Ringing in the New Year

I've been on break since the 17th and it's been great! My mom and I did all the touristy things a person might do while visiting Dubai. I wasn't sure there would be enough for us to do for the 10 days she was visiting, but instead, I found that we didn't have time to do everything. I guess that means she'll just have to come back. A quick run down... we went to tea at the Burj al Arab, desert safari, the creek, the souqs, madinat, malls, beach, ice bar, E. Coast, the Friday Market and we went on a few different trips to IKEA so she could help me organize my too small apartment, and when I say "help" I mean do it for me. It was great! When she was leaving, she said something like, I'm sure you're ready to get back to your regular life, uh, no, I wanted her to stay forever!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both fun, I spent Christmas Eve Day at a friends house watching endless episodes of Gilmore Girls and then we went to another friends for dinner, after that, I stopped by another friend's apartment that lives in my building to hang out for a while. Christmas Day I went to lunch on this terrace overlooking the Burj al Arab and the Arabian Sea with some friends from work. Somehow lunch turned into sunset drinks at 360, then I took a golf cart over to a different hotel where I met some other friends for pre dinner drinks (just what I needed) then Christmas Dinner at an amazing restaurant that was out on this pier overlooking the Burj and had a delicious Champagne flowing Christmas meal, after that we went to another bar that had great views and wine. Not a typical Christmas, but very fun!

I woke up not feeling so great on the 26th, I figured it was just too much wine, but when I still couldn't move the next day, I figured I had somehow gotten sick. I decided downloading Prison Break and Grey's Anatomy episodes from iTunes would be a great source of entertainment, so I spent the next three days watching that. I finally went to the doctor on the 29th when it was 2:00 and it hurt so much to breathe I thought I might just stop and I still could not drag myself out of bed. I ended up being diagnosed with Bronchitis and hooked up to some crazy machine that I inhaled some sort of mist/vapor something or other for 20 minutes. It was like a miracle device. It was the first time in days that it didn't make me cry to take a deep breath. They gave me about a zillion different medications, but I'm still wiped out and laying on the couch and BORED. I've finished watching all the downloaded tv shows and am tired of just sitting around. It's New Year's Eve and there's people doing a bunch of fun things, I'll be at home lying on the couch watching Because I Said So for the zillionth time and being annoyed that I'm sick. But for those of you that remember my stellar New Year's Eve and New Year's Day from last year, alone, on the couch with Bronchitis is actually quite an improvement! It's no wonder I hate most holidays. But.... Happy New Years! 2008 should just be so fun...

Dubai Syndrome

So, my mom flies clear across the world to come visit me and what do I arrange for Saturday morning? Used car shopping, part of every dream vacation. First we head over to the Ford dealership where I am looking at a stylish Ford Focus and dealing with this guy Sameer, who we like to refer to as our good friend Sammy. We met him last week and he had a car and was going to call and drive it out for us to see, sure, sounds great. Basically a week goes by with nothing, at one point I called and he is all excited and says "my eyes have seen it" as if that's supposed to make me feel more confident in the whole process. So, we give up on him, go to the dealership, find this lady to help us who ends up being just about worthless. She gives us her whole talking to and then gets this car all set for us to drive, we get in and as we are pulling out she sort of taps on the window and says, there's this sound, new tires, we'll put on new tires and it will be fine. A second later we hear the most awful sound ever and know there is no possibility we would ever purchase the car. It takes us forever to get back to the garage because everywhere we go is a one way street or some other problem. We practically ran out of the dealership. We then went to this other place and sit down to talk to our new best friend Kartik. He's looking through his inventory, ever the used car salesman, talking away about life in Dubai, we're sort of listening, but not really until he says blah, blah, blah, we call that Dubai Syndrome. I could not stop laughing, basically Dubai Syndrome is what happens to everybody that moves here, back in what I refer to as "my real life" I would handle things entirely differently, but because everyone here is so crazy, you end up becoming just as crazy as they are. Some examples of Dubai Syndrome Kartik gave us was: When you call someone and they say they're on their way, that means they are leaving their house. If they say they're stuck in traffic, that means they're still in their house. I'll call you back in 5 minutes, that means 30 minutes on a good day. I'll call you back in a half hour, that would be 3 hours if you're lucky. He went on and on, we were laughing the whole time. Needless to say, he said we could see the two cars he found that fit what we were looking for that evening or Sunday for sure. Uh huh, that happened. I just called him now and he said "what's your number, I tried to call you and some guy answered" I asked if that was part of Dubai Syndrome. He didn't find it quite as funny as I did. And no, I still don't have a car. I did just run home from work to let the random Internet guys into my house and left, I'm sure that was a good idea. The guy took one look at my mac computer and said we just may head home, macs are too hard. Seriously? With any luck I'll have Internet tonight, but I'm sure these Internet guys have Dubai Syndrome too, so I'm not expecting anything will work out as planned.

