| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Romance |
Karachi Darbar. Yesterday we ate at a popular Indian restaurant. Authentic Indian restaurant. It’s called Karachi Darbar. The food’s really cheap and delicious! Now, I’m a fan of Indian food! Really!
There’ll be no Indian dining without nan. Tandoori Roti is the exact order. It only costs us 1 dirham each! (its pronounced like “dirums”) the roti’s huge! And at 1 dirham each! Hehe.
We ordered Chicken biryani. It’s spicy and kindi-curry-like but not quite. The serving’s really huge too! For 8 dirhams!
Now I’m a convert. Hehe. I really enjoyed eating here! But, thank goodness this restaurant is so far from home, I wouldn’t want to eat here all the time, else, I’d end up smelling like Indians. Hehe.
Another shocking incident, we initially ordered 2 Naans, but the waiter just served one. So we called him back..
Me:“My Friend, we ordered 2 rotis”
Him:“Another one?”
Me:”YES”
Him:”wait a moment”
Then he came back (in just a few seconds) with our 2nd roti. He took it, with his bare hands and placed in on our plates. Bwahhaha. The look on my aunt’s face was priceless! She even said, “ayy”, outloud.
They’ll also give you individual plates, but they don’t give spoon and forks. You’d have to ask for it. When we looked at the people eating beside us, everyone’s using their hands.
The point of this blog is, to promote the band’s official multiply site. I stumbled upon it as a was mindlessly looking for something to do. Truth is, I’m not sure if it’s really the official site. It sure looks like it. Or may be its just a poser that’s got loads of freetime. Haha. I swear its not me!!
Anyway, see for yourself. I added this site to my friends list.
http://mychemromanceband.multiply.com/
If its not, you got me.
I’m not much into EMO stuff, but I was blown away when I saw them in concert. Super High Energy! Or may be all rock concerts are like that.. perhaps? I don’t know but I was so thrilled!
So whatever it was, I’m a fan.
I’d like to thank Nicole Bianca, my cousin who’s a computer whiz! She knows everything about html, css, and that cool web stuff. Yeah, she creates customized multiply sites for people when she’s got nothing better to do. Or just chats with me most of the day. You heard me, since I hardly do anything here, except sit around and browse the web. Most of the time during weekdays, I’d receive a YM voice call my from her and we’d just chat the whole day! I swear! Hehe.
Thanks Nicole! Nice multiply site!
http://beyonceknowlesfan.multiply.com/
Yup the theme doesn't look broadway-ish, but I think the picture in my site is the Gap commercial of the original cast. I don't know which of the cast have already been replaced, but I still love them!!
If you’re going to live, why not live the stereotype right? So I ate chicken shawarma! Finally! It’s my first time to eat Arabian food! Now I feel like princess Jasmine! Hehe, Although I don’t think that bratty princess ever ate shawarma.
This blog is dedicated to my friend who’s always asking me, so, “How’s the food there? How’s the food in Dubai? What’s food like? Oh, yesterday, I just ate Arabian food! And it reminded me of you! How’s the food???” -- you know who you are.
My only answer to this question was, I only ever ate Filipino home-cooked meals when I got here! I’m as broke as a rusted nail on a hundred year old picture frame. Not really, I was saving my allowance for when a desperate occasion may come that I might need it. Like, if my visa expired or something. We sometimes eat out.. like in.. subway, and a Chinese restaurant, so really nothing new there.
But last night, my uncle said, “chesca, gusto mo ng shawarma?” I said, “sure!”
It’s better than our shawarma, coz it’s chicken. And they put cucumber and other veggies in it. YUM! Oh and the Indian guy that prepared the shawarma, he was holding on the damn thing with his bare hands. Good thing there was this other guy taking care of the money. In this other shawarma stand, the guy was holding the shawarma with his bare hands AND giving change to customers.
Oh and when they get all sweaty from preparing the shawarma, they just wipe their sweat using their hands then move on and prepare your shawarma! Hehe.
Then like that was not enough, my friend asked, “have you eaten in those Arabian restaurants where there are girls belly dancing while you eat?”
Yup, I’m still broke.
This story happened on my second day here. Obviously it’s a story about my wallet that got lost. Don’t worry, I found it again in the end, so really, no more point in reading.
I brought with me here in dubai.. about something something dirhams. Out of that something, my uncle gave me about 1000 dirhams for pocket money. So I put that on my wallet.
Later at home, I talked to my mom via YM voice, and she reminded me particularly about my earrings. “Give your earrings to tita Loi, let her keep it”. I said, “sure, sure” I didn’t heed her advice and just placed my earrings in my wallet.
After stocking up on things-to-loose in my wallet, my aunt told me to photocopy my visa, you know just in case I misplace it. I tend to lose stuff…. And she added, “and run to the convenient store downstairs and buy a can of pineapple juice.” So, that’s what I did, I went. First to the photocopy store and requested to make about 5 copies of my resume and 2 copies of my visa pay the kabayan on the cashier. Then to the supermarket, ask a helper guy to help me find the pineapple juice section. I get the 1 liter can and head to the cashier…
This is where I noticed that boom!(okay not boom..) I noticed that holy mackerels! My wallet’s no longer in my pocket! Shit! Good thing I had spare change in my pocket so I was still able to pay for the pineapple juice. But now, I was scared out of my wits. I was thinking, calm down.. this is just exactly what everyone was expecting I would do! I’d lose stuff. So I went back to the juice section where I might find the lost wallet. I went round and round in circles looking for the damn wallet, with 1000 dirhams and my pair of earrings.
