Breaking news: Rain!

Thursday was another Dubai first: my first rain! At first I assumed the drops I felt on the way to work were window washers or AC units, but slowly the drops turned into a drizzle, and by the time I made it into the office, there were even a few strikes of lightening in the sky! The office was abuzz with personal reports of the novel weather. 

As we started scanning the day's news, however, the headlines didn't quite match up with our observations. Words like "chaos" and "massive" were used to describes the weather, which were, well, not the words I would have used to described an hour's worth of rain. Around 10am, an email went around the office notifying us that all of the schools in the country had been closed. Yes, closed. Here is a photo taken outside my building an hour or two after the shower. 

Now, to be fair, the drainage system in most of the city and surrounding areas ranges from awful to nonexistent. I've also been told to avoid being on the roads when it rains (even in a taxi) because 1) people here don't really know how to try in the rain, and 2) sometimes over-ambitious locals in their fancy cars will try to do some fancy tricks on the slick road and wipe out, both of which result in a higher rate of accidents. 

Luckily, the rain had stopped by the time I had to walk home, but the following day, there was of course a torrential downpour just a few minutes before I was to head out for the day. It only lasted for maybe 10-15 minutes, but completely flooded the street next to my building (which of course, the neighborhood kids clearly thought was the coolest thing to happen in a long time). 

I'll admit that it was nice to have a bit of variety in the otherwise-monotonous weather, but I'm hoping the rain dies off before it become truly necessary to invest in an umbrella... 

Apartment Hunting

Looking for a place to live anywhere is hardly ever an easy – let alone enjoyable - experience. There’s the searching, the viewings, the deciding, the paperwork. But add all that on top of a ticking deadline, a new city, and the rules and regulations of a new country, and you’ve got by far the most stressful thing I’ve experienced since moving here.

Upon my arrival, a couple things became very clear: 1) there were a select few areas where it would make sense for me to live, given that I don’t have a car (and hope to avoid getting one at least for a bit) and 2) Dubai is in the midst of a housing bubble, with rent going up significant in just the past couple months. The second point was a particularly disappointing discovery, as it soon became clear that it would be nearly prohibitively expensive for me to get my own place. To give you a sense of what I’m talking about, a tiny tiny studio apartment around 400 sq feet – some of which don’t come with appliances – is easily going for approximately $1450 a month. In many cases not including any utilities.

A couple of other (not-so) fun facts about housing here:

•        You often pay the entire years worth of rent up front. Plus a deposit and agency fee of course

•          It’s almost impossible to rent a place without dealing with some sort of agent. Agents are notorious for being flaky, particularly for not returning phone calls, which seems strange in a career based on commission…  

•      There are almost no renter’s protection rights here. Technically, the landlord isn’t supposed to raise the rent between the first and second year you live in an apartment. But in reality, I’ve heard of more than one person being told that they will have to move out next month because the landlord’s “daughter” wants to use the apartment, and then the apartment will promptly be re-listed for a much higher price.

•       The middle ground is hard to find. Your most common options are a shiny, new luxury apartment complete with pool and gym facilities (perhaps a squash court as well), or sharing a bedroom (yes, one room) with 4 other people. The one in-between option is renting a room in a villa (which sounds much fancier than it often actually is), and occasionally just as expensive as sharing an apartment.

Perhaps you can now get a sense of why finding a place to live was stressful.

Before I cause any panic attacks, fast forward to the end result: I’ve found a great place to live, with great flat mates. And while the journey to the end result was horrible at the time, I can now laugh at its absurdity.

A couple of the highlights:

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•       After getting lost and trekking through the sand in 100+ degree heat to get to a modest villa with a room to rent, I met the French woman leasing the place. She was recently divorced. Apparently she got the house (which she didn’t even actually own) and he got the car. She showed me the place (a small room with no closet and a shared bathroom… All for over $1000 a month!) and shared charming views like, “I don’t ever rent to Indians, even the ones with good jobs smell bad” and “don’t worry we’re not close to any mosques”. (Greeaaaaat) I would have to give her 30 days notice if I decided to move out, or she could do the same if “one of her friends wanted to come visit”. Let’s just say it didn’t work out.

•             Viewing an apartment that turned out to be in an office building, and getting very directly propositioned by two men in the elevator on the way to view the place. Thanks, but no thanks. 

•      Using my lunch break to go check out one of the top 10 messiest apartments/rooms I’ve ever seen. (Hey, at least I give them credit for sharing what it would really be like to live there)

•             Replying to an ad for an “individual villa for a lady;” deciding it probably was no longer a great idea when I got a call from the man (with a deep, deep, heavily accented voice) renting it out who asked if I could come during the evening. Only the evening…  I decided the fact that it felt like something out of a pilot episode for “Without a Trace: Dubai” probably meant I should pass on actually viewing the place…

So yes, it was exhausting. And stressful. But now I get to wake up to this every morning: