Morning Ramblings from Dubai

I've been in Dubai for almost a week now, having one of those really pleasant times that's hard to make sound interesting in any way... For the most part I've just been relaxing... reading a bit... watching some downloaded TV shows (most of them crappy, but entertainingly so)... wasting time on the interweb... Basically just taking time to enjoy all the stuff that there never seems to be enough time for when you have pesky distractions like a "job"... During the work week (Sunday-Thursday), I have the giant fabulous apartment all to myself while Stanley and Alicia are at work. I can't even explain how awesome it was to be able to unpack my backpack (into an actual dresser!) and put it away, knowing I won't need to re-pack for over a month... After traveling to a new city every 3-5 days for almost a month, it's a great feeling to just be able to settle in.

Salazmeyer has done a thorough job talking about what it's like to actually live in Dubai, but here are my first impressions as a short-time visitor (even though I pretty much didn't leave the apartment until the weekend): This is definitely a city under construction. I don't think we've been anywhere where you couldn't see a crane or some form of construction going on (view from one of the apartment's balconies shown below). Some of the projects in the works are pretty epic, some more practical, but there are things in the works pretty much everywhere you go.Summer has passed, which means it's fairly hot here but not in the humid way I was struggling to get used to in southeast Asia, so it's actually quite pleasant outside for the most part.
As far as culinary things go, we mostly stuck to delivery food during the first work-week since Stanley gets home from work pretty late and heading out for groceries at that point in the evening never seemed like a good idea. Plus, there's a place that delivers pretty fantastic gyros (which, honestly, I could probably eat every day for a few weeks before I began to get tired of them), so that makes delivery always seem like a good option. Checking out the local delivery places also allowed me to experience the Mexican Shawarma, a very odd yet delicious item. I have no idea why it is called Mexican (since the flavors seem Indian to me), and I can't even guess most of what's in it, but I highly recommend giving it a try if you ever stumble across it on a menu in your travels... especially if that menu is from a cheap delivery place with an absurdly eclectic menu...
On Friday morning we checked out a cafe called More for their famous Friday brunch. You start out with fresh-squeezed fruit juice, unlimited coffee, and your choice of breakfast stuff from the menu (I went with a very good Eggs Benedict (shown artistically half-eaten below), because I am incapable of ordering anything else if that's on the menu). From there they send you over to a table of interesting fresh salads and a hot foods "floating buffet" with lamb, beef, chicken, and veggie options. You finish with desserts and/or a delicious thin pancake with a sprinkle of fresh citrus juice and syrup. We spent about 2 hours at More, and it was a lovely way to kick off the weekend.
We got home a bit late from grocery shopping on Friday, so decided to order in (again) and kick back with a cocktail to watch a bit of DDR (known as So You Think You Can Dance to other people) Season 4 (which Stanley and Alicia tragically missed out on when it first aired). On Saturday we finally had time to do some cooking. I made up a batch of Scorching Chili Chicken for lunch. This is probably my very favorite lunch item that I cook (I make it about once a month in my regular non-traveling life), and it was nice to have a bit of homemade Emily-style comfort food. For dinner we went with another of my comfort foods, which is a Cauliflower, Chicken, Pea, and Potato Curry (shown below, served with a bit of yogurt, fresh cilantro, and extra chili flakes). We went fairly simple with the cooking this time around because I'm still working out what items are available in grocery stores over here. I think we'll get a bit more crazy next weekend, especially since we'll have a gas grill (or BBQ as you Aussies out there call it) to play with by then (god willing, as they say)...
Now that the length of this post has achieved the requisite ridiculously-long status, I will sign off to go drink some coffee and carry on with the serious business of enjoying my time as a woman of leisure...