TURKIYE TURKIYE!!! what a night

Not only did i watch the whole Soccer World Cup in Beirut, Lebanon two years ago, i now have to watch the EURO 2008, which takes place in Switzerland, home sweet home, in Dubai. When will i ever have the chance again to support our “NATI” IN switzerland and scream “HOPP SCHWIIZ” from the top of my lungs? Then again… its only soccer.

I went out to my favourite bar here in Dubai, called Barasti in Dubai Marina, a bar right at the beach packed with EXPATS, with my German friends to see the game Germany against Turkey. I was totally surprised that the Turks outnumberd the Germans by war. I had no idea that there were so many of them here. But thats Dubai, simply everybody is here.
The Turks not only outnumbered the Germans they drowned them out as well. TURKIYE TURKIYE…. Screaming, jumping, dancing… My friends were the only ones trying to keep up with them. But what two little voices do against a whole choir?!
Only when the Germany made their first goal you suddenly noticed that there actually were some more German fans after all.

For you to imagine the whole scenery. We all sat on the grass outside the restaurant infront of the harbour with all the fancy yachts. Smoking shisha and having drinks.

Right when the game got to its climax we suddenly lost the direct connection to the game. DAMN. Then you saw people on the phone, jumping up and down, screaming and dancing. Confusion – did the Germans score, or the Turks? Oh who cares…
Thats Dubai – where you even get the end results from the live soccer coverage over the phone from home.

It was a fun night. As a neutral swiss i didnt care about the outgoing of the game anyways
But on Sunday i will cross my fingers for Spain. Sorry guys…

Interim Result

4 months have passed since i started my latest adventure, packed my suitcase again and moved to Dubai. So i figured it is about time for a little résumé.

Maybe for once i dont start with my job right away but with my apartment. Right now i feel like im living in a refugee camp. Not only has some guy been sleeping in the hallway on a spare bed – so right when you come out of your room – hung over from too much partying the last night – you fall over him – this morning another guy was sleeping on the couch in the kitchen.
For those of you who dont know – im already living with 7 other poeple in this flat. Right now we are 12!!!! I have no idea how many more are coming… But it is definitely NOT relaxing. Not to mention the clash of cultures when French, German, Pakistanis, Canadians and French people are living together.
Unfortunatley is it still the only accommodation we can afford. One the of the only other options is International City, which is a huge complex in the middle of the desert, planned for some 60.000 people to live there. As located in the middle of nowhere you of course need a car to drive into Dubai. Another cost factor not to be underestimated. Ignoring the madness of Dubai traffic – a story of its own.

In terms of my job it is just not getting better.
As most of you already know i still havent started my theses yet. Two weeks ago i wrote an email to my boss explaining my problem to my boss. Due to either his lack of interest or his emmense travel agenda i havent gotten any response so far.
When it comes to the job itself i either don’t have anything to do at all or im helping out the others with their job. And it’s questionable if it will ever change.
Furthermore some power games are played in the background. Weird enough for an office of 7 people. There are attempts to play me off against my collegue and the other way round. At least that is the feeling I have so far.
So all in all its neither the job, nor the payment nor the environment I feel comfortable in.
Plus I seriously have to focus on finishing my thesis so I finally have my university degree.

So be prepared for me to come back home. Somehow I’ve started to say goodbye to Dubai, to my latest adventure. At least for the moment.

