End of Days

I am down to two days and change on my time in the Middle East, and while I am certainly not forgetting it, other people seem to be counting down the days as well. My current boss sends me an email each morning with the total time left until I get to Houston for instance.

I have now closed every account and returned everything that I need to return. The truck was the last thing on the list and I parted ways with it this afternoon.

I have had some things on my mind about moving to Houston and one of them is buying a house. I have decided that it is too much to ask of myself to find a house within 30 days of arriving, so I will look at houses with intent, but I will also scope out some apartments for the short term as well. I was also thinking about phone service. I return my company phone tomorrow afternoon and will be without phone service (for work) for about a week, more if I can't figure out who to talk to about getting a new phone set up. So I asked my new boss to look into it for me since he is in Houston and I am not.

Things I will miss about Dubai:
No real speed limit between Dubai and Abu Dhabi
High Speed Limits in most areas of town

Things I will not miss about Dubai:
Speed Bumps in the road (who thought that one up?)
Liquor Licenses

I will add to those lists as I settle in Houston.

5 Days and Counting

I am down to 4 days and some change until I move back to the States. Today I finished cleaning out the apartment and moved to a Hotel/Apartment. This place is better than the apartment I lived in and for roughly the same money. I should have just lived here. Nice place with breakfast in the morning and a bar, room service with a few items. They clean once a week. There are two televisions a bed, a couch, several televisions, dining table, a great kitchen.

Enough about the room itself though, I booked it for a 5 nights and I got the cheapest thing they had, a studio with a full sized bed. When I arrived the guy upgraded me and put me in a one bedroom with a king bed. I luck into a lot of great situations, including getting upgraded on flights and upgraded hotel rooms.

I am down to just needing to return my truck at the moment. Everything has sold and everything has been canceled. 5 nights, 3 days of work, 2 lunch outings, and a day of flying. Looking forward to getting home.

Pretty soon I will post a full write up of Dubai and then I will probably follow that up with posts about each country that I visited while I was traveling over here. Its been a good 16 months, but I am certainly ready to come home if for nothing else than that I don't have to have a license to buy alcohol (well, not a liquor license anyway).

Crisis Averted

I decided to check my itinerary today as I am scheduled to fly out tomorrow night back to Dubai. I am really happy I checked because there was something very wrong with my flight. Rather than book me on the non-stop flight back to Dubai, our travel guy booked me on a flight that stops off in Sri Lanka.

Seriously, who books anyone on a flight that stops in Sri Lanka right now?

Let me just book you on this great flight that stops in an active war zone where you will have to disembark the plane for 2 hours and sit in an airport in a mostly unstable country. I think that would be the best way to go.

So now I am on a flight that gets in 6 hours later than the original flight, but at least it doesn't stop in an unstable country.

Re-Organizing

In January we started some jokes around the office here in Dubai because we had heard that there were some changes coming to the company. None of us were totally sure what that meant. As time passed more and more we were joking about it.

In late March they changes were announced and they were pretty big. Quickly it was known that if you were a manager with the company your job was going to change significantly. The first round of announcements came out very soon after the first "change" announcement. But as time passed the announcements became more scarce and for people with the word "manager" in their title, time started to drag.

Work started to slow down, to the point now where I am only receiving 5 emails each night while I sleep compared to the 30 - 40 that I was getting prior to the announcements. Then the number of emails I was getting during the day slowed down. On top of that we aren't really making any decisions as a company until the whole re-organization is put together and as the new organization we start working, May 4th.

So far I have no place in the new company, but I was told by one person not to worry a few weeks ago. Turns out he couldn't have known anything as the structure for my current role hadn't been worked out yet. But that may have been a good thing, because now they are working out that structure and there are some vacant positions in other places. The most important of these to me is the US. What I know right now is that my name has been thrown to the people that are making those decisions, but I still don't know if anyone that is making the decisions has picked me for anything.

Overseas I would say my chances at maintaining my job are slim as there are a lot of other Inventory/Logistics Managers here that are far less expensive than I am, and I would assume the company is looking for the cheaper options for most of these jobs.

Within the next week or so I should know what I am going to be doing and where I am going to be living. I am hoping at this point that I am moved back to the States for a job, but will likely consider any job they throw at me.

Boxee

Pretty cool program. I might have to get an Apple TV at some point so I can use it on my television.

I will certainly use it to watch a lot of my HULU programming and maybe a few other shows.

Parents in Dubai Part #1

My parents arrived in Dubai on Tuesday night. I picked them up at the airport and brought them to my apartment. We then went to get something to eat.

The following day, I went to work and my parents spent the day walking around the area that I live in.

