 years.

I went out last week with some friends to the Carpet Souk which is essentially a couple of long buildings with maybe 30 carpet vendors in their own separate shops in each building. As we pulled into the parking lot they all started waving to encourage us to come into their shops. The four of us got through about 5 of the 60 or so shops. At that point the couple that wanted to buy a couple of silk rugs ended up making a deal with a guy for two Belgian silk rugs about 12' x 15' for AED 600 (which is 600 dirhams). So each rug was $163. We believe that is a relatively good price.

Interestingly enough across the street from the carpet souk was the slaughterhouse and as we were driving by we saw people walking out with dead goats in wheel barrels. Certainly a strange sight.

Next stop was the Fish Market, which I'm sure you can find in most cities right on the water and needless to say it smelled fishy and they had all the fresh catch of the day there and you could get it cut anyway you wanted.

I think it's starting to cool down a little here because I don't start sweating as soon as I walk out the door anymore. This past week we made the move over to our offices in Sama Tower where I live temporarily. So my commute is a ride on the elevator from the 17th to the ground then up a different elevator to my office on the 4th floor.

Next blog is about shopping again.

Stay cool,
Wayne