Author: jake

Last night we went to the DIFC to a dinner/meeting regarding the arts in Dubai, attended by art professors from universities around Dubai and Sharjah. We got to meet some great new people. After the dinner, we joined a mingling mass of art society types outside of an exhibition that was opening that night about photos related to the religious pilgrimage to Mecca. We sort of mingled for a half hour while everyone waited for the royal family member to arrive who was tasked with cutting the ribbon to the room where the photos were hung. We didn’t last long enough to see the show but we did get our photograph taken by a journalist who also wrote down our names on a crumpled piece of paper. I’d say to look for us in the society pages but I would be surprised if the correct section of the crumpled paper ever successfully was re-associated with the printed photograph, so it’s a long shot.

We picked up the car today at around 13:30. It took all morning to get it insured and registered and then we were finally in. Elizabeth drove it off the lot, or she would have driven it off the lot, except that when we got to the door of the garage, we noticed that the only way out was blocked by a big tanker truck that was filling up or emptying its contents. So we waited. Then when they were finished, the truck would not start. So we waited and waited. After a while Beth had had enough driving and we switched seats. And watched as the men tried this and fooled with that, and attempted to start it again and again. Finally one of the employees who was on his way home and who was also blocked by the truck got involved. Beth noticed that if the dealership had the keys to a couple of cars that were parked next to the truck that we could get around the truck and eventually that is what we did.



So we picked up our friend, Nina, and went to look for some art galleries.

And we found three after a little searching. It just so happens that they are in the neighborhood right next to ours in a warehouse district called Al Quoz. The first one we saw was the Third Line Gallery where there was a photography exhibit. Interesting use of fire with film and contact sheets as prints. Also a well put together narrative piece around love, ennui, and war in Jordan and Israel.





Then it was off to B21 where there were paintings by an Iranian artist. More than half of them were sold and the show was only up a week or so. The paintings were listed at about USD5000 each and so we were remarking more about how quickly art sells here than the show itself which was impressive in its stylistic consistency but not the aesthetic cup of tea that Beth or I would enjoy.





The last gallery we saw was the Jam Jar which is more of a community oriented gallery. They were setting up for a piece about Soffreh which is billed as a digestible food installation and performance piece. So of course we all got ourselves quickly on the reservation list for next week’s performance. I’ll be sure to write about that then.





Nina had a dinner to attend at the home of the Dean of her school and so we headed off toward his part of town near International City. We got lost which was to be expected and we ended up at a mall in Mirdif where we dropped Nina off at a cab waiting there. It was too late to keep searching and we figured the cab would know the way. But as it turns out, we decided to try our luck going that direction anyway afterwards and of course Beth had been right about the way we should have been going all along. So we did find our way to International City, probably following close behind Nina’s cab though we didn’t see her. Right next to International City happens to be Dragonmart. It is one of the biggest malls in the world, the largest trading hub for Chinese goods outside of China, and it’s dedicated to all things over the top. You can see it from space and it’s even shaped like a dragon.
We loved it. Really there were some great things in there amid the kitsch, and some things that maybe just we thought were great. There were a lot of architectural interiors stuff like tile and fixtures and fabricators of things. Almost everything was extremely inexpensive and can be custom made to your specifications if you like.

Beth and I spent most of the day laying around the house today. We watched a couple movies on MBC which is a really great set of stations in English with Arabic subtitles. And we went to Lu Lu Hypermarket and got goodies that we’ve been snacking on all day. After this post I think we’ll work out a little and maybe have a jump in the pool.


Here’s Beth getting on the “school bus”. It’s the shuttle that takes the people living at Summerland Apartment Building to the University. Doesn’t she look beautiful?

This is the Burj al Arab, the tallest and most expensive hotel in the world, etc. Notice how the sunlight reflects off of the glass into three beams of light that stand out against the sky. As you drive down Sheikh Zayed road at the right time of day it is really impressive how bright the beams of light are.

The Peugeot dealership.

We’re not sure what this is. It’s about 5 inches long. We pushed it with a stick and it was squishy. It’s been there for a week across the street from our apartment building entrance. It might be an alien life form. It seems to be dormant so we’re not going to poke it anymore.

If all goes according to plan, we will have the car Saturday. I apologize for the lack of new photographs this week. Not having a car is holding us back from doing more exploring. And we’re really working now, Elizabeth at her job and me at landing one. I’m also writing a small article for a publication about Abu Dhabi despite the fact that I’ve never been there. And I’ve finally figured out this whole metric scale thing so that I can get down to really designing the tower for the competition that I entered into. But I promise to have something more graphic next time I write.

We attempted to get our liquor license yesterday, but we did not have all of our ducks in a straight enough row. We were missing a stamp from the University which we did not know that we needed. It’s funny because the University is where the form came from so it’s odd that they didn’t stamp it before distributing it. We also need another ORIGINAL letter with a stamp and a blue signature declaring Elizabeth’s monthly salary and we only had a copy of that. Additionally, I get to sign a letter as Elizabeth’s husband that states officially that I have no objection to her purchasing alcohol, even though it is her job right now that is providing the means to do so which struck me as the most blatant establishment discrimination example that we have come across here. All of this just so that we can enjoy a little wine with dinner in our own home. We did get to walk into the store last night and it has a wonderful selection.

We have a 3.5G mobile USB modem now that just started working yesterday.


