The mother of all BBQs...

I've blogged before about the social network in the UAE, and how expats feel less homesick here. During my stay, I came across a few occasions where people meet and get to know each other.

I'm actually overwhelmed by how quickly you can make friends and connections in Dubai, there's no way you won't receive an invitation on any social media medium to a meet up or some gathering. It is indeed very welcoming.

My last experience was an invitation to an event called: The Mother of All Barbecues! and MY GOD it was! I can't seem to remember the number of people, but it was crowded enough not to be able to move your arm without hitting someone by mistake! It was a great idea by a bunch of guys who are active on twitter, to welcome friends and colleagues into their home party, where people got to meet each other, probably for the first time! In my case I knew a few people, but I had the pleasure of meeting new ones and getting to know others better.

What's interesting about this is how social media can be powerful in expanding people's connections and circles, people can get to meet and know each other virtually, and then "meeting" could come later! So you wouldn't have to struggle to make room in your calendar, as long as you carry a smart phone or a tablet where ever you are; you're good to go!

But I need to mention that this power of social media that I'm talking about can be limited if people weren't open to such a thing! The power comes from the people you meet there, and I've had a chance to meet an amazing group that made me feel like home, and in no time I found myself surrounded by friends from all nationalities and interests, no matter where I'm from, or what I did, I became a member of the club. And thanks to such great people you can see the world becoming a bigger global family each day!

The pursuit of Burgers..

People who know me in person know how much of a junk food addict I am. I know it's un-healthy and later on it'll come back and kick me... but there's no better joy when I'm hungry than holding that sandwich of grilled beef covered with delicious mayonnaise sauces, dressed up with lettuce and pickles! EMMMM!

When you live in a place long enough you figure out your favorite burger place, but trying to do that in a new large city takes a lot of time, too much for a junk-food freak like me to handle, so I set up a quest to find the best burger place as soon as possible.

It is very important to note that this is not a comparison of restaurants, only the burgers they make, and I'm not talking about fancy new types, I'm talking about the traditional original amazing grilled beef with melted cheese, mayonnaise, ketchup and mustered, some tomatoes, lettuce and pickles!

The internet wasn't helpful either, I tried shortlisting places but it was too complicated to get a hand on a really simple list. So I came up with my own... and it goes like this:


1: Johhny Rockets:

I heard it was the most common burger place in Dubai, at first, this burger seemed irresistible, but after trying so hard to finish it, you begin to notice that there's too much of everything! too much pickles, mustered, mayonnaise, and cheese that you stop enjoying it much, and it becomes a normal big burger to you.

The price is similar to other places, not cheaper, but not more expensive, although all the places I'm mentioning in this post are relatively expensive.

One good tip I can give you; DON'T order a delivery, it takes forever to reach, and you end up paying high delivery fees for a cold boring burger!

2: Fat Burger:

This picture makes it look like the best, well, not really!
The sandwich was perfectly customized for burger lovers, you choose how much beef you want and your good to go.
Great taste, at least not over priced, you pay to get a good burger and you get it, just not THE perfect burger.
I went there twice, and I was a happy customer both times. Fat Burger is good, just not the best!

3: TGI Fridays:

Traditional but yet sophisticated burger! not bad for a place that is not specialized in burgers, compared to other places; it's fair, if you were craving burgers; it won't be a bad idea to go there. But again, you won't be getting THE burger.








4: Bob's:

This one is interesting, it was difficult for me not to say this is the best!
This a place were you go to when you are super hungry. You'll get a great burger, simple, finely grilled beef and very yummy fries! In other words, It's the second best thing.







5: Burger Fuel:

Just ordered it today, very tasty and unique, although I didn't like the English mustard taste in it... I mean it is good, just don't expect the traditional taste.

The fries on the other hand are amazing! They serve it with a white sauce, and it is very rich in flavor.







