I have found that regardless of where you live and what the gas prices are, there is a constant complaint about it. In the US when I left gas was roughly 3 dollars per gallon and people complain. When I was in Aberdeen gas was around 8 dollars a gallon and people complained. Now I am in Dubai and gas is a little less than a dollar per gallon and people are complaining.
I think that no matter where you live gas is just something to complain about.
Though I hear in Saudi you used to go the gas station and they would fill you up for free. Nothing to complain about there.
Showing posts with label aberdeen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aberdeen. Show all posts
2.29.2008
1.01.2008
Aberdeen iPod Bustedness
Right before I left for Aberdeen, I sold my last iPod and purchased a new one. It was a great purchase and was really happy for the extra space, especially on the flight over when I was able to watch a bunch of different movies. The first weekend I was in Aberdeen, I was bumming around the city and listened to music while I walked down to the City Centre and got accustomed to the city and what was around. It was really nice.
However, on my first day of work there, when I was heading home, I got in the taxi put my bag in the car and closed the door. The door stopped short of completely closing and bounced back open. I didn't immediately know why, but I looked down and noticed that it has hit my iPod pouch on my bag. As we drove away from the office I decided not to look at the iPod in hopes that maybe I hadn't slammed the door hard enough to actually break the device.
I got home that night and looked in the pouch to find that I had creased the iPod right at the bottom of the screen, which as it turns out is right about the middle of the hard drive too.
I decided to dissect it to see the inner working of a device that has made music easy to transport. As it turns out, the battery is much smaller than I imagined. It all seems put together in a way that makes it easy to replace just about any part of it. And there are lots of little pieces in it that seperate the components. Rubber pieces that keep the hard drive in place and a small metal plate that separates the screen from the battery and the hard drive.
Pretty interesting little deal if you ever destroy one beyond the point of repair, it was kind of fun to take apart.
10.24.2007
First Negative Reaction
Last night is the first time that I got the impression that someone here was offended because I am American. Most responses to finding out my citizenship are to have a conversation with me about something, or tell me where they have visited in the US.
Last night the response was, well we do things better here. I really felt she, the lady working at Blockbuster from which I rented movies, was offended that I would come to here country and rent movies.
Last night the response was, well we do things better here. I really felt she, the lady working at Blockbuster from which I rented movies, was offended that I would come to here country and rent movies.
10.22.2007
Update
I had fully intended on putting a post up once a day while I was traveling. It soon became apparent to me that it wouldn't be possible due to time constraints, ie work and trying to get around to all the things I want to do. It is also a bit difficult because, as some of you know from trying to talk to me online, my internet connection at my apartment blows pretty hard.
So, my posting will be more limited than I thought and there will probably be no pictures until I get home.
I have also found that due to those time constraints, I won't be traveling quite as much as I thought I would. I will however be heading to Amsterdam for work sometime this week and I am going to attempt to get to Glasgow this weekend.
I made it around Aberdeen pretty well this weekend. I got into the City Centre and to the Shore and I went to the Maritime Museum. I also got to Castle Gate, which seemed vaguely familiar from the movie Timeline, But I think they were at Castle Guard in that movie. Pretty interesting stuff in the city itself. For the size of the city, the City Centre gets pretty dang busy on the weekends, so much so that sometimes you have to wait through two lights to cross the street.
My taxi driver this morning asked why people in the States don't learn to drive manual transmissions. I didn't know how to respond, so I told him that people were into easiness and couldn't be bothered to remember shifting. I think it is a relatively accurate answer.
So, my posting will be more limited than I thought and there will probably be no pictures until I get home.
I have also found that due to those time constraints, I won't be traveling quite as much as I thought I would. I will however be heading to Amsterdam for work sometime this week and I am going to attempt to get to Glasgow this weekend.
I made it around Aberdeen pretty well this weekend. I got into the City Centre and to the Shore and I went to the Maritime Museum. I also got to Castle Gate, which seemed vaguely familiar from the movie Timeline, But I think they were at Castle Guard in that movie. Pretty interesting stuff in the city itself. For the size of the city, the City Centre gets pretty dang busy on the weekends, so much so that sometimes you have to wait through two lights to cross the street.
My taxi driver this morning asked why people in the States don't learn to drive manual transmissions. I didn't know how to respond, so I told him that people were into easiness and couldn't be bothered to remember shifting. I think it is a relatively accurate answer.
10.14.2007
The Oddities
I am still pretty tired. Stayed up until 9pm local time and then slept until 8 this morning. I may have to take a nap today. However, I think if I needed to I could probably go to sleep. I have spent the morning wondering whether Mark, Sara, and Paul finished up with all 6 Star Wars movies yesterday.
