Arabic Food

I realize it sounds like I complain a lot about the things here (people, food, heat, etc.), but really it is just my own way of dealing with the strains and frustrations of how seriously aptly named the term "culture shock" really is. I try to show all the things we've been doing, but really, this blog is my only outlet to voice my frustrations.

That being said, there are definitely some things here that I will never find back home, one of them being Arabic food! Last night I ordered food for "take away" (to go) and Stu brought home yummy goodness. Anyone who has ever witnessed me eat a meal knows (to my Dad's dismay) that I like to dissect everything and eat in strange ways. I just love the act of eating, and when I get to actually assemble each and every bite (like last night), it is a meal made in Heaven.

Below is my lunch (don't worry, I'm not going to eat all of that!): On the left is the Heavenly garlic spread that comes before the meal, with Arabic bread (kinda like pita bread), then of course olives and pickles (I like them better here than back home, but Stu hates them! haha), onion, and tomato (the four of which are staples in EVERY Arabic meal you get, including breakfast), and of course, Hummous (the correct spelling here, heh). Freaking yum.

On America...

I read the blog of another fellow American ex-pat here from Boston that lives in Dubai. When you’re so far away from home, reading what you feel or witness from someone you don’t even know gives you some comfort in feeling that your views are justified (even if only validated by a fellow infidel).

So I was doing some catch-up reading today on his blog (check it out, he’s well-written and gives a funny, familiar perspective about life here [or “there”, in Dubai] http://thebigsand.blogspot.com/).

I was turned on to this story, and it’s just as everything else here, I feel such a need to defend America and what we think/know/are told on the one hand, and on the other, the urge is just to shrug and sigh and move on with my day.

In America, around the card table on a Friday night, or over a beer at a campsite, these issues come up. Politics is one of my favorite topics (which makes me think of the book about Nixon and Kissinger I am reading and should discuss, but I digress...) and I am usually eager to battle it out with a peer or two. But here, I find few peers.

In the textbook for a law class I am taking, it gives a fairly biased view of why Islamic law is an inherently bad policy (seems obvious that American legal scholars would be biased fans of Democracy), and I have to think that they really don’t know WHY Muslims choose to follow Shariia law and why it DOES (sort of) work here (the Middle East). We’re a completely different culture and not just in the religions and customs sense… our brains are washed differently… you add that up over several thousand years and it’s impossible to think that with genetic memory like that, any of us would be willing to accept such different morals forced upon us. I made a decision not to be friends with some Lebanese women here because my moral conscience told me that hating people based simply on their religious choice is wrong (On Israel: "They are our enemy!" Me: "Why?" Mieriah: "They are Jewish!"), and I think that way because of where I was born and raised.

There are so many things I think “wrong” with this editorial's perception of Obama, Hillary, and McCain, and with America and its ideals and goals in general. But who am I talking to if I dissect such an article? Those who would agree with me anyway? Those who’s minds I couldn't change one way or the other? Those who couldn't care less, and won’t lose any sleep over it anyway? So what’s the point? I read it and I shake my head at various parts in disagreement. I want to pull up Google and fact-check the crap out of this piece. And then afterwards, as I look out my window and see the construction workers balancing on the rails of the scaffolding with no harnesses, six stories up, I realize that I am not at home. There is nothing but a sea of deaf ears for my frustrations to fall on here. (And I then I thank God I was born an American.)

Humidity

Just when I thought I was going to do fine with the heat here (It’s been above 100 for a few weeks now and I’ve been ok), it gets humid. Last night I went down to the little store on the corner to get ice cream cones for Stu and I and when I came back into our building my hands were full so I leaned against the door to open it with my shoulder and when I pulled away, my skin literally peeled away from the door and made a sick sticky sound! And this was at close to 8:00 at night! I laughed because right when I walked outside I thought, “Whoa, it’s hard to breathe!” Turns out I have NO idea. It’s barely June.

Bed

I’ve made mention about things here that are not “up to par” as far as my American standards go… you know, having to manually light my oven, the fact that dishwashers have yet to be invented here, that our shower floods the bathroom with each use, etc. But one thing I have failed to mention is the condition of the mattress we sleep on… our old bed in the apartment downstairs was brand new and therefore pretty comfy (that’s not to say that it was our pillow-top mattress from back home, but I didn’t expect such comfort). Once we moved up here, however, we were stuck with the most uncomfortable mattress known to man (it’s more uncomfortable than Justine’s bed, for those who’ve had the misfortune of sleeping there, you know how bad that truly is…).

So we’ve been saying for weeks now that we need to pick up a nice thick mattress pad or something similar (you know, the cool egg-carton things we have back home) so we can sleep without springs causing lesions on our bodies. We went out this past weekend in search of such a thing, and low and behold (un-shocking though it may be…) there was nothing to be found. Your options for bedding are sheets, fitted sheets, ONE option of a traditional thin fitted mattress pad, and comforters (well, duvets actually, you buy the plain white comforter and it snaps inside the duvet cover of your choice). That’s it. So yesterday I get the bright idea of stealing the comforter from Kaden’s bed to put between our bed and fitted sheet since Kaden doesn’t sleep on the queen-sized bed in his room. And OH MY GOODNESS! I slept better last night than I have slept in months. It was so comfy and wonderful. So, once again, this country is making me creative with my ideas! Thanks UAE! Haha.

Overalls

Yesterday Shaikh Nasser Bin Zayed Al Nahyan died in a helicopter crash, so the President (his brother) declared a three-day mourning period nation-wide. So that may mean that Stu gets an unexpected long weekend… We’re talking to about going somewhere to “get away” from Abu Dhabi if he does get a long weekend. We’ll see if that pans out.

