Happy Birthday to Me!

Thank you everyone who called, emailed, messaged, brought cake, brought wine (!), and did anything else to make my birthday wonderful. I thought I would be sad and lonely, but my students and friends all came through with cake and songs, and I got to chat with my family.

And extra big thanks to my husband, son, and cat, who gave me my super-cool iPod Touch. I love you guys!

FAIL Blog

This blog is hysterical. Be careful with the kiddies, though. You can choose to have a G/PG-rated version only. http://failblog.org/

Here is a classic example; although the entries are usually photographs, this was too good to not share.

see more pwn and owned pictures

It's Getting Better All the Time

My son's going on a field trip to the National Zoo, and neither my husband nor I (obviously) are going, and we're nervous. Here's what my son told his father:

"Dad, it's a field trip, not the Apocalypse."

Don't know where he learned that...


In other good news, see my friend's blog, CRABBYANNE, for the best political ad ever.

Wild Dogs and Internet, Part 2

The continuing saga of Julie’s search for an Internet connection in Abu Dhabi

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I’m taking deep, cleansing breaths as I try to write this. Yoga classes are paying off.

Let me begin…

Damn, I just can’t do this. I can’t be sane and reasonable because there is nothing sane or reasonable in my life right now.

Today, my friend Lola and I spent AT LEAST eight hours – hours – trying to get our Internet working. Mind you, this is pre-paid wireless broadband. We shelled out over 1000 dirhams on Friday for the modems and sim cards, only to have them not work. We spent hours with our resident tech guy, Ptolemy, and more hours on the phone with Etisalat on Saturday, and just missed getting into their offices. Lola was told that the sales clerk who signed us up made a mistake and signed us up for two accounts each, and thus our first month’s connection, which was supposed to be free as a sales promotion, was over-due (before we had ever even used it, mind you), and that was why we couldn’t connect. Well, first the “customer service” representative said it was our fault, but finally came around to admitting, that, yes, perhaps someone else had made a mistake. The “customer service” rep said that we could go to any Etisalat business center, tell them that one account needed to be removed, and we would be fine. What fools we were to believe those sweet, sweet lies.

Today, Sunday, we went to Etisalat’s main office at noon. I was finished with classes for the day, but Lola had to get back for a 2 o’clock class. Yeah, right. After we waited for almost an hour, we got a “customer service” representative who had no idea what was going on. Luckily, he wasn’t shy about admitting that and handing us off to apparently the only person in the place who did know what he was doing. Except he only thought he knew what he was doing, because he didn’t. He took my laptop, installed something on it (!), and pronounced both our sim cards faulty. He said he would give us new sim cards, and wouldn’t even charge us the 25 dirham replacement fee. Quite decent of him. We told him AT LEAST three times what the “customer service” rep had told us the day before about having two accounts on one number. No, no, no, he insisted. That was wrong. The sim cards were bad. By now, Lola had had to call and cancel her class. The “customer service” rep then told us to wait a half an hour, or maybe an hour (he said both), and the new sim cards would be activated. But, we would need to call “customer service” and tell them that we had replacement sim cards, and needed new data package settings.

We decided to go get something to eat, and set out for a nearby mall. We had sent our driver away long before, as he had another pick-up at 2:00, and we were still waiting on the “customer service” rep to give us unnecessary new sim cards. Anyway, we finally got a taxi, got to the mall, and ate before calling to get the new data package settings. Of course, no settings were forthcoming. I called….yes, “customer service.” I almost felt sorry for the 5 or 6 morons I had to talk to. Almost. And 5 or 6 because I got 1) “disconnected,” 2) transferred, 3) given wrong information (!), etc...

Meanwhile, Lola’s blood pressure is skyrocketing, and I am having palpitations. Seriously. We’re sitting in a food court in a mall with a laptop, a wireless modem, router, sim cards, gut-spilling mobile phones, and cables of every description scattered across the tables. And french fries. Stress? What stress?

Finally, Lola gets the idea to go and get a 500-dirham Etisalat card and load it onto the sim card for her wireless modem. She does. I do not. I go get a freaking espresso frappucino, because I want my heart to race just a little bit faster. We get home, and Lola has Internet! Yay. So I go buy 5, 100-dirham cards, because Spinney’s doesn’t sell 500-dirham cards. Big whoop, you might say. What’s the difference between 5, 100-dirham cards, and 1, 500-dirham cards? Here’s the difference: every card has a 15-digit number that you have to dial into your mobile phone to add the money to your account. So I had to dial 5, 15-digit numbers. To do this, I had to pull the sim card out of the modem (for about the 15th time), pull the sim card out of my phone, and put the modem card in the phone, and dial the numbers. Then, I had to reverse the process.

But, at last, I connected to the Internet! I almost didn’t believe it! I was cautiously ecstatic. Yeah. And then, after ½ hour, no more Internet. Yeah. I think I saw that coming.

Long, long story just a few words short, I pulled the sim card back into my phone and found that my 500 dirhams had disappeared, and I had a negative 3 dirham balance on my card, which was what had been on it when this whole sorry story started. Remember kids, the monthly cost of this service is 460 dirhams.

