We are slowly melting in the heat here. It is quite frustrating at times because, unlike Canada where we can bundle up and go out in the cold, we cannot unbundle to go out in the heat. So, we stay in most of the time and when we do venture out to go to work or shopping, we end up getting overheated and somewhat clammy and sticky. Not very pleasant.

Classes started today and so while en route to the college, I was unpleasantly reminded of how lucky we have been for the last two weeks to not have the traffic, the lack of which was due to the college and other educational institutions not being open. Now that they are, I ran into a very large jam at one of the major intersections. I managed to skirt it by detouring through a subdivision. However I then had to get through a left turn. While sitting there, I was treated to a typical Dubai scene: endless lines of cars “jumping the queue”, or “butting in”, as we say in Canada. A line of traffic which should have only taken me two lights to get through took 7 or 8 lights, while I sat and watched others get through in one or two. The only saving grace of the situation was that there were lots of cars NOT jumping the queue and so I wasn’t alone in my annoyance.

Once at the college things went pretty smoothly. Today was the first day of classes at the Dubai Women’s College so I was able to met some of my new students and finally get back into the classroom. The only small issue to contend with was the lack of a complete schedule. The fact that two classes showed up at once was no problem. Give me 40 students any day!

Well, there are no photos to share on this entry. I should have taken one this morning in the traffic jam with my I-Mate just to show queue jumping in action. It is a fairly skilled activity because it usually occurs as cars approach the intersection and then at the last minute swerve over and nimbly slide in between two cars that are trying their best to not let the ‘butt’er get in.