Saturday, June 4
So it looks like my "daily" blogs are going to be a few days behind, at least until I manage to catch up and fall into a proper rhythm - kind of like recovering from extreme jet lag, it takes a few days before the body becomes accustomed to the new sleeping schedule.
Here's the first: Saturday, June 4
So I arrived around 11 PM last night and hung out with Alison in the apartment, watching a cute movie before finally making myself close my eyes around 4 AM. Actually, since that translates to approximately 8 PM (EST), I couldn't actually get to sleep til around 5 or 6. Thus, in the morning when Alison woke me up around 8 AM, I sat up, make some surprisingly intelligible (but alas, unremembered) conversation with Alison, then fell back asleep until close to 3 PM. After lounging around in the apartment until Alison came back home (I was too afraid to go out, since my Arabic has a vocabulary of fewer words than the fingers on one hand, and also, more importantly, because there was only one key between the two of us, which Alison had taken with her to work, and the apartment door locks automatically...) When she got back, we went out to LuLu's Hypermarket, which is basically Walmart in department store form, not dissimilar to Macy's. Huge supermarket on the first floor, clothing and electronics on the second floor, appliances on the third floor, escalator ramps for shopping carts and all. After making our purchases, we took a cab back (we'd decided to walk over... and boy was it humid.), ordered Indian from the restaurant next door, and called it a night. I made sure to force myself to bed by midnight, so I wouldn't be too exhausted in the morning.
Note 1. O man, is HOT! Okay, horrible pun and horrible Engrish. But seriously. Average temperature around this time of the year floats around 105 degrees Farenheit, morning-afternoon-evening with a variance of about 5 degrees or so. Combine that with full humidity, and it's a pretty unpleasant place to spend your time walking around outside. Most people here drive private cars, because cab fare leans towards the pricey side, and air conditioning is on full blast. I've got to start drinking more water... On the other hand, perhaps because I've barely been outside, but the time that I have spent outside (read: 20 minute walk to LuLu's) hasn't been as bad as I was expecting. It actually kind of reminds me a lot of Central America in the summer.
Note 2. So the weekends here are Thursdays and Fridays, and the working week starts on Saturday. It's kind of ironic that after years and years of waiting for Saturdays to release us from the tedium of each school week, Saturday has become my Monday. (So yeah, I slept through my first official day of work. But I was jetlagged, so cut me some slack.) It's really weird though, because now I keep thinking that today is Monday, but it's really not, and it's really hard to keep track of the days of the week... it's actually quite disorienting.
I haven't really been out much yet, so no pictures for now; perhaps when something exciting happens? Or when I decide to dust off my camera and bring it with me outside some day.
So it looks like my "daily" blogs are going to be a few days behind, at least until I manage to catch up and fall into a proper rhythm - kind of like recovering from extreme jet lag, it takes a few days before the body becomes accustomed to the new sleeping schedule.
Here's the first: Saturday, June 4
So I arrived around 11 PM last night and hung out with Alison in the apartment, watching a cute movie before finally making myself close my eyes around 4 AM. Actually, since that translates to approximately 8 PM (EST), I couldn't actually get to sleep til around 5 or 6. Thus, in the morning when Alison woke me up around 8 AM, I sat up, make some surprisingly intelligible (but alas, unremembered) conversation with Alison, then fell back asleep until close to 3 PM. After lounging around in the apartment until Alison came back home (I was too afraid to go out, since my Arabic has a vocabulary of fewer words than the fingers on one hand, and also, more importantly, because there was only one key between the two of us, which Alison had taken with her to work, and the apartment door locks automatically...) When she got back, we went out to LuLu's Hypermarket, which is basically Walmart in department store form, not dissimilar to Macy's. Huge supermarket on the first floor, clothing and electronics on the second floor, appliances on the third floor, escalator ramps for shopping carts and all. After making our purchases, we took a cab back (we'd decided to walk over... and boy was it humid.), ordered Indian from the restaurant next door, and called it a night. I made sure to force myself to bed by midnight, so I wouldn't be too exhausted in the morning.
Note 1. O man, is HOT! Okay, horrible pun and horrible Engrish. But seriously. Average temperature around this time of the year floats around 105 degrees Farenheit, morning-afternoon-evening with a variance of about 5 degrees or so. Combine that with full humidity, and it's a pretty unpleasant place to spend your time walking around outside. Most people here drive private cars, because cab fare leans towards the pricey side, and air conditioning is on full blast. I've got to start drinking more water... On the other hand, perhaps because I've barely been outside, but the time that I have spent outside (read: 20 minute walk to LuLu's) hasn't been as bad as I was expecting. It actually kind of reminds me a lot of Central America in the summer.
Note 2. So the weekends here are Thursdays and Fridays, and the working week starts on Saturday. It's kind of ironic that after years and years of waiting for Saturdays to release us from the tedium of each school week, Saturday has become my Monday. (So yeah, I slept through my first official day of work. But I was jetlagged, so cut me some slack.) It's really weird though, because now I keep thinking that today is Monday, but it's really not, and it's really hard to keep track of the days of the week... it's actually quite disorienting.
I haven't really been out much yet, so no pictures for now; perhaps when something exciting happens? Or when I decide to dust off my camera and bring it with me outside some day.
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