I'm in Dubai!

Hey ya’all! 

How's it going! I'm doing well, but missing NZ and everyone!

Terrible news – there’s almost no live music that's rock here in Dubai! There's some cover bands, but.. ugh. One of the best places for live music is Hard Rock Cafe! UGH! And it's crappy covers of songs I generally don't like. The only other place also is covers but more top 40 stuff. O.M.G. I think it's going to kill me!!! 

In other news, being a pedestrian here is terrible. You'll be walking along the footpath and it's footpath, footpath, sand, sand, sand! Sand in your shoes! The footpath just disappears. And sometimes there isn't a foot path and you have to walk along the side of the road. Everything is built really big and for cars. In summer apparently, it's way too hot to walk anywhere anyway. You would melt. Everyone taxis here - they are really cheap, but it still feels... wrong. I have been catching the Metro which is like the Underground, but above ground, new and clean. However, you still have to get to the Metro stations and they aren't as prevalent as in London. The Metro is super cheap though, so while it's 'winter' here, I've been catching it to work and walking the five minutes to the office. In summer I've been told it'll be too hot to walk the five mins. Crazy! Everyone walks really slowly here too. Which is infuriating. Maybe cos of heat they walk slow?, but it's not hot for them now - maybe it's hard to break the habit?

You know how I mentioned taxis are super cheap, well if I catch a taxi to work it's less than the minimum fare, so I pay that which is 10AED = $3.50ish. (But the metro is 1.80AED for the one stop to work and my apartment building is RIGHT BESIDE the metro station) And there's lots you can flag down on the street, except between 3 and 5pm when the shifts change. Then there's NONE around! And if you book one on the phone it takes ages for them to turn up. Actually, where we work seems to be almost unknown to taxi drivers as they can never find it. I do not know why. This is very aggravating. Also, some taxi drivers try to ask me how to get places. Clearly I do not know and so I have had them ring up the taxi company to get directions before

My flat is good now. It sucked at first cos there was heaps of maintenance stuff that needed to be done and I had to keep contacting the landlord. And then you have to arrange to get the power put on, and also the TV/internet/phone. Bureaucracy overload. I had to have heaps of papers. But its almost all done now. I’ve got a 1bdrm apartment in Dubai Marina right beside the Dubai Marina Metro station (seaside). I’m on the 12^th floor of a 14 storey building. It has a gym and pool. Not that flash, but it’s ok!

Guess what - we get free Diet Coke here at work!! (And Coke and Mirinda and Water) Yay!! I haven't gone nuts, but it's great! Unfortunately, one of the things about Dubai is the lack of recycling. I actually feel guilty drinking water as then you just throw out the bottle. No one drinks tap water here. We also don't have a tap or sink or anything in our office. I have a coffee cup and take it home to wash as I just can't bring myself to wash it in the toilets yet! We do have a microwave and a jug (which we fill with bottled water), but the instant coffee they provide is disgusting. And no milk. So I bring my own instant coffee and milk. Lots of people just buy their coffee from the coffee shop (Costa) right beside work, but it's really expensive! More than in NZ. It's about 15AED for an Americano, which is about $5. Which is way too much when I'm used to better quality coffee for $3.50 or $4 tops.

Continuing with recycling - there's not even paper recycling in the office. It pains me to have to throw out newspapers etc, but what can you do! And when you buy anything you always get a plastic bag and they often put in way more packaging than is necessary. Oh! That reminds me, when you buy fruit/veges you have to go to a counter in the produce section to get them weighed and stickered. Which means more bags as you kinda need to bag stuff to get a sticker stuck on it. But I have convinced them to weigh all my fruit (2 plums, a nectarine, a kiwifruit) separately, but put all the stickers on one bag with all my fruit in that bag. I don't know if I'll have that much luck in the future though. Especially at the bigger supermarkets where it's all super fast and queues to get produce stickered.

At my building we have a rubbish chute (no recycling). So at least I don't have to remember what day to put it out! Though I did dry retch when putting it out yesterday as the smell was rather unpleasant in the rubbish room (where the chute is). Nasty!

Anyway, that's all for now,

Emi xxx