Found an apt finally...

やっとお家が決まった。一安心。予算大幅オーバーだけど、取り敢えずここならと思えるアパートなので、良かった。兎に角ホテル暮らしは辛いので、自分の生活を始められるのが嬉しい。８階のお部屋で、日当り良好, 眺めも悪くない。家具の趣味もまあまあかな。強いて言えばもう少し海が見えれば、ベターなのだけど。ビルとビルの間から少しは覗くオーシャンビュー。このアパートに１年間住むかは分からないけど、ベッドルームは二つあるし、どんどん友達や家族に遊びにきて欲しい！それにしても、こっちの家賃の高さには驚き、正にマンハッタン並みである。明日、入居です。

Fashion File ／現地ファッション事情

Before I came to this country, I was advised to particularly dress conservatively, when you are young. Though I am not so young, I do look young. Extreme difference between resorts where you can pretty much be naked with a tiny mini bikini while in the Manhattan and on other residential islands, you are expected to dress "respectfully" and "decently". My Kurti shirts that I have been wearing in Nepal and knee length skirts that have been tacked away in my closet for the past two to three years (as the trend was a bit shorter skirts recent years) are once again in my heavy-rotation wardrobe list. No short skirt, no open neck shirt and no no-sleeves in the office and not so much on the street.

As I observe on the street, I would say 80% of women wear hijab (head scarf) and a small minority wears the black head-to-toe veil (not bulka need to research the name). So, the covered percentage is quite high. But, most of them wear modern clothes with hijab. In the office, the percentage is much lower, and some of the ladies are very fashionable with tight trousers. They must be quite progressive to work in the UN.

As much as I miss wearing my nice summer dresses, I am relieved that there is not a so super strict dress code. And at a same time, I also do feel relieved that this is more or less non-consumerism, no high-pressure-to-dress-nicely and always have up to date outfits environment. I do love shopping and dressing up, but I find it hard now to be in a hyper capitalist- consumerism society where you are made to feel inadequate if you don't have this and that and end up almost compulsively want to buy things just because.

こちらは宗教上、あまり足と言うか肌を出すのが御法度なので、数年前にはやっていた膝丈スカートが大活躍。最近は短いのが主流（だと思うんだけど）なので、着る機会がなかったので、何だか嬉しい。後は、ネパールで着ていたチュニックのシャツは露出度が低いし体の線も出ないので、丁度良い。来週、インドに出張に行くので、また何か買ってこようかなー。ベールを被った女性の隣をノースリーブで太腿もむき出しにした観光客が通り過ぎて行く、なんともおかしな構図のこの街。ここ最近は、週末にしか着れないカジュアルだけど可愛い服（ジーンズやオフィスでは着れないスカートやワンピース）を買ってそれを着るのが好きだったんだけど、この生活では現地スタイルと、その外とリゾートで着る服のギャップが反動でどんどんエスカレートしていきそうで怖い。

Trip to Sin Island

ここマンハッタンは宗教上の理由で禁酒なのですが、ボートで１０分海を渡ればお酒の飲めるホテルがある！他の国連機関の女性に連れていってもらった。元々、お酒なんてほとんど飲まないし飲めないんだけど、ダメと言われると飲みたくなくなるもの。久しぶりにビール飲んだ。おいしかった。今日が週の始めなので１０時前には帰ってきたけどね。たまにはこんな息抜きも必要なんだろうな。

Got out of dry Manhattan and escaped to an island by a 10 min boat ride. One hotel serves alcohol there! A glass of beer at pool side is good occasionally.

マンハッタン散策

この街、首都の島、これから便宜上マンハッタンと呼ぶことにしましたので、悪しからず。Mの字しか一致してないけどね。週末の金土（言い慣れない）は街の散策とお家探し。お店がいつ閉まっていつ開くのがまだ把握できていないので、金曜日はスーパーが開くのを１時間近く待たなければいけなかった。レストランなんて４時まで開かないので、空腹と水分不足で倒れそうになったよ。スーパーにちゃんとした物が売っているのか、かなりのドキドキだったけど、ピーマンとかズッキーニの野菜やチーズ・ヨーグルトも売っていたので安心した。これだけでも週末の収穫と言えるかも。今のところはホームシックにもならず、元気にしているので御心配なく。あまりにも暇で、話す人もいないので、思わず隣のベンチに座っていたインド人のおじさんと世間話しちゃったけどね。家探しのことは詳しくまた後で書きます。

To make things easier and more fun, I have unilaterally decided to call this capital city island "manhattan" since both start with 'm' and I am going to find all the other similarities between these two places that I lived this year. Yes, I am very ambitious!