Anyway, here is a post I wrote last night prior to bed:
First, the biggest hassle thus far is that I basically have to start up my hot water heater when I want hot water. So prior to taking a shower I have to walk into the kitchen and start the heater, then wait a few minutes, then go start the shower.
The next problem has to do with that too. By turning the temperature of the hot water up so that I can take a shower, I am also turning the hot water on that heats the house, thus the house starts to get very warm, so I have to open a window to cool it down.
It took me roughly an hour to cook a frozen pizza in my oven, I think this has more to do with the fact that I don’t understand the oven more than anything, but it still sucks.
My dishwasher is a box that sits on the counter, and my clothes washer also dries clothes, which seems to be common as I watched a few television shows where people had the same thing.
The Grocery store is more like a big 7-11, which I actually kind of like. Basically they have everything you could need, but there isn’t an enormous selection. So you can get Frosted Flakes, but you can’t choose from 40 different off brands. You can get frozen pizza, but you can only get cheese or pepperoni, nothing else. Speaking of groceries, I bought a 2 liter bottle of Coke, the bottle is tall and not fat. It is odd because of the way I am used to seeing bottles.
On top of everything, this country is crazy expensive. A gallon of gas costs almost 10 dollars by the way I figure it. A loaf of cheap bread cost almost 4 dollars. The only thing that is cheaper is beer. I think a six pack of good beer cost me something like 4 dollars. Though, Corona was around 10 dollars for a 4 pack.
Anyway, here is a post I wrote last night prior to bed:
First, the biggest hassle thus far is that I basically have to start up my hot water heater when I want hot water. So prior to taking a shower I have to walk into the kitchen and start the heater, then wait a few minutes, then go start the shower.
The next problem has to do with that too. By turning the temperature of the hot water up so that I can take a shower, I am also turning the hot water on that heats the house, thus the house starts to get very warm, so I have to open a window to cool it down.
It took me roughly an hour to cook a frozen pizza in my oven, I think this has more to do with the fact that I don’t understand the oven more than anything, but it still sucks.
My dishwasher is a box that sits on the counter, and my clothes washer also dries clothes, which seems to be common as I watched a few television shows where people had the same thing.
The Grocery store is more like a big 7-11, which I actually kind of like. Basically they have everything you could need, but there isn’t an enormous selection. So you can get Frosted Flakes, but you can’t choose from 40 different off brands. You can get frozen pizza, but you can only get cheese or pepperoni, nothing else. Speaking of groceries, I bought a 2 liter bottle of Coke, the bottle is tall and not fat. It is odd because of the way I am used to seeing bottles.
On top of everything, this country is crazy expensive. A gallon of gas costs almost 10 dollars by the way I figure it. A loaf of cheap bread cost almost 4 dollars. The only thing that is cheaper is beer. I think a six pack of good beer cost me something like 4 dollars. Though, Corona was around 10 dollars for a 4 pack.
10.13.2007
The Trip Thus Far
I woke up pretty early friday morning in order to induce tiredness so that I would sleep on the flight from Houston to Amsterdam at some point. In retrospect, this was a poor decision. The flight from Midland to Houston was easy. I had a three hour lay over in Houston during which time I corresponded with my mother via email from my phone. I don't know that I could have handled it otherwise. There was very little to do there. I also sent a few other emails as the opportunity presented itself, such as my email to Mark entitled, "worst food court ever".
The plane boarded about an hour prior to flight time in Houston, and as my travel agent had said, very few people sit near the galley. It must have something to do with the obnoxious flight attendants making sure that no one can sleep. It wasn't really that bad, but I feel like every time I thought I was going to fall asleep, one of them would open the curtain and shine a 9000 watt light bulb at my face. The point to be taken from this is that near the galley is comfortable and not many people sit there. There were two of us in row 24 with the center seat open, which allowed me and the Indian, proper Indian not the American variety, to spread out quite a bit and be comfortable. Bobby and I talked quite a bit at the beginning of the flight and near the end and for a while in the middle as neither of us could sleep.
As it turns out, Bobby and I had quite a bit in common, at least according to him we did. He is a diamond dealer. He was on his way to India to purchase diamonds and take them back to the US. He kept harping on this point, to which I continued to respond, "yeah", or "uh-huh". Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the company.
They showed a couple of television shows and a few movies during the flight to Amsterdam that helped out quite a bit with the boredom. Over all it was a good experience. I had a few beers and they served a pretty good lasagna for dinner and a cold "egg on a biscuit" for breakfast, and they were continually around asking if you needed somthing to drink.
