Saturday Night Special: Dubai's Architecture

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this experience become a reality. 

5 Items I Didn't Know Were Missing From My Life

Los Angeles is a known leader in all things whacky, expensive, and completely unnecessary. Tonight, I will present to you 5 items I've found in Dubai that rival even LA's most absurd offerings. 

Top left: swan

Bottom left: skull with headphones

Top right: golden duck

Bottom right: british skull (you can tell 'cause the teeth are missing, ha ha)

Ridiculously expensive rings sculpted into really neat designs. 

Chupa Chup the size of my head for $45. Worth it y/n?

Felt red heels with skull accents. Glam up a head-to-ankle hijab with these gangster girls!

IT'S A COUCH. THAT LIGHTS UP. I HAVE NEVER NEEDED ANYTHING THIS BADLY IN MY LIFE. OKAY, OTHER THAN FOOD, SHELTER AND WATER. BUT EVEN THEN.

An elaborate hookah pipe taller than I am. It can be yours for just 2,165 AED ($590)! (Melody not included)

  

Walking Alone at Night: A Tale of One City

On Saturday, I walked to the grocery store, my first time walking alone at night in Dubai. It was our first time cooking (Chicken Katsu) in our new apartment and we forgot to buy cooking oil. The grocery store, Choithrams, is nearby our building. 9:17pm, I'm walking out the building door when I take an extra moment to idly chat with the security guard, just in case. 

I opt to leave my purse at home and only carry the essentials: wallet, cell phone, house keys. 'I don't want anything bulky weighing me down, just in case'. My phone was on low battery when I realized I hadn't memorized my boyfriend's international cell phone number yet. I quickly checked my phone, reviewed the numbers, and made a tune out of it so I wouldn't forget. 

9:20pm, I arrive at Choithrams, pausing to play with the stray kittens I've affectionately named Rex and Penelope before entering the store. I text my bf to alert him of my arrival. Upon locating the cooking oil aisle, I realize I don't know what kind of cooking oil we need and originally figured to just pick one and go before thinking better of it and calling my bf to specify which type we need. After we hang up, I grab the appropriate bottle for our dinner and head to the cashier, satisfied by the time stamp on our conversation... just in case. 

9:22pm. Exiting Choithrams, I take a moment to pet the kittens farewell when I notice that two guys have also exited the store and have paused to watch the kittens. I wait a minute for the men to leave and then another minute to make sure they've gained some distance before beginning the trek back home. I text my bf about my departure. 

Walking back to the apartment, I throw my wallet and phone into the grocery bag so as to hide any valuables and to make the bag heavier, just in case I would need to swing it at a potential attacker. I kept my house key hidden in the palm between my index and middle fingers, just in case. Briefly I relax upon noting that there's no one else on the street...before realizing that this also meant no one would see me if anything were to happen. I hurry home.

9:30pm. I'm back upstairs inside our apartment and resume cooking dinner. 

Dubai is a safe city. It is comparable to Los Angeles in terms of safety... Except Dubai is even safer (https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=12119). There were security guards inside Choithrams while I shopped. There are security guards at my work, house, the metro, and the mall. Knowing all this beforehand, why had I taken so many precautions? For a trip under 15 minutes, I had taken 9 precautions to prevent or escape an attack, fight off an attacker, and make people aware of my most recent location. One can never be too cautious but at what point does caution interfere with my ability to live in peace?

I am an immigrant, a stranger in a new land, unaccustomed to all the customs here - my naïveté undoubtedly played a role in how I decided to mitigate my risk of being attacked. I recognize that risk is an inherent component of life: whether I go out or stay at home, risks of one type or another are ever present (although I realize going out may pose a higher risk of certain types of danger than staying in). I'm not sure why I'm blogging about this; if it holds any importance, or if I will feel differently one year from now. It's just food for thought... And yes, our dinner was delicious.

A Day in the Life: Taking the Metro

Now that I've become more familiar with the city, I feel comfortable taking the metro several times a day: from home to work, work to my boyfriend's work, my bf's work to Mall of the Emirates, etc.

Price: It's a real $$ saver (between 0.50 and $2.50 per trip depending on distance) compared to taking a taxi (between $2.50 and $10 per trip). LA's subway costs $1.50 regardless of distance and taxis are $10-$20 per trip. 

I go from Dubai Marina to Nakheel when going from my work to my bf's

Time: 10 min walk from my house to the metro station, 5 mins to traverse the station, 1-2 minutes for the actual trip, followed by another 10 min walk from the station to my work. It's about a 30 min trip overall; waiting for and taking a taxi is in the same time range but is unreliable as it depends on traffic.

2 stories high

She took a midnight train going anywhere...