My date with George...

The Dubai International Film Festival started yesterday and a friend of mine was smart enough to buy a bunch of us girls tickets to an interview with George Clooney; we had a great night! I've decided the Dubai lifestyle is not what I would have envisioned for myself, but I could be into it for a few years. I was very used to long runs on the back roads of HR and days spent lounging around Dog River. Now, things have changed quite a bit.

Yesterday was the perfect example. After work I hired a driver to take me on all my errands, went all over town and had this poor man waiting around for me while I attempted to hook up Internet, stood in line at the Dubai version of the DMV and, I live in Dubai, none of these things were fast. Then to compensate for the annoyance of waiting around for me, I just gave him a tip larger than the fare, because money makes up for everything here. Then, I rushed home in time to meet the first round of girls who were heading over to the Madinat to have a few drinks before the interview/question session with George.

The Madinat is decorated for Christmas with these amazing trees and everything is covered in white Christmas lights.

We sat outside, along the water surrounded by palm trees and drank wine and ate some snacks.

We then went to the thing and George was as hilarious as it seems like he would be. We were super close to him and it was amazing! Afterwards we were heading out and we ran into a few other friends and decided there was definitely time for just one more drink. So, we all found a table outside, ordered some drinks and sat around being amazed at what our lives have turned into.

We all got this random text message while we were sitting there from a friend of ours who lives in the teacher projects with us, that said something along the lines of, can you believe what is happening outside our windows! We were all curious since it was one in the morning, but we figured it must be construction. We eventually made it home and I could not believe the amount of equipment and noise that was happening at that hour. I called the Dubai Police to see if anything could be done, but all the companies have to do is get some letter from the Dubai Municipality and it's legal. Nice.

Let the countdown begin...

There are some random photos from Sri Lanka. A few are from when we hiked Adam's Peak and the others are at the beach town. Now that this site is not blocked, I should be able to add in photos as I go... we'll see though, this whole blocked site thing is annoying.

So, we only have six more work days till Winter Break, yeah!

It was another great weekend, I ran the Dubai half marathon, which went well, not as fast as I'd like, but it felt good. We also had our staff party. By the end of the evening I thought it was a great idea to stop at McDonald's and get a chicken sandwich and then proceeded to lose my wallet not once, but twice. Fortunately a friend of mine had it and delivered it to me the next morning. Today I will attempt for the third time to go and get my Dubai drivers license, the other day I went and they basically said, you're American, we don't do that. I'm also going down to the Internet place and filling out the paperwork to try to get Internet this week too. I took a loan out for a car and found one that I want to buy right now, but apparently right now is not an option in this country. I still can't buy a bottle of wine, but if all goes well by the time my mom gets here Thursday I will have a vehicle, Internet and a drivers license. Wow, and it only took 4 months. Does anybody else find it odd that I can't just call and have Internet set up? Or that it's taken three times to get a driver's license? Seriously? I'm really looking forward to taxi rides all through town to get these errands accomplished. We have tickets to an interview with George Clooney tonight, he's here for the Dubai Film Festival, and I'm supposed to be back to our apartment building by 6:00. If I had a vehicle that would be possible... with taxi's, who knows!

I knew I would need a wool hat...

I promised not to write a boring summary of my mini vacations...

but this trip to Jordan was amazing! We had a four day weekend so we flew up to Jordan, rented a car and drove down to Petra and then on to Wadi Rum. I finally got some pictures to upload correctly, but still haven't quite figured out how to format them. Maybe next time! The weather was perfect. During the days it was cool enough to hike around and by afternoon I was able to throw on jeans and a jacket; I even wore gloves and a hat one day!

Petra was even better than I expected it to be. The first morning we got up early and walked to the Treasury and then continued to the Royal Tombs, Amphitheater and then up to the Monastery.

