ONE
Bling, fails to impress. Ever wondered whats so great when you hear songs for what ever rapper seems to be trending at the moment about their bling bling and baller lifestyle. Talking about rolling in fancy cars, gold chains around their necks, living in mansions with huge flat screen TVs and jacuzzi's in their living rooms? In Dubai, where diamond studded Rolls Royce's and $25 million penthouses in the tallest tower in the world, Burj Khalifa. are not exactly rare, you wonder what the big deal is?
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| The Diamond Studded Rolls Royce Celestial Edition |
TWO
Multilingual, You speak at least a couple of languages, and no I don't consider knowing Yallah and Habibi as being able to speak Arabic.The great melting pot of culture this place is its almost impossible not to pick up a second language. You have to deal with the plethora of nationalities you come across daily. And the more languages you speak the easier your life here becomes. At the very minimum I would say you need to know English, Arabic and Urdu or Hindi. Although I do have friends, long time residents of Dubai and they still haven't gone beyond the Yallah and Habibi stage, sigh!
THREE
You expect everything to stay open till midnight and beyond. For a city that never sleeps and people who usually come out, mostly after sundown, it's still hard to come to terms with realizing that yes a lot of stores do close at midnight. It's that awkward feeling when you walk up to a place to see it's closed. Its a moment of disbelief, why is it closed, I just got here and it's only like ... oh wait, then you look down at your watch and realize...oh it's already 12. But if you've been here long enough, you already have a list of places that are open till late in the night or better yet 24 hrs, be it a restaurant or supermarket.
FOUR
When bashing is not really a crime, Wadi or Dune Bashing is not a pre-planned excursion booked months in advance on your next vacation to an exotic destination. Instead its just something you do on the weekend, every weekend. Although for someone like me who spent a good deal of time in the industry something to do only when you've totally run out of all other options on how to spend your weekend. But even then. its a great de-stresser and really revitalizes you for the week ahead. Just something about the Desert that can't be explained, you need to experience it for yourself.
FIVE
Your group of friends looks like a United Colors of Benetton advertisement. Once again living in a such a multicultural society you can't help but have friends from almost all the continents of the world, And this makes for a great life experience, you get to know more about their countries and cultures while telling them about yours. Not uncommon to see people coming from countries who are sworn political enemies, become good friends here and in many cases, even ending up married, just takes your faith, that the human race despite all our differences will make it after all, a notch higher.
SIX
You stop going to the grocery store around the corner or even the one located on the ground floor of the very building you live in, instead you just place a call and tell them what you want and within no time it'll be at your doorstep and nine times out of ten, its a free service they provide. No matter how small or big the order is, even if it is just a bar of chocolate. I know that sounds ridiculous but that's just the way it is over here. I guess this is one of the reason these small stores still survive even with big chains popping up all over the place.
SEVEN
When breaking down of your air conditioning is as an extinction level disaster. Eventually, if you stay here long enough this will happen to you. You take for granted that when ever you walk into your house already sweaty from just walking across from the car park to the house, you'll just pick up the remote. press a button, and instantly you'll be enveloped in a cool comforting blanket of air and everything that is wrong with the world will just dissolve away, while you indulge in the icy comfort. But if you are that unfortunate soul whose A/C has broken down, you instantly panic, you are already thinking how will I make it through the day, how will I be able to sleep at night, is life even worth living anymore, should I just end it all now? Your fight or flight instinct kicks in, and you do what everyone does here, check into the nearest hotel until its fixed.
EIGHT
When you don't go all bat crap crazy, when you realized you've left a valuable or prized item at the dinner table at the restaurant or counter at the store because you're pretty much sure, its either still there or someone in charge has it in his or her possession for safe keeping and when you return, usually before you can even finish saying "Excuse me, I think I might have left my wallet here ", the person reaches under the counter and presents it to "Sir you forget your wallet" and checking to see if any thing is missing from it would amount to insulting the person's integrity and just plain rude.
NINE
When telling someone your address is at least a 20 min conversation, And you look at fresh arrivals in disdain if they give you street and building names and numbers when asked a location. What are you going on about man, have you lost your marbles. That's not how we roll here, we don't have addresses, we have directions, unless of course you happen to live or work in some place iconic or famous.You have to be an expert in the city layout to give out your address and to expect someone or something to reach you in time or without asking for further directions is a fool hardy wish. Although with the advent of google maps and the ability drop pins and WhatsApp location it is starting to get less stressful.
Here's what typical directions sound like. Do you know where the building with a maze design on it on Shk Zayed Road, ok good, now while heading towards Dubai, take the 3rd turn after you cross it, then drive until you reach a grocery on the left hand side, that means you're on the right road, then after that take right from the roundabout then you'll hit some speed humps, as soon as you go over the 5th speed bump you'll see a small blue building, yup thats the one. 5th floor apt 512. Thanks
When you have a list of at least 5 cheap hotels in Dubai handy to recommend to family and friends who plan on visiting Dubai in the near future, because even though might not know it but by now you are the go to guy or gal and expert on Dubai to all your friends and family who already don't live here already and even their friends.
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| The Burj Al Arab, not exactly cheap at $24,000 a night for the Royal Suite |
This is just a quick and short on the subject of you know you've been in Dubai for a long time and most probably not planing of leaving anytime soon, let me know if you enjoyed this brief description and also if you would like to read more on this or similar subjects, a part 2 if you will. And as always don't forget comment below about what you think about this piece, also share and like this post by clicking on the social media icons below and also don't forget to smash that facebook like and share button subscribe for more from Dubai Journals. And if you found this post enjoyable, please consider a small donation by clicking on the paypal donate icon on the top right corner of this page and also below this post. Thank You
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