Speed: The metro is actually faster than a taxi since there's construction going on by my work and I bypass all the resulting traffic. RTA (Road & Transport Authority) has also circumvented the issue of who enters/exits the compartment first by clearing outlining how to enter/exit the cabin.

Well defined boundaries. How refreshing.

Safety: As an added bonus, transit authorities have extended the women- and children's-only carriage to earlier in the morning & later in the evening. While I wasn't able to snap a picture of the non-physical divide between the regular and special compartments, men usually respect the women's need to a safe space.

LA vs Dubai: Compared to Los Angeles's metro, Dubai's metro is the clear winner. Guards are located outside and inside the metro station. LA uses "tap" cards while Dubai uses "nol" cards but they can both be used for subways and buses. Nol cards up the ante though by offering various cards depending on your needs: gray (anonymous), blue (personal), gold (VIP) and red (tourist) offer different benefits whereas LA uses a "one-size-fits-all" policy. Plus in LA you're guaranteed to wait 15 minutes between trains while in Dubai it's a max 5 minute wait. In all fairness though, it seems that Dubai planned their roads better. 

See any traffic? No? That's what I'm talking about. 

Regardless, LA needs to get its shit together. 

Cultural Differences

My bf's birthday was on the 14th and he wanted a low key weekend, so we celebrated by going to The Cheesecake Factory, Ravi (Pakistani restaurant he's fond of), and Mall of the Emirates. I bought him a toy helicopter as a gift and he's been relentlessly irritating me with it ever since. 

Monkey cupcake (one ear already eaten) for his bday

Day by day I learn more Arabic. I'm fluent in Farsi which is helpful at times but otherwise I'm finding the language surprisingly difficult. Hopefully I'll pick it up while immersing myself in the culture. 

Working on the written aspect, too

Speaking of culture, I've learned that in some ways Arabic culture really isn't all that different from Persian or American culture. Other times I'll be confronted with some wacky ideas of what is considered traditional or open-minded:

Traditional (1) Today, two of my coworkers (A and B) and I drove to meet with a client. We were short on time when A decided to call the client, but realized his pre-paid phone was out of minutes. I offered A my phone but he declined. I stressed the time issue yet he refused, preferring to waste time searching for a phone shop in an unfamiliar area. We finally found a shop, B stopped the car and A ran inside to purchase minutes. While A was gone, B explained to me that A is traditional - he didn't want to accept my help because I am a woman. Tradition can be inconvenient. 

Open-minded (2) B went on to tell me that he was open-minded. Now, in Los Angeles, "open-minded" can mean many things: you're open to dating a former escort, pursuing both accounting and fire-eating, or shacking up with Craigslist strangers since they raised the rent in WeHo ("yes again, can you believe it? And now they're charging us for water and garbage too!"). B explained to me that many people marry their cousins based on tradition, but he wants to marry someone he loves, and his family agrees with him. Open-minded meant having the freedom to not marry your first cousin. #cultureshock

To me, open-mindedness is thinking "Sure, I can eat a Chupa Chup roughly the size of my head"

3 weeks in and I'm starting to realize that my new life here may not be as exciting as I anticipated since we came for opportunity (travel and work), and as such we spend most of our time working. At least it provides us with a better quality of life - we can afford a nice apt on the 12th floor of a building overlooking the marina, we can afford a maid, and we have more disposable income. So far, so good, and I hope it stays that way (or as the Arabs say, "inshallah"). 

Back of the elevator in Mall of the Emirates; we're movin' on up!

Weather in Dubai

Have you ever wanted to strangle someone when it's hot out? The heat cooks your brain, raises your blood pressure... and actually makes you more murderous (http://tinyurl.com/nkedjs3). Luckily it's past midnight here and a cool 91 degrees F ;)

                                        

                           Al Shatha Tower, behind Media One Hotel, where Dubizzle's offices are located 

What's most interesting about Dubai's weather and scenery is that you're able to get a little bit of everything: hot sand, lush greens, sparkling seas, frigid snow. In California you can see the same, but in different cities (e.g. San Bernardino vs Santa Monica vs Yosemite).

Taken at a park in Al Satwa

Yes, I recognize that a ski resort in the middle of the desert isn't biologically natural, but the snow inside the resort is 100% real, made via snow machines. There's also snowmen and snowballs and colorful lights! What's not to love?

 Ecological footprint? What's that?

Dubai Marina is truly a sight to behold; I would compare it to my bf's eyes but that would be unfair to my bf. It almost feels like I'm back in Silicon Beach... without the litter, marijuana and dreadlocks. 

