1. You can go weeks without seeing a dog.

2. They use pull tabs on their soft-drink cans. Those of you under 40 may not even remember this. But soda cans used to have a little ring that you pulled … and when you were done pulling you had a little tongue-shaped bit of aluminum on your finger. Little bits of alumnimum which tend to get strewn about the landscape. (Which is why they were banned in California in 1979.)

3. In four months here, I have yet to see a coin on the street. In Long Beach, just walking around, in four months I could pick up a dollar in change.

4. Taxi drivers will take you on a ride of a few blocks and not complain.

5. No one wears shoes except Westerners. Everyone else wears sandals. Even the guys. In winter.

6. You can get your laundry done without receipts or claim checks. You just leave your first name and are told to “come back the tomorrow after tomorrow.”

7. There are very, very few old people here. Old being anyone over 50. Because 1) if you aren’t on a citizen, you have to leave the country if you aren’t working (no retirement here) and 2) very few Emiratis were born before 1950, back in the pre-oil bad ol days.

8. Every expatriate in the country can tell you, within a few days, how long they have been here.

9. The pickup sport you are most likely to see? Cricket.

10. A pound of fresh Arab flat bread … costs about 65 cents.