"So, do you like it?"

This is probably the question i was asked the most by my friends and relatives regarding my new life in the UAE, directly next after "So, how is Dubai?!".

Within the past months I think i have developped a fairly standardized answer that  i can adapt and place randomly in any conversation at home without too many troubles. I have said this answer so many times that I sometimes had the impression i was trying to convince myself, after all if you repeat the same things again and again you tend to believe in them as well:

"You know, Dubai is a very nice but special place, i think it's kind of a good mix between the Arabian Nights, Disneyland and Vegas (approving nods of the audience, it's easy to undersand as such). I mean, technically speaking the place is not 100 years old, and the city is just out of the desert, there should be nothing there normally.

Yes, i leave on a tower. It's like, what, 5 minutes max to the sea, and we have i think 5 or 6 pools for a block of towers, which is very nice. No gym, but you can go running in the Marina. Do you want to see a picture?"

and there i hand out one of my Instagram shots of the bedroom's view, which generally generates impressed comments:

"I live on the 28 th floor (same impressed nod), it's quite impressive of course, and it's always worth considering emergency measures. I mean, technically speaking i am not really sure the towers follow right safety standards, they are built so fast here. For example there's been a fire in a tower nearby (JLT end of 2012) and the fire went up so fast. I also have a massive crack on our living-room wall, no seriously, if we decide to stay longer i'm thinking we should move somewhere else! One day it will all look like Inception, remember when the buildings are collapsing in the sea, in his dreams?"
(here i laugh nervously, thinking of the false fire alarms that kept us awake in the middle of the night last week).

JBR nowadays



My idea of JBR in 100 years