it is so amazing

my mustache that is. E insisted that I shave it for my interview, but she failed to realise that the entire IT department consists of Indians and Pakistanis, all of whom have mustaches. i took some photos of it when it was in the Ghengis Khan style as well as the more common place sherrify look it is now and will post them when I am able to have internet without going to the coffee place around the corner.

so far the temp has been quite nice, especially after coming from michigan with a foot of snow. I need to get a new set of sunglasses however, my eyes have been feeling sunburned.

the smells, colourful stores and signs, the blue skies, the greenery everywhere mixed in with the sand, rocks, and roads, the call to prayer five times a day, and most especially getting refamiliarised with the metric system for driving and the daily temp. it is all like some flashback to earlier in my life. I intend to get a recording of the calls to pray for those of you who have never heard it before, it is quite interesting as it is sung 5 times a day, and sounds quite pleasing. I am sure that anyone who lives right next to a mosque thinks I am crazy to say so as the loudspeakers are meant to be heard a great distance.

Every block we drive by is full of excitement, there is more construction here than I have ever seen in any city I have visited in my life. In just a few blocks, there are more cranes throwing up massive buildings than the entire city of Seattle. It is common to see 5 cranes all taking turns lifting loads in one block at all hours of the day and night. As soon as I can find a suitable place where to take photos from I will post some to show as much as possible the extent of the city. Everywhere I look there are buildings, all of which average around 20 storeys. the quality of them is unbelievable. in the US most buildings are built using cheaper materials, but here everything is marble, hardwood, and beautifully ornamented. The architecture tends to be a great mix of Islamic and western styles, with many buildings varying from each other in design and details. this makes for some amazing scenery, as everything we drive by looks different from many of the surrounding buildings. All of these buildings have small businesses on the bottom floors, and the range of available services puts many cities to shame. Instead of a few large chains (of which where are still plenty) most of the work is done in these smaller places. I will post photos in the future trying to show some of what I am trying to explain.

the plant life is surprisingly varied, and I have yet to see anywhere that has plastic plants. the cost of labour here is so low that it is possible to have armies of gardeners maintaining them so that the whole city has beautiful greenery. It is not as green as Washington but that is only because in WA it is so effortless to have green plants, the real beauty of the green here is how much work goes into maintaining it. there are more birds here than most places in the US, even the medians in the middle of the busiest roads have birds nesting, a meter away from the drivers pounding on the horn. We have seen many stray/feral cats but so far, only a single dog. Elysia just ran out of the coffee shop to try to pat it, but reports that it growled at her. Since the only dog that is not considered unclean is the Saluki, unless its owner finds or retrieves it soon it is likely to.... not last long.....

the most fun thing to do is drive around in the taxis, they drive pretty wildly, and it is like an exciting rollercoaster ride every time. they love the horn, it is the most commonly used thing on the roads aside from the gas pedal (used to suddenly increase speed to intimidate the pedestrians who look like they were about to dare to cross the road)

parking here is very funny, I got a couple of shots of how it works here. seeing a whole line of cars parked is one thing, then realising that they are all parked in the middle of the road makes it quite another. I hope we can get a car at some point in the future, I am excited to drive.

I went to the mall and once again, was surprised at the quality of everything. it is multiple floors and there are fountains, sculptures, and finely done tiled floors everywhere. the underground store Carrefour was the most extensive grocery and goods store I have seen yet. Think of the best specialty markets where you can get high end items from around the world and imagine about 5 of those all combined with a super large Meijer (Fred Meyer for you west coasters) Throw in a few ethnic markets and that is what this place was like. any kind of fruit that you can get anywhere in the world is available fresh and beautiful in this HUGE area. I found fresh rambutan and Durian even! the next section has spices that it isnt worth mentioning since the majority of them are not available in the US. this is probably another 'need a photo' item, and some will be on the way soon.

E is looking bored right now so ill write more later. having a hot laptop sitting on my lap at the moment is starting to get uncomfortable too. I could write all kinds of stuff, but will save that for a time when I can get the photos online. This will happen as soon as I get the proper transformer and plug for my external drive where I save the photos.

more to come later, Ill find out tomorrow about the job, so I should soon have a laptop and a way to get online.


richest city in the world indeed. it is cheap to do most things, so anyone who wants to visit should come, but maybe not for a while as the summer months are going to be scorching hot and might result in skin grafts for anyone visiting from any of the more northern states, I hope to have a semi protective tan before I get to that point myself.