What Is An Expat?

I’ve uploaded the pictures from our trip to the Philippines during the second half of February. We visited Manila, some sites around there, Dumaguete on Negros, and Alona Beach at Bohol. We dove, saw tarsiers (world’s smallest primate), went to waterfalls and up a river, saw an island on a lake in a volcano on an island in a lake on an island in the ocean, visited the American / Filipino war memorial and cemetary, saw a couple of malls…you know. We explored a bit and relaxed more.

The 2007 02 Philippines gallery awaits your perusal!

One of the buildings under construction caught fire this morning. It’s two buildings away from where I work. Here’s the long range view, where we weren’t quite sure exactly which one it was yet.

A couple of shots from around the back. We couldn’t quite get me dropped off at the normal place as the roads were blocked off and some cars were actually flowing back out the wrong way.

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We’ve been having a nice dusting lately.  You can call it a dust or sand storm, because it’s brought on by high winds coming out of the Empty Quarter over by Saudi Arabia, but it’s not been a high wind situation for the most part.  The dust is primarily just hanging around, not sandblasting you.  The temperatures had also shot up 6-7 degrees Celsius, too.  Here’s a few pictures shot out the window and over the balcony.

Recently our group had it’s holiday party. An ordinary thing, you’d think, but it gave me food for thought. There was something multicultural about it that was very inclusive of everyone, yet at the same time we had an event that almost horrified me at it’s level of anti-Christmas spirit, which is somewhat ironic as I am not actually a big Christmas fan.

It started late Monday evening, when we got the Outlook appointment invitation…for Wednesday night. So much for future planning, huh? As to whether that’s “we had plans, so tough for you” or “hey, you ruined my plans with your last second invite to something I need to go to!” well, you can pick according to your own preference. We had no plans, so it wasn’t much of a problem. Of course, we did have to come up with a small gift, not more than 20 dirhams (about $5-6), for the “White Elephant” gift exchange. I think we ended up spending 40 dirhams, but it won’t bankrupt us. (more…)

The 2006 UAE Gallery contains various pictures from out and about here. A few obligatory shots of the Burj Al Arab, our apartment, some friends that have stopped by to see us, and some general shots from our window into Dubai Marina. Actually, it’s about time to take some more as the construction has really gone crazy in the area. We’ll have some time off coming up at the end of the year for Arafat / Eid / New Year’s so that’ll be a good time to take some more picture. Of course, that’ll be for the 2007 Gallery I guess.