Um posting que nao eh para ser lido...

Hj estou sem vontade de trabalhar. Detesto este sentimento, mas quando ele chega nao ha nada a fazer.
Gracas a Deus tenho net no escritorio e posso assim desperdicar tempo precioso a checkar sites. Gracas a Deus alguem inventou blogues e assim o desperdicio de tempo nao se torna tao desperdicio.Eh como estar a ler cartas que nos enviaram.. so que nao tem propriamente o nosso nome e morada.
Enfim.. entre blogues e mais blogues comecei a ler alguns de tugas no estrangeiro.. la do blog do Tiago. E pronto, la veio a vontade de escrever em portugues. Isto de falar, ler, escrever e pensar sempre em ingles da nisto... em vontade de escrever este post. mesmo que seja random.. ahaha. Random, ai esta mais uma palavra em ingles. Duh... Mas tb nao querem que escreva "aleatorio" pois nao?
Enfim.. ja tinha saudades de escrever sem sentido. Ainda para mais ao ser em portugues garanto que ai 90% da minha audiencia nao vai perceber nada. Mae (nao, nao ha tils nem acentos nestes teclados arabes), espero que nao venhas ao meu blog hoje.. Se vieres, fica te por aqui.. ah nao te preocupes que esta tudo bem e nao o calor nao me esta a afectar a razao.

Para quem esteja interessado, tenho outra mania... Depois do bolo de leite condensado do Amor aos Pedacos, da pizza carbonara com cebola, do crepe com chocolate e banana (entre outras excentricidades pessoais) encontrei outra delicia desta vida. Cinnamon Rolls.. os da Cinnabom, em especial os de chocolate. Sim, irresistivel e bom como tudo (mae.. eu disse te para nao leres.. mas nao te preocupes que nao estou mais gorda!)

Ah, e tb descobri uma coisa fantastica!! :) Aqui a je ja nao precisa de passar a vida a pedir Seven up com groselha... Alguem lembrou se de juntar as duas coisas e chamar lhe Fanta sabor a morango! Ainda pensei escrever lhes (aos gajos da Fanta) a dizer que se tinham enganado.. que no fundo aquilo era mas eh groselha, mas acabei por nao o fazer..

Ouch.. e de repente parece que estou outra vez com vontade de trabalhar...
Afinal ja passou.

Ah. lembrei me de partilhar outra coisa.. Ontem para adormecer comecei a contar numeros!! Pior ainda foi que dei por mim a contar em diferentes linguas.. Portugues, espanhol, ate frances! Acabei por desistir com o arabe.. eh que ainda so sei contar ate 3!

Bem.. vou parar por aqui.
Disclaimer: Nao nao estou maluca.. mas isto de nao ter ninguem com que falar portugues e dizer estas coisas parvas faz com que os postings no meu blog mudem radicalmente de conteudo.Vou tentar conter me a partir de agora.. De qq maneira fica o aviso de que postings destes podem surgir "aleatorialmente" :)

Is this a sign of things changing?

Kuwait's first female Cabinet member took the oath of office in parliament over the shouts from Islamist and tribal lawmakers opposed to wvomen's participation in politics.

I was glad to read this article on the news today... Definitely some things are changing in the Middle East and women are slowly becoming part of the politics process. Also here in the UAE, for the first time, we are having a woman as minister...

But something that I have noticed around here is that everything is also so volatile... From one moment to the other those who shout today agaisnt it might become the voice of the nation tomorrow...

Lets hope for the other way around.

Salaam Program and Learning about where I am...

Salaam Program...
Actually, I dont have words to express the success of this program.. still remember IC in Canada; meeting Suzanne last year here in the UAE, when this was only a baby project. Now it is huge and definetely one of the most successful projects I have ever seen in AIESEC. Far from the talk talk talk and do nothing attitude we are used to. I am sure that Jennifer, Eric and all the other people involved in this project must have this wonderful feeling of accumplishment when they go to bed everynight...

Besides all of this, they also got me a new roommate :) Alisha. She seems to be quite cool and as me she wants to get to know the culture as much as possible...
We will be starting our Arabic lessons as soon as we are settled in the new apartment and we need to start making our traveling plans soon! Oman, Lebonan, Quatar and India are already on the list :)

I definetely want to take the most out of this experience and even if expatriates are all over the place I am sure we will figure out a way to connect to the real Dubai life... Cant wait for it!

Sundays...

I guess Sundays are the days that get to me the most...

The day when I miss home the most, the day when I miss my friends my family the most...
Today I am working... I will be working all Sundays while I am working in this country.
It is not a religious thing but Sunday has always been special... You wake up late, have lunch at 3pm, go out and spend the afternoon with your friends or just stay the entire day watching TV and doing nothing in my cozy sofa..

