The ideal resident for the UAE

Hello all, sorry for the delay in posting, been very busy and up very late (3am) the last couple of days...

DEFINATELY enjoying Abu Dhabi more than Cairo. It reminds me of California in many ways, I can see why many Americans take jobs here: the city is very similar to the US, and they get paid LOTS of money for a few years, then leave! The coach directors here have been very gracious in showing me the city, treating me to wonderful meals, and educating me on the history here...Last night we went out for pizza, and it was actually quite good. On the pizza? I can honestly say that I have never had a seafood pizza with cheese, shrimp, calimari, and caviar on it. It sounded disgusting at first, but was quite good! Of course I had my orange Fanta with it, lol. We then went out for coffee till around 12:30, at a coffee shop. Everyone knows each other here, it's a very social country!!

The clinic is going ok, I am not very happy with the time I have to cover lots of information. The Muslem people pray 5 times a day here, and specific times during the day. While teaching the clinic last night, my translator instructed me that we need to take a 10 min break for prayer, which I was fine with. What I WASN'T fine with is that everyone showed up 1 hour later! The non-Muslems were getting a bit irate at the whole ordeal, and were getting mad at me (to which I obviously had no control!). When I asked another coach what was going on, he said that basically praying only takes 5 min, but that everyone likes to socialize afterwards. So while I am waiting and twiddling my thumbs, they are outside the mosque chatting, having coffee and a smoke, and enjoying life! I definately don't yet understand why they do some of the things they do...

Tonight more clinic, then we are going to a professional soccer match which is held at the Sports Club where I am staying. Soccer (their football) is as big as our college football, and there will be 30,000 people here tonight. As I have never been to a pro soccer match, I'm looking forward to it. Afterwards, the UAE National Team coach (an American) is goint to take me out on the town. Should be interesting!

Five more days till I get home! Can't wait to eat normal food and take chances with the Swine Flu (obviously, Swine flu won't get here, as it is forbidden to eat / touch / have any contact with pigs...

Till next time!