Its dark outside and one would think that the construction crew would have packed up by now and gone home.

Not on your life!  The banging, knocking, grinding, building and welding will go on until 2 am at least.

Here life does not start at 7 or 8 am and stop at 5 pm. At least not in the building industry.

And that led to one of my meltdowns.  Every expat will tell you that they have at least one or two meltdowns when they first arrive in a new country and go through the settling i...