Meeting New People

 Another great thing about being here is that I get to meet a variety of people from all over the world.  As of right now I have met people from Scotland, Toronto, London, California, North Carolina, New York, Australia, Atlanta, Virgina, Michigan, and others I can't think of right now.  It is really interesting to just talk to people from other countries.  Last night I kind of got into a political discussion with a lady from Canada and a chap from England, and when I spoke about the US it was I who was the American voice in the conversation and they listened to me to really hear the American perspective.  I don't believe I have ever been in that position before, but it was nice.  Just a side note, the Tea Party came up in our conversation and as soon as I heard Michael, the Brit, mention it I adamantly told both of them that the Tea Party is NOT representative of the majority of Americans.  They both seemed to know that;  I could tell they thought the Tea Party to be slightly, if not more than slightly, ridiculous. By the way, Michael is your typical British person, accent and all.  In fact, when I first met him I had no idea what he was saying...and he was speaking English.  Between the British figures of speech and his heavy accent it took me a while to adjust and I still sometimes nod my head and smile at him when I didn't catch something he said. 

Another surprise probably to most, but something I had researched and read about before I got here so I was not to thrown off when I saw it, there is a prominent Asian population here in Abu Dhabi.  But I was not prepared for the extent of how much they have settled into the city.  When I took my trip to the Marina Mall, I began to see them sprinkled about en route, but when I got to the mall every other person was either Emirate or Asian.  They are by far the largest foreign ethnicity here.  They are either working in the shop, behind the counter, buying something, they are everywhere.  And I don't have any problem with Asians  (I just read over my comments and it sounds somewhat racist).  My point is just that I did not expect to see such a large Asian population in any Middle Eastern city or country.