Hi Y'All...
Well there are similarities between Texas and Dubai: Oil, sand and rednecks! Ours wear long white robes, but they are basically the same.
Things are quite 'Americanised' over here so you will feel at home with certain things, but services and beurocracy could drive you to distraction. As long as you are being paid sufficiently, by a reputable corporation, with enough to pay for the hideously expensive accommodation, then you will probably enjoy it.
There used to be a time people came here as a hardship posting, with the intent of putting enough funds away to make the hardship worthwhile, but those days are gone. Its as expensive here as New York for certain things and there is certainly only a little hardship.
Lots of useful information in the handy 'search' function here on the forum. Thanks for pointing out about the layout...there was a rumour they were going to update when we got 10,000 users, but that was about 5000 users ago! The Mods and Bigwigs at the top will be told!
Best of luck!
Knight