Day2 in Manama

Day 2 was action packed- starting by me going to the wrong mall this morning for training! AH! Worse nightmare for starting a training week- in a new country!!! :-)

I even went to the Bahrain City Center last night, and scoped out the store that I thought had the training room in it, and clocked the time to get there, and then I was standing outside the store at 10am- no staff- and called the Regional Director who told me that I was supposed to be at Bahrain Mall, not Bahrain City Center!
So it was short cab ride over and the rest of the day went off great. The VP of the franchise showed up to watch 1/2 my training, which felt kinda like principal/teacher evaluation, but I think he was impressed as I had planned today to be a really interactive- out of their seats day.

Much to my delight- the training room also had an office attached to it, which myself, the Regional, and the one store manager all took refuge into eat and drink on our break. So no eating in the bathroom this week! YEAH!

A suprisingly high cost of Manama is the taxi's. From the hotel to any of the malls is about 5 minutes, and it costs 5BD- which is about $15.00 so if I go to and from the mall it's $30.00! Just to take a ride for that short distance- but walking is not an option- really- the roads are elevated (due to the low sea-level and it's still 110 degrees+ here. All the taxi's I've been in are new cars and the drivers are all Bahraini Nationals: I know- right? My first cab driver was very proud of the fact that there aren't any Indian or Phillipino drivers- that they are all government workers and are national. They all speak perfectly clear English, and are SUPER friendly as this is their home country. All the people that I have come into contact are very pleasant, and helpful.

My hotel has an amazing mall attached to it below the "twin towers building"- it seriously is called that. The mall is brand new and has only high-end stores. I went around last night and browsed the new D&G fall line, the shoes at Gucci, and then strolled through Armani because I'm totally being a tourist here. For some reason it just feels more right here. I found that in Riyadh I had to keep my "I'm a citizen of the world" face on, with the attitude to match. (imagine Amelia Amalfi from Sex in the City- only male, and not as crazy) But here in Bahrain I've been honest with people, telling them this is my first time here, and where should I go, best restaurants, etc. Again, I think it's because everyone is really nice here, and I heard they would be so it is just more comfortable here. I went to a really good Indian restuarant next to the Gold Amaran Souk tonight. Reasonably priced, good portions, and it satisfied my craving for Indian food that I've been having since Kuwait last week.

Pictures: The skyline of the "Seef" area. Lots of new development. Also a picture of the Ramadan display in the center of the City Center.