6: and Finally; Shake Shack:

Some people disagree, and I understand why, it is quiet a heavy duty burger, too much fat in it, but MY GOD it's yummy!
Everything about that burger is unique, the bread, the beef, the sauce, the fries, even the lettuce!
Although it's small in size; but it is enough, trust me, two of these burgers will kill you. It is kind of small compared to it's price, but you can consider it a delicious rip off!



I tried other places but I always ended up going back to Shake Shack.
So on a scale from 0 to 10, Shake Shack gets the 10... the others vary from 6 to 9... but at the end I have to mention that you shouldn't try this mission yourself, it's bad if you were keeping a diet, I gained like 5 kilos on this quest and I'm really not happy about it. So I guess the next mission would have to be; places to go to when you're on a diet!

Outside Dubai...

It's been a while since my last post. After Ramadan I've been away for my second honeymoon in Europe. Everything was arranged by Emirates Holidays. It was really nice and I enjoyed every single moment of it... umm actually ALMOST every moment of it because the flight was perfectly designed to be uncomfortable. I mean everything else the Emirates Holidays arranged was perfect, but the plane seats were really uncomfortable and tight, now imagine feeling like that for a 5 to 6 hours trip?! yeah! it was a bit too much for me.

Anyway this isn't what i'm blogging about today...

After coming back to Dubai I paid a visit to a friend of mine who lives in Umm Al Quwein, the trip there took almost 1 hour driving, in during which I could see a huge difference in every kilometer I passed.

Starting from Dubai, you could see prestigious buildings, sky scrapers, fancy hotels, a variety of malls and supermarkets, trains, etc. You can see a beautiful city right before your eyes.

After leaving Dubai, a while after passing by the Airport, you can see the city being more humble... and the explanation for that is because you have just entered Al-Sharjah. It's a nice city as well, with lots of buildings and supermarkets, but you can't see the futuristic spirit of Dubai in it.

The more I drove, the less buildings were fancy, also the less the amount of buildings there was. which got me into thinking about reasons. It's obvious that each emirate reflects its wealth in its infrastructure, few large malls were spread between Ajman and Um Al-Quwein, buildings were humble and simple.

Arriving at my friend's place, I had to look for the building name, no landmark was close or streets signs, the GPS helped a little, but i had to use the phone to get exact directions.

People who live there need to drive all the way to Dubai for dinner or to have a good time, and whenever you visit anyone there, it has to be a sit at home visit, no hanging out or a small night drive.

I think it's amazing how money can affect the look and feel of a city, more money; more business, more social life!

Ramadan, as we know it

I hear everybody lately saying that Ramadan used to have more spirit in their hearts before than these days. When we were young we couldn't wait until we see the "hilal" that announces the arrival of Ramadan, when all families gathered for Iftar and Taraweeh prayers.

I still get those images in my head of how Ramadan used to feel, races I used to make with family and friends of whom would read more of the Holy Quran, me and my friends from high school participating in organized Iftar for orphans, "Qatayef" making; the official dessert of the month, it is basically the only eastern dessert that I eat, even making them was fun!

Maybe because I was a teenager, I used to get excited about the whole package of Ramadan, in anticipation of the Eid, we used to fulfill our religious duties with joy.

However, lately Ramadan seems to have lost its touch on me and the people I know. Maybe because life is getting more and more complicated each day, or maybe because we are growing older each day!

Here in Dubai it's not so different, as much as I have to admit that I can see more "Ramadanish" spirits, lanterns and decorations in all the malls, main roads, and restaurants, and not to forget the Iftar for workers that is held at mosques, even sometimes when you reach a red traffic signal around Adhan time, somebody approaches you with a mini box of dates and a mini bottle of water, regardless of your religion, you are welcomed in the home of a Muslim community.

I believe people who don't fast enjoy Ramadan the most, less working hours, more sleep, empty streets in the morning and the evening, yeah you know what I mean, although people who are fasting are the angriest people.

All Muslims know that the demons are helpless in Ramadan, so basically no evil is being enforced on anybody, only the demons who live inside us, the demons that are made from our own ideas, growing stronger in our brains until they become a big part of our lives, something I refer to as: the inner devils.

