Job Hunt Update

It's been a productive week on the job hunt front I'm very happy to report. Last week, while in Dubai, I met with a Recruiting firm who has a Training Manager position available in Abu Dhabi. They have passed along my resume and I now wait to hear if I've got an interview. This week I had two interviews with two different and very nice companies. Both positions are focused on leadership development. 

The first interview in Abu Dhabi (I'm leaving out company names and position titles so as not to jinx myself! Superstitious, I know, but I don't want to take any chances. :) went really well and came about through the husband of one of the friends I've met over here. He passed along my CV to the Learning & Development department and the timing was right as they are considering some new positions to review and revamp their leadership development programs. I hit it off with both interviewers and the company has many similarities to TDS, which I really liked. They let me know that things were still in the early stages so I probably wouldn't hear back for a couple of weeks. ... THE NEXT DAY one of their recruiters called me back and said they were interested in offering me a position!! Now I'm waiting for the final job description and specific job offer to consider, which should be coming early next week. They liked me, they really like me! :)

The second interview was in Dubai and also went well. This position is a Director level and overseas leadership development, customer service and sales. I applied for this job through the internet last Friday and was contacted by a recruiter on Sunday who passed along my CV and then scheduled for an interview on Wednesday this week. The speed with which this all happened got me pretty excited. The interview went well and the company and building are pretty impressive. The interview room was on the 36th floor with a breathtaking view overlooking the Gulf! WOW! For this job, I'm working with a recruiter so she is doing all the negotiating on my behalf. She called me back a few hours after the interview and said they'd like to see me for a second interview next week! My goodness, when it rains it pours!

If all goes well, I hope to have two job offers to consider, which would leave me with a difficult decision to make. And what a great problem to have!!

Bargaining in Dubai

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my goals for last week's stay in Dubai was to find the bargain shopping places instead of the big huge malls that make Dubai so famous. I wrote about the Dragon Mart and mentioned my plan to find a good designer handbag copy, which amounted to nothing. So, the next day I set out for round two.

I had originally decided to find the Dubai Antique Museum, which is supposed to be this huge warehouse filled with everything Arabic you could imagine. I had found a map to it while at home in Abu Dhabi, but forgot to bookmark it so I headed to the business center at the hotel to Google a map ... and couldn't find one that would allow it to be printed. (I know, I thought it was weird too). So, I copied down some basic directions thinking that a taxi driver would surely be able to find the place. Yeah, you can guess how that turned out, can't you? I hopped into the first taxi and, as I have learned to do here, first asked him if he knew the place ... he didn't. Then I read off my crude directions, still no luck, so I told him I'd find another taxi. He then told me that "no one knows this place, let me call someone". So, he called someone who also didn't know where the Dubai Ant EE Cue Museum was. I decided to go back into the hotel and see if the Concierge could help. Well, to make a loonngg story short(er), after some web searching, a phone call to the place and a clear impression that even if I did find it, I might have a hard time getting a taxi back, I decided to skip the trip and go somewhere else. But don't worry, next time I have the car in Dubai, I'll gladly take on the adventure of finding it - just didn't want to rack up a $100 cab ride and still end up lost. :)

So instead I went to the Al Karama market, which is an area of the city (called Karama) which is known for good handbag copies (as well as other things like jeans, sunglasses, perfumes, etc). This time, the taxi knew exactly where I was headed (whew!) Now this was a market! Lots of stores crammed with all kinds of cool stuff and shop owners beckoning you to "just have a look inside madam". I was in heaven and looking forward to bargaining for a good deal on a Louis Vuitton handbag copy.

Now, something you should know about the fake handbag trade is that there are frequent police raids in an effort to eliminate the selling of fakes (just like NYC) so the fakes are kept in upstairs or back rooms that are concealed behind fake walls or hidden doorways. And you have to be subtle about what you're looking for. I found this out the hard way as shop after shop was telling me they didn't have any copies. I finally browsed through one shop that was selling Coach purses and I happened to ask if they also carried Louis Vuitton. Well, I must have made a good impression because he asked his partner to bring some out from the back. While he was gone he told me that they have to be careful of the police and that "families are no problem. groups of women are no problem. but you, shopping alone, makes us nervous." Ahhhhh, that's why I was having some trouble. Well, now that I knew, I better understood and adjusted my approach.

Things then got a little easier and I think as the surrounding shop owners saw me hanging around for a while, they relaxed. I went into probably 10 different shops, each with their own way to 'hide the good stuff' - sometimes it was up the stairs and through a maze of hallways, sometimes it was across the street and in through the hidden door and one place had me wait in the store and they brought the options to me. And while the streets and the main stores didn't seem too crowded the secret rooms were bustling!

I finally settled on a LV handbag and negotiated the price. He started at 480 AED and I got him down to 350 AED (and insisted on a 'free gift' makeup bag to sweeten the deal). I probably could have worked harder, but I felt good about the deal and love the handbag so all was well. (I was tougher when bargaining for the wallet in another store and know I got a good price on that one!) :)

Then I found a souvenir shop and did some more bargaining and picked up some great presents for folks back home. By the time I got back to the Raffles hotel, I needed the bellhop to carry my bags! No seriously, I think I had 5 bags of stuff and there's no way the hotel staff would have let me schlep that up to my room myself. Customer service here means you are waited on, so to carry them myself would have  been considered rude ... I'm not kidding! So, I let them carry my bags and felt like a spoiled princess the rest of the afternoon. 

