Eid Eve

It's the night before Eid and all through the city, everyone's FREAKING OUT! There are no rhyming words to describe the absolute flipping chaos that is Dubai the day we think Eid will be called. For one, accidents- every road I was on today had an accident. On the way home from my office I was stuck on the Sheik Zayed Highway for 1 1/2 hours due to a four car INFERNO on the highway- seriously cars on fire blocking the highway! It is also 115 degrees today- the hottest day we have had in a very long time; it's 80% humidity and as I was crawling on the expressway my gas light comes on! HS! My worst nightmare- in the middle of a 8 lane express way, everyone stopped around me, 115 out, and I'm going to have to walk to a gas station!! Luckily traffic started moving and I was able to get off the highway and take back roads to the gas station. That was my Eid Miracle- :-)
It is also SUPER windy today. On the outskirts of the city they were reporting traffic at a standstill because of the sandstorms and even where I live it's been blowing sand everywhere. But it will all be solved tonight because we are going to have Thunderstorms! YAY! It hasn't rained yet since I arrived in Mid April, and I'm hoping to get to see it rain- but they said Thunderstorms don't usually have visible rain, it's just loud and bright, so that in itself will be cool to experience.

So getting back to Eid- it is "called" when the Shaman goes out into the desert and looks at the moon and he says- yes- Ramadan is over. So it might be tonight, might be tomorrow- It's kinda like "will he see his shadow" without the news coverage or the funny hats. Then when Eid is announced no one works that next day- and nothing is open except for the malls. It's like Christmas day- presents, food, family, friends. The government offices and non-private sector has been off since Friday last week, and will not go back to work until next Sunday- so 9 days off! Lucky for them. There are great "Eid" sales at the malls the day after Eid and concerts, and festivals the whole rest of the week. I'll keep you posted with pics if I venture out to the festivities. Mostly though, I'll be in the malls seeing peak holiday traffic- and hopefully finding some good luggage on sale because my luggage is getting trashed from all the travel.