by Deborah Quinn | Nov 14, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, environment, expat, NaBloPoMo, Politics, UAE
It’s hot here in the desert. Even now, in November, when people say “ah…the heat has broken,” we’re still talking 90F at midday. The road I have to take to my house winds through a whole huge construction project designed to make room...
by Deborah Quinn | Nov 12, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, expat, NaBloPoMo, religion, street notes, UAE
Just at the afternoon adhan today, I was out walking in the neighborhood near my office, searching for candy a nutritious snack to carry me through four hours of back-to-back meetings. I am struck always, in Abu Dhabi, by the juxtaposition of glassy office towers...
by Deborah Quinn | Nov 4, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, environment, expat, NaBloPoMo, ranting, surat al-sabt saturday snapshot, UAE
Fifty years ago, Abu Dhabi looked like this: The key feature of this landscape? Sand. And now? Green, green, green. If you look closely, every tree and flower has a little hose coiled at its root; hoses run under every lawn and green space. Forget the oil industry: if...
by Deborah Quinn | Nov 2, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, expat, family, Kids, UAE
It starts in September, when I get the late August issues of The New Yorker. I’m always a few weeks behind because I like to read the actual magazine, not the digital one. Usually I don’t mind reading about current events from a month or so...
by Deborah Quinn | Oct 29, 2013 | expat, family, Kids, Travel, writing
Memory works in peculiar ways, doesn’t it? I mean, I know that when we were traveling in Italy a few weeks ago, I was tempted to leave my bickering children at the top of Vesuvius as an offering for the gods but now, weeks later, what remains in my mind is a...
by Deborah Quinn | Oct 28, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, expat, Kids, The National, Travel
I wrote about our trip to Pompeii in The National the other day. Wandering those ancient sites makes a gal wonder about what will be left behind when our civilization disappears–and I have to say, the answers that come to mind aren’t exactly...
