10 More Days, I Fly Away

Aug 17, 2013 16:33

On August 27 I'm flying out of here to start a new job in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates ( Read more... )

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drnola August 30 2013, 03:25:25 UTC
The clicking on a thumbs up button on another site situation has been unsatisfying, so I thought I would see what has transpired over here at this place where I used to read text and fully formed thoughts from people I actually know from real life (and where I actually met other human beings). And I see all this. I'd imagine that you have arrived at your new destination by now. That's a curious move. Serious business.

That issue with the vocal chaos from young American women is also serious business. Maddening. Infuriating. I've had a very hard time dealing with it these days, and I've wondered where it came from. It seems to have gone through a wave of popularity about 8 years ago and it's only gone up from there. It's unacceptable. I can take nobody seriously, or even civilly, who uses it. But I just wonder where and why and how.

Let me tell you from my short foray into living in the Arab world that the similarities are a bit surprising. Notably the shopping and television obsession. I can only speak for Morocco, but the satellite dishes were all over every single apartment building and the programming was nothing to write home about (mainly Al Jazeera and mediocre American comedies... though there was a "Back To The Future" marathon). It was not gritty 3rd World realism that I saw in Marrakech, so much as mall mentality, just with a tad less money. I have to imagine that Abu Dhabi is a bit better off money-wise, so I think it may be pretty eerily similar to America. But I'd be curious to hear more from you on here with details and whatnot. It sounds like a real adventure.

I was watching a lot of these 50th anniversary retrospectives on the civil rights marches and whatnot and I couldn't help but notice this degradation of fashion in the common human being in the past 50 years. There was a lot of footage of people walking through the streets and whatnot, probably in the heat, but with the men wearing suits, shaved, well groomed... I assume their shoes were shined... and the women were in dresses, with hair coiffed, makeup done... things of this nature. That would never happen now. Someone would roll out of bed in sweatpants and a tarp-sized T-shirt and they'd grunt and groan.

Hmmm. Well, this is more than I've typed in response to someone in a while, given the new state of illiteracy on the internets. But it's nice to see paragraphs of words written by someone I know in person. It's a nice change. I'd be curious to hear more about things when you arrive and are settled.

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