Can I send you some sunshine? There’s loads to spare here…

*I wanted to write something nice and a lot more organized; and a lot earlier. Instead here’s all sorts of things in random order*

I’m celebrating my one week anniversary in Dubai, with a bottle of ‘arwa‘ water and a cereal bar. It’s a love-hate relationship and I wonder where it will lead me.

I left my rented apartment in Cambridge in a hurry last Friday; note to self: if you’re moving halfway round the world, please make sure you arrange the actual moving process at least a week before leaving. The last day was basically: cleaning up my flat, waiting for DHL van to pick up my stuff, waiting for real estate agency person to have a final inspection, catching a train to London, getting on plane. I have to say I was lucky, it went mostly as planned, thanks to some great help from my friends.

At Heathrow people let me get through security faster, so I could catch my plane (I pity the people who sat next to me, I was sweating like a race horse). The flight was through Bahrain, during the night and landed without problems in Dubai.

It’s freakin’ HOT here! First I was taken to the Mall of the Emirates to get some basic stuff. That place is huge! *checks little store guide* It has an artificial ski slope, an indoor amusement park, cinema, theater, ~80 restaurants and ~450 shops. Oh, and a Kempinski Hotel. You can see all sorts of famous people here from time to time (like yesterday there were these Hollywood stars in one of the designer fashion stores, instantly creating a huge gob of people around the entrance of it, holding up camera phones to get a cheeky shot of what’s going on in there).

Anyway, after that I was taken to my place (which is temporary). I have this room in this apartment on the 5th floor of this high rise and 3 flat mates to boost (a German girl and a brother and sister from Romania). It’s quite good, and very close to the mall, too.

Have I mentioned it’s HOT here? Add to this, there’s no shade anywhere, but near the massive towers, that are being built constantly (day and night, no stopping, no laws against noise here it seems). Ramadan is right round the corner and it’s the hottest month here. I couldn’t have chosen a better time of the year to come. Because of the heat you go via car even if it’s the next corner. Everything is air conditioned here, but even then you go out, get drenched almost instantly. Mind you I don’t have a car yet. I even need to make a driver license too, so it’s a good month or two until I’ll have one.

…so I go to work via carpool or taxi. There doesn’t seem to be any other form of public transportation, than that. There’s a lot of bus station signs, but I’ve yet to see a bus. There’s a train network being built as well, but that won’t be ready for years. Taxies are alright, the drivers not always. You’re best off guiding them almost corner by corner, otherwise you might end up somewhere random and/or get on the motorway (Salik) and pay extra for it…

Having a car is a must. Everything is spaced out as much as possible, roads and buildings are created organically, there doesn’t seem to be any system behind it at all. On foot everything can be measured in 30 minute distances at least. Building sites are everywhere, around them huge piles of garbage and the occasional dead rat (mostly separated from the road via planks). One has to wonder when the place will be “done”.

My workplace isn’t too far from my flat, which is very good and there’s a fair few Hungarians where I work, which is both a blessing and a curse. English is spoken by most everybody and everywhere.

Food is great and plenty, there’s loads of different things to try. I wonder how this will change as Ramadan comes though…

During this week that I’ve been here I’ve seen Bat Man in the Imax theater in the Ibn Battuta Mall and watched a slightly awkward play in the community theater in the Emirates Mall, too (having Arabic subtitles is a bit weird still, having English dubbing while Arabic actors are playing on stage is a lot more so).

All in all I’m still a bit freaked out by everything that’s been happening around me, but I’m also very curious about what’s round the corner. For now I hope, that my stuff will arrive in one piece (and will probably never buy a desktop computer again, it’s a massive hassle to transport, as much is I love it), and that things will settle down.