So when it happens that I go to a lounge/club and "dress-up" Ellen style (really, I swear, in Chicago it would be dressed up), why is it that I might as well have worn my work-out clothes? Note to self: next time I go to a bar, dress like I'm going to a fancy wedding. I've never seen so many Channel, Gucci, Prada and 230940324 other name-brands in one place WITH heels that I would NEVER even be able to take ONE step in. I'm NOT talking about fake stuff here. AND besides everyone being dressed to the 9's, it was a plastic surgeon's dream.... most people looked like they had some sort of botox, collagen implants, fillers, whatever cosmetic procedure you can think of and it really was hard to tell the ages of people. One lady I swear looked younger than myself and then she glowingly showed me pictures of her 20 and 18 year old kids. Eh? So yes, as you can imagine, it was GREAT for people watching (which I love). I took a nice stance by the wall, yes, I was happily a wall flower because I felt so under dressed (I have no shame in saying that) but really still had fun people watching and chair dancing.
Lesson #4 as Life as an Expat in Dubai: If you want to show off, this is the place to do it.
One interesting thing I took note of was the drinking. As you know, Dubai and most Arab countries are "dry" and have strict "no tolerance" to drinking. But don't for a second think that you can't get drinks at clubs/lounges/bars. I think the rule is that alcohol can only be served in hotels, which explains why most all hotels have clubs/lounges/bar inside them... as well as restaurants that serve alcohol. But the funny thing is that they have a FANTASTIC selection of mocktails. Yes, you read correctly, mocktails for adults. Loooooooove it! But anyway, I'm still figuring out the buying of alcohol... from what I understand you can only buy it "freely" is at Duty Free at the airport and in Abu Dhabi. In order to buy alcohol in Dubai you have to have literally an alcohol license and I think you are limited to 5 bottles of whatever a month. I think (I'll keep you updated).
The other thing that people have mentioned and I didn't find really true until the next night, is that you are everyone's friend. My friend's friend sister's friend's friend was having a party... (and yes, I had trouble even writing that!). Would that seem kind of random at home? Yes. Was it strange that the friend didn't even come to the party but we were there full swing (without even my friend's friend, it was with her sister)? NOT AT ALL! We might have been the hosts BFF. It ended up being a Halloween party, which oops, of course I didn't know about, but fortunately the sister brought some New Orleans style eye masks, so we kinda fit in.
It ended being at a PHATTY loft apartment in the hottest part of town by a NYC girl that probably looked around my age (hmph), and was a lot of fun and was in full swing of socializing (much more my scene than the previous night's club, it was low key, people friendly and approachable, etc). The best part was, during typical small talk when people asked about how we know the host, and we told our whole spheal about the "friends friend..." blah blah, that we realized most of the people there had some sort of random connection to the host with the middle person not even being there. Hahah. But, the important part of all these random connections, is good 'ol beauty of networking, which is pretty much how we function in today's society.
Lesson #5: At all costs, network and make connections as much as you can. Here it can really get you places.
I cannot emphasize the importance of this not just in life, but here especially. Here it REALLY REALLY is about who you know. You can benefit from all sorts of things by connections, and here is the place for that.
In other news, which really isn't of importance to anyone but me, but literally after a month being almost disabled by a bad back (really, no joke), the last couple of days I've been med free and about 80-90%! NOW I feel I can begin my life here. I mentally and physically feel good, and as exercise is such an important part of my life, now I can start exercising slowly but surely. I'm glad I trusted by gut (which by the way, is getting bigger by the non-exercise, ha ha) in that I asked for an extra week before I started work. That is BY FAR the best decision I've made. The reason why I'm here is for work, and if my future employment saw me how I was just a week ago, as a physical therapist mind you, they would have sent me back on the first plane. Now.... I have my clothes ironed, lunch packed, am mentally positive, and am ready to....
Lesson #6: Always make a good first impression.
:-)
No comments:
Post a Comment