"i don't know if you'll be going to hong kong tho"

[<-Haider and I at the Intercon hotel last week. kool & the gang hung out in these same chairs in January]

this afternoon we were at the training centre (our HQ @ al-futtaim) talking about our upcoming trip to japan. we were talking with one of our bosses about which brands/companies we were going to visit, especially those that are partners w. al-futtaim. "yeah, " he said, "and the biggest toys-r-us in the world is there. i don't know if you'll be going to hong kong tho."

we've spent the last days working at plug-ins, (they don't do online sales tho!) the UAE's best stab at best buy. every day we hear about how they sell electronix- so that part isn't fascinating. it is interesting to hear about the structure of the company, the way the people/functions flow together. the bigger picture of the al-futtaim group is starting to become clear, now that we are on our 3rd or 4th stop. today someone was talking to us about prepping for bizniz presentations, and told us with a straight face: "if i know myself and i know my enemy, i can fight 100 battles without losing." no way! i can't believe they take themselves so seriously.

morale is generally low here: we are struggling to sort out how we'll get our paychex, the hotel & company are still mis communicating about the room service charges (i think we have run up a bill > $ 1 k already), our driver forgot what time to show up this morning, and ... the list goes on.

we look forward to japan as a beacon on our horizon. we went to YO! Sushi for lunch yesterday and it was delicious! it was my first time ever at a sushi bar, it was a fun way to get my food, and i am starting to eat the raw fish/crab/etc & like it well enough. at dinner last night i had to choose a starter and couldn't pick one. so i got something called tarrine(?) which consisted of cold pork, goose, and rabbit (the goose tasted like tuna). i much preferred the raw fish covered in wasabi.

back to our work, here is a little photo tour of our past 2 days:








here we are experiencing the home theatre at plug-ins







and enjoying the biggest display of panel tvs in the world











then we rolled up our sleeves for an afternoon in the toyota workshop.
they service over 500 cars per day here, building the brand one customer at a time.
majid has come here in his free time for years, to learn how the cars work & even fix them himself... but today he was just directing us (practice as CEO?)



and then we finished the day with a treat! dome cheesecake, amazing. the guys had bluebuerry, but i insisted on cherry.

tomorrow we wrap up at plug ins, & then we have some time to pack our bags until we catch the 2:30 AM flight direct to Osaka. wonder what it's gonna be like once we get there???
i guess that depends whether or not we make it to hong kong ...