Thursday, I had to work again, but I suggested my parents go to the Dubai Mall to see the Burj Dubai, the Aquarium, the Discovery Center, and just the amazingness that is the Dubai Mall. I told them that I leave by 2 when I go out because at 2 everything starts getting busy. They followed my instructions, but questioned my judgment a little because, while they said it got busier, they didn't have a problem getting home.

Today, Friday, is the weekend in Dubai. We all woke up and had breakfast at the house. I made Eggs and Bacon, and bought some bagels downstairs. Afterward, we went down to the Walk at Jumeirah Beach Residence. My parents bought a few things to bring home to my nieces. We had decided that we were going to go to the horse races today, but we had some time, so we went down near the office so they could see where I worked.

At this point it was about 1 O'Clock and the races didn't start until 2:30. I decided to take a drive around by where I knew there was a Catholic Church so that my parents would know where it was for Sunday, but we ended up in a traffic jam that took us about 45 minutes to navigate out of.

We went to the horse races and mom said that it was a little too much the culture of the area, even though that is what she was asking for. We all decided that since there was no where to sit and because there was no food or drink, that we would watch a race and then go.

We drove down near JBR again to get dinner, but the traffic down there had gotten pretty awful as well, so we came home and walked down to get some Chinese food near the house.

Over all it was a pretty good day.

Tomorrow we are going to go to the Mall of the Emirates to see Ski Dubai and walk around a bit. After that we are going to get some Lebanese food and see Slumdog Millionaire.

More updates to follow.

Hit and Run

Yesterday morning I got to my truck and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. But as I was driving to work, I noticed my rear fender flapping in the wind. In the work parking lot I took a look at the back of my car and it was smashed up pretty bad. Apparently someone had hit my car in the apartment parking lot.

I called the police and told them what happened and asked what I needed to do. They advised me to dial the emergency number.

Not wanting to report something as an emergency that was clearly not, I asked around. Most people told me to go home and call the main police number and ask them to come by to write up a police report. Someone else told me I should just flag down a police officer on the street, and finally I was told just to take it to the police station and tell them.

I chose the third option. When I arrived at the police station I had to ask around for where I should go. I then stood in line for about 45 minutes waiting to be called. When I was finally called, I was told that this police station doesn't deal with one vehicle accidents. I needed to drive to the police station on the other side of town.

Once at the other police station I had another 45 minute wait, but when all was said and done, I got my police report and called my lease company. They handled it very well. They got me a new truck last night and took mine to get repaired.

On that note, they gave me a loaded FJ Cruiser. It is just one big blind spot.

Beginning to Travel

Tomorrow I start my first trip of 2009. I leave here on Saturday and fly to Bahrain and then head on into Saudi. I will spent 3 days in Saudi. Tuesday afternoon I head back to Dubai, but just for a layover. After about 2 or 3 hours in the airport I will head to Mumbai for a little less than 48 hours. I get in at about 3 am Wednesday morning and have 2 days of training. Thursday afternoon I will head back to the airport and come back to Dubai.

Kicking it off with a bit of a bang, flying about 3 thousand miles in 5 days. Hope I don't get sick again.

A couple days after I get back to Dubai, my parents arrive in to town.

Happy New Year

Emily has come to Dubai and is now on her way home to the States. We had a great week here. New Years Eve we went for a nice dinner at the Murooj Rotana and then to the Double Decker Pub for about 2 hours around midnight.

All together it was a great week and an especially good birthday.

Nothing Says Christmas . . .

Like all you can eat Thai food and all you can drink beer.

It was a good outing with some other expats from around the world. Now it is time to settle in for the night and follow my Thai beer with Mexican beer and Vodka. I think they will all get along.

Merry Christmas.

Happy Holiday I Won't Celebrate This Year

Thanksgiving is basically passed for me now. My day was relatively good, though I couldn't believe that they didn't have any turkey in the canteen today. I had some chicken for dinner and a crappy apple pie. I guess I will finish the night by playing a video game or watching some terrible television.

But, I hope everyone else has a great thanksgiving.

Pretty Bad

I have been pretty bad about updating recently, and for that I apologize. I hope that some of my funny little experiences have helped keep people interested.

The Boring:
Since I came back from the States, I have been working a lot. There have been some stupid things happening around the office, and around the company. At one point I was supposed to take over a different area, then it wasn't mine, now it looks like I might get it again. I have been traveling a bit, but for the most part they are trips that aren't much fun. I was in Saudi Arabia for 11 days, including a weekend. I was able to finish a bunch of books while I was there and felt good about reading. I am really happy in my Kindle purchase because of traveling.

