Iftar, Iftar, Iftar!!!

Iftar is one of the religious observances of Ramadan and is often done as a community, with people gathering to break their fast together. Iftar is taken right after Maghrib time, which is around sunset. Traditionally but not mandatory, three dates are eaten to break the fast in emulation of theIslamic Prophet Muhammad, who broke his fast in this manner. Many Muslims believe that feeding someone in iftar as a form of charity is very rewarding and that such was practiced by the Prophet Muhammad.

The above is a brief synopsis I "borrowed" from our HR person when promoting our company's Iftar, which I thought was well written. When people talk about Ramadan, you mostly hear about Iftar's because that is when the fun begins, socializing and eating. It is a time for business meetings, family gatherings, friends (expats) gatherings, and very communal. Iftar is usually spent with families, hence I wrote friends and "expats" in () because since we don't have families here, we celebrate with friends and more often than not Muslims chose to be with family (from what I understand).

I don't remember the last Ramadans being so... active! It's hardly been a week since Ramadan started and I think I've already had 4 Iftar's, phew! Because I am still drinking water and eating, I'm not overindulging in Ifar dinners, as it is easy to do. Most fasts get broken with dates, as mentioned above and then something light, like soup. But remember only odd number dates! The first couple of days are always tough, but now it seems that those that are fasting are getting used to it and patients are a bit less... actually I don't know how to describe it. Because we are in the heat of summer, many are slow moving and sleepy, others may be a bit short (meaning short tempered) and others (many) are as it were any other day. 

I was laughing with my colleagues because generally (not always of course) Arabs are known to run a little bit late, right? But somehow not only are they now coming in ON TIME but even early! Very early! It is almost odd! I know traffic is less, but I think that another reason is that most people are resting at home and since they are doing not much else, they leave early and taking advantage of one of the activities of the day. Of course it's great to have patients come on time, but that also means that I literally have NO rest time!!!! We are doing 9-4 shifts with a microscopic 15 min break (which we are finishing up with the previous patient, trying to gulp down our food AND finish our morning notes). It's actually anxiety provoking to rush so much and it passes in a blink of an eye. Oh well, hope I'll get used to the rush! So yes, have been sleeping like a baby and feeling utterly exhausted! 

Soooo, now having a wee bit more time in my life, I thought it would be nice to write another little update about Ramadan and the all important Iftar just because it is finally something I can appreciate about Muslim culture. Life is soo slow now here it is just awesome! Malls are empty, roads are clear, and.... I just feel soo relaxed! 

Now if I could just finish off my "Ramadan List of Things to Do," haha. Have made progress, but also get distracted easy! 

Here are some pics from our company Iftar, which was at a nice revolving restaurant called "Al Dawaar" at the Park Hyatt. Super nice and really, the floors moved! Almost made me dizzy :-)

Anyhoo, we got some nice pics nonetheless, many of our physio team :-) :

 As before, Ramadan Kareem! 

Ramadan Kareem (#4!)!!

Ramadan Kareem!!!

Hard to believe this is the 4th one passing, crazy how time flies! Now is the time of the holy month and Dubai is a COMPLETELY different city. As it moves forward every year by 11 days, it so happens that this time is pretty much the peak of the summer meaning the longest days... up to 14+ hours of fasting! As always, the fasting occurs from sunrise to sunset, so of course winters are nice because it is shorter hours but summers can really REALLY drag on. And not summer anywhere, but summer in Dubai where temps are now a steady 100+ degrees F with 40% + humidity AND about 118 degree heat index. So now just imagine that in itself, and then not drinking or eating. Phew! The Gulf countries out of all the Arab countries are known to be the most restricting as they do not allow ANY public drinking or eating regardless of religion. So yes, that means that yours truly (and all the other thousands of expats and non-Muslims here) can't drink or eat in public. Already have had to do a few sneaky bathroom water drinks (as it is so so hot!).

However, I do have to say that of course grocery stores are open, some cafes and coffee shops are open just for take away and some are covered with curtains or some kind of viewing block and allow food and drink to be served but it has to be super discrete AND they have to have a special license to do that! That's actually something I learned recently. BUT when Iftar comes, or the time to break the fast, all that goes out the window and imagine a scene of indulgence and gluttony. Actually just in the papers the other day it said that is common that some will engorge in 4000+ calories at Iftar alone. Why? Because celebrations go the whole night! Now the sunset is around 7:10-7:15ish and some will be eating all the way till past midnight or even until the sunrise. From patients and others that I've talked to, it really seems fairly similar ones that indulge and eat for 10 instead of 1 and others say there stomachs can't tolerate from being empty ALL day to being totally stuffed so kind of take it easy on Iftar. But the people I've talked to, most say they gain weight! It's actually really fascinating to hear all about it! Well, more so hearing everyone's stories, I shamefully haven't tried it (although in the States I did try it for a day. I actually didn't find the no eating thing that difficult but what killed me was not drinking water. Got headache, dry mouth, felt SUPER tired and lethargic, and.... that one day was enough for me). Although then again because say the 1st few days are the hardest but then get used to it.