We unleash them by fasting, in this hot weather and lack of the daily doses of caffeine, nicotine, water, or what ever, the world becomes a crazier place with angrier, sensitive, lazy, crazy driving, crappy tempered, and most importantly, stubborn people.

If people learn to stop blaming everything around them and start enjoying the benefits of this month, if fasting Muslims understand that we need to use this months to train our inner devils to obey us and not the other way around, then Ramadan would definitely have its spirit back, and we will definitely feel about it like we did when we were younger.

Visiting the embassy

It started with an attempt to open a bank account at one of the banks in Abu Dhabi, they couldn't do it because my passport was about to expire, so I thought; how hard would it be to renew my passport from here?

So I drove all the way to the Jordanian embassy in AD, only to find out that I need to register my marriage and family first, so I went with my husband to the court house to stamp the marriage contract since it was issued in the UAE, the building was fascinating! People were standing in the front just to help you know the steps you need to do and where to do them, so this guy told us exactly what to do and where to do it and made our lives really easier, took us around five minutes to get the copy of the marriage contract stamped.
Next step was to stamp it from the ministry of foreign affairs of the UAE, someone told us that there's a company called: infinity services located in Marina Mall that has a branch there specialized in such purposes, so we headed there, took a number, and also within less than 5 minutes everything was done! All what was left is going back to the embassy to finalize stuff.

When we reached there we discovered that we had a lot of missing documents and information we weren't informed of before from a guy who literally was mad at us for a reason only god knows! So we went back home to get those papers and info, take pictures, make some calls to gather information, and hoped that the next day everything will be ok.

So I went the next day to the embassy, holding each and every document that I could possibly have, hoping for them not to ask for my high school certificate.
How did it go?! Will the good part was that I didn't need my high school certificate, the bad news was it would take over two months to get things done, with an empty wallet, and disappointed face, I asked the guy to give me my papers back, and I said: I can't wait that long, I'm going back to Jordan.

Isn't it sad to know that I can easily do stuff and finish papers within seconds at any local governmental or non governmental entity in this place where I would need to struggle to get things done from my own country's embassy?!

My first UAE failure

I didn't see it coming at all, I failed the assessment driving test I was given by the driving center. It's almost impossible for someone who's been driving for more than 4 years to fail in a driving test, did I really deserve it? I don't really know.. Considering the "mistakes" I did...

Why? Everybody told me it's all about business.. I have been assigned to take 6 more classes, and pay extra 460 dhms, well I don't know about that either.

But what I do know is that I certainly didn't deserve that quality of treatment, the woman who tested me was all over the phone arranging a "wasta"! -wasta means: giving priority for things to happen for people you know-.

I was the only one who understood what was going on because I was the only Arabic girl there. Having said that, it was obvious she wasn't paying attention to our driving, and a lot of mistakes were made and she never mentioned them their reports, I'm assuming because she was busy with other stuff... Her phone maybe!

The way she was talking to us, giving us orders, and the way she gave us the results was disrespectful! I was more upset because of that than the actual failing, I believe no one deserves being treated like that.

My only question is: if we are to be tested for road driving to ensure we all drive perfectly safe, who tests them to do their work perfectly? and who ensures the quality of it?

Location:Dubai

My first UAE virus!

I've been away for a while, my mind was turned off for a reason, I was sick. I got cold after walking in the parking of Ibn Batuta mall and watching a movie inside in the cold closed room.

The jump between temperatures once you leave a building or enter one in the UAE is very dangerous if you weren't used to it.

Now I make sure to carry a small jacket with me everywhere I go to wear it indoors because i personally really hate the transitions between heat and coldness, not to mention that the heat is unbelievably high!

The humidity makes it worse as well, because even though you managed to walk into a building without sweating, your skin will be wet because of the humidity and this is exactly when you catch cold.

So now I make sure to carry a small jacket with me everywhere I go to wear it indoors! So make sure before visiting or moving to the UAE or any other Gulf country to take this note into consideration and prepare your selves for it.