Welcome to my life....

Acronyms/words/phrases that have become part of my vernacular….
KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
UAE – United Arab Emirates – a country of which I am now a legal resident of – yeah!! Translation: I’ve got my passport back and can travel freely again!!
GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) which consists of 6 countries – Saudi, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar
Insha'allah – god willing
Khalass – enough. Finished
Pan-Arab
DMC – Dubai Media City
DIC – Dubai Internet City

TV channels I watch:
Showtime Movies
Showtime Comedies
Showtime Series
E!
Dubai TV
Dubai One
Al Jazeera Sports
Fox Sports

Things I consume regularly:
Kofta
Falafel
Labneh
Hommos
Tahini
Mana2eesh (sp?)
Shisha
Jaleb
Hammour

Names of people I work with:
Aneez
Lama
Lobna
Zeeba
Mayada
Wissam
Makram
Azza
Rasha
Bassem
Amer
Ahmed
(okay, and I’ll admit, there’s a Chris and an Alex and a Crissy, but there’s definitely way more Wissam’s then there are John’s)


Avg cost of a taxi: 40Dh (dirhams) =11USD
Cost to have a taxi driver drive you to 4 places, and wait for an hour while you chat with potential roommates: 100AED, $28
Avg cost of a dinner: 50AED, $13
Rent for 1 BR in a villa, or flat: 6,000-8,000AED/mo which is about $1600-$2200USD
Taxi driver’s salary for two months: 7,000Dh
Coke from a vending machine: 1Dh = .28USD
Shisha: 30AED, 8USD
Coke at a restaurant (same can that costs 1Dh in a vending machine): 8Dh, 3USD
Falafel sandwich at my new favorite restaurant, Al Hakawati: 15Dh, 4USD (that’s a sit down restaurant, with service, for dinner)
Maid Service/hr: 25Dh, yeah, that’s right, it’ll cost me less than 7USD/hr to have a maid; live-in maids, as far as I can tell only cost about 400Dh/mo + their boarding expense.

Basically, things here are (well, can be) cheap, but the apartment.

Okay….that one was kinda boring, just some random observations that I thought I’d share.

I thought I was done, but I just had to share.....just got a e-mail sent to entire company, subject: "anyone going to Beirut in the coming days?" ?????? where am I?

One day, these will be normal but.....until then, I'll keep sharing my wonderment and amazement!