300

Hello again,

something i forgot to mention about last weekend: i went to the movies on friday night. Now, that might not sound very special to you. But i was working in a country without cinemas for more than three months, so i am happy to be back. Also, this is what i usually do - or what i usually have done - on friday nights. Going to a movie, having a couple of brews. Well, no beer in cinemas here, and i didn't go with the usual suspects. But still, was fun.
The locals were acting a little strange: Making lots of noise during the whole movie, and 15 minutes before the end, when the main male character had died, most of them started getting up and leaving the theatre. The guy next to me just started answering calls on his mobile phone. Quite annoying. Cinema is something different for them, not so much about actually watching a movie, i guess.
Ah, yeah, and about the movie: 300. Wo-ho. Was fun. Basically just slaughtering, no bullshit, but stylish. Like Braveheart on special effects. I know it's hollywoody and based on an American comic book but Spartans are cool. Or were cool, so to speak. Spartanic, hehe. Love Greeks. Gotta look up that line "Wanderer, if you come to Sparta, salute the 300..." or however that line went - for those of you who didn't know, i studied four years of Ancient Greek language in high school, that is what got me hooked-up on Greece...

Another picture taken last weekend. Promoting the infamous Eurodance in the Middle East. Counter-disco. Well, i guess that's an insider joke nobody will understand. Hah, youth.

Dubai tonight.

Cheers
CGA

You will hydrate...

Good morning everyone,

A couple of words about the international word mixxxx-up. When i was living in Madrid i had a french-speaking couple among my best friends (Swiss&Belgian, actually). That's how i've learned that amongst french-speaking lovebirds they sometimes call each other "Lulu". Which is pretty funny for me. Now here's what i drink to hydrate in Abu-Dhabi:


Ho-ho-ho. You don't know why that might be a funny name for drinking water? Well, i guess you're not from my home country, or of German-speaking origin. Because where i come from "Lulu" is what kids say for "piss". Pretty strange to have that as a name for drinking water :-)


Anyways, so much for that. I'm still enjoying my school here. And i guess most of the people reading this have no idea whatsoever what it is that i am doing around here. Hm. I will leave you with this picture of myself. Taken yesterday, here in school. That's the crane bay. Where we've learned how to programm our tools. In short, you might say our tools are basically some big pipes that help our customers drill their well to whereever they wanna go. You can see some of those 'pipes' in the background. They got lots of electronics and shit inside.

One more thing: i've added a link to the blog of one of my classmates. He's based in a different location, but basically doing the same job. And all his entries about life since he's entered the Emirates for school - well, same situation for me, so enjoy reading.

Cheers,
CGA

Dutch

#german blog

Hallo allerseits!

Ein paar Anmerkung zur eigenen Muttersprache: Seit ich Oesterreich im November verlasssen habe, bin ich wenig zum Deutsch Sprechen gekommen. Ist nicht weiter tragisch, geht einem auch nicht sonderlich ab. Kannte das Gefuehl ja schon ein biszchen von meiner Zeit in Madrid, obgleich ich dort dann recht bald auch einige Deutsche kennengelernt habe und somit die Konversation in meiner Muttersprache pflegen konnte. Nun, diesmal war das nicht so, stimmt also doch nicht ganz, der alte Witz "was gibts ueberall auf der Welt? Coca-Cola, Malboro und Deutsche...". War insofern ein witziges Gefuehl, wie ich Anfang Februar das erste Mal wieder zum Reden gekommen bin, und nicht nur Deutsch sondern herrlich Wienerisch, mein hochgeschaetzter Onkel aus Ottakring hat mich angerufen. War da grad im "engineer's room" in der base, also quasi in meinem "cubicle". Und um mich herum nur Leute, die mich nicht im Geringsten verstehen konnten :-)