Camping at the beach

or the most chaotic camping trip…

On a normal boring hot Friday afternoon i was sitting on the balcony with Ryan, my Canadian flatmate and enjoying the peaceful quiet afternoon. He had to go and make a visa run (visa renewal by crossing the border to Oman) the next day and suddenly came up with the idea of how nice it would be to spend the night at the beach and make the visa run the next morning before returning to Dubai instead of making the whole trip on one day. And off we were to the next Carrefour (a french international hypermarket where you can just buy everything) to buy a tent, a candle and a torch. Back home we packed the car as fast as possible and headed towards Fujeira. At least that was the plan. Unfortunatley after one hour we hardly were out of Dubai. We underestimated the traffic on a Friday evening. After two hours of traffic jam we still were nowhwere and it was getting dark and it was getting hard to read the signs. At some points there were no signs anymore at all. Too bad when every intersection consits of a huge roundabout with 7 exits. Well streight always seemed to be a good option – at least until the paved road ended and we were suddenly driving offroad. We were driving in a Toyota Yaris by the way – so not the best car to make offroad adventures.
After hours of driving around blindly we finally found ourselves at the sea. YES at least now we knew where we were, although it wasnt the right direction. Flexibel as we are we changed our plan and decided to head streight up to Ras al Kheima, find a place to camp somewhere there and cross the border there. So far so good. We managed to find the raods until the border, the only problem we had: There was no beach ANYWHERE. When we reached the border is was like midnight and the border was deserted. As my passport was still with the immigration office i couldnt cross the border with Ryan, and he didnt want to leave me standing there alone in nowheresland. So no visa run for the day. But where to sleep and what to do? We decided to go back to the original plan and headed back to Fujeira anyways where Ryan knew a beach to camp.
Driving through the mountains at night with a full moon shining on us was amazing. Quite the experience. After 9 hours in the car and passing through 6 of the 7 Emirates we finally arrived at the beach.
The beach was like a 200 m wide beach, next to the road and therefor lit by the streetlights and right next to a Hotel. And we again forgot that it was a Friday – the whole beach was full of garbage. At least we had enough light to put up the tent. The glass is always half full.
At least till I found out that i forgot my swimmsuit back home. Nice…
Well exhausted as we were it wasnt a problem to fall asleep – until the sun was burning hot at like 6.30 am in the morning. Plus a whole group of Filiponos decided that this was the time to start a picknick at the beach. I have never heard a group of girls screaming like them. No way we could continue sleeping. Furthermore some Indians were walking around the beach cleaning up the Friday mess.
Totally tired and exhausted we decided that packing and heading back to Dubai to get some breakfast wouldbe our best option. On our way back we found – of course – a really nice beach off the road with palmtrees and no Filipinis. At least we didnt get lost on our way back. The shower and the bed have never been so comfortable.

The next trip can only get better!

Progress?! and the Mummy issue

This is my third week in Dubai now.

Is there any progress concerning my work? Hardly…
I dont have work right now – but i least i got fed with popcorn. (Have i mentioned before that i urgently need to buy running shoes so i can hit the treadmill again?)
Today no customers are in the office. My boss is on a business trip in Italy. So everybody is taking it VERY slowly and relaxed….
Should i complain? At least i have an email address and internet access. Oh… no phone so far…
But i keep telling myself that it can only get better… the deadline for this will be after one month. Thats the limit i want to deal with boredom. There were days were i was busy. You cant call it challenging work – but at least i was busy. So lets hope today again is an exception.

At home we got a new flatmate…. nothing bad so far to tell about her… except that she arrived with her mother (the girl is 28). So right now we have a small mummy issue in our flat. We are all poor and young… and the flat is not the most luxurious one. Believe it or not we can cope without a kettle… in total emergencies we can boil water on the stove. There IS a microwave to heat up water for a coffee or tea too. If you ignore the fact that our toaster looks a bit disgusting, it toasts the toast good enough and the washing mashine at least works if u sit next to it and push the button for the next programm every 15 minutes.
We learn how to take it with a smile

Its just not the place your mummy fits in.

So far i have been the lucky one to show her how to heat the water in the microwave and where to switch on the oven. (isnt a mummy supposed to know that???)

Yesterday there was the big issue (again it was me sitting in the kitchen at the time of the discovery) that someone took her cheese bought the day before. Thats not the way its supposed to be. You cannot just eat the cheese of other persons, at least ask if u want some… Did i mention that we are living with 7-9, depending on visitors, people living in one flat? So it can happen you use the stuff thats in the fridge… as long as its the basics no big deal…
Mummy thought so differently and even woke up one of my flatmates to ask him if he was the one…

Do i have to mention that we all got an email from the person responsible for the flats, that stuff from the fridge has been missing…

The cheese indeed is a big issue compared to the laptop that went missing last week and surprisingly turned up in the trash in the stairway …

Wednesday Mummy is supposed to leave. Then again there will be Peace and rest in our flat.

Iranian Dinner

Our main activity in the evening is where to have cheap and good food near our appartement. We live in the area called Bur Dubai, a very cultural mixed place and one of the only areas in Dubai that are lively. So there are several places close by where you can have decent food. One of our favourites so far is a place called “RAVI” a Pakistani place, with plastic tables and chairs on the street, always packed with people, Pakistani and Westerners alike. DELICIOUS…

 But some days ago i found another amazing place, an Iranian restaurant around the corner. A very tiny place, with old pictures from Dubai (meaning Dubai 15 years ago) on the wall, owened by two iranian brothers, one of them a former body builder. The food itself was fine but the whole atmosphere was pure entertainment. They were joking and fooling around with us during the whole dinner. I enjoyed every second i spent in that restaurant.
And there were even locals having dinner there. That it so extraordinary in Dubai to see them somewhere “normal” having normal dinner and not in a GUCCI store or driving their HUMMER.