The Annoying:
While I thought I would be coming home early, due to conversations I had with many different people, that will not be the case. For now I am trying to make a decision about if I want to come home next year, or if I want to stick it out a bit longer for the experience.

I mentioned it in the boring section, but I am a bit annoyed about it is my area, it is not my area deal. I am hoping that they come to a decision soon.

The Cool:
Again, I am kind of excited to pick up the new area because it would give me more places to travel every once in a while. It would be nice to go to places that look different than this. Sand and small bushes are ok, but they get a little boring after a year.

We have a very long weekend coming up and because of my boredom with the area, I have booked a 5 day trip to Athens, Greece. I got a pretty good deal on it. After that trip and some other trips that I have scheduled, I will certainly become a gold level traveler with Emirates Airlines. That is exciting because it means I get to use all the lounges and check in with the first class passengers regardless of how I am flying. The bonus to all of this is that I am earning a ton of miles that I can use with United when I move home and can hopefully have a bunch of free tickets when I get home.

Emily, the girl I am seeing not my sister, is coming to Dubai for Christmas and New Years. It will be a great week.

My parents then come at the end of January. That will be fun too.



That is it for now. I will try to update more often with what is going on.

Sitting Inside

I know it doesn't sound terribly uncomfortable, but I am sitting inside and it is 87 degrees. I am really wishing I hadn't walked to Starbucks tonight.

Six Months

I have hit the 6 month mark. 3 more just like it and I will be on my way home.

This month I didn't do a whole lot of anything interesting. I went back to Bahrain and to Saudi Arabia and it was a much different experience this time. On the way in I was stopped versus the first time I went where I was stopped on the way out.

I have been to India, which is something that I don't think I will ever forget. Depending on who you talk to, it is either the best time to go or the worst. The best according to the airlines who charge a ridiculous amount to fly there because this is when everyone takes their vacation to go home. The worst time because it is the rainy season there and it is a little depressing.

It did rain most of the time that I was there, but that wasn't the depressing part about it. The traffic is ridiculous and would make me go mad and just find a job next to my home. One day it took me an Hour and Half to go about 10 miles. Totally frustrating. Traffic is bumper to bumper and door to door. You can see my post on driving rules to see what the craziest parts were.

On top of that there are shanty towns built in people's front yards, in front of businesses, and in from of apartment buildings. Cows roam the streets, and there are stray dogs everywhere.

All that being said, it was a good trip and I am happy to have gone there and look forward to getting there again.

El Chico

I have found a great restaurant here. It is called El Chico and it is really decent Mexican food. It doesn't compare to some of the places in Midland and Houston, but it was still really good. Everything sounded so good that I got enough for lunch and dinner so I could have some of everything.

The Bean Nachos were really good and for Dinner . . .

TACOS

International Banking Part #1

As you may or may not know from reading around this site, I live in a foreign country. I live here because my work offered me a job in Dubai and I took it. So far it has been one of the hardest things I have ever done. But beyond the move itself being hard and all the different things that are incredibly difficult to do in this country, I am having trouble with my banking at home, especially the transfers of money to my bank here.

3 months ago I was in the States for a couple of weeks and while I was there I called my bank to find out what was necessary to set up a wire transfer internationally. They gave me the instructions and I followed them with the aid of a banker in a local Midland branch.

After I was done filling out a bunch of paper work, the banker told me that I was done and that within a few days I would be able to make transfers. I assumed that this was the right information because why would anyone at my bank lie to me.

When I got back to Dubai, I called to make a transfer. The people I was talking to told me that I didn't have anything set up and that I needed to go into a local branch to get this set up, I explained that I had done that already and that it would be difficult for me to visit a local branch as most of them were eight thousand miles away. They passed me around a little bit, but they finally got me in touch with the bank where I had originally set this up. The banker that I worked with had moved, but they got in touch with her and she had never filed the paper work. She had put it in her desk and that doesn't help much when it needs to be on file. So the banker I spoke with at that time told me that he would get the paper work filed and then I could call in and make the transfers.

So, 3 days later I called in to make a transfer and the people said that it was set up and that all I needed to do to make the transfer was to give them my PIN. Well, no one had given me a PIN, so I explained that I needed to get something done, and they made an exception. I appreciated that exception, but in the future I was told I would need my PIN to make the transfer. Over all, I spent about 2 hours on the phone for that transfer. At the end of it all, I asked them to re-send my PIN.

For the last two months my brother and sister in law have been watching the mail for my PIN. They watched but never saw it come through.

About 2 weeks ago I called to re-request that they re-send the PIN. Part 2 will be up in a couple of days to explain the first part of that phone call.

