January: Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Happy 2013!

We have embarked on an exciting 2013 as all three of us moved to Dubai for a year! After several emails from our friends saying they are still waiting on an update on our blog, we finally buckled down to share some of our adventures in our first month here.

We flew on New Year's Eve and saw the fireworks from the plane over Germany! All three of us had a blast celebrating our first NYE with Naaya on her first international flight. We enjoyed Emirates airline thoroughly (highly recommend flying Emirates!) and minus the small hiccup of Sahil getting some version of the flu during our journey, we made it safe and sound!

Upon arriving to our temporary housing in the Greens area of Dubai, we conducted the 30 or so nanny interviews we lined up from the US. Our number one priority was making sure we found someone we could trust and who was reliable for Naaya. We had the broad range of Filipinas, Indians, and Sri Lankans come to interview, as for some reason those are the three main nationalities you find available for work.  Ultimately, we settled on trying out Myla, a happy, willing Filipina lady. After a few trial days to make sure we were all happy, we decided to sponsor her with a visa and hire her as our live-in nanny/maid. Thanks to Myla, Naaya is well taken care of during the day while we are at work and once we're home, we spend time with Naaya while Myla cooks, cleans, and does our laundry! Life is GOOOOD here. :)

We found our apartment in the first week as well - a beautiful, furnished 2 bedroom + maid's quarters/2.5 bath apartment in the Trident Marinascape in Dubai Marina. We walked in, saw the balcony that wrapped around the apartment with floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the Dubai skyline, and we were sold!

After finding Myla and our home, the rest was easy peasy (excluding the fact that it takes forever to get anything done here as is the case with most countries in this part of the world). We both got cell phones activated, started work, and began a routine. In the process, Naaya finally recovered from her jetlag. It was pretty funny - for a few days, she was sleeping around the clock because she was confused as to why she was so sleepy during the bright hours of the day and so awake in the wee dark hours of the night!

Sahil and Mana have also been busy exploring the dining & nightlife that Dubai has to offer. Our apartment has access to the Marina Walk, a great location with tons of restaurants and shisha lounges for us to enjoy - we have certainly taken advantage of it, especially with full-time care for Naaya once she's out for the night! We have also bought a book called The Entertainer Fine Dining, which offers deals to all sorts of Michelin rated restaurants.  Just the other day we enjoyed dinner at The Royal Mirage Hotel, and followed it up with drinks on the Rooftop Terrace overlooking the Persian Gulf.  It was a very cool experience with live music, great drinks and a fantastic ambiance.

We both are enjoying our new roles at work as well. Sahil began work at BCG in the Dubai office with some interesting cultural training, where he learned basics of work life here such as 1) asking clients during a meeting if they need to take a break to pray or 2) never reaching out to shake a woman's hand unless she does so first in an effort not to offend her. Since we arrived, he has been busy writing proposals for potential healthcare clients in the region. Unfortunately for him, he has been working both UAE and US hours as he wraps up things in the US and gets to know the market here in UAE.

Mana jumped right into her role at General Mills where she has been assigned the task of understanding the need-states of consumers in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey) region in terms of their meal consumption.  Her objective is to create a convenient meals solution platform for the General Mills MENAT business. She is thrilled about this high-level marketing strategy project because it enables her to focus on the parts of her job that she loves most! She works in an office of 30 people consisting of 12 nationalities where French, English, Arabic, and Hindi are all spoken throughout the office. Her marketing team consists of one French, 2 Morrocans, an Indian, an Egyptian who will soon join the team, and Mana. It's pretty amazing!

You can guess from our experiences to date that Dubai is not quite the same as Minneapolis. 90% of the population consists of expats so from a lifestyle perspective, EVERY interaction is a cultural experience. It is incredible to think that walking down the road, you'll see a Scandinavian blonde in a miniskirt on your left ready to hit the town and an Arabic woman covered head to toe in an abaya on your right. That's Dubai!!

In terms of our actual adventures this month, we have thoroughly enjoyed the Dubai Shopping Festival! As sales only take place here twice year (the first time being now), we have made several trips to the massive malls which are large enough to hold an indoor ski resort and aquarium with sharks!  Since our shipments from the US have been stalled until March, we had no choice but to shop for basic necessities and as a result, the mall has become our second home! Naaya is bound to be a true shop-a-holic after the amount of consumerism she has witnessed from watching her parents over the last few weeks!

Over the long weekend for Prophet Mohammed's birthday, we took a trip with our Spanish friends Edu and Ana (Edu works with Sahil) to Abu Dhabi. We stayed at the Shangri-la Hotel overlooking the Grand Mosque and enjoyed the resort as well as our experience there thoroughly!

Naaya celebrated her 6 month birthday in Abu Dhabi where she experienced her first beach experience.  She dipped her feet in the baby pool and walked along the wet sand of the beach.  While she was initially a bit cautious, she soon determined she loved the water and squealed in delight!

We also toured the Grand Mosque (the third largest Mosque in the world after the 2 in Mecca and Medina in Saudi) and Emirates Palace, all which was incredible to see! While we had visited all of these places before when Mana came with her Dad and again when Sahil and Mana came with Sahil's parents, Pankaj Mama, and Kalpana Mami, it was great sharing these experiences with Naaya!

Our blog ends here, though we could probably tell you many more stories that would amuse and shock you! We'll save those for our conversations in person! We're off to the Dubai Mall for our last shopping trip before the festival ends tomorrow as there will be a big celebration of fireworks tonight! Til next time!!