Wie auch immer, ich hab hier ja seit knapp zwei Wochen eine hiesige Handynummer. Und letztes Wochenende hab ich dann drei Tage hintereinander jeweils fuenf bis 22 Minuten Deutsch gesprochen. Ist schon witzig, nach nahezu viermonatiger Pause (von dem Gespraech im Februar einmal abgesehen). Und seltsam. Auf eine gute Art.
Naja, wie gesagt, es geht einem nicht sonderlich ab, die Muttersprache. Aber ist schon witzig, wenn man dann a bisserl nach Worten ringt, weil einem als erstes die englischen einfallen. Das vor allem auch, weil man ja natuerlich gefragt wird, was man so macht die ganze Zeit. Und der Job hier ist komplett in Englisch. Hab ja auch das ganze Ingenieursvokabular nie wirklich in Deutsch gelernt, da ich im Gegensatz zu den meisten hier nicht "engineering" sondern Mathematik studiert hab.

Ah ja, ad "Dutch": Mein WG Kollege hat irgendwann in der Oberstufe zwei Jahre Deutsch gelernt aber schon so gut wie alles vergessen - kann ich verstehen - aber seine Schwester studiert Deutsch auf Dolmetsch, in Aegypten. Deshalb fraegt er mich manchmal was, so in etwa "how do you say [insert random phrase here] in Dutch?". Also er sagt es wie "Dutch" meint aber "Deutsch" :-) Kanns ihm nicht veruebeln, ich schaetze sein Bemuehen. Er hat mir im Gegenzug dazu auch ein paar Worte Arabisch beigebracht.

Und ad Heimatland: Ist so gut wie fix, dasz, wenn mich Leute fragen woher ich komme - und das machen die meisten Leute, wenns mit einem zum Reden anfangen am rig oder wo - nach meiner Antwort fragen anschauen und "Australia?" sagen. Die Dummen lassen sich auch durch wiederholtes "No, Austria!" nicht beirren und freuen sich, einen Einwohner aus dem Land der Kaengurus begegnet zu sein. Wenns ned eh schon gleich ihr Interesse verloren haben sag ich meist "Austria, Europe". Was sie zwar so gut wie fix nicht verstehen, wennsas davor noch ned geknissen haben, aber was solls. Taet eh lieber einfach "Europe" oder EU oder was sagen, aber soweit simma ja noch nicht. Ganz. Aber fast. Insofern hab ich schon mit dem "Europe" als Heimatland sagen begonnen. Ist ein langer Weg, aber die europaeische Idee hat mich immer schon begeistert - also warum nicht auch gleich nach auszen hin verbreiten.

In diesem Sinne, viva la UE,

Cheers
CGA

pics update UAE

Hi friends,

i haven't blogged in some time. Which doesn't mean i had nothing to blog about in the last two weeks. Just the opposite is the case. I'm here in Abu Dhabi, for ten weeks of school from my company. And back to life. Longer blog blabla might follow in the next couple of days, for the more picture-minded people just head on to my pics (link on the right) and go to 2007 / march.
A happy face:

That's in front of our learning center here. It's in the desert inbetween Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Waiting for the taxi to Dubai, last thursday - start of my second weekend here, i.e. my second weekend and third free day since November...
The first ten days here our staff house wasn't ready yet so they unfortunately had to put us into a hotel. This is its lobby. Was a palace before they turned it into a hotel.
The pool of the same hotel. On my first weekend i actually had the chance to try it. And yes, it is warm enough already. During daytime it's like European summer here. During the night one can already stay outside with just a t-shirt (and pants etc, yes...).
So now they've moved us to a staff house in Abu Dhabi. My first company flat, yippiiieee! So, what to do when you enter your furnished flat for the first time? Couch-potatoeing, of course. Even if the TV didn't work then...
We are two persons per flat. This is my flatmate and good friend, and colleague from my location. Born in Macca, he's Sudanese. The white thing is the traditional clothes around here. Haven't bought one. Yet.

The view from the roof of the building. My room is actually on the eight floor (out of twelve). With a nice big window. And some guys in the neighborhood who like to sing from their tower...

Yup, that's me. Back to beer. After more than three months of detox. Detox from life. This was taken on my first weekend here. Was my first beer. Not that good, but well, what the heck. In Dubai, close to fake Venice.
The bat mobile. Or at least that's what i thought when i saw it. Lots of fancy cars in Dubai, obviously.Lunch break place, school. The outside. In the back you can see the fake rig. Will be there soon. So far lots of lectures, yesterday we've started with the practicals, hence i am wearing my blue coverall again.

