Not Reality Yet

It's still really hard to believe that this is the city in which I am living for the next 2 years (and the lifestyle is pretty hard to wrap myself around, too!).  At times it feels familiar, like a place I've been on vacation.  It's a city with traffic and high buildings, and lots of people doing things late at night.  However, a closer look will show you that those tall buildings have bi-lingual signs on their fronts and (at the moment) business hours are vastly different from back home!  

We are in the middle of the first week of Ramadan.  (Google it for more info)  A couple of things I know are that it's a time of fasting - so no eating until sundown, after the last Call to Prayer.  (This booms out on loudspeakers all over the city at the appropriate times, one of those being 5:30am.  And when I say 'booms', that's a fierce exaggeration, because it's more like a chant/song that plays muted through your windows ... kind of pretty.)  BUT THEN!  Then, it's iftar.  I haven't been to one yet, but it's coming within the next few days (and surely many more to follow!).  This is the ginormous meal following the day of fasting.  I'll give you more details as they arrive!

The heat still isn't too unbearable.  Of course, leaving work (in pants and long sleeves) at 2pm, it's more than a little warm, and the sun shining down out of a cloudless sky doesn't help matters.  HOWEVER!  This sun is a wonderful thing while lying in the pool at the Sheraton (which a few of us have been doing every day!).  

... this is the part of the day where I pinch myself and ask, "is this really my life?"

But don't get too jealous yet!  After Ramadan, work will commence with "normal" hours, 7-3pm and then I will have class 2 evenings a week.  So who knows how much free time I'll have to sunbathe at the Sheraton and go out for dinner and shisha every night?  (I'm being partially sarcastic here!)

I still haven't taken many pictures.  Maybe that will be my mission this weekend, after I've moved into my permanent flat at the Blue Towers ... I'll be sure to share it all!