The first time I ever got lost in Dubai...

There I was... all alone.. driving to Dubai to watch one of Hannah's volleyball games.  I had already prepared myself for the drive by printing out the directions from Google maps, and by using the GPS on my old android phone.  I should probably let you know that I had been a licensed UAE driver for, like, 5 days.  What could possibly go wrong?

First, Google maps directions over here are ridiculously vague.  Not really any street names to speak of.  Honestly, the first four directions on my way out of my apartment building were:

1. Head north.
2. Turn left.
3. Turn left.
4. Slight right.

I'm not even kidding.  At least I had the GPS telling me when to turn left.  Most of the time.  It also gave me extremely helpful directions whenever I needed to enter a roundabout:  slight right, then turn left.  Wow... thanks for that.  I'm not even going to go into how people have a tendency to drive like lunatics here... that's another post for another day.

Anyway, I make it all the way to Dubai, and, no lie... I am three minutes from my destination.  I'm so proud of myself that I've made it this far.  I would have been able to see the school I was going to had I known what to look for.  I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened next.  I missed a turn.  My trusty GPS failed to tell me "slight left."  And I couldn't actually pick up the printout from Google and read it right then.

The next thing I know... I'm completely lost in a city I've never been to before.  A huge one, at that.  One where lots of people speak English, but most of it is broken.

I ended up calling my husband.  This is sort of how that conversation went:

•  Me:  (crying) I missed a turn and I don't have any idea where I am and my GPS lost it's signal and I don't even know what to do.
• Him:  Woman.  You can't see when you're crying.  Find a safe place to pull over and call me right back.
•  Me:  (still crying) I've been driving around lost for over 20 minutes, and I haven't found a safe place to pull over yet.  I'll call you back.

The rest of the conversation we had when I called him back is pretty much meaningless.  I stopped crying and eventually found a place to pull over.  I even found the school I needed to get to.

It probably seems a little strange to be so worried about getting lost.  When you're in a country where streets aren't marked well, and people drive like complete crazy people, and there's not always places to turn around, and there's entirely too much construction going on at one time, and you've been warned that one wrong turn can take you 50km out of your way... possibly into the desert... you kind of get a little freaked out.  Anyway, that was a really long run-on sentence.

One thing you do here is take small victories whenever you can find them.  I found where I needed to be, despite driving 30km in a giant circle, arriving at my destination 20 minutes late with smudged mascara.  Score!

Oh, and just so I can post a photo... because blog posts are always more fun with a photo, and I didn't think to take one while I was there because apparently I was too busy crying... here is the school I was driving to:

 

Photo from Gems World Academy

Nice, huh?