A 'so not Dubai' Thursday.

Dubai Thursday's have been pretty standard since I moved out here in 2007. It's been just about two and a half years now, and Thursday's are pretty much the same routine -

Wait till it's ten. Do hair. Do make up. Dress up, and I mean DRESS UP. Put on heels. Take a cab to fancy pretentious club. Pay cab driver ridiculous amounts of money for 15-20 minute ride. Drink. Drink. Dance. Dance. Shot. Shot. Dance. Drink. Be drunk. Leave pretentious club. Talk as loud as humanly possible. Go to KFC/Moulin Dior/Reef. Eat extremely unhealthy food at 3:30 AM. Keep talking as loud as humanly possible. Either watch someone throw up or take care of someone throwing up (this has NOT happened to me so far - thank God, but has happened to some of the girls quite a few times). Swear never to drink again. Stumble home. Go to bed. The end.

Fulfilling eh? Yea, *eye roll* - my thoughts exactly.
After the first 300 times, it gets old. And loud. And boring.
Don't get me wrong, there are fun nights but you can't help but feel like the process is getting redundant.
Once or twice a month, fine. Every weekend, sometimes twice a weekend, No.

However, today was a different day. It started at 5 instead of 10!


I took the train - yes, the ever popular Dubai metro. It is pretty awesome and will be even better once they figure out the feeder buses and all the stations are up and running. It felt good! Just had my i-pod on and was reading 'Julia & Julie' all the way. Didn't have to worry about crazy drivers or parking or anything. And yes, this picture is of the real station. (Kakes, in case you are wondering).


Then met Nancy at media city (a bar called Icon) and some of her friends from work were still working though they were not at the office. While they were working, I enjoyed a drink and silence. I didn't have to make small talk or anything as they were all so busy, and it was nice. Because these days, I am NOT in the mood for small talk.

After Icon, Nance and I stopped by a place called 'Shelter'.
Shelter is a place Nancy found through work. It is in the industrial area of Dubai. It is essentially a warehouse turned into a coffee shop with heaps and heaps of magazines you can just pick up and read. It is one of the very few places that has any sort of creative or cultural activity. They have small sized shows and events now and then. We went to watch Nitin Mirani - a local stand up comedian and one of my sisters friends and a Arab-American Hip Hop artist. Both were so, so good.

Got home by 10:30 PM, made a playlist, and am enjoying some pretty kick-ass music and relaxing. This has been one of the very few non-Dubai Thursdays and I'm loving it! I wish I had a few friends to jam with to end the night, but oh well! Here is a start to trying different things. (My playlist for the night: And then you; Bulletproof Weeks; Forever; Say it to me now; This woman's worth; Never Think; Closer; Dreaming with a broken heart; If it kills me)

Good night people - have a good weekend. Xx