June 11, 2006
I am trying to get used to the different weekend days and it just seems strange to think today is Sunday. Everyone here is off working, the weekends are Thursday and Friday. I guess that will change in the fall, it is sometimes difficult here to do international business when only 3 of the working days are the same. They will be moving to Friday and Saturday off.
Their holy day, or prayer day is Friday. Most of the stores etc are closed until 2 or 5. My church is held on Friday instead of Sunday. Mike and I went this last Friday and met many warm and kind people.
Mike took me to see Swan Lake, a ballet put on by the Russain Ballet. It was wonderful! The theatre was too small for an orchestra so the music was recorded. It is a fairly new theatre, in the Madinat complex. The complex is setup like an old souk with many shops and restaurants. The large hotel in the background is the Burj Al Arab, it is the one that sits out on the water. There is no end to construction here, everywhere you look there is a building going up. It really stirs up the dust and the air is quite thick with it and the humidity.
I may learn to swear in at least 3 languages, as I travel about in the taxi's they are quite verbal in their displeasure at the other drivers. It takes them a good five minutes to forget about it. Some of it is justified but it is somewhat entertaining, the metaphors are colorful (even though I don't know what they are saying).
I have not made it to the downtown area yet, that is pretty far from here. We are very close to the Palm Jemeria, that construction is just in the beginning stages. It will be fun to watch some of this develop, while enduring the trucks, the noise and the dust. Well, onto other things I need to do!