Anyhoo, to get back on subject, Ramadan! I actually loooooooooove being here for Ramadan for a few reasons. One is that Dubai is soo cosmopolitan and so Westernized, sometimes I really do hardly feel I'm abroad or oversees nevertheless Middle East. So it's nice to experience life here during Ramadan and understand and respect their culture more. #2 - Ramadan, during summer nonetheless when everyone leaves town anyway  = QUIET!!! Have been driving around the last day or so and it is almost odd how quiet it is. Traffic is nothing, streets are empty, and it's just soo peaceful! Another reason why it is so quiet is that a LOT of people, umm... won't mention any nationalities (but we all know who they are) literally will stay up all night and sleep all day and not leave the house till time to break the fast. If one can manage that, why not, right? 3rd, RAMADAN HOURS! This is probably something I went on and on about before. Well, the years before our work hours have always been 9-3, 6 hours like pretty much 70% of Dubai. Imagine how nice that is! But this year, don't get me started on this, our new management conveniently (sarcasm noted) are having us work 9-4... without breaks. I battled this out the best I could, won't bore, and it is what it is. At least we get Ramadan hours, right? And life could be worse, meaning NOT having Ramadan hours and also evening shifts, which they dared to propose (no joke, for us to work split shifts, one including 8-11pm!).

So now life for me is sooooooooooooooooooooo soooooooooooooooooooooooooo relaxed!!! Summertime here is like a 180 from winter when I hardly feel I have a moment for down time. Now I've caught up on random miscellaneous "I should do this," and actually have time to do it, de-cluttering, pleasure reading (gasp) and many many in betweens. Again, soooo nice! Although many foreigners complain how most restaurants are closed (during the day), there is no drinking (alcohol!) during the fasting hours (and quite limited at night (I think?), again, these things don't bother me!

Ramadan Kareem everyone (blessed Ramadan!)!!!

Seashells and Penguins

Ahh... summertime in Dubai. Although many..... MOST people complain about it, I actually LOVE it! For some reason, life is soooooooooooooo soooooooooooooooooooo much more relaxed. I don't know if it is just me personally because I cut back my training in half if not more so have a lot more time on my hands, but I am soo much more relaxed. After my trip to USA and meeting with a family friend that was on a big o obsession with de-cluttering, I have since been on a mission to de-clutter. I know come fall season and beyond when I have minimal time I won't have time for it, so when you're in the mood, best to take advantage of it, right?

Somehow despite of all my vacation and holidays I've taken, I ended up with an extra 2.5 days as stay-cation days, which is AWWWWWEEEEESSSSSSSOOOOOMMMMMMMEEEEEE!!! So just taking the time to clean-up house, de-clutter, and as has been the case since I got back, continue full force with social life. I really must have been living in a hole this winter because it's been super fun being out and about, although not so great on the waistline. Oops!!

One day I spent at the beach, which makes me appreciate Dubai life and having such easy access to it:

Sooo beautiful on a weekday when no one is around!!! Read, relaxed, and just enjoyed the sounds of the gentle waves. 

Then had a friend from Saudi visit. Well, he's a friend from college but has been teaching in Saudi these last few years. One of those random friends so first he wanted to do sky diving, but phew, it was sold out. So we settled on skiing in the Mall of Emirates, which he then changed his mind to settle for bobsledding, zorbing, and petting penguins! I was up for the 1st 2, but had doubts on the penguins as had I not been to Antarctica and saw penguins live? But then thought it is kind of cool to pet them, huh? 

Well, 2 things that caught me by surprise. One is that I REALLY had fun with bobsledding! I was actually like a little kid again and it was laughing and had a lot of fun. The 2nd thing was.... I have NO tolerance to cold anymore! Gasp! I am ashamed to tell any of my Chicago friends how I almost got frostbite in the ski hill inside a mall. No joke, I couldn't feel my toes for a good hour after we went AND my nose was frozen as well as my body. I will have a LOT of adjusting to do when I get back! The penguin experience was actually super fun! Who would have thought penguins could be trained? Funny enough by a Mexican trainer :-) . It was really cool petting them, super soft fine hair and they responded to her cues.

Zorbing!!

Then Penguin Encounter!

