Hello Burj Al Arab

Hello Burj ~ We’ve finally got a place to live. So we decided to take some time out from house finding and furniture shopping to finally meet the Burj Al Arab up close and personal. It was pretty surreal to see this with our own eyes.

Things I Have Learned . .

Things I Have Learned ~
1. The rent listed in the paper is not the rent you should expect to pay it can be up to Dhs 20,000 above the advertised amount.
2. Don't play hardball with a "leasing agent", it will get you nowhere.
3. North, South, East and West are not words used in Dubai.
4. "ya" may be the only word your leasing agent knows.
5. If your leasing agent says they will meet you at 10:30am they actually mean 'If I feel like it, I'll be there.'
6. Life does not happen without a mobile phone.
That being said, finding a home in Dubai is not easy!!!! Currently we are waiting for someone to call us back (that was 2 hours ago . . . still waiting).
Rental prices went up about Dhs10,000 the day after we arrived.
Okay, done venting, the weather is great, so great in fact that my face is burnt from walking around sketchy areas of Bur Dubai because our leasing agent decided to not show up.
If we get the call we are waiting for, I'll be on Al Mina Road (with a view of work).
I hope to be in a home Thursday.

Some Things Remain the Same

Some Things Remain The Same ~ Barry started work almost immediately and I struggled with what they call jet leg - wow. Here are some pictures of what we have seen in our first week. As you can see that although there are a lot of differences, some things remain the same.

"Final Destination Dubai?"

"Final Destination Dubai?" said the ticket lady. "Yes." I replied and then repeated that short momentous conversation 50 times on the way to our gate. KLM is apparently very strict on their luggage allowances and we were very happy our overweight luggage did not incur extra charges. The flight was LONG and TIRING I was certainly happy that we didn't have to travel it again in a short time span. I managed to sleep some on the leg to Dubai and although I heard the attendant say "sunglasses for sunny Dubai" I was so groggy I couldn't reply. We are currently staying at a place called the Savoy. We have a studio type place and it is comfortable for now but I am anxious to get our own place so we can start settling in. Today we almost got run into by a guy who was running a red light, went to 2 malls, shopped for food at Spinny's and had lunch at a place called MULTI FOOD where we had a Zinger Supreme (Fried Chicken Sandwich with Fries) which cost us Dhs 8 ($2.18). The weather here is PERFECT.

Bittersweet

Bittersweet ~ I was excited about seeing Dubai but was going to miss SO many people. A few of us gathered at Pravda (aka the Vodka Hospital) for martinis in celebration of my leaving and as you can tell Candace was happy to see me go. Thank you to everyone who came to see me off.

Farewell Heidi and Barry

Everyone said "Farewell Heidi and Barry". A very sincere thank you to everyone who came to our Farewell party it was so great to see you all!!! It goes without saying that you are all welcome to stay with us when you’re in the area. All of you who showed up were not caught in pictures so if you dont see your picture it's because you are good at avoiding the shutter-bug not because we didn't see you there.