Maybe, in the afternoon you go and force your grandmother to make those fried cookies you like so much and you just enjoy them with a nice cup of tea when you wait for your grandfather to come from the garage.. If you are lucky your aunt will also be there and you can talk about life and philosophy...

If you are even luckier, you will receive another call inviting you for dinner at your other grandparents house.. and then you can delight yourself with wonderful grandfather made chocolate mousse and extra extra sugared fruit salad. More, you can always play around with your grandmother saying that you didnt like the food and make her feel guilty about it! :)

Even more perfect is driving back to Lisbon, after dinner and just enjoying a nice talk with friends, by the rive or by the castle, or somewhere else as Lisbon is so beautiful and the friends are so genuine that it doesnt really matter where.

So here I am, and there they are.. where life continues, even without me.

Yes.. today I wish I was there.

Classifieds in Dubai

I was browsing through the classifieds today in order to buy something nice for my apartment (there are so many expats coming and going that you can find really good and cheap stuff in second hand). I came across with this really unique classified and thought it was worth the posting:

2 CAMEL SEATS, BRAND NEW, for sale, at throwaway price. Call
050-5511839

Living in Dubai - I

One month has passed and I almost didnt notice it!

Life here is quite easy... Not sure exactly how to explain this but the thing is that I didnt had any problems in settling down (excepct for the maniac pressure of finding a suitable apartment).

You can easily access all things and most of the times with cheaper prices than back in Portugal (so I dont even want to think about what british and german people think!!)
You get a coke for 20 cents of a euro, a proper meal in a decent restaurant for 10 Euros and a Good meal by the sea, italian food, candle lights for 20 Euros.
I guess I end up spending more money here than I did in Portugal just because I find things so cheap... Anyway my favourite is definitely buying fresh fruit juices/milkshakes for euro!! :) I cant get enough of those...

Anyway.. looking into the society aspect of it there is clearly something that strucks your attention easily. Around 90% if not more of the population of Dubai are Expats. Meaning that the amount of "locals" (people who are actually UAE citizens) is quite small and also meaning that you will be able to know exactly who they are,The 2nd thing that grabs your attention is the division of those 90% of expats.
Basically, you have the top managers level who most probably will be British, followed by americans or australians and then some western europeans.

Then, on the other side you have all the "labour force": "monhes" (basically the portuguese word for indians, pakistanese and sri lankans) followed by Philipinos.
Honestly I believe this is actually the biggest negative point I have found up to now... It works almost as closed clusters and it leads to lots of prejudice and racism.Also, the fact that there are many indians here working in those jobs that no one else wants to take, therefore probably being the least educated people from India, makes overall "white expats" to consider indians as dumb and stupid.

This actually makes me wonder how people would call my portuguese ancestor some years back when we flooded Germany and France in search for better payments and ended up becoming their housemaids and construction employees.It really annoys me for people to think they are so superior that they cannot perform certain job and still have the nerves to actually say bad things about the ones who are taking it. But I guess this is happening almost everywhere now.. In Portugal with the brazilians, russians, ukrainans; in SPain with the latin americans..

Well, dont want to focus exclusively on the negatives points as as I was saying overall life here is quite straightforward, especially for europeans expats. Most of the apartments have their own pool and gymn, shopping malls in almost every corner, beach 20 minutes away, camels 30 minutes away : (they are SOOO cute!!) and plenty of people in the same situation as you (young expats) so it is actually difficult to figure out a day when there are actually no plans!

Main issue now is definitely "Saudade" of my friends, my family, my Lisbon, my Tagus River...

But as soon as the weather gets better (personal mental note: dont forget to post about the weather) I am sure everyone will start visiting me, right?? :)

Oh, and saudades of a " crepe de chocolate com banana" in Cup&Cino :) Can someone DHL it to me?? :)

Marketing rocks!

I am definitely becoming more and more of a marketing addict!
Just had the meeting with "boss" today regarding my objectives for the following months. Just perfect, exactly what I was looking for!
I cant stop smiling...

We are the coolest department... Just check out what we prepared for our new facilities opening! Cool, hein? We have our own Hummer and Smart car, just for promotion activities (meaning I get to drive them soon!)! :)

Arent they cute?

Press Release and Customers Evening

Coolest birthday ever!

Thanks to everyone that made this birthday far away from home just great!

Spent the entire day at Wild Wadi - amazing water park (Phillip, you were right! :)) and ended up the day in the most unexpected party!

I had chosen not to do anything as I don't enjoy my b'day that much... and then... I had a Surprise Party!!! :) I was so surprised!! It was definitely a great evening and I had great fun! Good to know that even far away from home you can find people who care and make sure you have a great time!

Also, thank you all that remembered me and sent me sms and emails! You cant imagine how it felt good! :)

I will let the pictures do the talk now...