DSF - Dubai Shopping Festival

Dubai Shopping Festial has begun! Cindy and I feel a little silly - because we've been pretty excited about this - and we're not big shoppers at all. People have been building this up all year saying stuff like, "Don't buy anything unless it's during DSF." That's when you can find real bargains. So we've been waiting. We've been putting off purchases, delaying stuff, waiting, waiting, waiting.

DSF is a big deal, by the way. It's citywide, lasts one month (from January 28 to February 28 this year), and attracts 3 million people to Dubai. Most visitors come from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. So we were pretty hyped up for this.

The first day, we got a late start. I played golf after class and so we didn't leave the house until about 7:30. We went to Festival City Mall first. We were disappointed with the selection of golf clothes at the store I visited, and Cindy couldn't find the shoes she'd been looking for either. We had some credit at a sporting goods store, so I did get some swimming trunks. Overall, it was a pretty disappointing trip.

So to try to redeem our evening, we headed over to Dubai Mall (about 9:30pm now). We were there until they kicked us out at midnight. We ended up with a dress shirt for me (about half price) and a handbag for Cindy (full price, but she's been watching for a while and there was no movement at all on price). So things are looking up.

Friday, two more malls. This time, Deira City Centre first. We found a golf glove for me (with store credit again, so nothing too big there). We then went to Dubai Marina Mall to look for shoes for Cindy and I again. We struck out on shoes, so we came home and ordered shoes online.

So after two days, we've been to four malls. I think we've got at least one more stop tomorrow. And how have the sales been? Well, it's better than no sale at all, but it's not Boxing Day [if you don't know what Boxing Day is about, be sure to drop in and read our blog next week so you can find out]. We'll keep you posted on how things are going at DSF.

Wasta

One term that you have to understand when you live in the Middle East is "wasta." It means "influence" or "clout." If someone tells you, "I have wasta", it means, "I know people in high places [and if you know what's good for you, you'll let me have my way]."

It's hard to tell exactly who has wasta. Lots of people say they have it, but you never really know. Our Associate Dean likes to tell a story about a time that he had a student in his office who was accused of cheating in a course. The student said, "You can't do anything to me. I have wasta and I'll call the Sheikh if you kick me out of school." Our Associate Dean said, "Really? I have the Sheikh's number, too. It's right here in my mobile. Why don't you go ahead and call him. We'll talk to him together."

According to our Associate Dean, the student nearly wet himself. The student was totally bluffing.

There's one interesting way to check on somebody's wasta. You can check their license plate. There's not a direct relationship between plate number and wasta, but you see, Sheikh Mohammed, Vice-President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has plate number 1 on his white Mercedes-Benz G-wagen. So if you see someone with a low plate number, it's a reasonable assumption that they're from the royal family. Also, when you see a plate with a "unique" number, they're probably well-connected, too. Here are a few that we saw at the mall the other day. [BTW - we couldn't snap a picture of the "4" plate that we saw on the black Porsche Cayenne because there was somebody lurking near the vehicle - but we saw it - that's the lowest one we've seen].

Having said all of that, it is possible to simply buy a low plate number if you're really wealthy - and I suppose wealth is a form of wasta, too. So like I said, there's not a perfect relationship between plate number and wasta, but it's a good barometer. In case you're curious, our plate has five digits.

10 Reasons to Move to the Emirates in 2010

1. Tax-Free Income - Move here and give yourself an automatic 30% raise (maybe more by the time Obama leaves office).

2. The Magic Carpet Ride - That's what locals call the eight lanes of flawless asphalt between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. No radar, no patrols. Amateurs should stay out of the left lane.

3. Bargain Real Estate - Prices are down 50% from their highs in 2008 and will bottom out this year. Needless to say, it's a buyer's market.

4. Delivery - We get bottled water delivered and our dry cleaning delivered. When I (Jeff) got my drivers' license, the police came to campus to take my application. When we opened our bank account, the bank sent someone to my office to do all the paperwork. There are no extra fees for any of this.

5. DSF - that stands for Dubai Shopping Festival. It's a month-long shopping extravaganza that merchants all over town participate in. Are there bargains? Absolutely. Are there good stores? Everything you could want. We have two of the largest malls in the world here - nicer than any mall I've ever been in back in the States. Three million people travel to Dubai for DSF. It runs from January 28 to February 28 this year. Book your tickets now.