A bit different seeing them in a controlled (non-stinky) environment, and I would highly recommend it to visitors! I guess sometimes living here we don't appreciate what Dubai offers. The whole time my friend was saying, "soooo cool. We are n the middle of the desert, it is 40+ degrees C outside, and we are petting penguins. And going bobsledding. And zorbing. And having hot chocolate to warm up." hahahaha. 

Dubai is a pretty cool place! 

Local Life Revealed

My Life as an Expat is now 3 years and 9 months. In this almost 4 years, I've written plenty about travel, exercise, diet and nutrition, some random things, and then more diet and nutrition, exercise, and travel. I realized I haven't actually written too much about locals and local life.

Why this suddenly sparked some attention is that yesterday I got a rare opportunity to go to a local's home, which anyone in Dubai will tell you, is really a rare opportunity. To give a little background, I was at work one random day and oddly, our clinic manager wanted to see me. Never a good sign, right? So I nervously went to our main reception and there he is standing with an average looking man. My manager is a funny chap and he was almost falling over himself to introduce me to this patient and to "take care of him." As he has NEVER done that before, that was an automatic sign that this patient is fairly important. On a side note, whenever we get VIP patients or VVIP they are funny in that they always say, "take care of this patient." Like I wouldn't take care of him? Anyhoo, so I bring him back to the treatment room and assessed and treated him as usual and again, English was good not great, so there was a little barrier there, but got a bit of a background of his work and no surprise, he has an affiliation with the sheikh's... so yes, VIP. We mostly chatted about him hunting, which I know nothing about, but Arabs love hunting. Later visits got more of a background of his VIP or should I say VVIP status, but super humble guy and.... genuinely nice! One of our conversations, he was saying how is daughter got married and as I of course congratulated him, he said, "yea, you can read about it in the papers." Oh. Then shows me a pic of him with pretty much all the Sheikh's in Dubai. Ahhh.... yes, VVIP. But again, super sweet! He then said he likes to welcome foreigners to Emirate life and said he will connect me with his daughter to invite me to dinner. Wow! So he calls her up right then and there and I give her my phone number, kinda thinking, "well, let's see what happens with this!" Then he also said he would bring me dates from his farm, which many locals too, which again is sweet. So he misses a few appts and then when I see him again, I was joking, "what happened to my dates?" And he saw that I didn't hear from his daughter and calls her right away and then we speak on the phone and she does in fact invite me to dinner. I know his daughters are young, all under or about 21, and you can see that with her cutsy WhatsApp messages. 

Anyhoo, so I am also treating a Sheikah from one of the royal families, I've been seeing her for years, and she was the first one to expose me to life as part of the huge royal family. My patient's family isn't royal, but apparently very well known. I asked her what I can bring as a guest as obviously I wouldn't bring wine or something, and she said with upcoming Ramadan, dates or chocolate is appropriate (which I knew). She also knew of his family and said they are very well known among Emirates. So I really didn't know what to expect of this dinner thing. I was going to straight from work in my dress casual work attire, but then my co-workers made me nervous and said it is better to at least dress a bit nicer as it is a well known family. So I thought better to be overdressed than under-dressed, right? So I did wear a dress and some heals, not super fancy, just nice. 

Again, I had NOOOOOOOOO idea what to expect of this dinner. I find her place and it is more of a compound, which was interesting, different houses... not over the top, normal looking but nice. I meet the daughter that I have been in communication with and she is wearing one of those silky long dresses, almost like a sari, but for the home. Then one by one the other sisters come by with the same thing. So yeaaa, I was a bit over-dressed, but hey, would rather have that than the opposite. I had a very brief look at the house and immediately went to somewhat of a living room. I have noticed this about Arab homes, they are fairly simple. No paintings or wall decorations, literally just a couple of sofa's and a TV and a couple of coffee tables. On one was of course dates and mangoes. Mangoes! I don't know if I have ever mentioned, but I LOVE mangoes but they are sooo sooooo expensive here! No joke in that one mango is like $5-7 USD. So of course I commented on that. So we the funny part of the dinner was that I don't know who was more infatuated with who. They were just beside themselves that I was American and I was beside myself that I was in a local's house! They hadn't been to America, but were going on and on about LA as if that was their 2nd home (in a sweet way). They were soooooo enamored with LA especially and also America. I of course was positive about it but when I dared to mention that LA is great and all, but there is some not-so-great things, like the homeless and the horrible traffic... and that most of the stars were outside the city. They just looked at me blankly, totally ignored what I said, and went on and on how great it was and how they would love to go there (but there mother said it is too far). I generally have noticed that with a lot of cultures, they really see America as Hollywood and Hollywood only. They really don't believe you when you say you America has it's own fair share of probs. Anyhoo, we talked about everything from movies (they looooooooooove Fast and Furious) to music. Having said that, I was SUPER curious to hear what they thought about how they portrayed Abu Dhabi, which I was fairly shocked (maybe i've become a bit prudish here?) and they too agreed it was a bad image. So we agreed on that. Then they also were disapproving of some of those over-the-top superstars like Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus, we were on the same page of that. They love One Direction, Shakira, Beyonce and more... nicer and clean superstars. When I asked about the concerts here, because all of those artists have been here, they said, "no we are not allowed to go to concerts." Hmm... Then another discussion went to the heat (of course) and then water parks, "no, we're not allowed to go there." BUT they do have a ladies night, "noo... we are not allowed to go." Then when they were talking about London, which they go every year and REALLY love and speak highly of it, of course I mentioned theatre and shows, "no, we've never gone. We're not allowed to go." And I couldn't help but look surprised and kind of teasing, "but come on, Lion King is sooo fun!" But surprisingly, they AT ALL didn't look like upset or angry that they couldn't go, they were just like "nope, we can't go." I tried to not be facetious about it because that's the way it is. I tried in a round about way to ask what they did in London then, and in more or less words, it seemed shopping, being at home, and walking around. Okayyy. I guess since they are sooo involved and attached to family, it really is fun for them to be with family... literally all the time (sorry, as much as I love my family, this would drive me crazy). And it seems the girls had friends, but really, spent most of their time in the compound with their family. Interesting! Oh, when the conversation went to technology, wow, then I could tell I'm 15+ years older than them. I didn't even know some of the latest social medial stuff they were talking about! And I almost feel as I am getting older, I am getting less and less into it than the other way around, like I don't feel I am missing out. These things can be such a waste of time (personal opinion, mind you!). 