It is interesting to discover the city. I was really nervous yesterday. That was not because I was making a big presentation or going on a speedboat. I walked into a supermarket! I was warned about the lack of fresh produce and other luxury items in this country prior to coming here. Eating and cooking are one of the most important things in my life. I was very much relieved to see not a wide range but decent fruit and vegetables and cheese& yogurt on the shelf. Expensive but manageable. I also made a visit to a sleepy produce market where I found bananas, coconut, papaya and watermelon. I have to ask my family to send a stock of Japanese ingredient, but I think I could survive. To be honest I was quite scared about the life here and felt negative before coming. I am sure there will be different challenges ahead, but for now I remain positive and optimistic. I forgot that one of my good “cho-sho” was supposed to be flexibility and ability to adopt to a new environment. It is also all about perspectives. My Pakistani colleague made a comment how easy the life is here, being able to walk on her own etc compared to her country. Stares and occasional comments from guys on the street do annoy me, but I livd with worse in Guyana.

I spent the whole Friday alone. Shops are not open until 2:30. Walking around the city, I was on a verge of passing out being so dehydrated and hungry. Most of the restaurants only open at 4. Luckily, I found one restaurant in a nice hotel, which was about to close in 10 mins. They kindly let me in and stay for an hour until I finished easting. I was so bored while waiting for shops to open, and I struck a conversation with Indian businessman who was sitting on a bench next me. He imports vegetables and spices from India to this country.

Costs of living- expensive in general. Nicer hotels and restaurant even in the capital which is not so much touristic quote prices in USD. One dish can easily cost 10-15 dollars. Taxi is affordable. No matter how far you go on the island, it is a set price for about $1.3 though you cannot go that far on this Manhattan. Lunch at a local restaurant for tuna sandwich with french fries& mineral water was about $2.

I will write about apartment hunting later.

New Timetable

I have to get used to the new timetable in my new life; my weekend starts on Friday; shops close one to two hours throughout a day according to the prayer time, which I haven't figured out. I need to plan my days around that.

I worked the full day on the first day on Thursday. I was introduced to my colleagues, bought a sim card for my newly purchased phone (!), got an e-mail address and ID card and had a security briefing. Good progress, isn't it! Unfortunately, I was not given a private office as I hoped, but I will be sharing an office with another 3 people who all work for the same office. I don’t have an ocean view (the office seems as congested as the city and as I could see only three most senior people have their own room- lack of space everywhere in this country or at least in the capital.) but a kind of garden view of a courtyard. I can surely live with this. The most importantly, my immediate colleagues are very nice: Filipino lady, Pakistani intern and another national staff that I did not meet yet. I am yet to meet my big boss who is currently on paternity leave and another boss in the regional office in Delhi, India, as I have two reporting lines.

I am the only person in the office who work for this new UN agency that has been established since the beginning of this year for women’s empowerment and gender equality. There is lots of gender work to be done, and certainly a job is already cut out for me, which is good. On my very first day (when I planned to sneak out early....) I was given more than 40 resumes to review and create a short list. Next week, I will be in a series of consultation meetings in addition to more briefings. I look forward to getting busy and immersing myself in work. The UN is very small in this country, and in total there are only 11 expatriate staff.

I had lunch with Nepali international staff, who happened to be a friend of the landlady of the apartment in Katmandu. Such a small world! In the evening, I was invited to a dinner by UNICEF Rep and other colleagues and had wonderful crab curry and panacotta.

My focus now is to find an apartment as soon as possible. I will look at a couple of places this weekend. Wish me luck! Having a nice place is crucial in a place like this, where I will be spending lots of time by myself at home.

I was somehow misinformed about the office time. I read somewhere that the working hour is 7:30 to 3 without a lunch break. However, it turned out that it is a flex time between 8-9 and then you work till 4 or 5 with lunch break. Phew, I was not sure how I wold work the whole day without refueling...

買っちゃった

使いこなせないだろうけど、こんな出費はjustifyできないのだけど、ドーハの空港で買ってしまった。

Upgraded from my cheap phone to an i-phone..... finally trying to catch up with the technology. Impulsive shopping at Doha Airport.