What a difference a day makes…

So in our case it’s actually a couple of weeks, but we could have taken the pictures after a day, so I’m keeping the snappy title.  This was the view out our windshield on the way to the airport to take our one-way flight to Dubai:

And here’s a view out our windshield from earlier today:

See the similarities?  No?  I’ll help you out.  Both vehicles are Pathfinders with OEM windshields installed in Tennessee, so both pictures are taken through the same windshield.  I think that’s about it.  Our truck has magically transformed from green to white.  We’ve traded snow and treacherous road conditions, for sand and treacherous drivers (we’ll probably devote a post to this later).  We’ve moved from a city with a relatively flat profile to one where they build up instead of out.  We could go on and on, but you’d probably he happier to look at some additional before and after pictures.  Here’s a shot of us in Edmonton:

And here we are in Dubai:

See the similarities?  No?  I’ll help you out.  It's us, that's about it.  We all have longer hair, and none of us are wearing shoes, or coats, or toques. I guess we're cheating a little bit with this pairing, we don't actually live on the beach in Dubai, we just felt like the Persian Gulf was a more interesting background than our mediocre hotel.  Hopefully we'll have a picture of our more permanent home in the next couple of days.  

We are really enjoying our new lives here.  It’s very different, and after a long and brutal winter in Edmonton, the climate here is a welcome change.  We’re constantly discovering new things, and it’s fascinating to be so completely immersed in an entirely different culture.  That’s not to say that we don’t miss our friends and family back home.  We were talking about it earlier today, and there are certain people in our lives that are irreplaceable.  You know who you are; you are our audience. So, please consider this a belated introduction our blog.  We plan to use it to share our new life, and our experiences with you.  We’ll try to keep it light, amusing, but still a little informative. So, stay tuned, we’ll tell you all about our experiences trading snow for sand.    

So things are a little different here... (Part I)

We have noticed a few subtle differences here in Dubai, milk tastes more or less the same, but expires in 4 days. Product labels are still bilingual, but include Arabic instead of French.  Laundry soap (or at least the soap at the hotel) seems to function the same way, but it is presumably missing one little word from the product label – hypoallergenic. Nicholas is gaining a new appreciation for that feature. About a week after we arrived he started to feel like his skin was crawling, next came some small red bumps, now it’s full on hives. He is starting to look like he sleeps in a patch of poison ivy. He is itching to get out of the hotel and away from their toxic laundry service.  He is managing alright though, with the help of a new bedtime routine and some fancy pajamas.  Hopefully we find a place to live soon….

Contraband

We acquired something this week.  Something dangerous.  Something so dangerous that in Canada you face fines of $100,000.00 and a six-month stint in prison if you’re found in possession of it.  We’ve seen one in Canada before, and have heard of a second.  We’ve got friends in low places I guess.

The point we are trying to make is this particular item is extremely hard to come by. So when we came across one over here in Dubai we bought it without thinking twice.  You might wonder why we’d chance it, if the penalty in Canada is so high, it must be way worse to own this item in the UAE.  Despite the inherent risk we’ve always wanted one, maybe we just like to live dangerously.

So, what is this terrible item?  I’ll show you a picture of Allison enjoying it, try to at least peek through the hands you’ve drawn up to cover your eyes:

That’s right, it’s a walker.  Canada will prosecute you to the fullest extent of its ridiculous law if you import one of these for your kids, but in Dubai there’s no penalty.  We bought it in a mall.  We’ve come across some strange laws in Dubai, like not holding hands in public (which seems to be taken about as seriously as jaywalking back home), or not being able to eat pork in a restaurant (which we’ve found an exception to at the Marriot).  But we just need to accept them as ‘quirks’ in a foreign country with a different legal history.  And it helps to think about how strange it is that we couldn’t buy a walker in Canada.  

It all started with a game of bocce ball....

When I lived in France I played a fair bit of a game called Petanque, our Boules.  It’s a lazy mans game that’s usually played on a lackadaisical afternoon in the heat.  So far as I know it’s a Mediterranean game that’s been played one way or another since the days of the Roman Empire.  In Canada we play an Italian variant of it called Bocce Ball.  The great thing about this game is that it requires no real effort, and has no real consequences.  You’re basically trying to throw a big ball close to a little ball.  Conversation is generally light and friendly, no one takes it seriously.  At least that’s what I thought until the summer of 2008.

We were attending a company picnic one Saturday night in August.  I don’t remember specifically how it happened, but before dinner April and I wound up playing Bocce Ball against the company president, and his niece.  We had been playing for a half hour or so, generally enjoying ourselves.  April and I may have enjoyed it a little more because we were winning by a fair margin.  Throughout the game, there had been a bit of good humored ribbing; this ended when the president issued a threat – “If you guys win, I’m sending you to Saudi”.  We weren’t sure how seriously to take the threat, but better safe than sorry.  Really it’s a question of exposure.  The likelihood of follow-through was low, but the potential cost was catastrophic.  We lost.

I had completely forgotten about the incident when on the following Monday the President walked into my office, closed the door, shuttered the blinds, and sat down.  The effect was sinister.  I can still hear the words.  

“So, did you guys talk about it over the weekend?”

“Talk about what?”

“Transferring to the Middle East.”

And that’s what put us on this rollercoaster called ‘taking an overseas assignment’.  We’ve spent the last couple of years living with the menace of moving to the far side of the world, now we’re two weeks away from flying to Dubai with a one way ticket.  So, the next time you go to play Bocce Ball or any of its variants, think long and hard about the grave consequences of playing a lazy man’s game.