Writing the Al-Jazeera logo with fire? No idea. That was last weekend, in Buddha Bar in Dubai. The place is a bit posh. But we were there as a group, having fun.
Culture! Well, that's what i thought when i read "Theatre&Arts Centre". Even though this was inside a shopping mall. Emirates Mall to be more precise. The one with the biggest fake skiing thing etc. Why people would like to ski inside is beyond me. Well, everything's fake here, Dubai is Arab Disneyland. But it's cool. They've made something out of their money. Something that's nice to look at.

Too many pics of myself here, but well, it's my blog. More pics, with people, on my pics site.

Cheers
CGA

Bring me back to life

So, three days ago i've left that forsaken country to go to Abu Dhabi for ten weeks of school. It was amazing. That feeling of leaving. Or more, that feeling of getting back to somewhere. I mean, i just crossed the bridge to Bahrain in a cab. And suddenly, there is life again. Women driving cars (it's a sad thing you have to mention that as something special..). I was overwhelmed by the sudden realization of what i didn't have at all in the last three months - i just saw a poster next to the highway in Bahrain. For an exhibition. Wow! There is NO SUCH THING AT ALL in that forsaken country. So nice, just a poster for an exposition. Museums! And there were more posters, one for theater, one for some dancing performance. We also passed a shopping centre. Guess what, it was a shopping centre with a cinema, how special! No such thing in sick-o country.

Anyways. Have you ever had jet lag without a flight? I came back from the rig two days before i left. And had a total jet lag. Because i had done the night shift there, 18-6h, and it was kinda hard to adapt to the 'normal' sleep at night, work during the day routine. My flight to Abu Dhabi was only 45 minutes, so i guess that was prophylactic jet lag just in case :-) Uh, yes, 45 minutes. When i got to the airport i looked at the display screen. All in Arabic except for the times. And only for the time of my flight there were two times. It took'em five minutes to switch the screen to English. Of course my flight was the only one that got delayed - three and a half hours delay for a 45 minutes flight, haha. But i got here, safe and sound.

Nice airport here in Abu Dhabi. (Hello to all my architecture friends..) Customs was a bit strange. The guy at the counter for non-GCC-countries was actually the first person who asked me for my name AFTER looking at my passport. I can only assume that he wanted to check if that passport was mine. I guess that's why they put a picture in it... He also didn't really speak English, so no idea how he got to sit in the international counter. After intensly studying the cover of my passport for five minutes he looked at me and said "Nemsa?" which is Arabic for Austria so i just replied "Yes, i am from Austria" which caused him to ask his colleague after which they both asked me "Nemsa?"... That guy also couldn't operate his computer and had his colleague enter whatever information about me it was that he had to enter there... well, they've let me through.

So, where am i now? Right now i'm sitting in a bus somewhere between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. We stay in a hotel near the highway connecting those two cities. The hotel is pretty big. Haven't had much time to explore it yet. I think it was a palace of some sort before they've turned it into a hotel. All rooms seem bigger than you would expect. It's kinda creepy going to my room since i have to walk through a long hallway, there is this strange elevator music coming from somewhere and there seems to be nobody except me on the whole floor. Coming from the lobby my room is in the underground level. Which actually means that my window/glass door opens directly to the beach. Hehe. Some pictures of the hotel will follow.

Only been here three days, but speaking about daily routines: the bus leaves from the hotel at 6:45, taking an hour to get through the brandnew school building. It will only be officially opened in the middle of march. There were two or three shorter classes before us but we are the first class of this ten weeks course. Nice. Soon there will be up to fourty classes at the same time so you can imagine it's big. Everything's still new up to the price tags on the seats. Pretty neat. We got about ten hours of classes each day and free time on the weekend which is friday and saturday around here - i didn't have a weekend or free day since November, remember? And of course there are a couple of tests each week, one on every sunday morning to keep us busy on the weekend :-)

So, in short: life is good again.

Cheers
CGA