I was so desperate so I went to a guy working for this supermarket. I told him my case and he brought me to the paging area. He said, “okay, page your wallet” hehe. I don’t know if he was Indian or arab. But I did just that. I said, “if anyone saw a black wallet, please give it back, please.”
I hope I sounded desperate and needy. Hehehe. I think I did. I was.
I waited.
Still no wallet.
I called up my aunt then. I told her about it. And she said, “tanga! Saan mo naiwan?” ako, “errrr, ewan” so, she went down and told me that I might have left it on the copier center. We went there, and true enough, it was there! I left it after I paid for the bill. That’s how I got it back.
It was really nice of my aunt and uncle to take me in for free. My mom just gave me a small amount to get by so that I wouldn’t ask for money if say, I was going to a job interview or just go around town (I’ve never done this alone though.) So they asked me, “is your bed enough?” me: “yes!” I was the nicest person ever. My mom particularly told me that I should help out in the house hold chores. That also means, I should wash my own clothes and iron them, and help out in cooking and washing the dishes.
My first task was washing the dishes, it was easy enough, and I’ve been doing this at home since I was a kid. But not recently because we’ve had considerable help at home.
Thank goodness for automatic washing machines. All I had to do was pop my clothes in the washing machine, and voila!! It’s done! Clean clothes like never before. Although on my first attempt to wash, my aunt got mad because I put too much soap in it. So she told me the right amount of soap, so next time it would be fine. On my second attempt, I forgot about the “separate your whites from your colored” washing rule. I just placed everything together. Stupid. When I was about to hang them, I noticed at all of my white shirts and jogging pants had a faint tinge of blue! It’s sucks and its ugly, I won’t be able to bring them home to the Philippines because my mom will go on and on about how I wasn’t thinking and all the implications of how stupid I am.
This reminds me of a scene in Friends. When Ross and Rachel went to the laundry, and Ross was helping Rachel save washing machines. Rachel separated all her whites, but forgot to remove this small red sock. When the clothes came out, everything was in PINK! Phoebe loved it though. Hehe
Next lesson was ironing. This I have not done ever in my life. But I see a lot of people ironing, so I was not too worried about learning it. So when my aunt asked me, “marunong ka bang magplantsa?” I immediately said: “oo naman!”
So, I started, well, nothing disastrous happened, except that I couldn’t remove the damn creases! It’s quite insanely hard. Then my aunt saw me and she shrieked, “ano ka ba!” and told me that, “these are the proper steps in ironing your clothes.” First, you should iron the collar, then the sleeves then the body. If the creases where hard to remove I’d have to squirt a little water on it to make the clothes softer and easier to iron. The last and most important advice was that, after ironing, I should immediately unplug the iron. There have been known cases where the iron was left alone and the whole flat was burned down. It’s a scary thought and I would not want that to happen to me, considering that I’m a huge scatter brain.
I still don’t know how to cook, but I help out by peeling the vegetables, and cutting them. That’s a good start isn’t it? I can also steam rice, using a rice cooker of course. I also always cry every time I chop onions! The onion essence is a sure tear jerker! Hehe.
Everyone’s been asking me ever since I got here, How’s dubai? How’s dubai? How’s dubai? What’s it like there?
Let’s start from landing of course. I am always trying to compare dubai, not to the Philippines but to the also super developed capital of Japan, Tokyo. As I entered the airport, as usual I was impressed. Which is nothing new, I always get impressed with beautiful modern architecture. We came in at April 13, about 12am. I’m going to quote this from a site that says cultural stuff about Dubai: “Dress code is liberal in Dubai compared to other Middle Eastern cities, particularly in the residential western expat areas where women wear shorts and sleeveless shirts.”
However, you’ll be able to identify the Arab nationals from : “Both local men and local women are easily distinguished by their traditional dress, which is a common sight in the United Arab Emirates. Men wear the long white Dishdasha and headdress, while women wear the black Abaya.”
These are the rich nationals where the you’d probably spot the women shopping all day at the signature boutiques at the mall.
Dubai is a place with mixed races, people who live here are mostly, Indians, Filipinos and European expats (british, French..etc.). Boy there are a LOT of Indians here! You’d think that they were the nationals! Also Filipinos! At every corner, really! Which is also fun, cause you won’t feel that alienated. Of course when I first got here, my aunt immediately told, “Oh walang katulong dito ha” I was really scared to go out even to say buy the local paper. Seriously! Those Indians are scary!! There are a few other arab races here, like, Iranians, Labanese, Pakistans, Egyptians etc. They all look scary too! There are mostly men out, the women are probably at home, tending to their children or at a grocery.
Okay, Filipinos here try to help each other out. If you see a Filipino, you can always refer to him/her as Kabayan. So if you’re lost in a bus stop or bus station, you can ask any Filipino looking people for directions, always start with a friendly, “Kabayan! Saan ba yung… ???” It’s quite easy to spot any Filipino because all the other races look so different from us!
And here, we call the Indians, "Pana". you know why?That’s all folks!
