Construction

Let's face it, there wouldn't an Abu Dhabi without an enormous amount of construction. Thirty years ago the city was an outpost in the middle of the desert. Now it's a growing city that seems to be doubling in size every few years. With the growth naturally comes a lot of construction. This picture shows the Etihad towers that are being built a mile or two from my apartment. With not much development on that side of town, they really stand out

Also, when I first got here, they were just finishing construction on an office building across the street from my building. There are about four or five residential buildings being built on the block where I live. Luckily,we escaped the majority of construction which is on the other side of town where I pretty much refuse to drive.

While the new buildings look nice, they're always next to a building that's under construction so there's never a really nice view. Right now there are about five 20-story residential buildings going up on my block. This doesn't bode well for my parking situation. Nor does it bode well for my living situation. I live in one of the oldest apartment buildings in the city (I'm guessing 20 or 30 years old). considering that my apartment is on prime real estate and a mere 7 stories high. It's only a matter of time before it gets knocked down for construction of another high-rise apartment.

Beaches

With Abu Dhabi being an island off the coast, there are naturally a lot of beaches. The majority of the ones near my apartment are man-made. When I first got here they were under construction. In addition, it was too hot to enjoy being outside, even swimming at the beach. Further down, there was a nice natural beach where I would go swimming with a group of people early Saturday mornings.

While I'm not a beach sort of person, the kids love going swimming. Considering it's a five minute walk to the beach from our apartment, it's hard to say no to the kids when they want to go. The sand has been imported from other regions to get the "right" sand. It does have a finer texture to it so hopefully they knew what they were doing.

On the man-made beach in directly across the street from my apartment there is a small charge to get in. There's a amusement park sort of atmosphere with deck chairs that you can rent and small, free rides for the kids. It's nice in its own way, but has a resort-like sort of atmosphere.

Little by little the construction has been encroaching on the free natural beaches. Earlier this year, the Saturday morning swim beach was closed for the construction of a new palace for the Sheik. That was actually quite a sad event because it was the last natural beach in the area. Some friends of mine used to take their kids snorkeling there and it was a good place to view wildlife. Unfortunately, that seems to be the way forward.

Adventure

Since moving here, we have had no shortage of activities to keep us busy. Because Abu Dhabi was new to my family and I, there were a lot of places to explore and we were eager to explore them. Unfortunately, before we bought a vehicle, we didn't have a reasonable way to get around, and it was too hot to do anything so our first few months were spent trolling around IKEA buying crap for our apartment.

Once we bought our SUV, we were able to get out a bit and with the guidance of a few people we met were able to do things like camping and hiking. Still, it wasn't until closer to the time that my Mom came to visit us in January that I started researching stuff to do on my own. There's a lot of cool stuff to do like camel races, ballooning over the desert, and dune bashing in 4-wheel drive trucks. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my act together enough to actually get us to any of these activities while my Mom was here, but since then, I've learned more about them.

There is also the nearby city of Al Ain that borders on Oman and is a nice place. Once in Oman there are great places to camp and hike. While I haven't been camping in Abu Dhabi yet, I'm looking forward to finding some good places once it cools off.

Sharia Court

A friend of mine may likely be moving away from Abu Dhabi over the summer and in the event he needs to sell his cars on short notice, needed to give me limited power of attorney. In order to do that, we had to go to the sharia court. The sharia court is basically the non-criminal court and based on sharia law or "Muslim law." Sharia law gets a bad name in the western press due to some rulings of more extremist nations, but all it really is in Abu Dhabi is the the local courthouse where you would get legal documents like giving power of attorney or divorce.

We showed up bright and early at 7:30 and even though things weren't supposed to get running until 8:00, we were able to get started at 7:50. Thinking that we would be out of there quickly, I was wondering what I was going to do with myself until 9:00 when the swimming pool I was planning to go opened. I needn't have worried. Without getting into too much detail about the process, we were out of there at 10:00.

We had to go through several steps which involved waiting here for this person or waiting there for that person. Here are some highlights:

My friend being told that he didn't have all the paperwork and that he had to come back. My friend then gave the public servant a look and a gesture and the guy was able to make an exception.

Chatting with my friend's wife (whose car I'm also selling) and having security tell her that she had to go sit in the ladies' waiting area.

Using the restroom in the newly refurbished building and finding not a toilet, but a hole in the ground with no toilet paper.

Having to leave the building to go to another office and coming back only to be asked to go through the metal detector. Funny since it wasn't necessary at 7:30 when we first arrived.

