Do's and don'ts in Abu Dhabi

Do enjoy the warm weather and sunshine - Don't enjoy it inside a parked car

Do be pleasant and nice to everybody you meet - Don't be too nice and pleasant to men over 40 looking for wife nr 5

Do profit the fact that you are staying in a city full of different nationalities - Don't start speaking in funny dialects in front of people (who actually can't help that they speak that way)

Do eat all the wonderful cuisine the town has to offer - Don't eat until the food resurfaces

Do enjoy your environment - Don't adopt or hug! every cockroach, fly or cat you see

Little Arabian Havana

The other day we(and by we I mean Sofia the Swiss intern and I) were at Havana Cafe. It's a cafe located just outside Marina Mall. Marina Mall is the biggest mall in Abu Dhabi, they have an ice rink, waterfall, cinema and tower that turnes 360 degrees...

Havana cafe is the first cafe I been to around here that has made me feel like I'm in an Arabic country again. Actually it's the ONLY thing that has made me feel like that.

Havana Cafe is not brand new, has an outdoors tent which is full of sheisha smoke, young and old Arabs, mint tea, pasteries and loud conversation. LOVE IT! My new favorite place!

Hot and kitschy

So the other I was at the Beach club (yes I’m a member at a beach club now that is how stuck-up and posh I have become) and I wanted to take a swim in the sea. Holy Cow it was something like 25 degrees Celsius…!! It was like take a bath during winter (when you actually need some warmth in your body) insane… and it was really salty as well, got some in my eye… and I personally don’t consider myself as a hysterical female going bonkers over seawater but THE PAIN!!! Otherwise we were there past Iftar (the breaking of the fast in Ramadan) so we were kinda having this very kitschy Miami Vice feeling of it all; with the palm trees, light up pool, skyscraper skyline and slightly pinkish sky… All we were lacking was a huge umbrella-drink, but atlas the bar was closed :0P

A man and his falcon

Today there were some men outside my house doing falconry, which by the way is really popular down here. One of them seemed to be the owner of the bird while the others were assisting him. 

What got me about this was the way this man interacted with his falcon, it was such a nice sight like they were one in a way. In the middle of the city with tons of cars passing by in a small clearing sits this man and talks and trains his falcon. In the middle of all that noise and movement are two beings in perfect harmony with each other.

I stood there in my window watching them, and I found myself wanting to experience exactly that kind of bliss that those two share in a brief moment of our buzzy world.  

Sorry but I was listing to Kings of Convenience and the poetic side of me took over there for one moment.... ;0)

there is something living in my room...

So earlier this week I was making my bed, when I notice someyhing on my bed... On closer inspection a cockroach to be precise YYYYUUUUCCCKKK!!! He got a wet death....

and if that wasn't all yesterday I was dreaming: I was in a river and I saw this cute little bird that was drowning, so I tried to rescued it. But when I pick it up it turned into some sort of insect making some sort of buzzing sound.... THEN... I noticed that this wasn't a dream and that it was in fact something next to my chin, by the size of a descent size coin, making this sound and trying to escape or something... I hurled myself out of bed and quickly turned the light on, but I didn't see the thing and I never found it either... ewwww....! Still don't know what that was...

The great mosque of Abu Dhabi

The Mosque



Outside


Outside in the "courtyard"


This is not paintings this is actually stone on stone!!!


Me :0)


The smallest chandelier they got hehe it's only 3-4 m tall...


Ceiling carvings


Inside one of the domes

post-recovery and mosque fun

So today has been an eventful day... First of all I survived a day of vomiting, illness and lack of AC: that means 1-0 to Maria over the bacteria TAKE THAT!

Secondly after two hours at work we had a cultural sightseeing; seeing the third biggest mosque in the world namely the Great mosque of Abu Dhabi. It has the biggest chandelier and the biggest wall-to-wall carpet in the world, and it was absolutely stunning! (photos will be added as soon as I get them) It was huge and white and beautiful, if you're ever in Abu Dhabi you have to see it!

After that I had shit loads of stuff to catch up on since I had been sick for one day, but I think I'm back on track now.   

And after getting home I realized my AC was functioning again, YuHooo no more sleeping in 28 degrees Celsius :0D

Now I've just returned from a lovely farewell dinner (for a colleague) at the Hilton (Abu Dhabis oldest hotel). It was a really nice restaurant with really good food and wine and excellent company :0)

Pictures from my room :0)

My Room (starting with the bathroom because I can't figure out blogger's stupid photo-editing): 

Me and my enormous sink and mirror

My Bathroom, I actually have a bathtub which I plan to use because I haven't had one since I was 15...

My window with my lovely view ;0p

My desk and mini fridge 

My bed and sofa, the cabinet in between is all I have to store my clothes and towels :0p 

Sick - of course

Third day in and I get ill.... Woke up feeling not too good and managed to get to work by car with two other colleagues... -I forgot to mention that last time, but I live in the house of the Head of Mission (the second in command) and he is really kind and let's me ride with him to work :0)

Anyways got to work, was there two hours or so, and then managed to vomit in the bathroom. NICE! Everybody was really nice to me though and offered to drive me home... but I still felt like a dumb ass...

The funny thing is that when I came home the AC wasn't working properly ( hasn't since yesterday) and while I felt like lying down and relaxing I had to move around for the men who came to fix it... and they did but... -when they left I noticed a few hours later that the AC was leaking in my bathroom, so we had to call them again.... and they fixed it but... -this time the AC wasn't working AGAIN. So now I'm sitting here at 7 pm waiting for them to come again to fix it once more... Lovely day....

New in the heat

So I landed the 31 of July at around 11.30 pm I think and it was hot! 38 degrees Celsius/100.4 degrees Fahrenheit.... nice... and I was told that that was quite cool for the moment... excellent... 

Anyways my room is really nice, it's about 15m2 with a bathroom of about 10m2... No view (unless you like that brick-wall look) but about 5 min to the marina and 2 min to the supermarket :0D unfortunately it is too hot to be swimming or walking around so everything has to happen by car...

For those of you who don't know: I have moved here because I got an internship at the Royal Norwegian Embassy. And so fare things are great, all my colleagues are really sweet and nice, the embassy is located at the 10th floor downtown with a great view of the town. I'm not doing that much nowadays just looking in the papers for news about the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain which are the countries the embassy is in charge of.