It has officially been one week since landing in Abu Dhabi and starting this new journey of exploration. Since getting here, every day has been hotter than the day before. This is a trend that is expected to continue though the summer, and as of yesterday we finally hit 101.

With this extreme heat, efficiency of appliances is very important here. From the air conditioning to the escalators.

I have spent the last week observing these different machines and am absolutely fascinated every time I notice another little built in efficiency that I hadn’t noticed previously.

The first thing I noticed was the air conditioning.

I remember hot and humid summers as a little girl growing up in Pennsylvania. I remember our house being freezing cold, and then stepping outside into the summer sunshine and it being thick and hot, and then going inside an establishment and being blasted with cold air the minute you walked in (the “cold section” of the grocery store was always the worst!). There was never comfort, just two extremes; hot and cold. I never understood why people kept the temperatures so drastic… but I was a child, so I didn’t have a say in it, so I just had to deal (I had these kinds of feelings a lot as a child…perhaps that is what has made me so “controlling” as an adult).

Here, in Abu Dhabi, it is hot and, believe it or not, insanely HUMID (yeah, I thought the desert would be a dry heat too)!! Because of the intense hot weather here (and, if I’m being honest, probably because of the amount of money this country has), they have several appliances that are much more efficient than anything I ever saw in my travels before. Yes, you walk into a business and it’s cooler inside that business, but it’s not ridiculously cold. In fact, after a few cups of tea, one might even wish it was a tad bit cooler. They also do not have air conditioners blowing on high the second you walk into an establishment the way they do back in the USA. The air is circulated thru the buildings in a way that not once have I even felt my hair blowing in any kind of air conditioned breeze. Indoors is simply a nice, reasonable well circulated temperature.

Also, outside they have air conditioning too! Back home in the USA every time I would sit outside in the summertime at a business they had these giant misters that they would turn on that would keep people cool by keeping them well misted with water. Here, they have a machine that is on wheels to keep it mobile and has a large filter on it to catch the water droplets. So they simply roll it to where they want it, plug it in and pour water into it and voila!! The machine blows out cool air instead of a wet mist because it blows through the filter. Nobody sits soggy.

The washer and dryer in our apartment is also amazingly efficient. First, it’s ONE unit!! One machine that does the washing AND the drying. It’s ideal to me for two reasons; 1. It doesn’t take up a lot of space, so even people with small spaces likely have room for one (back home in Oakland, California I live in a 650 sq. ft studio), and 2. There is a setting on the machine that will put the items into ‘dry’ mode immediately following the ‘wash’ mode, so no soggy mildew smelling clothes if you get distracted during your laundry time! Genius.

The kitchen also has a gadget that I think is awesome!!! It’s a conventional oven that is built into the cabinet (I love when appliances don’t take up counter-top space), and it has a setting that turns the conventional oven into a microwave!!!! Never in my life have I seen a multi-use appliance like this! I have, instead, gone into many homes over the years and noticed how many appliances people have. Usually they have a microwave, a conventional oven and a toaster (the list goes on and on and on when it comes to appliances Americans “must have”) resulting in cluttered counter-tops and/or cabinets. This is a single appliance that can toast your morning bread, heat up last nights dinner leftovers for lunch, and cook a casserole for dinner! It’s awesome!!!

It also really makes me wonder what else can be created that can have multi purpose….

Malls are very popular here in Abu Dhabi. While they do have services for delivery (Uber Eats and Amazon.com to name two that are likely familiar to most of you) like we do in the USA, as well as online shopping available from all major retail stores, their malls are thriving here unlike ours. Back in the USA our malls are now mostly closed store fronts and empty parking lots, but here, its totally different. It is a place to gather, socialize, eat, pray, and shop. They have prayer rooms all over the mall so no matter where someone is, when the clock strikes at a prayer time, they can go.

So here we are, in the middle of the desert, with these giant malls. How is that efficient, you might wonder. Well, here is the thing; The temperature, as I mentioned above, is cool and well circulated. Also there is very little need for artificial lighting because there are so many skylight style openings in the roof that allow the sun to light up the walkways (the lights are on sensors for gloomy days), the escalator even has a sensor on it that (get this!!) slows down to nearly a crawl when it’s not being used, and speeds up when someone is about to walk onto the escalator. I literally sat on a bench and watched this process with pure excitement for way to long…

There are also many other efficient things that they do here in the UAE that I have not seen in my previous experiences, and I will continue to observe and share with you as I can.

For now, It’s 1:30 in the afternoon and I just got back from the gym so I’m going to throw on my swimsuit and walk over to Yas Beach with a friend I met a few days ago. It will be both of our first times vising the beach despite the fact that I have been living here for one week, and they have been living here for ten years!!

Be happy. Be well.

Sarah