you know you're in the Middle East when...

You try to open a My Space friend request in your e-mail and you get the following message:

We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.

If you think this site should not be blocked, please visit the Feedback Form available on our website.

Oh yeah, I'm in Dubai.

Actually, Sharjah to be exact. I'm staying with my cousin Taline and her family. My most taxing activity every day is playing with the three kids (five when Lorig, Taline's sister,and her two daughters are over.) I love the "tashghallah" (chaos) of this family.

Got in yesterday afternoon where I was greeted by the balm 34 degree heat. It felt like I'd walked into a soggy blowdryer. Took a shower almost immediately and then forced myself to stay awake. (Didn't sleep much our last night in Amman after Courtney left at 1:30 a.m. Went off to an Irish bar, seems no country is complete without one.)

After a solid 11 hours of sleep, Taline and I headed to the market to buy some hair dye. She disapproves of the gray in my hair. Of course, she's no hairdresser...the edges of my face are dyed a nice shade of dark brown. Hopefully it'll wash away by tomorrow, but scrubbing is not working. After that, she insisted on getting me to singe away my arm hairs. I successfully resisted, but now she's hellbent on shaping my eyebrows. I think her and Lorig have designs on finding me a husband here. I thought they were joking when they told me about a 40-year-old who's looking for a housewife, now I'm not so sure. SOS!

That's about all for now. Nothing on the itinerary except relaxing, eating and maybe shopping (this is Dubai after all.) Oh and we're going to check outthe new indoor ski slope. That'll be a riot.

As you can see, I won't be having much to report over the next two weeks, so the blog entries might be coming slower. But fear not: I'm fine. If you're dying to hear from me, shoot me an e-mail. Slowly uploading photos to Snapfish. Will send out the link when I can get them organized.