As we were conversing, the maid brought out some coffee and "karak", which is like Indian masala tea, and I had a date. I really didn't know what to expect for dinner, thinking it probably would be something Arabic, right? So it was soooo funny when they brought out plain slices of cheese pizza and zaatar, which is like Arabic pizza... and then macaroni and cheese - served on all fine china including silverware. Haha. Good thing I am not really detoxing so helped myself (although they ate a little). Then for dessert there were these known arabic little balls of dough covered in syrup (not so healthy, I know!) and something I haven't had before, it was like a crepe with cheese and honey. It was good (of course because it is all sugar!). Funny and random dinner! 

So we continued chatting and then of course I had to ask about their sister's wedding (she popped in and sat for a little bit and then had to leave). As it is common in Arabic culture to keep the whole wedding separate men and woman, that wasn't a surprise. But because they are VERY VERY VERY private, they hardly had any pictures. Even at the wedding they said they have "woman police" to go around to make sure no one takes pictures. They had a couple of selfies of themselves, and really, they looked stunning!!! Super beautiful, make-up and dress to the 10's. They were so happy I was so complimentary, which was so cute. Again, TOTALLY different than most other weddings. I know they get decked out though, the few pictures I did see, the bling was out of this world, diamonds diamonds and more diamonds! 

I was glad I didn't assume they didn't do anything and was glad to hear that the older ones were in school, one studying "science" and the other IT. I of course was interested in the one that was studying science, figuring it may be something... well, in the sciences (medical?) but she seemed dead set against that, so I still don't know what the studies are about and she kind of ddn't seem to know about it herself and didn't wt to push it. I do have the feeling that when they get married, those studies will probably go away as well. Again, I can be wrong and it's not to say that locals don't work because plenty do, but also many take on the role as a wife and then eventually mom. The Sheikah that I am treating works as well, which is probably more surprising because she is part of the royal family, but I do see she works hard. But she also defo gets major perks for being royal. 

Soo... I really enjoyed the evening! It was just a fun atmosphere because again, I was happy to be there and learn about them and their culture and they were beside themselves that I was American, haha. Although SUPER SUPER innocent and protected and EXTREMELY humble, very sweet girls. Besides them bringing up how they had these homes in different parts of the world, I wouldn't even guess they were uber rich. But it doesn't really matter, does it? THEN, it was super super super sweet that when I left they gave me this big o bag of mangoes and dates!!!!

I honestly honestly have to say that Emirates are genuinely giving and thoughtful people. Out of the few people that have given me little gifts, it's been Emirates. Even the Sheikah, out of kindness because she has been to our clinic so many times, brought the whole clinic these little cakes. So nice! As Emirates take up literally 20% of the Emirate population, the rest is Expats and foreigners, they do get privileges, and sometimes that is not seen so favorably, BUT you can't blame them. It's nice that they are taken care of by the government and because the families are so huge and inter-related, they defo have a lot of "wasta," or connections, the "who you know." I had some thoughts before, but now I really do have a better understanding and respect for them. Everyone has their own opinions about Arab culture, Emirate culture, but if more people take the time to understand them and their upbringing, it will be a much more peaceful world!