So, I’m out well over 1500 dirhams (that’s $410), and I still have no Internet. And I don’t know what to do.

Here’s what I think should happen, although nobody cares, I’m sure: I think I should get ALL MY MONEY BACK, and the “service” I signed up for should be CANCELLED, and then, I can sign up for the “service” ALL OVER AGAIN, and have it done CORRECTLY this time by a COMPETENT PERSON, if there is one at Etisalat, which I seriously question.

So, we’ll see what happens tomorrow (Monday)!

Wild Dogs and Internet

After getting no real response to my queries about when we could expect to have the building properly wired for landline telephone service and DSL Internet, my friend Lola (most definitely NOT her real name) and I decided to go spend a ridiculous sum of money for pre-paid wireless broadband. We set off in Lola’s new Jeep for the Virgin Record store at Abu Dhabi Mall, me holding her GPS because she hasn’t figured out how to mount it to the dashboard yet. After parking woes and being sorely distracted by shiny computer gear in various stores, we left Virgin, wireless router for me, wireless USB for her, in hand. We were so happy. It was bound to end badly.

Lola hadn’t quite gotten our home address programmed into the GPS properly. Plus, detours confused the machine, and we got a bit…side tracked. In fact, we overshot Musaffah, and headed out into the dark desert, otherwise known as The Road to Bani Yas. Or possibly Al Ain. Or maybe Dubai. Anyway, somewhere we Didn’t Want To Go. I asked once how much gas Lola had in her tank, but I may not have believed that a half a tank would get us home.

Eventually, we got turned around and headed back toward “civilization,” using Al Safeer “Mall” as our landmark. As we drove past this “mall,” something ran across the road in front of us. “What was that?” we both screamed. I looked to the side of the road where it had gone, and saw a pack of four or five wild dogs. Yes. Wild dogs. Dogs that were wild, in a pack. About two blocks from our building. (I must remember to warn folks not to let their kids wander more than, oh, a foot from their sides.)

So after all that excitement, including both of us shouting “Wild dogs!?!” at random intervals for several hours, our expensive new equipment didn’t work. Even though we stayed up until 2:00 am trying to make it work. This morning, we called on our resident tech guru and all-around good guy, Ptolemy (also, not his real name), for help. After three hours, we determined that the problem was that Etisalat, the state telephone and Internet provider, had made a mistake when setting up both of our accounts, and that we would need to go to an Etisalat business center. By the time we found some semi-addresses for some ostensible business centers, it was 12:30. The ones that were even open on Saturday all closed at 1:00. Not good. Armed with laptops, cables, routers, USB ports, and other techie accoutrements, me holding the GPS again and lighting Lola's cigarettes for her, and yeah, maybe taking a couple of drags because, my god, wild dogs! and no internet!, we set off into, you guessed it, the desert. Again. When we finally by some unverified miracle found the business office, it was 1:05 pm. It had been open. Until 1:00 pm.

We are still without Internet.

Oh, and I still don’t have Torchwood DVDs I ordered from Barnes and Noble on September 16.

I’m not really very happy right now. On the good side, though, no wild dogs today, so, hey!

To be continued…

October 10, 2008

First, things in general are settling down here in Abu Dhabi now that Ramadan and the holiday week for Eid al Fitr have passed. People are working normal hours; and shops and restaurants are open during the day again. The weather has cooled considerably, with a high yesterday of 97° Fahrenheit. My calling 97° cool should give you an indication of how hot it was over the last two months.

Our (new faculty) living situation is not very good right now, and we have asked the school to find us more suitable accommodations. I will miss the large and very bright flat I’m in now, but not the neighborhood. No moving date (or place) has been announced yet.

Back home, Charles is frantically packing and repairing and driving things from place to place, and…and…everything, (Charles is also working on his master's degree in education, something we are very proud of him for) because we’ve sold our house, which is rather miraculous in these times. It’s not over, yet, either. After closing, I will heave a big sigh of relief and celebrate with a nice…cup of coffee, because I don’t have my liquor permit yet.

I don’t have a driving license yet, either, due to some “misplaced” paperwork, but now all is in order and I should be able to drive again next week. As soon as I get the license, I’ll start shopping for a car. I was planning to buck the trend of buying giant SUVs and Jeeps, but I’m being heavily influenced by the forces of gas-guzzling evil. I haven’t seen a single hybrid car here, by the way…

In other news, I was planning to volunteer for the Middle East International Film Festival - Abu Dhabi 2008, but got my information in late (what else is new?), so they didn’t need me. This, however, gives me more time to actually see some films. There’s one documentary about the making of A Chorus Line that I really want to see: Every Little Step.

Many of the films are from the area and are in Arabic, but it is a truly international festival, and filmmakers are participating from all over the world. Sir Ben Kingsley will be here to attend the first Arabic-dubbed screening of Gandhi. The festival closes with Ridley Scott's latest film, Body of Lies, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. I don’t know if any of them will be in attendance. Apparently, Antonio Banderas has been in Abu Dhabi for a few days now, teaching a master class, and will be at the festival's opening night.

Check out the MEIFF on the web; Abu Dhabi should also be getting international press for this event. The main venue is the incredible Emirates Palace Hotel.