We went out to dinner at the Cave Bar and had a glass of Sangria, the owner was insisting that we each tell 160 people about this place, so here's my start...

We hiked up to the High Place of Sacrifice the next morning, but the weather was windy, rainy and cloudy so the pictures were not that impressive; the hike was nice. I also rode a horse for the first time ever and a few of us caught a horse drawn carriage ride back to the entrance which was quite exciting!

The next morning we left for Wadi Rum to camp, go on a jeep tour and do some hiking. It was beautiful and so nice to be outside and hiking! We saw just about a zillion stars and I was happy to be cold.

Well, I've just spent about a zillion years trying to fix the formatting and erase the extra cow photo, but, apparently that's not going to happen. So I'll just write a little down here about the pictures.

Can you see us on top of the bridge? We're pretty tiny, I think you all would have enjoyed watching me get up there, actually, getting down would have been more entertaining to see!

I don't need to remind myself that cleanliness standards are a little different around here...

Our guide...

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

I think it'll be more of a beach Christmas this year, unless I decide to head to Ski Dubai! I spent the long weekend in Doha, Qatar for a work conference on the environment and service learning, you know, basically while you were all eating Turkey and watching College Football, I was saving the world. A few of us went to a Thanksgiving Buffet dinner at one of the hotels, where we all ate copious amounts of food and drank a number of bottles of wine. They had all the traditional Thanksgiving items, but I was really stuck on the amazing sushi options.

When I returned from the conference I decided it was time to decorate my apartment for Christmas. Oh, by the way, having someone finish painting the top of my walls was 100 dirhams (less than $30) and worth every cent. So, last Sunday after work, I went home, rearranged my furniture, picked up the mess and started decorating. I also listened to Christmas music and made some sugar cookies, it was great! As I was sitting back and admiring the state of things, I got to see a quick little light show. It was actually pretty funny. I strung up some Christmas lights near the windows and it seemed to be fine, then I was looking over at them and one by one they started sparking and flashing and going out, it wasn't just a small spark, more like a little flame. I calmly walked over to the outlet, turned the switch off and sat back on the couch. I continued to watch all the sparks and thought to myself, well, I hope those curtains are fireproof, if they aren't, at least the walls are cement, that doesn't burn, does it? Then I just started laughing, because at home, if anything was sparking I would be worried and rushing to do something about it, instead I just sat and watched.

It's a little harder to get into the holiday spirit over here with the weather so warm, time just seems to be flying by and it seems impossible that it would already be Christmas! In order to better facilitate the spirit of the season, a friend of mine is hosting a Love Actually part tonight, the ladies of Al Adiyat, the teacher compound or projects as I like to refer to it, are all getting together to watch the movie and do a Yankee swap, which I've never done before, but I'm imagining it's just that pick a gift, steal a gift thing. We have also been requested to bring our favorite holiday snack. I, of course, wanted to bring Hello Dollies, my most favorite holiday treat ever, but.... none of the stores carry the necessary items to make them.

I heard that it was freezing at home these days. I've been cold too; the weather has dipped down into the upper 70's at night and in the morning! What I'm really wondering about... Is it snowing on the mountain?

Fog delay?

Welcome to my world... I wish I was being serious; there really was no fog delay today, but I risked my life coming to work. The fog was so thick, I was sure I was going to be smashed by oncoming traffic; they haven't quite figured out what to do with the headlights when there is fog. Probably similar to how Portlanders aren't quite sure what to do the first time it snows every year. Yesterday, I got to work to find a number of e-mails reporting that in HR, there was a 2 hour snow delay. Seeing that the only snow I see is in the indoor ski slope, I was excited to hear it still exists in the outdoor world.

The following e-mail was just sent out from the Principal's office:

Due to the fog/wet situations – please keep the children in the classes for the first recess until it clears.

Some of the KG1 classes came back with children all ‘damp’ and the class temperatures are cooler than normal – we do not want to take health risks.

Thank you for cooperating.

It's probably 75 degrees right now. Seriously? The children are "damp"??? I laugh, but the other day I was confused as to what water was falling on my head... uh, rain.