So whoever wants to come for a visit… be prepared for some fun dinner at this place.

Fire in Al Quoz

View from our balcony on the morning when the storages in Al Quoz blew up.
The sky was all black from the smoke and people first were panic-sticken that some terrorist attact might have happend.

View from my office

My Building

My first day at work

That was my first day at United Colours of Benetton.
And i liked it.

I directly found my office. Its in the 14th floor of a pretty new business building and all the windows are completely out of glass so i have the most beautiful view over the city and the creek – and the swimming pool of the Hotel next to our building

The Benetton “family” consists of like 10 people, most of them Armenian/Libanese. So i am pretty lucky that the libanese accent ist the only one i do understand – at least half of what the people say So far i can say that i feel comfortable … The team, the atmosphere and the office remind me of my former Greenpeace office in Beirut – only that the office is alot (ALOT ALOT ALOT) nicer and cleaner…

And i finally found out what my work will be: i will be responsible for the Customer Services of the shops in Africa. (thats all i know so far – so please dont ask me what exactly that means )

Right now the collections for Autumn/winter 08 arrived and the customers from the Middle East and Africa will come into the office to decide what they will buy for their country. So today i helped unpacking all the clothes, accessories, bags and shoes… I’m living a girls dream!!! (SO MUCH PINK!!! SO MUCH PURPLE!!!) Now i can find the clothes matching to my nailpolish and lipstick )))) Unfortunately i wont get the sample clothes for free – “only” cheaper…

Thats what i can tell you so far from my first day experience…

Hallo Dubai

… Ich bin in Dubai angekommen … und hab als erste Tat gleich mal mein Handy verloren…. Willkommen in Dubai.

Nachdem ich es geschafft hatte, meinen Vermieter tatsächlich in dem Chaos des Flughafens von Dubai zu finden (geh aus dem Flughafenbereich raus, überquer die Strasse, geh 100 m nach rechts, da steht ein weisser Pajero mit Warnblinkanlage) ging es direkt in mein neues zu Hause. Im Auto noch schnell in die Schweiz geschrieben, dass alles gut geklappt hat und ich nicht einsam und verlassen am Flughafen übernachten muss. Kaum “zu Hause” angekommen, ging es auch schon gleich ein Stockwerk tiefer zu einer Geburtstagsparty, wo ich gleich mal fast alle Mitbewohner der 3 Wohnungen, die meinem Vermieter gehören, kennen gelernt habe… Also gleich mal das erste Bierchen auf dem Balkon in der schwülen Wärme genossen.
Als ich dann irgendwann wieder in mein Zimmer ging und mein Handy aus dem Rucksack holen wollte, war es nicht da wo es hätte sein sollen. Es ist weder im Auto noch sonst wo zu finden – ich kann mir auch nicht vorstellen, dass es jemand genomment hat, aber meinen iPod und meinen Computer da gelassen hat. Nun ja, einer meiner Mitbewohner hat noch ein Altes, was ich jetzt benutzen kann.

Also ab morgen bin ich über Handy zu erreichen!!!

Mein Zimmer ist klein aber süss – ein Bett, ein Schrank und eine kleine Ablagefläche – alles was man haben muss.
Ich wohne mit 2 anderen Mädels und 4 Jungs zusammen – die Nationalitäten gehen von Deutsch, über Südafrikanisch, Kanadisch bis hin zu Französisch. Sehr bunte Mischung…

Die Wohnung liegt ca. 10 Min von meinem Büro weg, das Bürogebäude kann ich vom Balkon aus sehen. Zu Fuss zur Arbeit zu können ist ein Luxus hier in Dubai.
Alleine heute haben wir, um von einem indischen Take Away Essen zu holen 1,5 Stunden gebraucht… Und wir mussten nur in einen angrenzenden Stadtteil.

Das Wetter ist WARM. Ich war heute schon am Strand und hab ein bisschen den Luxus Sonne genossen, bevor es morgen mit dem Ernst des Arbeitslebens los geht.

Wie und wo und was meine Arbeit sein wird berichte ich dann…