6. Winter - you can play golf and go to the beach in January [and come to think of it, you can ski in July, too].

7. Inexpensive Services - We get the car washed once a week for $17 per month. A trip to the nicest spa Cindy has ever visited for a manicure, pedicure, and hour-long massage - $60. Maids can be hired for $4 an hour.

8. No Language Barrier - Everyone speaks English, signs are in English, menus are in English. The only times we have trouble communicating are when we're talking to the Scottish.

9. Travel - It's 3 hours to India to see the Taj, 4 hours to Egypt to see the Pyramids, 5 hours to Kenya for safari, and 6 hours to Greece or Italy....

10. Cheap Gas - A gallon costs $1.41. The price is fixed. So come, and bring your SUV with you.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Of course, I'm talking about football season. And unfortunately it's ended for the year. And ended in a pretty disappointing way, I might add. Oh well, I guess there are a lot of teams that would like play for the National Championship, but didn't, so I'm not going to be too depressed.

Can you figure out which apartment is ours?




Anyhow, I thought that I would take a moment to let you see how we watch games over here. First of all, the 11am CST games come on at 9pm over here. 2:30 CST kickoff is a 12:30am Sunday game, and 7pm CST games start over here at 5am Sunday. And when you read this, remember that the work week over here is Sunday through Thursday. So while you're watching football in the States on Saturday night, we're watching EARLY on Sunday morning, then rolling into work. It's called dedication.

So we got up at 5am this morning to watch the game.

Some of the games are on satellite, and what's not on satellite, we can either watch over the internet at espn360.com or justin.tv. We ended up going the justin.tv route for the National Championship. Both can be run through our TV, so it's almost as good as getting it at home. Here's a shot of our set-up for the game this morning [For those of you who are curious, that's a 42-inch Panasonic Plasma with Full HD and a 1200-watt Philips surround sound system - we bought 'em both over here - same prices as in the States - and Cindy agreed after we bought the TV that we could have gone bigger].

There's always next year.

We Were There

We just snapped a couple of pictures of the opening of the Burj Dubai (which has been renamed the Burj Khalifa). It's the tallest building in the world at 2,717 feet. That's about twice as tall as the Empire State Building. We took these from the rooftop of our apartment.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Many of you are no doubt curious about what Chistmas is like over here. Well, aside from the 70-degree weather, it doesn't have to be much different from home. We had a candlelight service at church, my parents came to visit for a week, we had Christmas parties to attend with friends, we've got Christmas music to listen to at home and in the car, and the malls decorate for Christmas.

FOUR-STORY CHRISTMAS TREE AT DUBAI MALL

On Christmas Eve, we (Cindy and I, as well as my dad and mom) went to a party hosted by some friends here on campus. We ate dinner and dessert, sipped champagne, and sang Christmas songs. On Christmas Day, we went to church (Christmas was on Friday and that's the day we go to church over here). After church, we (this time, Cindy and I, my dad, my mom, and one of our friends and co-workers, Ernie Love) went to a nice restaurant for Christmas lunch. We had salmon, follwed by a potato soup, then turkey, and finally a nice (British) pudding for dessert. The restaurant was all expats, so it was a reasonably traditional meal. After lunch, we came home and opened presents.

That evening, we went a little bit off the traditional script. We went with some friends from church (about 60 or 70 of us) out into the desert for the evening. We built a bonfire, ate Christmas goodies, sang Christmas carols, and told stories about the previous year.

For New Year's, we went into the desert with some friends from campus. A company from Dubai called Dubai Drums has a camp out in the midst of the dunes where they had a big New Year's Eve party. There was community drumming throughout the night, a big barbecue buffet, camel rides, sand boarding, shisha, belly dancing, fire dancers, an African drum group, and a DJ and dancing. Here's a link to a nice YouTube video of what goes on. There were probably about 400 people there - so probably twice as many people as you see in the video. It sounds bohemian, but really it's a nice family event. Basically, it was the typical New Year's Eve party that you would find at a hotel or concert venue in a major city - only it was in the desert. Here are some pictures.

CAMEL RIDE

SMOKING SHISHA

DRUMMING

DANCING

Happy New Year!