Day 2

Spent the whole day in Abu Dhabi visiting my Masdar colleagues and enjoying the city I called home for 9 months :). So, Masdar City is finally ready and people will actually be living there starting July 2010.

Spent the afternoon at Marina Mall, splurged on ceramic flower pots at IKEA and hand-carried them all the way to Karachi :P. And I got really sweet ice-trays (a pink one for my sister and a green one for my brother) so they'll remember me each time they put ice cubes in their drinks. Also went to Madinat Zayed for old times' sake and bought perfume for daddy and Mr. F.

We dined at a Vietnamese restaurant (sweet potato pancakes and glass noodles with peanut sauce) and headed back to the villa to chat.

I realized that the date palms lining the roads in Abu Dhabi had grown since I'd been away... time flies!

Farewell

The people at work threw me a farewell today... I feel all warm and fuzzy inside :) We had Arabic food and set up chairs in the lobby. Almost everyone showed up (mostly for the free food :p)!

It's a bittersweet feeling- I'm happy to be going home but at the same time, sad. I filled out the exit clearance form and turned in my work laptop, house keys and i.d. card (sniff), cleaned out my desk, recycled all the paper and took my name tag off... It's been a rewarding experience and I did learn a lot during the course of the year. I'm going to miss some people a lot, others, not so much. I gave Il my wall calendar and mousepad to remember me by and got small gifts for the girls. We did the three-way hug/kiss and exchanged emails and phone numbers but I didn't cry... In fact, I couldn't stop smiling (is that weird?).

I also received my "good conduct certificate" from the Abu Dhabi Police today (200 Dhs!!).

Final steps: do laundry, empty fridge and cupboards, dust and mop house, make cake for security guards...

The World Future Energy Summit 2009

Abu Dhabi's event of the year.

It kicked off to a great start!

Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed came to inaugurate the event. He's really tall and imposing... but very charismatic. Protocol: when royalty walks in, everyone has to stand and remain standing until they are seated. 

Cool exhibit- the biker powers the headlight (which is also the biker's head :P)


Shell's electric car- it fits one person who weighs less than 50 kg. This little boy was enjoying the attention :)

I met Rajendra Pachauri!

M networked with the PRT people. I like the idea of traveling in podcars... but they only go up to 40 km/hr
PRT (Personal Rapid Transit)- London Heathrow has them too!

And MIT held a public relations event

Dinner entertainment was pole-dancing! I thought it was kinda ironic since this is the Middle East after all... but I was told it's more "sophisticated" than belly dancing.

One guy at our table took offence and turned his back on the dancers facing us instead. I resisted the temptation to point out to him that we weren't exactly family either!


The singer had an awesome voice! She sang "Killing Me Softly"

The perfect ending- delicous :)

The Silicon Valley of Alternative Energy?

Masdar's in the New York Times!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/world/middleeast/13greengulf.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&ref=middleeast


and in the Economist!

http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12673433