Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Passover has been passed over
Bret came home with a book order today and on the 2nd page there was a little piece of paper taped over one of the books. Naturally, I lifted the paper to see what was underneath. What was it you ask - a Jewish Passover book called the Matzah Man, of course. On the printed order form, it reads that this book is not available in the UAE. FYI, Israeli goods are prohibited from being sold anywhere in the Gulf Coast Countries and no one will make it past passport control with a stamp from Israel in their passport. If we wanted to visit Israel, we would have to get a special passport from the US Embassy, like a disposable passport. This just in: Israel doesn't have any friends in the Middle East.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
2 Mad Madams
As the title says, there have been two mad madams around here. Unfortunately, one of them is me. I use the term "madam" because that is how many of the women here are referred to as, especially by the maids and everyone in the service sector.
Madam #1 - Last week, I'm making my every other day trip to our neighborhood market (to buy milk of course, see previous post). I'm putting my items up on the belt at the check out stand, when I see this madam holding a couple of items in her hands following her maid who is pushing a shopping cart. She yells at her maid to stop and then proceeds to chew her out for not staying put where the madam had left her. One grown women was literally yelling at another. I couldn't believe it. This would be OK if it was a five year old or something, but not an adult. Everyone in the store was watching. So, I say to the checker, who was a cute little Filipina gal, "Wow!" She looks at me, and without hesitation, says "Maybe she's Arabic." I said to her "What?" I mean she really didn't just say that, did she? The checker says again "Maybe she's Arabic." (Implication being that if she is Arabic, then she can do whatever she wants to whomever she wants). I said "I don't care who she is. That doesn't give her the right to talk to her or anyone else that way." Even if the maid did deserve it, the madam could've handled it more gracefully than that. Meanwhile, the maid had a big smile on her face the whole time, probably not understanding a word that was being shouted at her.
Madam #2 - Today, the kids, their friend Hugo and I walked to our neighborhood park. There is a playground and a tennis court at this park. The kids play at the playground and run through the bushes claiming their forts. After a while, they decide to move the party over to the tennis court to practice their Heelys. When we enter the court, there are tennis balls scattered around the court, an empty ball cage and a racket. Naturally, the kids start tossing the balls around and begin hitting them with the racket. No harm is being done, so I figure I can let the kids play. Well, about 5 minutes later, a man (probably from Eastern Europe) pulls up in his car, gets out and walks into the court. He tells me that my children have scattered his tennis balls and need to pick them all up. I said to him "My kids did not scatter the balls." He says "Oh, did the town ghost do it?? They had to have done it. No one else was here. I was only gone 5 minutes." He was wrong. Not only did my kids NOT do it, but we had been there about 20 minutes and this was the first I'd seen him. When we arrived at the park, there were other 3 other kids (accompanied by their maids of course) in the court that probably did it. He went on to say "You need to teach your children to respect and not touch other peoples' property." OK, I probably shouldn't have let them play with the racket, but at a park where kids play, this guy shouldn't leave things lying around that he doesn't want kids touching. I said "You need to take your stuff with you or lock the gate to the court if you are going to leave it sitting around and don't want kids playing with it - this is a playground after all." After this he says "You've obviously never been involved with team sports." I was SOOOO mad. I told the kids to pick up the balls, but only because they had been playing with them, not because they scattered them. Nick was mad that I made them pick the balls up. I got home and just lost it.
Six months of having to deal with people like this really wears on you. Some people here are so arrogant and have such an sense of entitlement. I long for the days back in Texas, where almost everyone was so friendly and nice. After the tennis incident, I look back and think that I shouldn't have said anything. I should have just said "My children did not do what you are accusing them of" and walked away. My biggest fear is that I will turn into one of them. If that happens, someone please come over here and shoot me.
Madam #1 - Last week, I'm making my every other day trip to our neighborhood market (to buy milk of course, see previous post). I'm putting my items up on the belt at the check out stand, when I see this madam holding a couple of items in her hands following her maid who is pushing a shopping cart. She yells at her maid to stop and then proceeds to chew her out for not staying put where the madam had left her. One grown women was literally yelling at another. I couldn't believe it. This would be OK if it was a five year old or something, but not an adult. Everyone in the store was watching. So, I say to the checker, who was a cute little Filipina gal, "Wow!" She looks at me, and without hesitation, says "Maybe she's Arabic." I said to her "What?" I mean she really didn't just say that, did she? The checker says again "Maybe she's Arabic." (Implication being that if she is Arabic, then she can do whatever she wants to whomever she wants). I said "I don't care who she is. That doesn't give her the right to talk to her or anyone else that way." Even if the maid did deserve it, the madam could've handled it more gracefully than that. Meanwhile, the maid had a big smile on her face the whole time, probably not understanding a word that was being shouted at her.