Inspirational Cards

My sister is really great. Ever now and then she sends me mail, even though she knows it takes a month for things to get here. She sent me a Darth Vader notepad and pens and some pictures of my nieces, my favorite is from their trip to Disney World where they met Darth Vader and one of my nieces looks putrefied or completely in shock to be standing next to him. She also sends these great cards that are meant to look like those inspirational posters, you know the ones that have an Iceberg on them and say stuff like "Substance in 90 Percent below the Surface", or a picture of a building being blown up that says "Even the most structurally
sound argument can be blown up with enough explosives".

I really like the two that she has sent me, but I just found this one and thought it was worth sharing since there is a region meeting going on here this week

Self Conversation

What I assume the conversation in the taxi driver's head sounded like while driving:

"I am totally going to take a route to this guy's destination that will take a long time and therefore earn me more money. And the great part is that he is white and won't know the difference as he is obviously a tourist. I am going to make so much money off of him that I wouldn't have normally gotten."

"At every traffic signal, I will wait until the last possible moment to apply the brakes and then slam them on and maybe he will get sick and barf in the back of my cab. Then I can make even more money because he will feel bad and tip me."

What he didn't know is that the guy that took me to Bur Dubai got 100 Dirham for a 50 Dirham trip because he was a good driver and took the easiest route. What he ended up getting was 47 Dirham for a 47 Dirham trip.

Skywards

Emirates Airlines has a frequent flyer program. It is called Skywards. In the time since I left the US, I haven't flown anything but Emirates, with the exception of a couple of flights within the US.

About a week ago I got a nice package in the mail from Emirates that contained my new card. You see, I have flown so much since I got here that I have gotten to the second tier of membership. Some of the advantages are that I get more miles credited to my account for flying, I get to check in at the first class counter, and I can take a larger bag on the plane as well as check more baggage than is allotted. They also sent along with my new membership card two hard plastic (credit card like) baggage tags to put on my bags.

Today, I came to the office and found a second package from Emirates on my desk. I thought for sure this was a mistake, but my name was on it. Then I figured that they had inadvertently sent the card and tags a second time. I opened the package to find that they had sent me my card and baggage tags from when I first joined and I was just getting them. I am not sure what to think about that. Did Emirates forget to send them, or did the postal service not get them through for the last 5 months?

Five Months

Today is July 9th. As of today I have had my new position for 5 months. I have been living in Dubai for that time and I can say whole heatedly that I am enjoying it a little bit. I am missing a lot of the comforts of home, but for the most part, this is a great experience. I am enjoying my job, but it has kind of become mundane. I pretty much know what is going to happen and what is expected on a day to day basis, so it has become sort of not interesting. Hopefully some new things will happen that will get me out of that.

In the past 5 months, I have gotten the opportunity to do quite a bit of traveling. I have been to a lot of different countries and will hopefully be able to go to at least a few more before my time is up. I am planning on taking some vacation in the States near the end of the year to do some hunting. Other than that it would be nice to plan a trip to somewhere in Europe, South Africa, Australia, while I am on this side of the world.

I have been in my current apartment for about 2 months now and it is pretty nice. Definitely better now that I have an internet connection, but even before that it was ok. I like that it is a short walk to the grocery and a lot of restaurants. It will be great when the new mall opens down the street and I can just walk down there to see movies and such. I have a gas stove, and love it, and my washer/dryer works much better here than in my previous apartment or the one that I had in Aberdeen.

Some interesting things have happened in the past few months. For one, a building caught fire across the highway from me. That thing must have been burning for an hour or two, but the following day, they were back to work as if nothing had happened. While it was burning, people sat on the balconies and watched it, so I wasn't the only one.

Some movies are released later here, so sometimes they are for rent in iTunes before they are in theaters here. The most current example is Semi-Pro, which just came out in theaters here two weeks ago. It went up on iTunes about 2 weeks prior to that. The delay must come from money saved by the theaters by not getting a copy for months past the release date. That makes ok sense since movies are so cheap here. The big movies come out either a day before they are released in the US or about a week after. I typically spend about 40 Dirham total, which equates to about 10 dollars, for the ticket, a big bucket of popcorn (the only size they have), and a soda.

I eat out quite a bit and I like to say its because eating at home with one person, or at least cooking, is not practical. I think it has more to due with the fact that I am lazy and just don't want to cook. On the other hand, when you go to fast food restaurants here, they don't serve the enormous portions that we serve in the US, and in some places there are warnings that read, "Caution, American Portions." Typically you get a 12 or 16 ounce soda and something like a small french fry that I am used to. Even the sandwiches seem a little smaller.

Anyway, things are going well, but I am excited for what the next step is, which at the moment is 19 months or less from now.