Money, Call to Prayer, Traffic

Money...a necessity to learn in a foreign country. I now vaguely understand the "deer in headlights" look that I have gotten for many years money to kindergarten and first grade students. That is the way I feel when learning this money. I'm starting to get the hang of it and thankful that the UAE decided to color code and use size to equate to the amount, at least with the bills. I've learned a few arabic numbers simply by using the currency. However, the English version is on the back. So while the Arabic 100 looks like a one with two dots beside it. Fives look like zeros so that still throws me for a loop. Here are pictures of bills and coins.

Here is 1000 dirhams, 100 dirhams, and 50 dirhams.

Here is 20 dirhams, 10 dirhams and 5 dirhams. The coins, from the top, 1 dirham, 50 fils, and 25 fils. The fils still are not solid in my mind but I do ok with the rest. While I am able to pay with dirhams, I still use my iPhone to conver the money to US dollars so that I can get a handle on how much that is. So, I guess technically I still think in US dollars.

The Call to Prayer...I do not hear this in my room but have heard it several times while being out. I am not offended and kind of like the reminder to pray. While many Muslims will go to the "Prayer Room" if at the malls or other places, it is a reminder to me to stop and pray. While out shopping for furniture the other day, the call to prayer rand out and it was impossible to find a taxi for the next 30 minutes. There is also an arrow in my hotel room that points toward Mecca. Some hotels have a Quran and a Prayer Rug for guests in each hotel room. Maybe if more people in the US were reminded to pray 5 times a day, the US would be in better shape. I'm just sayin'!

Traffic...Interesting, terrifying, fast, close your eyes, lost! These are all of the words that would describe my use of the taxis so far. While there are lines on the road and they are observed by the drivers, they like to use the brake at the last minute, honk if someone in front of them doesn't move fast enough or is in the way, and they may not know where you want them to take you but will not tell you that at first. This has happened once and was thankful that one driver actually told us we needed to take the next one. That doesn't happen very often but it does happen. Basically, other than driving fast and weaving, it's kind of like Atlanta traffic. Also, the taxis' speed is monitored by the monitor in the car. If they go over the speed limit, it will flash red and tell them to slow down. That happens at least once in every ride I've had so far. They do slow down though.

Just random information I thought might be interesting.