The View from the Top

One of the adventures of our week in Dubai was going to the top of the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world. The first step is to get tickets - you can either buy them in advance online for 105 dirham or buy them at the door (and possibly have to wait in line) for 400 dirham ... we purchased online and had to buy them in advance for a specific day and time. So, Wednesday evening at 7pm was our time slot. When I arrived to pick up the tickets (we had 8 of us with the crew in town from Epic) I had to provide my confirmation number, my receipt number, ID and the credit card I used to purchase the tickets. Okay, fairly normal. Then, she had to go and make a copy of my ID to keep on file with my receipt or something.  What?! Can you imagine the paper they generate doing that? Hundreds of people go up to the top every hour, what a waste.

The Burj was started in January 2004 and opened to the public in January of 2010. It was originally named the Burj Dubai, but after the financial crisis, Abu Dhabi helped bail Dubai out of some debt and in return the Burj was renamed, so now it is the Burj Khalifa after the ruler of Abu Dhabi (at least that's the story I heard). The structure is 2716.5 feet high and is currently the tallest building in the world with more than 160 stories. The observation deck sits on Floor 124 (not quite the very top), there's also a fine dining restaurant on 122, over 1000 residences, a hotel with 160 guest rooms, 37 floors for offices and a 4-story fitness and recreation annex called the Club.

In addition to being the tallest building in the world, it also has the tallest service elevator, which is "one of the fastest" in the world. The elevator ride was pretty amazing, incredibly quiet and smooth - if my ears hadn't been popping a bit as we went higher, I would have no idea how high we were really going. At the top, there is an outdoor observation deck, which is where we shot the photos below.

This is the fountain area in front of the Burj and the Dubai Mall.

And this is from the other side with a view of part of downtown Dubai.

A better closeup of The Address, a swanky hotel in the area.

We purchased tickets for 7pm for two reasons: 1) the Epic team was working and didn't finish until almost 6pm, and 2) we wanted to see the fountain show at night. I've written about the fountain before when sharing my adventures in the Dubai Mall. They were designed by the same guy who designed the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas ... but of course, this being Dubai, these are bigger and better. :) They 'dance' every 30 minutes and the music varies from American pop to more traditional Arabic music. They are really impressive from the ground and pretty cool from the top of the Burj as well. Here are a few pics.

Being lazy in Dubai

While Brian is working hard to sell more software in the Middle East, I'm hanging out at the Raffles hotel in Dubai where they've put him up. This is a 5 star hotel with all the amenities you can think of - absolutely gorgeous ... and then there's the pool. Here are a few photos of our room and the pool area.

The pool has this really amazing clock feature. There are 12 fountains around the pool bar that mark the hour, so one fountain starts running at the start of each hour (lower-right photo). Then, along the other side of the pool area are fountains that mark the minutes and are separated by columns at each 15 minute increment, so a new stream starts running every minute (lower-left photo). It's interesting to watch and has the added practicality of helping you tell the time.  The other nice thing about the pool is that you are brought ice cold iced tea or water the whole time you're there as well as cold washcloths about every hour, which is pretty key when the temps are over 100! But, my favorite thing is that the pool is chilled, and not just lukewarm like I've seen with some pools here that are "chilled", this one is actually really refreshing without being bracing. Let's just say I plan to go back again today. :)

The hotel room, which is more of a suite with a sitting area, a desk area, walk in closet space and large bathroom with jacuzzi tub and rainshower, is wonderful and really spacious. It also has a beautiful balcony, but it's a bit hot to sit out there during the day - will have to try it this evening and see if it's cool enough. And, of course the rest of the place is pretty awesome as well - great steak restaurant, huge buffet breakfast (that's included with the room), nice fitness center, steam room, sauna, whirlpool. They also have what looks to be a great spa, but I had to remind myself that I'm not technically on vacation, so should probably refrain. (at least until I start making some money too! :)

And what do I do after the pool? Shop of course ... it's Dubai! But this trip I'm looking for the bargain places, which is quite a search in a place where brand name designer shopping is considered a national pastime. Yesterday I went to the Dragonmart, which has every item ever imported from China, I think. You can find all sorts of crazy things here and it was fun to poke around and see what was available. I was on the hunt for some good designer handbag copies, but didn't see anything that I just had to have so came home empty handed. Here's a photo of the huge fountain out in front.

Today's plan is to try and find the Dubai Antique Museum, which is supposed to be a huge warehouse crammed of all kinds of Arabic antiques. I'm hoping to find some nice gifts and souvenirs ... we'll see.

A Few Random Photos

I've been collecting a few photos that don't make a whole post on their own, but might be interesting as a group.

Here's a photo of our car! ... okay just kidding, we saw this in one of the showrooms and couldn't resist snapping a picture. Our car is actually the next one.

Took these outside the Heritage Village, which we still haven't seen because we keep going when they are closed ... one of these days. These are date palms and all of them around the city are ripe with clusters of dates almost ready to be harvested.

Here are a few of the apartment compound. This first one is taken while I'm standing just outside our villa building. And, yes, it was pretty noisy for a while (they've since finished with the foundation pounding at least). Rumor has it they're building a little shopping mall there. Okay, I'll put up with the noise and dust for another mall! :)

I realized I hadn't yet posted any photos of the pool area, so went out that same morning and snapped some. This is the pool which is really nice and not so busy that you can't enjoy yourself. The only trouble is it isn't chilled (yes, they have chilled pools here instead of heated ones!) so it's really not that refreshing unless you go early in the morning or in the evening. I've spent a fair amount of time out here and have the darkest tan I've ever had in my life! (Which is to say I no longer glow in the dark. :) The dark area at the far end is the door to the gym. And the next photo is the little kids play area with sprinklers that you can turn on and off.

And, the post wouldn't be complete without a few photos of our kitty, Rogue, so here she is on her latest lookout spot ... on the window sill, which is only barely wide enough for her, in our bedroom.