Work, it really isn't great, but there are parts of it that are hilarious, I guess I just have to remember that work wasn't the real reason I moved here. I have made friends at work before, but this is totally different; you realize that you live, work, socialize and travel with the same people. Sure there are some annoying parts to that, but there are some really great parts too. A friend of mine just came down, we made some lattes in the staff lounge and talked for a couple minutes about our upcoming trip to Jordan, it was nice. We were talking about what hotels to book and she said she really didn't care, nor do I. I told her it was on my list of things I can't be bothered to think about anymore. Even my language is changing, the things I hear myself say, crack me up... I can't be bothered to think about that... or I was meant to.... or marking papers... yeah, at the end of every sentence, question or thought? Really?? We have decided recently that there is an Australian/American language barrier. It's English, but way different... American English clearly makes more sense. If, by the way, anyone is wondering, according to most people that I have met, I don't have an American accent, I don't know what that means, or if it's good or bad, but people are always surprised that I am from the good ole USA.

I am one step closer to getting my Residence Visa, which I did not realize would make such a difference. I have no bank account here (seeing that due to the whole card used round the world thing, no access to the one at home), can't get a driver's license, or a car, it just is driving me CRAZY not to have this Visa yet. Also, we can't have an alcohol license, so I can't even buy a bottle of wine to drown my sorrows... the frustrations are endless. But, back to the original point about the Residence Visa, we had to go and get a blood test and an x-ray last night after work. Jess had warned me that the clinic was horrific, but I was definitely not prepared for what we were faced with. I argued with the guy for what seemed like forever to use gloves, he flat out refused. I did see him open the needle, so that was nice. We had to sit there for about 4 hours, it was just a nightmare, the waiting area was divided into Ladies and Men, I sat on the other side for a while, it was very, very frowned upon. There was a sign up that was hilarious along with other things, the sign said in huge letters Speeders are sinners.

One more note on the whole bank card experience, I am now officially the training call for all newly employed Washington Mutual telephone bankers. I am honestly embarrassed at what I was saying to them, that being said... their system is ridiculous. They flat out will not send a bank card to a PO Box, the problem is, Dubai only has PO Boxes. It only took 5 days and a couple hundred dollars of phone cards to figure that out.

It's really hard to imagine that it's Thanksgiving tomorrow. I'm heading to Doha, Qatar for a work conference on the environment and poverty, it should be a good conference. Some of my friends are going also; we are having a buffet Thanksgiving Dinner at one of the hotels. Good times.

Lastly, I decided it was an emergency and I NEEDED, not wanted, to paint my apartment. Of course the color is not what I envisioned and seeing that the ceilings are ridiculously high, it's not exactly working out as planned. As we were sitting in the war zone eating pizza last night, I was staring at the walls trying to figure out exactly how much it was worth to me to have somebody else finish it up... we'll see! The goal was to have my apartment looking great by the time my mom gets here in December. The problem is, I have Doha this weekend, Jordan, the following and then the half marathon followed by a swanky Moet brunch, so, maybe my mom and I will be painting instead of lounging at the beach clubs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just breathe...

So, right when things seem to be moving in the right direction... maybe it was just one of those days, but I'm starting to wonder if my luck has run out. I can hear friends from home telling me that things seem to always work out fine for me, or I'm lucky, or I always land on my feet. I used to disagree and think life was, well, pretty tough. Someone else used to tell me, think about what the worst thing that could happen and when you do that, you usually realize, the worst thing really isn't that bad. Well, here in Dubai, when I think things couldn't possibly get worse, somehow they do. The most random, would only happen to me, type things continue to happen. My car is not totalled and nobody is going to buy a wrecked Audi, there goes 5 or 10 thousand dollars, who knows..., I got an e-mail from home that momentarily freaked me out and my debit card has been cancelled because it is being used all over the world, Plaino, TX, Kuala Lumpur, Senegal and who knows where else. All the little things are frustrating, taking cabs everywhere, no bank account, no license, no car, etc., but add in any one of the other things and I would be pretty frustrated add in all three and I'm not sure how I'm not hysterical. The only thing I can think of, is that living and working here has lowered my expectations so low that things that would normally destroy me, now just seem like a common occurance that I can't be bothered to worry about too much... And, to top it all off, I think people from home really think life in Dubai is like being on vacation... By the way, we had no internet at work today, supposedly because a mouse chewed through the cable. Right.

It's officially outdoor weather...