Google image of Dubai Marina since I haven't taken a photo yet

We ought to be going out more this weekend and during that time I'll take more pictures so you can get a better, personalized feel for the place. Is there anything or anywhere in particular you'd like to see? Any suggestions for my next post? Please share in the comments below! :)

            

                            Bonus shot: one view from my work in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT)

Social Media Managing

Some of you have asked me for details about working in Dubai so hopefully this post answers your questions.

Cubicles! It's begun. 

I began working as a Social Media Manager (SMM) for Balsam for Health Promotion JLT in July when I was still in Los Angeles but didn't move into a full time role until my arrival in Dubai. My job boils down to using psychology, social media & technology to meet our clients' goals. 

Being a SMM in Dubai differs from my work in LA in a few ways. In LA, I worked with larger teams - in Dubai, I am the sole professional in this department. As a result, I have much more responsibility now than I did before and my work has a larger impact. It's challenging, exciting, new... and scares the absolute s*** out of me when I stop to breathe.  

My boss's desk

As the company name indicates, we promote health-based info: dental clinics, overall well being, pharmaceutical products. Compared to the services I was marketing in LA (e.g. bookkeeping services), promoting health-related stuff satiates a deep craving within me to do genuine good unto the world.  

For example, diabetes is a serious problem in the UAE. I recently collaborated with a coworker to design a multifaceted plan to address issues of diabetes awareness, prevention, and management in Dubai. I'm sure this sounds boring to some people but the opportunity to create this proposal was really exciting - it feels rewarding to have semi-moved into the healthcare sector. 

And onto these comfy leather couches.

The bulk of my work involves: market research, creating & running social media profiles, search engine optimization, writing PR articles, web design/dev, editing, and Arabic-to-English translation. Being this busy forces me to be more organized. +1

I'm fortunate to work with a close, integrated team of 11 people (Syrian, Filipino) who are all invested in my success and vice versa. My coworkers are polite, helpful, and educate me about the local culture. I feel more sophisticated already. 

We've even got a conference room. How sophisticated is that?

I hope this post cleared things up and if there's anything I missed, please comment! What are you interested in? What would you like to know about Dubai? Any suggestions for my next post? Please share!

The building I work in

Saturday Night Special: Pictures-Only Post

New idea: I'll periodically post blogs that are pictures-only (with captions/descriptions). Please let me know what you think!

Dubai Mall. 

One of the views from our apartment at night. The street structure is very well designed. 

The building I work in. Armada (Medical) Tower 2, cluster P. Locations are identified more in relation to what's around them rather than a numerical physical address. 

The office where I work in Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT). Our boss is very kind and understanding, providing us with snacks, drinks, and half-days on Thursdays.

Ravi restaurant in Al Satwa: Salad (mostly eaten), large bottle of water (not pictured), 2 entrees, 2 sides of naan bread, and 1 after-dinner dessert (not pictured) for the equivalent of US $15.

Mini architectural design located inside Dubai Mall depicting how Dubai will look like in the future. Is it still appropriate to call it the Eiffel Tower if it's in Dubai?

The Move to Dubai Marina

My boyfriend and I moved into our new furnished apartment! We're on the 12th floor with a balcony looking over Dubai Marina on one side and the rest of Dubai on the other (pics to come). Originally we wanted to stay within the 8k AED price range and this apt was just outside of that range, but after factoring what we would have been paying for bills/utilities, we actually ended up saving money. +2

Previously my bf and I have been taking taxis to and from work but now that we're close enough to the Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) metro station, later this week we will be attempting the 500m walk in 95+ degree heat to the station. Gas is $1.81/gallon and the average taxi to and from work costs $10 so taxis are cheap in Dubai compared to Los Angeles ($20 on average) but we'll be saving even more by taking the metro. 

Inside the metro, there are cabins specifically designated for women and children. These female-only cabins aren't separated from the regular/mixed cabins by any physical barrier, just a posted sign indicating their status and faith that others will respect that space. 

It's still too early to make a firm judgment but being a woman in Dubai is interesting to say the least. I get special treatment (exiting an elevator first, hotel staff flagging down taxis for me) and I also get a lot more men looking at me. Men outnumber women 3:1 in Dubai and the staring has less to do with what I'm wearing and more with the fact that I remotely resemble a woman. You can wear a hijab or a bikini and the men will look either way. 

Dubai is an Islamic country and their law is based on Sharia law (quite different than actual Sharia law) which basically translates into dressing respectfully wherever children may be present (malls, playgrounds). The feminist I am, I anticipated being forced to change how I dress based on someone else's interpretations of modesty, and I was gladly mistaken - I wear the same clothes I did in Los Angeles with different variations based on temperature and work requirements. We'll see if/how my perception of dress changes with time. Until then, thank you for reading this far, and I hope you'll keep traveling with me!