Newsletter 15 - July 28, 2005

Nov 4, 2005 4:07 AM

Newsletter 15

We're having an extra-long weekend in honor of the Eid

holiday that immediately follows the end of the Holy

Month of Ramadan.  We had Wednesday off work as well

as the usual weekend of Thursday and Friday, and will

also have off Saturday and Sunday.  I am very

grateful!  I desperately need a nice, long break.

I finally got a digital camera (!).  I know, it's only

taken five months for me to get around to it.  I'm not

entirely happy with it but it does take digital

pictures so be expecting to see some in upcoming

newsletters - after I learn how to get them from the

camera into an email.

My friend Bonnie gracously volunteered to drive me on

a pciture-taking tour of Al Ain on Wednesday so I have

some nice shots of my town to share with you.  Then on

Thursday she and I took a day trip to Fujairah, one of

the other Emirates, located on the coast, and I got a

lot more photos, including shots of the incredible and

varied scenery between Al Ain and there.

I hope you enjoy the newsletter.

Key to Terms Often Used

Terms often used:

UAEU – United Arab Emirates University, where I work

ZCL or Zayed– Zayed Central Library, the main library at UAEU, where I am going through orientation

Maqam – the girl’s campus of UAEU, where I usually will work once orientation is finished

UGRU – University General Requirements Unit at UAEU

Al Ain – the city I live and work in; an oasis in the Arabian Desert, known as the “Garden City of the Gulf” for the extensive greening that has been done here

Abu Dhabi – capital of both the UAE and Abu Dhabi Emirate in which Al Ain is located

Dubai – a large city and a center of business and commerce; very progressive

July 28, 2005

Well tonight is the wedding party for Badria in Dubai but I won’t be going. Rebecca has a friend from Hong Kong visiting and they are in Abu Dhabi for the weekend and I will be going to Abu Dhabi myself tomorrow to meet with church members there so I felt it would be unwise to go to something late today in Dubai (going 1-1/2 – 2 hrs on the bus both ways) for an event beginning at 8:30 PM and ending in the wee hours and then take a 2-hour bus ride back to Al Ain only to get up at 6:00 AM to catch a bus for a 2-hour ride to Abu Dhabi the next morning. Maybe I’ll get a chance to attend another wedding while I’m here.

I did get an eye exam and new glasses this week, finally. A family of church members works at an optical shop in town so I patronized their shop. I liked it immediately because of the green décor! Green marble floors, green marble-look counter bases, etc. It was spotlessly clean. The eye exam was similar to the last one I had done in the states but instead of using a machine to try the various lens powers (“Does this one look better [pause; switch of lens] or this one?”) In this case, the optometrist inserted different power lenses one at a time into a large complex glasses frame I was wearing. My far distance and mid-distance vision had not changed since my last exam about 3-1/2 years ago but my reading vision had; therefore I needed new glasses.

I chose some frames. I don’t particularly like the way they look on me but they have the advantage of being wide at the top so don’t I feel like I am looking out of a box. They are titanium frames – very lightweight – and are Pierre Cardin brand. Not that the latter means anything to me, I’m just including it for information. Also, the lenses are progressive lenses. The optometrist I know was hoping I could get the contact lenses that also correct peripheral vision (I would have loved that) but my eyes have corneal glutata which means I can’t wear contacts (don’t ask me why, I don’t remember the original explanation I had about it; I think it was something about my eyes not being able to breathe if I wore contacts). I’ve never tried progressive lenses before because of their expense.

My tri-focals were expensive enough and I bought my last ones just before I left Sioux City, Iowa, in 2002 because I knew I’d never get tri-focals as inexpensively in South Carolina. In Sioux City, the tri-focal lenses cost $150; in South Carolina they cost $450 – or did at the time; they probably cost more now! That is in addition to the cost of the frames and the exam (which is usually between $45 and $65 depending on where you have it done). Well, here the exam is free!!! My progressive lenses and the Pierre Cardin titanium frames together cost 750 dh ($203). I also was given a free glasses case, cleaning cloth and small spray bottle of cleaner. Not to mention that they replaced the lenses in my sunglasses that slide onto my regular glasses – for no additional charge. It turned out that those sunglasses don’t fit my new glasses so they custom fit a pair of clip-on sunglasses to my new frames. The charge was 20 dh ($5.43).

I’ve now found out the name of a dentist recommended (and one definitely not recommended) by several people so going to the dentist is one of the next items on my list of things to do after I get paid on the 31^st. That list includes buying curtains for my flat, a digital camera so I can send pictures to family, friends and other interested parties (like Newsletter readers!), a dentist visit, maybe a new mobile phone, plants for my flat and rugs for my flat. And hopefully, renting a piano!