Parking my jeep in a nearly empty parking lot at 7:30 only to come out at 10:00 and find it so packed, I could barely leave.

In the end, I can now sell my friend's cars and he can't do anything about it legally. On the flip side, he can run over someone and say I did it so I guess we're even. The experience as a whole has given me a clearer picture of what sharia court is, at least in Abu Dhabi. Nightmarish court where adulterers are sentenced to death? No. Nightmarish bureaucracy similar to what you would find in North America? Pretty much.

With this entry, I'll be signing off for the summer. I'm leaving for the States tomorrow morning and doubt that I'll be doing any posting before that. While I'm gone, please keep your eyes out for "Abu Dhabi A to Z" which will be starting Saturday or Sunday depending on your time zone. I'll be keeping an eye on the blog, so feel free to leave comments and tell your friends about it, too. Until August, have a great summer.

Night Cycle

Last night I went for a cycle on the Formula One track on Yas Island again. This has been a weekly event since March. I thought I wasn't going to be able to go again because of my teaching schedule. Luckily, over the past month the organizers have arranged for the lights to be turned on so we can cycle after dark and I was able to go a little later. This was my first time going since they've been holding the event in the evening. It's also the first time that I've gone riding on the track since it's been this hot and humid.

The Safe Cycle Abu Dhabi is held on most Tuesdays unless there's something else going on at the track at that time. It's mostly the same people each week, but almost every time I've gone, there were new people enthralled at the idea of riding where the race cars go.

The great thing is that anyone can go. I often see families with children riding on the track. I guess the only rules are that you need a helmet, you have to sign a waiver, and you have to be able to ride the whole 5.5 kilometer circuit, though I suppose that you could even cut across part of the track to shorten the loop.

It's mostly through word of mouth, though tonight the newspaper, The National, was there doing a story so it may attract more people. All I know is that I won't be riding it again until after I come back to Abu Dhabi in August.

Shredder

The office just gets emptier and emptier. I've been told that most years, we're given set dates of when our summer holiday is and that's when we can go and come back. Because of when Ramadan is this year, the school year will be starting about a month later. Instead of giving everyone that time off, the college has said that we have the same number of days vacation as usual, but just have a range of days when we can take them. I've decided to take my holidays a few weeks after most people which is why I'm sitting in a virtually empty office.

I'm still here of a few days and I have to teach from 2:20 but I have all the prep I'm going to have to do, done. I suppose that I could come in 10 minutes before I have to teach then leave as soon as I'm done, but that's a risky proposition. As it is, I feel bad enough getting in around noon. It's gotten to the point that when I'm not teaching, I need to look for things to do. Sure there are projects that need doing, but when I got given these classes and was told that I'll be teaching without any extra pay, my motivation to do those sorts of things went out the window.

I've been doing a bit of personal development with things like reviewing the higher Math that I swear I knew 15 years ago. Yesterday, I looked around at the work spaces around me and decided that it was finally time to clean. By "clean," I mean "throw everything out." I was going to just throw things out, but I had some sensitive things like answer keys. Instead of sorting through things, I just shredded it all. I'll tell you, that felt good. The shredder even takes staples so I didn't have to bother taking those out. I shredded so much stuff that I filled the garbage and had to do the other half today. It's amazing how destroying a year's worth of output can make you feel productive.

Change

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while will have noticed that I have changed the layout. I hope that it is a bit more pleasing to the eye and will encourage you to come back again and again. I'm still playing around with the organization, but for the most part, I think this is how it will look for a while. I welcome any comments or criticisms regarding the layout.

You may have also noticed that I have sold out. I now have advertisements on the right of the page near the links to previous posts. I have to admit that the cost was too little and the temptation was too great. If you know me personally then the only surprise was that it took me this long. If you are offended by the commercialization of the fine art that is my blog, then I am sorry for crushing your spirit. Don't worry, you're strong. You'll pull through.

In other news something that no one in Abu Dhabi has been talking about is how if climate change raises the water level of the oceans, Abu Dhabi will be under water by 2100. Below are images printed in an article in The National, a local newspaper. They show the land that will be submerged with a 1 meter rise in sea level and with a 9 meter rise in sea level. That big island in the first picture is the main part of Abu Dhabi.


The truly interesting thing about this is that the U.A.E., as one of the world's leading oil producing nations and having one of the largest carbon footprint gets to be the organizer of it's own demise. This gives the city of Abu Dhabi and the whole of the U.A.E. a vested interest in finding cleaner energy technology and in promoting conservation. Are there any guesses as to whether or not this will happen?