by Deborah Quinn | Nov 5, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, exercise, Politics, UAE, What's It Like?
What it looks like when repairmen come to your house in Abu Dhabi: Everybody’s shoes get left at the door–whether it’s friends stopping by for a visit or workers coming to see why the dishwasher spews water all over the kitchen floor. And even...
by Deborah Quinn | Jun 15, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, surat al-sabt saturday snapshot, UAE, What's It Like?
I think the world would be a happier place if all small trucks were decorated like the trucks in Abu Dhabi: flowers, butterflies, sometimes hearts. It makes being almost side-swiped a little easier.
by Deborah Quinn | Nov 24, 2012 | Abu Dhabi, Politics, surat al-sabt saturday snapshot, UAE, What's It Like?
It’s hard to avoid “service” in Abu Dhabi. Labor is (disturbingly) cheap and it seems sometimes that there is always someone offering to wash your car, clean your apartment, carry your bags. But the other day in Lulu (a big grocery store chain here),...
by Deborah Quinn | Sep 25, 2012 | Abu Dhabi, family, Monday Listicle, What's It Like?
I have dropped my anti-writing voices in a jar and shoved them in a neighbor’s closet (thanks, Bahareh!) but I can still hear their mewling in my head, getting in the way of words on the page screen. But what could be a better way to break through...
by Deborah Quinn | Apr 23, 2012 | Abu Dhabi, expat, Feminism, pop culture, shopping, UAE, What's It Like?
So I was at the mall. I’m at the mall because “everything” is at the mall: grocery stores, bookstores (or at least stores that sell book-related products), the Walgreens-equivalent stores. These malls are vast echoey spaces designed to entertain:...
by Deborah Quinn | Mar 13, 2012 | Abu Dhabi, Blog, expat, Politics, UAE, urban nature, What's It Like?
It’s been a cold winter here and a cold spring. Even now, in the middle of March, it’s only 73F and usually, by now, the temperature hovers in the low 80s. Weather, here, seems to mean two things: wind and sand. Sometimes the sand hangs so...
