USA vs UAE

by Cindy

One of the things I was trying to do over the summer months in the USA is keep a mental log of the differences I noticed.  The longer we spend in the UAE, the more normal things become and, in many ways, normal begins to shift to the ways of the UAE instead of the ways of the USA.  Most of the things are subtle and mundane, but part of this blog's purpose is recording the changes and differences.

Some of the differences that I noticed this summer:

• Bread.  Yum.  I had no idea that I missed bread made with yeast but I found that I couldn't get enough when it was served with meals.  Here we mostly have 'flat bread' that's made without yeast.  It's really good but different from what is in America.  I couldn't get enough rolls and biscuits.  Now I can't get enough room in my pants to breathe!
• Water refills.  In the UAE we drink bottled water in restaurants (our tap water is safe to drink but restaurants don't use it) so the unlimited refills of water was a welcome change.  (A side note - water is crazy cheap in the UAE compared to the US.  We pay about $0.33 for a 12 oz bottle of water.)
• Billboards.  We have them but they don't advertise casinos or alcohol and we certainly don't have as many as the US.  Quite frankly, I don't miss them. 
• Gasoline.  We have mentioned before that we have full service in the UAE, it's cheap and the price is fixed for the whole country.  I don't miss having to look around for the cheapest gas.  I certainly don't miss pumping my own gas!
• Plastic cups.  No restaurant here gives away plastic cups.  I miss the convenience of plastic cups.  It's hard to take a drink with you in the car when all you have is glass.  And, milkshakes are hard to make in an ice tea glass!  I meant to snag some plastic from my brother's house but I forgot.  :)
• Cold water.  Weird, I know.  What I noticed in the US was that cold water out of the tap is actually cold.  In the UAE, everything is so hot that you can't get the water cold enough.  When you want a cold shower in the middle of the summer, you often get a warm shower which isn't quite as refreshing.  Jeff can even tell you what golf courses actually cool their water so there is a cold shower.  Those are the courses they prefer to play in the hot weather.
• Swimsuits in public.  Don't miss this one!  I was shocked at how many people wear their swim suit in public, particularly to the grocery store.  Really? 
• Wallets and check books.  For all intents and purposes, we don't have checks in the UAE.  That also means that our wallets don't have places for a check book.  I wrote a few checks this summer and each time I found myself double checking my work to make sure I had filled it our correctly.  Another funny side note is that if you buy a wallet here in the UAE (which was probably made in Europe) it won't hold US dollars!  They are too big for the wallet.  Ask Jeff, he knows.