Basketball in the Desert

The gulf is amazing! At 6 a.m. I walk outside to the beach with my iPod in hand ready to start my workout and I had to stop at the water for some time just to take it all in. I could see schools of little fish along the crystal clear waters and larger ones just a few feet in to the ocean. I could get use to waking up that every morning. What will take some getting use to is running in the sand for cardio. At least the scenery is nice, otherwise I would dread waking up early everyday to run for no reason haha.
The rest of the day we were playing phone tag with a Nakheel and Emaar rep. We had an appointment with him for some new projects that are being released in the near future. Unfortunately he hadn't returned from a property trade show in Russia until 11 p.m. I also had a change to meet with one of the investors we have partnered up with here in Dubai. He's helped us get some great deals on Al Ghadeer Villas. He's quite a shy person but he has powerful ties with some Sheiks in Ajman.
The rest of the day revolved around unpacking all my bags and setting up my room. Also, we got to play basketball at Al Safa Park. Hazik, Faraz, Tamer, Qais, Brandon...that's right, I'm still playing so sharpen your game up! haha But I don't know how I'm going to get better playing with the scrubs out here. They had their own rules on what a travel is and apparently if you start breathing to hard while they have possession of the ball, it's a foul. GAY! haha It's okay, we got use to it though. Shan and I won every game. It was a slaughter.
When we were done playing I started talking to these guys, telling them I was new to Dubai and why I moved here from the US. I felt it was a good opportunity to network with some locals. They were all from Lebanon and have moved here in the last few years for work. One of them works in the Marketing and Research industry for one of Sheik Mohammad's companies. He has a few friends he said he would introduce me to who are General Managers of two large Real Estate companies here in Dubai. Now I'm arranging a meeting with these gentlemen to expand our portfolio of investments that we are offering to our foreign investors.
That was pretty much the day...I missed a few calls last night and early this morning because I was so exhausted from the day. I'll be sure to call you guys back. Today's a big day - pray for me!