Update from the Emirate: Abu Dhabi, my new home

Hi! All is going very well. I don't have Internet at my apartment. Using Internet cafe, which is 1.25 an hour. Pretty cheap if you are efficient, lol

I love it here. There is so much to do and see, but I am focusing on jobs. The office manager job that I was "offered" was not what I'm looking for, pretty far in the boonies, I would have to have a car right away, plus some other little things, so I passed. There are too many opportunities right here in the city.

I have been all over the island of Abu Dhabi exploring. It reminds me so much of Manhattan. The bus is new, clean, and comes every 20 minutes in off peak hours, every 10 minutes in peak hours. And it only costs 1Dh (about .27 cents). I can go all over the city for .50 a day!

Surprisingly, it is less foreign here than Montreal was! Everybody speaks English, all the signs are in English and Arabic both, and they have ALL the chain restaurants and stores we have in the USA. Even a Top Shop! I posted a pic of that on Facebook for Julie, haha

Some things are much cheaper than the USA, like some foods, bottled water, a can of soda, and of course gasoline. Other items more expensive, like all Apple computer products, Kraft cheese, and other name brand imports. They have gorgeous malls, and supermegastores like Target and Walmart. Also though, are little markets in my neighborhood which sell everything.

You can wear whatever you want, half the women here wear the black Hajib, some even cover faces with only an eye slit to see through, but the rest of the women wear jeans and tshirts. Saw a lot of girls in shorts and tank tops. Men either dress casually in jeans, or about half wear a white floor length robe with a turban. Nobody seems to care how other people dress, it's each to their own.

The men treat women very respectfully. As a matter of fact it seems that women rule! On the bus, women sit in the front section, men get the back. Tonight it got crowded, and some men wanted to try to enter the front door of the bus. A woman gave them a look, and said "go to the back door." Six men humbly dropped their heads and shuffled to the back door and silently squeezed in with the other men. I wanted to laugh, they looked so guilty for even THINKING about trying to push through the women! Ha ha.