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!