The First Fortnight

I've been here two weeks now, and sometimes I think there's no way it's been that brief, and other times (usually when I wake up) I wonder where the hell I am.

Work has been awesome. Really. I'm 3000% sure that no-one in my position on the island is going to have the opportunities and responsibility that I've got, and I'm not saying that in a 'oh look at me' way, I'm saying that in a 'I'm damn lucky to be in this position' way. I'm still shuffling between accounts trying to get a feel for everything but am the primary planning dude on new bidness, which is awesome cause I get to spend time outside of the office all day and call it research. Boom. And the planning team are kung fu crazy and I love 'em. Seriuosly I'm so happy with the planning peeps I'm working with sometimes I think they're just being nice to me out of pity. I hope the pity continues.

There are of course challenges unique to this culture and country. And for that reason I'm trying to immerse myself totally in it. So I've signed up for lessons to get my Arabic back to grade-A badassness and refused to get drawn into the "We're only here for a short time so fuck learning about the country" attitude that is present in the expat community here.

The heat is something that takes some getting used to, but it's kind of refreshing, in a 'cleanse yo'self sucka' kind of way. And wearing shorts and flip flops to work every day is beyond awesome.

I've taken a ton of pictures, but am shit at organizing them all, so here are some that I thought were thought-provoking/funny/something like that.

Firstly, I gots to mention the custom moleskine that all new starters get. Boom.

For picture numero 2 I had to save a spot for the awesome artwork that is all around the offices (which are way cool by the way). A crazy creative by the name of Raj came up with this, which is the bestofficeart.ever:

I dedicate the Arab superman to L'Oreal, whose idea of localization is taking a video of a celebrity and dubbing it into whatever language they need to do, because Penelope Cruz speaks a zillion languages. I believe it. I'm getting a canvas done with this baby on, cause it rocks.

All the construction that's going on here makes walking anywhere a bit of a lottery. And the heat doesn't help. But at least the authorities know it and have a sense of humor:

Because there's only ever 1 pedestrian at a time. Fact.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that every supermarket I've been to has already started charging for plastic bags, something that isn't happening on the island. Something to note for the person at a large London agency who told me that the country where I'm at right now wasn't 'civilised enough to have a successful communications industry'. I'll also dedicate the next pic to the afore-mentioned douchebag:


A bank that's open for at least 8 hours 7 days a week and is open when people finish work? Holy shit, what a revelation. And this bank is in a frickin' mall! On a separate note, English banks are shit and charge a fortune for any transaction that takes place off the island. As good as any reason in my book to shut that motherfucker down asap. It's 2008 morons, people *gasp* travel!

With buildings coming up left right and in betwix, it's awesome to see some effort to add some flava in the mix. I haven't found out what this building is, but I love the lights.

And that's all I got for now. More random-ness soon. Peace, Boom and love from the desert.