Madam #2 - Today, the kids, their friend Hugo and I walked to our neighborhood park. There is a playground and a tennis court at this park. The kids play at the playground and run through the bushes claiming their forts. After a while, they decide to move the party over to the tennis court to practice their Heelys. When we enter the court, there are tennis balls scattered around the court, an empty ball cage and a racket. Naturally, the kids start tossing the balls around and begin hitting them with the racket. No harm is being done, so I figure I can let the kids play. Well, about 5 minutes later, a man (probably from Eastern Europe) pulls up in his car, gets out and walks into the court. He tells me that my children have scattered his tennis balls and need to pick them all up. I said to him "My kids did not scatter the balls." He says "Oh, did the town ghost do it?? They had to have done it. No one else was here. I was only gone 5 minutes." He was wrong. Not only did my kids NOT do it, but we had been there about 20 minutes and this was the first I'd seen him. When we arrived at the park, there were other 3 other kids (accompanied by their maids of course) in the court that probably did it. He went on to say "You need to teach your children to respect and not touch other peoples' property." OK, I probably shouldn't have let them play with the racket, but at a park where kids play, this guy shouldn't leave things lying around that he doesn't want kids touching. I said "You need to take your stuff with you or lock the gate to the court if you are going to leave it sitting around and don't want kids playing with it - this is a playground after all." After this he says "You've obviously never been involved with team sports." I was SOOOO mad. I told the kids to pick up the balls, but only because they had been playing with them, not because they scattered them. Nick was mad that I made them pick the balls up. I got home and just lost it.
Six months of having to deal with people like this really wears on you. Some people here are so arrogant and have such an sense of entitlement. I long for the days back in Texas, where almost everyone was so friendly and nice. After the tennis incident, I look back and think that I shouldn't have said anything. I should have just said "My children did not do what you are accusing them of" and walked away. My biggest fear is that I will turn into one of them. If that happens, someone please come over here and shoot me.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
6 Quirky Things About Me
Alright, my friend Marti tagged me and I'm going to buckle down and get it over with. Jenny (Larsen)- I know you tagged me a couple months ago and I just blew it off - sorry. This will just have to count for both tags because I hate writing about myself. So, here are 6 quirky (I guess) things about me:
1. I have a weird obsession with license plates, which is why the last post intrigues me so much. I memorize them. I do this with phone numbers, too.
2. I'm always cold.
3. I bite my fingernails. I hate it so bad and have tried to stop many times but can't. If I could just make it past that first week to catch a glimpse of how lovely my hands would look with fingernails I might be able to, but I just can't do it.
4. I blast the music in the car when I'm by myself, which isn't very often.
5. I have to be the first one into bed after I have washed the sheets. I love it the way they are all nice and smooth. Nick knows this and tries to beat me, but I usually win.
6. I'm a little (ok, a lot) psycho when it comes to food expiration dates. I toss any food right before the date. With milk, I'm really bad because I can't stand it to begin with let alone any where near the expiration date. Here in Dubai, it's nice because not only is the expiration date required on every item, so is the production date. I know how long things have been sitting on the shelves. And, the milk here always expires 5 days after the production date. None of that 10 day business like in the States, which I don't trust anyway. Wow, I really am weird.
Well, there you go. I can't think of anyone else to tag. Everyone in the blog world that I know of has already been tagged, so if you read this and want to tag yourself, go for it!
1. I have a weird obsession with license plates, which is why the last post intrigues me so much. I memorize them. I do this with phone numbers, too.
2. I'm always cold.
3. I bite my fingernails. I hate it so bad and have tried to stop many times but can't. If I could just make it past that first week to catch a glimpse of how lovely my hands would look with fingernails I might be able to, but I just can't do it.
4. I blast the music in the car when I'm by myself, which isn't very often.
5. I have to be the first one into bed after I have washed the sheets. I love it the way they are all nice and smooth. Nick knows this and tries to beat me, but I usually win.
6. I'm a little (ok, a lot) psycho when it comes to food expiration dates. I toss any food right before the date. With milk, I'm really bad because I can't stand it to begin with let alone any where near the expiration date. Here in Dubai, it's nice because not only is the expiration date required on every item, so is the production date. I know how long things have been sitting on the shelves. And, the milk here always expires 5 days after the production date. None of that 10 day business like in the States, which I don't trust anyway. Wow, I really am weird.
Well, there you go. I can't think of anyone else to tag. Everyone in the blog world that I know of has already been tagged, so if you read this and want to tag yourself, go for it!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Crazy plates
An article on CNN today:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/04/uae.plates/index.html
We saw a 10 last weekend, the lowest we've seen yet. It was on a Mercedes SUV. We saw 22 earlier that night on a red Rolls Royce, kind of like in the article. We were at dinner in a ritzy part of town where many of the locals hang out. It was crazy watching all of the luxury cars pulling in. Our plates are numbers 59255 and 61490, just in case anyone out there is wondering.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/04/uae.plates/index.html
We saw a 10 last weekend, the lowest we've seen yet. It was on a Mercedes SUV. We saw 22 earlier that night on a red Rolls Royce, kind of like in the article. We were at dinner in a ritzy part of town where many of the locals hang out. It was crazy watching all of the luxury cars pulling in. Our plates are numbers 59255 and 61490, just in case anyone out there is wondering.
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