First Impressions

We have been here 4 days now. Here are some first impressions of….

(1) The weather. All I knew about Dubai weather was that it gets hot. HOT hot. As in, 130 degrees in the summer hot. So in protest, I refused to pack anything warm for myself or the girls; we were going to show skin and we were going to like it. "Traditional Muslim values" be damned! Halter tops for everyone! And yet, standing outside at 7a.m. this morning, I sure could have used a sweatshirt. Who knew?? So far, the weather has been absolutely flawless: cool mornings, warm afternoons, and to date, not a single cloud in the sky. Then again, I suppose I should not have been surprised, since I'm quickly learning that Dubai tolerates nothing less than The Best in every arena. In fact, I now realize that, had the weather not been perfect all the freaking time here, Dubai would be somewhere else.

(Caveat: I'm sure it will get hot. HOT hot. Eventually. Check back in about 10 months for the inevitable "The Weather Sucks Here!" gripe session.)

(2) The culture clash. Again, not what I expected. I had already scripted, in my mind, the non-threatening, age-appropriate speech I was going to deliver to 3-year-old Sushi when she asked, in intimidated wonder, about the women wearing burkhas and the men wearing long white robes. (Unsolicited Educational Opportunity: We Americans don't really use the term "burkha" correctly. I have come to find out that the black robe is called an "abaya," whereas the word "burkha" actually refers to a leather mask covering the nose, brow, and cheekbones, which some older women still wear with their robes. All I can say about the burkha mask is that, while sightings of them are very rare-- I have only encountered one-- they are indeed disturbing to see. Much more unsettling than the abaya, since the burkha looks, to me, like the kind of restraint that would be better used on an animal or a madman. With all due respect... yikes.) Ok, where was I? Oh yes, the Sushi confrontation. Well, it never came. Or at least, not yet. Simply because, I think, we haven't seen too many "traditionally dressed" women at all. A few in the airport, a few in the mall... but even there, many of the women wearing the abaya were pairing them with huge platform sandals, rhinestone trim, and hoochie makeup. Seriously! Dramatic black eyeliner and extended lashes and shiny lipstick. Come to think of it, I swear I saw a woman with a low-cut, v-neck abaya. Burkha cleavage!! Another preconception bites the dust.

(3) The house. I wanted to dislike the house. I wanted to oppose the marble floors (a hazard for crawling novices!) and the boxy exterior (too foreign-looking!) and the sprawling floor plan (the children will need to wear whistles in order to be located!). But who are we kidding. The place is gorgeous, and Daddy truly outdid himself in his efforts to get the place set up before our arrival. Of course, there are still some minor obstacles to overcome—the kids’ rooms really are far away from the main living space, and the number of stairs en route to PopPop’s room on the third floor make a gym membership obsolete—but it was a lot easier to get used to a 3-story, 7-bedroom house than I would care to admit.

(4) The malls, which are the stuff of legend around here. We have only seen one, The Mall of the Emirates, but considering that our first stop was the indoor ski slope, you could see from jump street that these institutions were not going to disappoint. I have posted a picture above of what we could see of the slope through the windows... what a silly but fun idea! I haven't been on skis in about 20 years, but I might consider strapping on the ol' space boots just to experience the spectacle firsthand. As for the rest of the mall, it's hard to adequately describe the sheer scope of it; there seem to be endless avenues and storefronts and escalators and eateries. And everything so fancy! I will try to find out some statistics regarding its dimensions, but suffice it to say that Dubai is about to open another mall, the Dubai Mall, which will be one of the biggest on the planet. It will house 1200 stores, an Olympic size ice skating rink, a shark aquarium featuring the world's largest viewing panel... a far cry from my own humble Sawgrass Mills Mall back in Florida, which seemed to feature only the world's largest Burlington Coat Factory.

(5) Childcare. A major headache right now. Our “Supernanny,” an insanely charming 28-year-old law school graduate from England who has helped raise the children since they were born, returns to the States on Tuesday (cue my heart palpitations), and our interviews of potential replacements are off to a less-than-encouraging start. It appears that typically, the women who live with ex-pat families are housekeepers first, and child caregivers second (not my personal order of priorities, as evidenced by the slum-like condition in which I kept my Florida house). Supposedly there are agencies that can provide nanny-type assistants, but the drawback there is that the women are assigned to families sight-unseen, and the obligation then falls on the family to sponsor them for visas. Too much responsibility on too little information. And so we are left to scouring classified ads posted at the supermarkets and begging the few people we know here for word-of-mouth referrals. Yesterday we interviewed 4 candidates, all of Sri Lankan descent, but honestly, their accents were all so thick and their English was so broken that I gave up mid-conversation and pretended I knew how to do housework while Daddy concluded the interview. Today we will interview a candidate of Filipino descent, since we have heard that the Filipino women are better with English, but I remain unconvinced (my cynical nature is a constant of the universe). The take-away message from all of this is the following: SUPERNANNY, PLEASE DON’T GO!

(6) The challenges of life in Dubai so far. I can sum this up in two categories: Time Change and Electricity. Putting 3 children through a 9-hour time difference feels a little like trying to make someone fluent in a foreign language overnight. Just a completely daunting, overwhelming task that their poor little minds can't quite wrap themselves around. The kids will appease us by going to bed at 9pm, but come midnight, they are awake and ready to play. And they just can't understand why we are telling them to sleep when they don't feel sleepy at all. We are making slow progress, but there's no telling when they will be sufficiently adjusted to start school (read: The Day I Can Finally Exhale). I have high hopes for Sunday (the school and work week here is Sunday through Thursday, with Fridays and Saturdays off-- more information you never knew you needed to know).

The electricity is tough because there are just so many key items I brought from home that we can't get to work here. The baby monitors, the video monitor, the Brookstone noisemakers, the portable DVD players, the DVD recorder... all of these Mommy's Favorite Things are slowly being placed upon high shelves, never to be heard from again for the next two years. Having never even noticed the microscopic numbers imprinted on plugs before, I am now becoming a quick study in all things voltage. We tried a transformer but toasted it, and PopPop's beloved ipod was an early casualty of our experimentation. This just means more money being invested into our transition, as we now need to buy new everythings, and, as Daddy warned me, most things are slightly more expensive here…

(7) Our general setup. Overall, I feel infinitely more positive about our future in Dubai than I did when I first began this blog back in Florida. Daddy was right in his dogged determination to unfalteringly withstand my and PopPop’s insistent negativity; he just kept repeating that we needed to trust him, and reserve judgment until we arrived. And he was right: looking around, while I sit here at this extravagant mahogany dining room table, whilst my kids play in their giant purple playroom and my dad watches tv upstairs and my baby naps and our driver, the Z-Man, oversees the oven repair man, I would be crazy to complain. If only you were here to share it with us, this just might be perfect. ☺