what’s it like to be back after being away for 6 months?

“what’s it like to be back after being away for 6 months?” people ask me.

Quaint:

To most Americans, the rest of the world doesn’t exist. Therefore, to me, the US is quaint like a village cut off from the rest of the world.

Precious:

Example: the pilot and crew of the plane that hit some birds and landed in the Hudson River are all over the news. Everyone loves them and praises them UTB. Its like that’s it for Americans. They don’t want to hear about the rest of the world. This is their world. How fucking precious.

Everything is precious here and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

NYC:

Its dirty, crowded, cramped and noisy.

Things I like:

• i like being in my apt building where me, my sis and my best friend live in diff apts so we go from one apt to the other kinda like on seinfeld; small apts, but they’re comfortable. even if my cat seems to have forgotten who i am.
• its easy to get work here; i have 10+ years of former cowerkers who love me to ping to see if anyone knows of any IA jobs and so far, a few have.
• good food! ordered thai and indian so far.
• when u order food the ppl on the other end of the phone speak good english even if its their second language.
• TV – even if there’s nothing on, its mostly in english
• i dont have to get american idol and lost from bittorrents
• i can use my iphone without being charged an arm and a leg
• i have friends i can see if i want to when i come out of hiding
• i have uncensored innertubes access unlike this (not that i look at pr0n)
• the booze (vino) flows freely at dinner and anytime!!!

Things I don’t like:

• I don’t want to answer my phone or leave my sis’ apt; I don’t care to see the ‘hood I’ve had to see for the past 20 years. Slowly i’ll start going out to see ppl tomorrow.
  I’d rather just hide out here tho.
• I don’t like that the garage next door has those air lifts to store cars on and they are loud as f*ck.

buh-bye, dubai!

i’m back in nyc now.

end of blog.

or when i get my thoughts together, maybe i’ll write some reflective prose on what i learned from this experience.

m gonna miss my friends inka and luis:

flickr fotos from 6 months in dubai (and visits to beirut, abu dhabi, sharjah and maldives) –> HERE <–.

m sad to be leaving dubai

M surprisingly sad 2 b leaving dubai… dunno why its kinda boring… and i’ve been itchin to get back to NYC or somewhere where there are high strung spazzy nerdy ppl like me.

but i’ve grown fond of the sun and desert and ocean and nice arabs ppls here.

i want to come back next ramadan to visit inka and luis (my only friends here).

m goin home in 2 days!

i got my return ticket home

ticket home is for sat. feb 7, 2009… am kinda glad but kinda not and kinda apathetic…

i dont know what to do w/ myself next… not sure i wanna stay in nyc… but dont know where else to go… is this mid-life crisis?

me and a falon in a burka on my arm

foto by inka, www.inkaxresch.com

camels, falcons and al satwa

went looking for the camel race course. someone told us it moved inland.

but, we found the National Falcon and Heritage Sports Centre.

then we went to al satwa, a non-posh ‘hood where real ppl live and feels like a real neighborhood. we like that.

another nice visit to sharjah and went to xcellent local restaurant in dubai

sharjah’s interesting.

went to the sharjah museum of islamic civilization and the sharjah heritage museum. an emiratii gal working at one of the museums brought us tea when we were simply sitting trying to decide where to go next. it was really very gracious.

traffic and signage sucked getting there, b forewarned.

on way back, stopped at abu ali, a lebanese place near emiratii ‘hoods here in dubai that someone recommended. its most excellent. not uptight and fake and mall-like (or “like an airport restaurant” as Inka says). its like emiratiis hanging out, men and women. a kuwait-oman f00tball game was on and everyone was glued to the flat screen tv’s and cheered when which ever team won. it was interesting to see ppl in the stadium on the tv wearing face paint and crazy wigs like ppl do at football games in the US. (they apparently dont kno how cheesy that is)(well, they’re havin fun who cares). upstairs at abu ali there’s a live band every night. dont know what kind of music, but we’ll go back to see. it was 9pm and they were setting up. ppl here are night ppl. as we were leaving after 9pm a family w/ kids was coming in.

we’ll go back on thurs i think.

m too tired to post fotos. see them here: http://flickr.com/photos/bettyx1138/archives/date-taken/2009/01/17/

went to jumeirah beach park today

isnt this the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?

Camel Couple foto by ELHAJIS, a random flickr person.

i love camels. they are so cute. i just want to hug them when i see them.

i regret i couldnt go to the camel competition/festival in dec; it was a 4 hr drive into western the western abu dhabi emirate. maybe i can come back next year to go to it.