First Impressions

We arrived in Abu Dhabi during the hottest days of the year. The temperature gets up to 115 F. And it's humid, not dry. Sweltering, like a sauna. If a breeze kicks in, it feels like a very large hair dryer on the hottest setting. When I go from an air conditioned space to the outside, my sunglasses fog over and my hair curls up into big corkscrews. Mackenzie claims her eyeballs sweat. Needless to say we're spending a lot of time indoors right now. Like eveyone else, activites outside take place early morning or late evening, when the temperature is more reasonable, maybe around 90 F. But this extreme heat lasts for just a few months in July and August. We'll be happy in March when the average temperature hovers around 75 F.

The City of Abu Dhabi, a little over an hour south of Dubai, is actually an island in the Arabian Gulf, connected to the mainland of the United Arab Emirates by two large bridges. Downtown is at the far end of the island. The outermost edge of the island is called the Corniche. It reminds me a little of the waterfront in Chicago, with lots of beaches, pedestrian paths, a bike path, and a road called Corniche Avenue that is just like Lake Shore Drive. The Corniche has broad green parks with grass and trees, though the trees are palm, date, and eucalyptus instead of the more familiar oak and maple. Even the buildings along the Corniche form a street wall similar in scale to those on Michigan Avenue across from Millenium Park.

There are lots of impressive new buildings by famous architects from all over the world scattered throughout Abu Dhabi. A sizable number of them are incredibly tall, around 75 floors. Even more are under construction. Cranes are everywhere. Saadiyat Island, north of downtown, is going to become a museum campus with buildings designed by Frank Ghery, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, and Jean Nouvel. Ferrari World, the world's largest indoor theme park with the world's fastest roller coaster is scheduled to open this fall.

Abu Dhabi is a very international city with a population of about a million. About 80% are ex-pats from all over the world. Most are from India, Pakistan and other gulf countries, but there are also plenty from the U.S., England, Australia, South Africa and France. Arabic is the national language, but English is a standard means of communication since many of the ex-pats don't speak Arabic. Street signs are in both Arabic and English.

I know Abu Dhabi sounds exotic and in some ways it is, but international seems a more fitting term. There are huge upscale shopping malls, great for those hot afternoons, with stores from all over the world. The girls were happy to find an Aeropostale. We bought jeans at the Gap. We're discovering stores that are completely new to us. John got what amounts to an ex-pat starter kit at Ikea since our 40 foot container of all our worldy goods hasn't arrived yet. When we don't want to shop, we can go to the ice skating rink in the mall. An indoor ski slope is schedule to open "soon". There's a huge store called Carrefour that is just like Target. Grocery stores have all the fresh fruits and vegetables that we're used to in the states and all the usual names like Cheerios, and Campbell Soup. But they also have a huge variety of foods from all over the world that we'll have to try out when we get a chance.

Really the most exotic element of Abu Dhabi are the Emirati and Muslims from other countries. The men wear long white robes called Dishdasha with the traditional Arabic head dress. The women wear a black robe called an Abaya. Usually their hair is covered in a black scarf called a Sheyla.  Sometimes everything except the eyes is covered. Occasionally their entire face is covered with a Burkha. This is a little disconcerting at first, but you get used to it. Sometimes jeans and high heels are peaking out from under the gowns.

This has already gotten way too long. I'll have to save our Ramadan experience and where we live for the next time I have access to the internet.