EFTA02410131

From: Sent: Wed 7/7/2010 6:35:25 PM Subject: Report #130: beach club Hi kids! People in education (at least the NYU Abu Dhabi people) arc the new investment bankers. The NYU AD parking lot is a ridiculous display of 3-letter German cars and pimped out SUVs. We make 2-3 times more than our peers in the market (however, when salary negotiating we turn this ratio around). Everyone shops and spends as if it was Wall Street 1980. NYU AD people arc very lucky. Going on vacation again last 2 weeks of July and going back to Dar Al Masya0. Vacation is awesome! For everyone who knew me in New York this will come as a major shock: I think it's awesome to buy cheap clothes because I can buy 3 of the same in different colors! Zara is my favorite store and a few years ago I wouldn't be caught dead there! The H&M store in Dubai Mall requires a bit more of a commitment than Zara because it's so huge. You have to make a commitment to stay and rough it out until you have found at least a few items. The downside with vacation is that I spent a lot of time outdoors and I started shedding like a dog! I lost so much hair! The heat makes the poor Westerners lose hair! So the way it works here is that u join a "beach club" at a hotel. U get access to gym, pool and beach. I joined Sheraton Corniche, a 5-star hotel. Since NYUAD spent an obscene amount of money there during candidate weekends, we get 40% discount so I'm only paying S1160/yr which is rather reasonable. Single men pay more and couples less. In spite of being a 5-star hotel, it was nowhere near Al Qasr. Upon entering the hotel I actually had to push the revolving door myself! Who has revolving doors anyway??? By the pool I quickly realized that I couldn't just go to the sunbed and somebody would appear with 2 huge, fluffy towels and tuck in the sunbed w/ one and leave the other for me to dry off w/. I also had to move my own butt to the pool bar where they only had one choice of water and waitstaff who barely spoke English. The pool itself was smaller than the little pool that belonged to my villa at Al Qasr. It didn't have the wave-effect to give the ocean sound. Life can be tough on a princess. Now when my life is more settled, I have to say, there really isn't much to do in Abu Dhabi. I'm so bored I've gone back to becoming A Small World junkie again... By the way, I'm sending a link with pictures of me out and about with one of my new bosses. I was furniture shopping for my other boss. I'm decorating his 3 bedroom apt. That's a whole different report... Stay cool! EFTA_R1_01470697 EFTA02410131 EFTA_R1_01470698 EFTA02410132