The Dubai that tourists talk about, locals rave about and expats promise will come has arrived. The stores now have BBQ and patio furniture out, camping gear is front and center at every store and advertisements for different upcoming sporting events are featured in all the local newspapers and the Time Out magazine. I was doubtful I would ever say this out loud... but, I can see why people chose to live here.

Work is still not any better, at my most recent meeting I said something like, the actual situation has not improved at all, I have just adjusted my expectations both personally and professionally and am now more able to cope with the work environment. I'm sure that's just what every boss wants to hear.

I hit "the wall" for the first time ever while running this weekend. Our run was 32k and the whole thing was awful, I would like to blame that on the game of Ultimate Frisbee I played on Thursday afternoon, but I'm guessing the random mimosas with dinner did not help the situation either. Anyways, I was literally 400 meters from the end of the run and decided there was absolutely no way on the planet I was going to be able to finish and decided to get a taxi. I think the other runners thought I was crazy, but really, I could not move.

The rest of the weekend was basically what vacations are all about, only this is my real life. A friend and I sat and drank wine while we prepared food for a martini party that night, went out to this outdoor bar after the martini party and sat in the sand and talked, followed by a day at the beach, lunch at Lime Tree (which is this great cafe that I now go to at least once every weekend) and a BBQ at a friends house. The water has finally cooled to a reasonable temperature and we rented lounge chairs and umbrellas. We also sat around and planned our next week and weekend, which now includes a few trips to the gym, Mexican dinner, Thai massages and finally one of the Friday Brunches that are famous around here. So, yes, life is pretty rough around here!

I've all but given up on attaching pictures to this.... they keep saying it'll be all fixed in two weeks... like I said, an adjustment in expectations...

Good News? Bad News?

So, what should I do first here... always a dilemma. I guess I'll start with the good news, because that's what we do here at DAA (Dubai American Academy). This morning I got my very first phone call from friends or family! I was sitting at work and my phone rang (have I mentioned that I am required to have my phone on all day just in case they are looking for me) and it said unknown number. At home, I never answered those calls, I would just let it go to voicemail, but the Dubai Lisa has to answer all phone calls during work hours. It was Troy.

Now for the bad news, I pick up the phone and at the same time I am looking at my hotmail inbox and see a message from Progressive about my recent claim and a message from Troy with the subject line Please call me asap... I mean, I'm not a genius or anything, but between Troy calling and those messages, I'm imagining there was a problem with my car. While this is happening my boss is coming in and out of my office telling me there is going to be a fire drill, he is telling me which area I should go to and then I mention that I have to "sweep" the upstairs and he seems pretty confused, as he walked out he said something along the lines of, so we might need to rethink this if you are running towards the fire. Huh, good idea! So, back to the car, which I have been paying for each month as it sits at Troy's, was involved in a 3 car accident. Troy said he'd send some photos but it might make me cry.

Now, for more good news Dubai has been so stressful, that I cannot even be bothered to worry about this. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen, the only part I feel bad about is that I can't take care of it myself and instead Troy is left to deal with the whole car, insurance, etc. Fun. I'm sure he misses me more and more every day.

I do have even more good news, Jessica and I rented a car for a month! This may not seem like a big deal, but the option of feeling somewhat independent is life changing. Last night we drove to the mall, yes the same on that is a 5 minute walk, for dinner. And, even better news, I found a salad that is similar to the 6th St. Pear and Walnut Salad. Fruit, nuts, cheese, add chicken and dressing on the side. Good times. The bad news with that, the place isn't attached to a hotel, therefore, no wine.

Back to work.

Mars? Coke? Anyone?

Yesterday I started my day at 5:45 roaming the streets searching for a taxi to drive me to the starting point of the Dubai Creek Striders, a running club in Dubai, that I wanted to try out for the first time.

When I arrived I was instantly intimidated, these were runners, not people that enjoy running, or casual trainers, full on Dubai Creek Strider Jerseys, heart monitors, you name it. I showed up right as the people were about to start running, I did a quick stretch (just kidding...) and joined the first group that was taking off. I read about the weekly run and e-mailed Malcolm, the group leader, and asked about the distance and the pace, he said we would be running 22km-24km's and people varied from sub 3 hour marathoners to people that work towards 6 hour marathons, so people of all shapes and sizes. Uh, right. So we take off, I have on my Nike iPod thing that I'm addicted to and we're running maybe 8 minute miles or so. Which is way faster than I would run 22kms, but I wanted to keep up with the group. So every so often we would stop at these water stops and somehow there were people that I never saw pass me already there, but I just sort of ignored it and thought I was just going a little crazy. At about the third stop, an hour into our run, I'm starting to feel pretty tired, we are at this little market and everyone walks in and buys Mars bars and I look over to where the drinks are being poured, it's Coke! So, apparently, here in Dubai it's not Power aid and gels, it's Coke and Mars bars to energize you....

