Thank God It's Thursday?

After living here for almost two months, it is still hard to get used to the differences. The Muslim holy day is Friday, so the work week here ends on Thursday. That means the weekend is on Friday and Saturday, and the work week starts again on Sunday. Thursday night is a big night out for expatriates, and for Muslims the big night out is Friday night. These tend to be the busy times in the malls and supermarkets, and best avoided as I now know. It definitely seems weird for Neal to head to the office on Sunday morning. (He still has to work on Fridays, too, since that's a work day for Pittsburgh. Not to mention the late hours he has to keep so as to participate in conference calls and meetings with the other offices, who are many hours behind Dubai time.)


Some of the differences involve unexplained mysteries. Why aren't there any electrical outlets in the bathroom? Do people have special dressing rooms where they shave and dry their hair? Why aren't there any sidewalks? Are people expected to drive everywhere and never walk? There are no clothes dryers here either, understandable because things dry instantly when placed outside, but that does require some extra effort that I am not used to. Plus the clothes and towels turn rock hard in the hot sun.

My brain is well exercised with the need to make frequent calculations and adjust my actions accordingly. The time difference from Pittsburgh is always on my mind--we were 8 hours ahead until recently, but without Daylight Savings Time we are now 9 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. This is only convenient when the Steelers are playing on Monday night, since we can catch the second half when we get up on Tuesday morning. But when Grandma calls, early for her, at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon, we are already sacked out in bed and miss her call. Trying to reach our sons in college before 2 or 3 p.m. on any given day is also hit and miss.


Figuring out just how hot it is requires even more math using the formula most of us learned in school. It helps to know that 9/5's equals 1.8 to use as the multiplier and then add 32. It also helps to remember that 10 degrees Celsius is 50 degrees Fahrenheit, 20 degrees C is 68 degrees F, 30 degrees C is 86 degrees F, 40 degrees C is 104 degrees F, and 50 degrees C is 122 degrees F. (Yes, it does get that hot, and by law all construction work outside is required to stop at that point.)

Figuring out how much something costs requires knowing the conversion rate. For dirhams to dollars, the current rate is 3.67, which I hope will never change since I won't be checking. Conversely, one dirham, abbreviated AED, is worth .27 USD. Dividing a price in dirhams by 3.67 is too hard, so I use 4. That means I start out thinking things are really expensive, looking at the big number in dirhams, but dividing by four I end up thinking they are a bit cheaper than they really are, more conducive to buying. I can fill the tank of the Ford Explorer for 100 dirhams, which seems pretty reasonable until I realize that I seem to be doing this every few days. Having to do double conversions can drive you nuts, say converting dirhams per litre of gas into dollars per gallon. I don't even try. I think they use gallons anyway. Since it's full serve here, I never look!


Some of the differences are pleasant surprises. Yes, they have full service gas stations (like New Jersey!), and they even clean your windshield, which really needs it, at some of them. There are spray hoses next to toilets in bathrooms, and there are drains in the floors of bathrooms and kitchens to facilitate cleaning. (There are no spray hoses for kitchen sinks, though.) The new TV's they sell here work with any country standard and voltage (at least that's what they told me.) The DVD players can be programmed to play DVD's bought in the US or here.

Other differences range from big problems to minor annoyances or curiosities. There are no street numbers so you have to know the name of the building and the roads or landmarks it is near to pin down the location. What road or exit will get you there is another puzzle to be solved. There is no home delivery of mail--all mail is sent to post office boxes. Appliances here often come with two prong plugs instead of the standard three prong plug, so you need a lot of adaptors. The good news here is that you can buy universal adaptors that will work with both UK and USA two prong plugs and apparently any other type of plug (rendering those ridiculously expensive adaptor sets they sell in airports completly unnecessary). The Muslim holidays are only approximate and are announced shortly before they happen based on moon sightings. Most restaurants outside of hotels do not serve alcohol, but they usually have delicious fresh juices and mocktails. They write the date here with day, month and then year, so November 10 is 10/11/2009, instead of 11/10/2009 as it is in the US. They will not honor your check if you write in two different colors of ink or you put in the wrong date, but they will call you first to let you know and you can argue with them about it. (On the positive side, the bank sends you an email letting you know when your checks have cleared.) You have to have a locally issued credit card to use for utility bills; otherwise you have to go somewhere and pay in cash.

Don't even think about bouncing a check here. Important, intelligent people have reportedly left the country to avoid having to deal with the ramifications of that offense.

In case you were missing the 80's, they still use pull tabs on soft drink cans. Just try to find Diet Dr. Pepper--I saw it once but haven't seen it again--Coke and Fanta have a lock on the market. Instant hot water pots and instant coffee are very popular, with no drip coffee makers to be seen. Shag carpets are making a big comeback, and I must say I'm tempted!