This means that I’m writing at this very moment from our apartment. It also means that I’ve been wasting time online more than I should be, but I’m making up for lost time. We can get phone calls now at our 412 number while we are at home and the computer is on. We had a nice skype call with mom and dad once this morning before they went to bed on the East coast and once this afternoon after they woke up (I think still on the East coast). And we had a call with Karen last evening too. We can’t tell you all how thrilled we are to be out of the desert of mall internet. It’s not cheap to have this thing but neither was paying the mall $5 per hour.

Elizabeth and I got up early and used the gym upstairs this morning for the first time. We couldn’t figure out all the equipment but it was fun. I ran 4 times around the track with the treadmill and Beth used the bicycle and some of the weights. Tonight I think I might try and tackle the steam room…

I finally have the video up that I shot a week ago. You can see it broadcasting on the screen to the left and you can click “full screen”, or the link at the upper right “mogulus” will take you to the channel at the hosting site. It may stream better there and you will also see our nifty banner marquee (ha ha).
The soundtrack is entirely from the car stereo so you may be impressed by the quality. I apologize also about the dirty windshield during parts of this. I thought it would contribute a stunning sense of nouveau-realism to the film but I was wrong. Also I was out of wiper fluid.

Here are some random photos:

This one is for Sarah. As you can clearly see in this photo, Pittsburgh and Dubai are cosmically linked as sharing a unique liberality about which way one orients one’s car while parking on a two-way street.

Yes. We are tempted but have not done it yet.

A lot of the trucks around here are decorated beautifully like they belong to Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. Of course we’re going to step up when we finally get the Peugeot which may be this week.

On Friday, we drove to Bur Dubai and miraculously found a parking space near the Old Souk there along the bank of Dubai Creek. It was our first time in old Bur Dubai. Getting the parking space was a trying adventure in driving through herds of people without hurting them. But it was worth it. We also walked to the Dubai Museum and the Bastakia quarter where everything was closed for the holy day except for one little quaint restaurant tucked in a courtyard that Elizabeth found. It was like an oasis to us at the time because we were both on the edge of passing out from heat exhaustion. The photos below tell the story. We’ll be back there again frequently I’m sure. In fact I was just there yesterday filming the first of our video tour segments that I’ll have up on the screen here in the next few days. It’s a little rough in the filming and editing, but it should be interesting. Stay tuned.

I would be remiss if I did not post a diary about the MOE since it has, for better or worse, played such a large role in our daily life here so far. Beth and I remarked yesterday, as we were tugged by some unknown force through the threshold of yet another clothes store, that they really know how to sell things here. They have marketing down to a degree of perfection that I only wish they had applied to their mastery of street planning. But the mall provides a cool respite from the overbearing heat and sun of the outside. You can always find a parking spot and the rows have numbers that are wired to the individual spaces telling you how many are open in any given aisle. The walk is short and not too hot to the sliding doors where you can start to feel the coolth from a distance of about 20 feet. The mall is the town center. It is where everything happens in Al Barsha (our neighborhood), and certain people make it their destination from all over the city. It contains as many restaurants as a medium size American city. It has more and better stores than you can find in pretty much all of New York City. And of course it has a ski slope. So below are some photographs of the mall preceded by a simple interactive map that if you click HERE you can make larger on its own page.











The shopping cart ramps are everywhere in Dubai. They are pretty great. The carts have magnets on the wheels that keep them from rolling once they hit the “rampscalator”.

While Elizabeth is at her faculty orientation in room B107, I’m hanging out in the lounge putting together some maps in order to orient you to the city. Elizabeth will be getting her residency by Monday at the latest and then we can really start to pull things together. We will then get the car from the Peugeot dealer which will look a little something like this. We have to wait until then until we can get our own DSL line to our apartment too. So for now contact will remain a little spotty. We’re hoping that we can skype from our DSL line. The Etisalat connection at the Mall of the Emirates makes it hard to. We’ll see. You may have to click on the maps below in order to get a nice resolution that will be readable.



So here we have a broad overview of Dubai stretching from Jebel Ali in the Southwest to the old city section of Deira in the Northeast. The yellow box shows the boundary of the next map:



So this map shows you the neighborhoods where we spend most of our time. Getting to and from is not as easy as it looks from the sky. Once you commit to a road that looks and has a sign that says it is going where you want to go, you may end up looping onto the highway heading the opposite direction. Everything is still under construction so a lot of the roads are blocked off suddenly or turn into a one way going the other way with little or no warning. Everyone is doing U-turns all the time. It’s just what you do. Each intersection has a sign that tells you if it is allowed there or not and it usually is.



Here is our walkable neighborhood. I had to draw in some of the streets because Google maps had them not built yet. The satellite photo is also very out of date. It shows the mall under construction and has none of the apartment buildings which are now near completion. It doesn’t show Lu Lu’s hypermarket either. The Enoc gas station is right there off of Umm Seqeim Road as well as the place that we’ll most likely get oil changes and the like. That road is a nightmare of traffic almost all day every day and we often find ourselves on it despite our best efforts. I also drew lines in the middle of some of the streets to show that they are continuously barricaded along the middle, one side of traffic flow from the other. This means that if you are turning onto the street you have to make a right turn. The only traffic light on the entire map is circled in green. There are no stop signs anywhere in Dubai except the occasional one when merging onto a highway where there is no merge lane at all.

I hope this helps you get a sense of the layout of things. Time to go meet Beth.

Here are some photos of our furnished apartment. More to come later. We just got some more stuff yesterday and I don’t have those shots yet. The apartment building across the street is named “THE BARON” and their neon sign illuminates our living room at night just perfectly with a moody blue glow. It’s their internet connection that I’m stealing right now until we get our own next week so it’s really low signal and cuts out randomly.

We took our new float and a bottle of wine up to the pool last night…