Abu Dhabi

I have a love-hate relationship with Abu Dhabi.

I love Abu Dhabi because it was completely different from anything I had ever experienced before and it did that while paying me money.

I hated Abu Dhabi because there was nothing for me to do as a single 23-year-old female after 9pm. Nothing. Having recently moved from Los Angeles and Shanghai, this was a total tragedy. I ended up going to the beach and watching the sunset by the Corniche multiple times a week.

Abu Dhabi did have some interesting things going on.
1) Food. As a majority-non-Emirati population lives in the city, there are lots and lots of ethnic cuisines that really are quite good. I learned how to differentiate between multiple kinds of Indian food, had my most authentic Ethiopian food experience, fell madly in love with Saudi knafeh and Lebanese Shawarma, had Syrian ice cream...the list goes on and on.
2) Art. I don't know if I was simply not exposed to enough art and architecture from the region beforehand or if it really was that interesting, but either way, I learned all about rugs, I saw lots of usages of circles and spheres that had never occurred to me, and the general aesthetic was just...very different from what I had ever seen before. It was nice.

Verdict: It would be nice to maybe visit, but I think 11 months was a perfect amount of time for me. I would consider going to Dubai under the right context (aka husband+job) because I would like to learn Arabic at some point but I don't think I will be living in Abu Dhabi again.