Here are some baby pictures from today. I’ve been getting some grief about not posting enough pictures of Kaden recently. So here are a couple from this morning. He’s still sick so He hasn’t been a very happy baby the past week, but when I can catch him happy, I might as well!

Kaden's "baby gate"

Walking!!!

Well I guess we all knew it was inevitable, but I can’t believe it has happened already… My baby is walking! The other night we got online with Mimi and Papa and he walked a few steps between Stu and I (both exciting AND shocking us all!!!). And then last night he walked a few more steps for Grandma and Grandpa Fox. Well today he’s all over the place! He’s been braving the space between the coffee table and the entertainment center and walking several steps at a time. He’ll let go of things and just stand there in the middle of the room and then actually walk over to something else! Oh, I can’t believe how fast he’s grown. It seems like just yesterday I was going on Maternity Leave and waking up a couple times a night for feedings. Now my tiny baby is walking, sigh.

Coming to get Mommy!

Cheap-O Fiasco

Buying plane tickets is really one of those things that should be pretty easy. As long as there have been commercial flights, people have had to purchase them, right? So why is it that the last two times I’ve bought tickets, things have been impossibly difficult???

Case-in-point: Thursday. We got online with Cheapoair.com (don’t use them, if you were considering it…) and went through the process of booking tickets online. Pretty much every site you use is identical, so I figured there wouldn’t be much of an issue using THIS particular service to book through. Wrong.

After going through the whole process: picking out the flights, entering in all our vital information, travelers, payment information, blood and urine sample, etc. (just the basic stuff) and click “Book”, we get a “page cannot be displayed” error message. Right on. So we try one more time with the same result and finally call their 800 number for assistance.

“Tank you fer culling Cheeep-ohhh-errrr, can I hep you?”

“Yes, I just tried to book online and got an error message instead of tickets. Can you book over the phone for the same rate?”

“Yes a-ma’am, I can a-hep you. Where are you traveling to in from?”

“Uh, we’re traveling from Abu Dhabi, UAE to Spokane, Washington on August 7th through August 20th.”

(type type type….. several minutes pass…)

Me: “Ma-am?”

“Yes, I jus a-try to fine da flighs you say……….. der no flighs from Abu Da-habi to ‘Po-can, mum.”

“Ok, we’re leaving Abu Dhabi on the 7th, connecting in Paris and Salt Lake City, and continuing on to Spokane…”

“Ahhhhh, ok ok ok. I see. You no say have conne-ting fligh-s. Ok. (mumble mumble, type type type)”

(In my head: “Right. Because there are SO many flights from One side of the world to the other without any connecting in major cities along the way…”)

“So’kay. I foun da fligh-s. Who is name on da credit cod?”

“Stuart Fox”

“Suart Foz, ok. You can spell for me?”

“Sure, S-t-u-a-r-t… F-o-x.”

“So is, S-u-a-r-t…”

“… no, S-T-u-a-r-t.”

“Ok, and lass name is Socks?”

“Fox.”

“Ok, S-o-x?”

“No, F-o-x.”

“Oh, F-o-s?”

“No, F as in Frank, O as in Oscar, and X as in X-ray.”

“Ok, Fox… Oh, like in ‘Foxtrot?’” (giggles)

“Yes. Good one.” (Sigh)

We go through the conversation with similar issues spelling Boise, Idaho, Shadowmoss (our address), Sydney, Kaden, and restating the credit card number at least four times. Finally at the end she tells me the card will be charged and to enjoy our flight to “Po-can”. Ok, so that was pretty painful, but at least we have tickets now, right? Wrong again!

We go to dinner and when we get back we have a message waiting for us on the phone telling us our credit card has been declined and we need to call back with alternative payment. Now, we’re thinking, what in the world? We transferred money from savings to specifically cover the tickets (we only keep enough in checking to pay for what we need to, the rest is for savings, duh, the whole reason we’re in this Allah-forsaken country in the first place. So the money should have been there. We assume we screwed up in transferring it. So Stu calls them back while simultaneously getting online to check our banking balances. While they are telling us they tried to run our card, he realizes there is a charge from an airline, but not for the correct amount. It was for about 500 less than our tickets were supposed to be for. Weird. So after Stu gets frustrated with the Indian guy who barely speaks English (but is a customer service rep for an American company……..) they decide to get a US Bank rep on the phone too to sort out where the charge came from. I take over here.

I sit down at the computer to look at the bank charge and the email I got from Cheap-O telling us the card was declined and low and behold, the same merchant number appears on BOTH. NAUFH. Huh. So I learn from the US Bank guy (who mercifully DOES speak English) that only the merchant will have access to its own merchant code and there is no way this charge could have come from anyone else other than them, or they (duh) wouldn’t have cited it in the email they sent me…

So, Indian guy (as they all are) is offended that I am insinuating the mistake was on their end. He keeps trying to pawn me off on American Airlines (with whom we aren’t even going to be flying) and trying to give me their 800 number. So, after an hour and a half or arguing, I ask, “Do you have a way, on your system, to search for an exact dollar amount, instead of searching by the client?”

“Well, yez mum, but I am telling you, dis charge you see is NOT from uz”

“Please just run the search for the dollar amount in question.”

(ten minutes go by with me on hold)

Suddenly, I am very much worth said Indian guy’s respect and profuse apologies. Someone else’s tickets were paid for by our card and so (duh again) when they then tried to run our card for close to 4 grand (again) it was declined. So we finally figured it out, and wasted an hour of my life arguing with this idiot who I knew was wrong to begin with. You gotta love customer service anymore, eh?

So the bottom line is, walk into a travel agency or airline and personally purchase your tickets if you are going to be flying overseas (I recommend Qatar Airways… awesome experience with them). It may cost a few extra hundred, but the peace of mind is worth it, trust me.