Hor Al Anz East

I moved into my apartment on August 22nd. Dubai is a construction zone and Hor Al Anz (HAA) is no exception. This place is extremely difficult to get in and out of due to the construction. There are blockades everywhere, only 2 ways to get to my place, and only 2 different ways to get out. My first impressions of HAA were not favorable; coupled with the restrictive movement it is dirty and anything but glamorous. The apartment building itself is nice – it has a glass entryway and plenty of nice security men. I live on the 1st floor (in this country the street level floor is actually called the ground floor, so I am one story up) and overlook a construction site on the neighboring property. The construction hasn’t bothered me yet, and I feel as though I’ve lucked out as far as location. One side of the building faces a mosque, which blares the “Call to Prayer” out of its loudspeaker 5 times a day. Apparently this caused many sleepless nights for those unlucky few last year. The other two sides of the building overlook the street, which can be quite busy, congested and noisy at times. So, I am quite pleased with my placement next to the giant dust bowl outside of my window.

The apartment itself is extremely spacious: two bedrooms, three full baths, a large living/dining area and a nicely equipped kitchen. The school provided most of the kitchenware and all of the linens, although I did make a few trips to Ikea to improve the aesthetics of my room… I have a large closet which is nice and a large bathroom that is directly connected to my room.
My roommate, Asha, is great. She is from Canada and will be teaching high school PE this year at UAS. She cooked dinner for some gals and me last night which was incredible. I am always willing to clean for a roommate who cooks! Speaking of which – today I hired a cleaning lady. I’ve never had a cleaning lady, and hate to clean so it will be a good situation. She charges 25 dirham per hour which is only about $8 USD per hour equivalent. She will clean the place once a week for a couple of hours – sweep, mop, bathrooms, etc, and will also do our ironing!!! I could get used to this…

I was a little leery about my neighborhood at first, but the more I am here the more I am really happy with where I live. First of all, it is home to many of the 1st year staff at UAS, so it is a great social outlet. In addition, it is an older area of town – not the ritzy side of Dubai that you see and hear about on the Discovery Channel. There is a multitude of ethnic food at my doorstep – Iranian, Lebanese, shwarma cafes, etc. all within a minute’s walk. They also deliver, free of charge! For those of you not in the know, shwarma is the Arabian version of fast food. It is shaved chicken or lamb, garlic sauce, pickle and French fries, all wrapped in a warm Arabic pita bread. It is super tasty, minus the garlic sauce. And it’s cheap too – only 4 dirham, which is about $1.10 USD. Anyways… I shouldn’t have a problem feeding myself this year. I’ve eaten a ton of bread and hummous since I’ve been here… it is difficult to get a lot of vegetables in the Arabic diet, but I certainly am trying. Nonetheless, the food is good, cheap and close.
The building has 5 floors – the top floor has a men’s and ladies gym (each on separate sides of the building, equipped with a few old, but fully operational treadmills and nautilus equipment) and a POOL! Yep, that’s right. I have a pool on the top of my building – how many of you can say that?

One big concern I had about my neighborhood was lack of running space. I felt a little trapped and was hesitant to run on the dirty, congested streets. My new running partner, Rebecca and I have been doing quite a bit of exploring and finding that the running here is quite nice, actually. The first morning we ran outside, we climbed over a few construction barriers and found that there were quiet, residential areas just down the street. The next time, we discovered the beach… and the running path. Heaven! Only 2km from our apartment building is an inlet/lagoon - there are three of them actually, shaped like little fingers reaching inland. Neatly outlining the lagoon is a running path, which upon setting foot, we realized it was a synthetic surface – bouncy, like running on a track! Such a relief! It is difficult to find good running surfaces here; the sidewalks are made of brick pavers, which has to be the hardest material possible = bad for the legs, running on the street is nice, but often there is too much traffic. Also, there isn’t much grass or sand to run on, so this bouncy path made my year! It’s marked, too – every 5o meters. Which seems a bit superfluous to mark it every 50m, but whatever. So since our discovery we have been running there just about every day. We have been getting up at 5:30am to get our run in before we leave for school. I know it sounds crazy to get up so early, but it is the coolest time of the day, and often after being at school all day I am exhausted and not motivated to run. So it works for now. This is definitely a hallmark thing for me, getting out of bed on my own will to run… We signed up for the Dubai Marathon the other day – January 16th!!! I am so thankful to have a running partner in Rebecca – it makes a difference, and gives us that extra motivation that we need from time to time.

I desperately want a car… it is difficult to get around the city without one. Taxis don’t get to this part of town frequently, and public transportation is dirty and unreliable. We have a minibus that picks us up every morning and takes us to school, then brings us back in the evening. That works for school and all, but getting to the mall or any other part of Dubai is not an easy task without a personal vehicle. It will also be nice to have a car so I can drive to Abu Dhabi on the weekend. Garren has been making the trip about twice a week since I moved in. It takes him about 1 ½ hours to get from apartment to apartment on a normal day. Not bad – definitely reasonable – but I won’t tell you how fast he’s driving.
The more I am here in Dubai, the more I recognize and appreciate the differences between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I like AD a little more – the city itself is quieter, less busy, less congested and much greener. I am looking into renting a car for the next month. I can’t purchase a vehicle until I get my residence visa, which could be next week or next month or next year. I will hope it is not the latter of the three, but I am not going to stress about it any longer. It is out of my hands, nothing I can do about it.