In Amsterdam, both Bobby and i had layovers, so we grabbed a cup of coffee and talked for a little while longer. Interesting fact about Amsterdam, they don't worry about you stealing their coffee cups. I told the guy I might walk around, could I have a paper cup. He responded, that cup (the nice ceramic one) could go anywhere, just leave it on a table when I was finished. That would never fly in the United States because some dumb ass would steal the damn cup. After that, I went to my gate, where they screen you through security, and them make you wait in an uncomfortable room to check your passport, and then make you wait in an uncomfortable room to have your ticket ripped, and then make you walk down the jet way and wait in line again. There was a line in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy that I was reminded of, I think it was, "if there is one thing the English are good at, it is queueing up." I know I was in the Netherlands, but it reminded me of it anyway.
The flight from Amsterdam to Aberdeen is about an hour long. Nothing special happened, except that I noticed in Europe proper they call Diet Coke, "Coke Light".
My boss picked me up at the airport here in Aberdeen and brought me to my apartment. She seemed like she was in quite a hurry, so I kept telling her that she could leave and I would be ok, that we would talk Monday morning. She eventually did, and soon after I found out that my cell phone, that I was told would work here, does not work here. Following that I spent an hour trying to get a computer connected to the internet, for some reason the are still on the wireless B standard here, so the signal is bad, and it cuts in and out.
I woke up at 6 am Texas time yesterday and have still not really had any significant amount of sleep, so if mispelled a bunch of stuff or there are incoherent ramblings, attribute them to my lack of sleep.
Also, I roamed the streets here for quite a while and went grocery shopping. Two completely different experiences that I will write about at a later time. I also have some fun stories about my apartment so far that I will put up later too.
I have some pictures ready to go up, but I forgot my camera cable and my card reader, so I will put them up as soon as I get one or the other to transfer the pictures to my camera.
The plane boarded about an hour prior to flight time in Houston, and as my travel agent had said, very few people sit near the galley. It must have something to do with the obnoxious flight attendants making sure that no one can sleep. It wasn't really that bad, but I feel like every time I thought I was going to fall asleep, one of them would open the curtain and shine a 9000 watt light bulb at my face. The point to be taken from this is that near the galley is comfortable and not many people sit there. There were two of us in row 24 with the center seat open, which allowed me and the Indian, proper Indian not the American variety, to spread out quite a bit and be comfortable. Bobby and I talked quite a bit at the beginning of the flight and near the end and for a while in the middle as neither of us could sleep.
As it turns out, Bobby and I had quite a bit in common, at least according to him we did. He is a diamond dealer. He was on his way to India to purchase diamonds and take them back to the US. He kept harping on this point, to which I continued to respond, "yeah", or "uh-huh". Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the company.
They showed a couple of television shows and a few movies during the flight to Amsterdam that helped out quite a bit with the boredom. Over all it was a good experience. I had a few beers and they served a pretty good lasagna for dinner and a cold "egg on a biscuit" for breakfast, and they were continually around asking if you needed somthing to drink.
In Amsterdam, both Bobby and i had layovers, so we grabbed a cup of coffee and talked for a little while longer. Interesting fact about Amsterdam, they don't worry about you stealing their coffee cups. I told the guy I might walk around, could I have a paper cup. He responded, that cup (the nice ceramic one) could go anywhere, just leave it on a table when I was finished. That would never fly in the United States because some dumb ass would steal the damn cup. After that, I went to my gate, where they screen you through security, and them make you wait in an uncomfortable room to check your passport, and then make you wait in an uncomfortable room to have your ticket ripped, and then make you walk down the jet way and wait in line again. There was a line in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy that I was reminded of, I think it was, "if there is one thing the English are good at, it is queueing up." I know I was in the Netherlands, but it reminded me of it anyway.
The flight from Amsterdam to Aberdeen is about an hour long. Nothing special happened, except that I noticed in Europe proper they call Diet Coke, "Coke Light".
My boss picked me up at the airport here in Aberdeen and brought me to my apartment. She seemed like she was in quite a hurry, so I kept telling her that she could leave and I would be ok, that we would talk Monday morning. She eventually did, and soon after I found out that my cell phone, that I was told would work here, does not work here. Following that I spent an hour trying to get a computer connected to the internet, for some reason the are still on the wireless B standard here, so the signal is bad, and it cuts in and out.
I woke up at 6 am Texas time yesterday and have still not really had any significant amount of sleep, so if mispelled a bunch of stuff or there are incoherent ramblings, attribute them to my lack of sleep.
Also, I roamed the streets here for quite a while and went grocery shopping. Two completely different experiences that I will write about at a later time. I also have some fun stories about my apartment so far that I will put up later too.
I have some pictures ready to go up, but I forgot my camera cable and my card reader, so I will put them up as soon as I get one or the other to transfer the pictures to my camera.
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