On your mark, get set, go!

I'd resisted the idea of writing an Abu Dhabi blog for some time. But in just one week of living here there have been so many entertaining, exciting, and--let's be honest--kinda annoying moments, and between the jet lag and sensory overload, I've come to realize that I need a place to store all these thoughts running through my head. (And I imagine it'll satisfy the sporadic request for updates, an added bonus.)

Today, Adam and I participated in a race for Unicef held in the exhibition center attached to our hotel. I saw the flyer for it the first day we arrived and exclaimed, "I want to do that!" (so much for my prior claim to run less in Abu Dhabi). The race was indoors, as the high temperature today and every day for the coming week is 106 degrees. As Adam affirmed yesterday while I contemplated aloud whether to enter the 10K or the 12-hour endurance run, I'm a masochist, but even I'm not crazy enough to run outside in that kind of heat (I'll wait 'til it gets down to the low 90s at least).

So we arrive around 8:45am for the 9am start, and my U.S. racing self is a little flustered and anxious about the disorganized registration process: Who do I hand my waiver to? Do you really want me to fill out 10 raffle tickets with my name and hotel number three minutes before the race starts? Speaking of which, where the heck is the starting line? But the most entertaining part was when the man behind the desk guffawed at the fact that I (a woman) was the one doing the 10K and Adam the 6K. "No, really? It's supposed to be reverse!" he tells us. Adam and I both immediately shake our heads. "No, no," Adam replied, "Trust me, she's the runner."

More than anything, the interaction amused me. It's impossible for my feminist self to not take note of how gender norms play out here. Earlier this week the sales clerk at the Abu Dhabi Mall asked Adam--as I stood right by his side--"Is she Arabic? She looks Egyptian," as if Adam may be angry if he were to address me directly.

I wasn't offended, just kinda surprised, as that's the first time anyone's deferred to my male partner and spoken about me in the third person like that. I'm not the kind of person to immediately begin critiquing cultural norms of a new country, even though we in the U.S. have a tendency to do so, especially with regards to women and gender in Middle Eastern cultures. Ironically, before I arrived I'd read advice from female expats living in Abu Dhabi suggesting I avoid being my normal level of friendly to the men here, as many of them are immigrants who are far away from their wives and may interpret my friendliness as flirtation. Yet so far the most uncomfortable I've felt around men was last night at a bar called Hemingway's in the Hilton hotel, which was filled to the brim with loud, unabashedly oggling white expat men.

Suffice to say, there's a lot to get used to here--as an American and a woman and a (mildly crazy) San Franciscan. I'm sure I will have plenty of "What the...?!" moments with men and women alike, but I'm not running away from my new home just yet.