Today I decided to use the paint I bought about a month ago to cover some places in my master bathroom where white grout was used to cover up areas where, apparently, some wall tiles had been removed. These occur where certain fixtures are affixed to the wall including the towel bar, the toilet paper holder and a ceramic soap dish. I had a small can of glossy paint, a can of paint thinner and a 1-inch paint brush. The big trick of the day was figuring out how to open the thinner. There were no printed instructions, just a circular red plastic lid, lying flat against the top of the can, that was perforated around the outer edge and on the inner circle was an imprint that apparently indicated how to open it. By trial and error, I released the outer circle so it stood upright, then pulled on it until the rest of the lid eventually and after much effort came up also. To my amazement, a funnel-like piece of clear accordion pleated plastic was attached to it, extending about two inches above the top surface of the can. The red disc turned out to be the top of a cap that went down more than an inch below the top and snugly fit over the clear plastic tube.

Then came my efforts to remove the red cap from the plastic tube. After several attempts to decipher the meaning of the imprint on the lid, I gave up and went outside to see if the apartment complex “gatekeeper/janitor” was in one of his two little offices (one beside each gate). I tried at both but my knocking on the doors availed nothing so I returned to my flat to continue the battle. I eventually figured out that the two arrows on the imprint that showed pushing in on two opposite sides of the cap didn’t mean press in and lift up; they meant push in and twist the cap! This was after about 2 hours of struggle. But viola! (or, viola! – a joke I share with Dave, my French-speaking youngest brother). The cap came off. But the fight was not yet over. There was another hurdle to getting an opening in the can. A white plastic circle with a self-loop covered the opening. That kind of thing I’d seen before, so I hooked one finger under the loop and pulled up; the cover came off and at last I could get some thinner out of the can! The paint turned out to be darker than I needed/wanted but I used it anyway and am hoping for the best. All my efforts took up my whole morning, although I did get three loads of laundry done – two finished and the third started - while I struggled to open the paint thinner can!

My shopping trip to Mega Mart in Al Ain Mall last night was an interesting experience. I decided I needed a different venue for buying groceries – I was falling into a rut walking to and from the (unrelated) Mega Mart near my house to get groceries or stopping there after work, buying a few things and then walking home. I think the prices are better at the mall. I bought some interesting things including some frozen chicken shish kebob – on special three packages for 10 dh – and made in California Garden, Dubai, UAE; a small carton of “Heavy Cream” – a thick, sweet and white which is “delicious with honey, cakes and fruit salad” according to the carton. Two young adults were in a little booth promoting it, so I bought a carton to try. I also got another “special” – two cans of Hommos Tahina (hummus) with a free bonus small can of Baba Ghannouge (eggplant and tahina) from Lebanon (I’ve tried both in restaurants and dearly love them!), and some locally made Arabic bread to eat with the Hommos. I also, finally, got a packet of locally packaged Zaater (sometimes spelled Zather), broken pieces of some kind of green herb [I’ve since learned it is Thyme] and maybe other ingredients that they spread on bread and tastes absolutely delicious! Mary Kay highly recommended some to me on my first grocery shopping trip the day I moved into my flat but I passed on it at that time.

When I was checking out, the clerk asked me if I had a BRAVO card. I did not so she told me I could get one at a little booth just outside the store. So I went to the booth after checking out and signed up for this latest “loyalty” card. It’s a way to earn points by shopping at participating businesses and then exchanging points for free gifts. So I’ve added yet another card to my growing collection – I’m probably up to 12 or so by now. The young man who was at the booth noticed I’d just shopped at Mega Mart and told me if I took my receipt to the Customer Service desk I would get immediate points for the purchase. So I walked over to the customer service desk. The store being in a mall, its entire front expanse is open to the mall proper, with shopping carts just outside in the mall area next to two entrance styles, beside which is the customer service counter, part of which is along that open outer expanse and the rest extending into the store itself. Beside that are several checkout lanes, all of which end at the entrance to the store, so you don’t have to walk through any of the store after making your purchases, you walk to the end of the checkout counter and you are in the mall!

Anyway, I went to the part of the service counter that was along the outside because I was pushing my bagged purchases in a shopping cart. The man who waited on me asked if I’d just signed up for the card and I said yes. The next thing I knew, he was handing me a large bag into which he’d put some grocery products. I thanked him, he told me I now had 50 points on my card (I’d spent 50 dh and had received 1 point per dh) and then I pushed the cart over to the cool magnetic ramp-escalator that secures the wheels of the cart and prevents it from careening down the slope, and the cart and I descended to the ground level of the store. When I got home I saw that the bag the man had given me contained two “special offer” packets, each containing 3 cans, one small can of hommos tahina dip (!), a small can of baked beans in tomato sauce –both were marked “free gift”, and a regular sized can of Peeled Medammas (fava beans), all canned in Dubai. Well, when I got all this home and put away, I popped open (they are all pop top cans) one of the free small cans of hommos and broke out some Arabic bread and enjoyed them for my dinner while reading the last part of the latest Harry Potter. (I now know who the Half-Blood Prince is and what happened to Dumbledore at the end of the book.)

I’ve set a goal to walk for an hour every evening from 7:00 – 8:00 for exercise and also to explore my neighborhood. Anything of interest I learn or find I’ll write about later.

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