At this point, I finally ask someone how they are getting to the stops in front of me, it was driving me crazy! And this woman looks at me sort of funny and says in her Australian accent, "Are you meant to be in the farther, faster group mate?" Uh, no. But at that point I felt so dumb that I just decided to stay with the "farther, faster group." So apparently how it works is, there are two groups and they do different routes to meet at the water stops at the same time. Needless to say the 22 km - 24 km turned out to be closer to 32 km - 34 km. Let me just tell you, the difference between running at 6:30 here and 9:30 is unbelievable! The heat and humidity go up so fast and with the direct sun, it feel as if you might die. I did get a great tour of the city, I saw the creek for the first time and the Souk's I'd like to go back. When I got home, I was too exhausted to do much more than quickly eat a few bites of an apple, a spoonful of peanut butter and a glass of water, take two Motrin's, throw myself in the shower, put on my robe and collapse into my bed. Around 11:30 I woke up to a bunch of texts from friends wondering if I was alive... which I was, barely. We went to lunch at Lime Tree Cafe, the best place ever it feels like a cafe that might be at home, and then to this beach resort to play volleyball and hang out. It was a great day... we followed up a great day with an evening out for a bunch of October birthday celebrations. I thought it was at a night club place, which I don't like, but found instead that it was more like a lounge bar on a cruise ship with live music. Ah, life in Dubai. Today I am hosting a "wine and cheese" social to ask new teachers how I can better support them as a counselor. Fun times.

Dog River in Dubai...

For those of you that know my Saturday lifestyle in HR, you'll be happy to know that last night I found the Dubain version of Dog River, the local coffee shop. Linds and I would wake up nearly every Saturday morning, daily during the summer, head to Dog River, drink our coffee, talk to everyone that wandered in and eventually leave when we got hungry for lunch. Hours and hours of endless entertainment, internet surfing and parallel conversations. I think the most common comment was "it's so nice, we should do something outside" which somehow led to wine tasting... the black and white party, etc.

Anyways, yesterday after work, I asked a friend of mine to take me to the Dubai Central Post Office to pick up a pkg from my sister, I was so excited to get it! I actually made a birthday list for the first time in maybe 20 years and Kristin sent it all to me, Luna Bars and Conditioner, I know, exciting! I can't even explain how happy I was to get a few things from home. So, after we did that, we decided to go down to the Marina, which I have been to one other time, but it was during Ramadan, and just seemed like another row of restaurants, coffee shops etc. It was also about 8 zillion degrees the last time I was there, so I was irritated in general. Well, last night I actually felt like I found my favorite place in Dubai. It was just like Dog River, well, like I said the Dubain version of Dog River. You just have to exchange the palm trees for fir trees, buildings for mountains, sea for river, yachts for kayaks but, you get the idea. First we had dinner at this little Japanese place then we went and had coffee at Starbucks (Starbucks is the only place that always has soy milk) and sat by this fountain and watched people and talked for hours. I really never wanted to leave. It almost reminded me of the fountain in college where I used to go "study".

So, it's taking forever, but I am finally finding things about Dubai that I really like. The weather is finally cooling down and I'm also one step closer to getting my Resident Visa, which means nothing to me except, then I'll be able to get a car. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to do daily, little life tasks when you don't have a car! I mean, when's the last time you've tried to steal a grocery cart only to be caught at the exit and asked to return it... I think it took us 20 minutes to walk home, less than 1/2 a mile, and I'm not exaggerating. We were carrying a blender.... The other ridiculously annoying thing about Dubai is that we have no internet at home, the companies are supposedly fighting over who gets to supply internet to our building and it will all be settled in about two weeks. Right. Same story since mid-August and no progress has been made.

I'm also becoming a bit more confrontational in this town. A few weeks ago I had this small leak in my bathroom. The water was just dripping down, so I asked our building manager to have someone take a look at it. Three days later I had an AWFUL day at work, and by awful I mean worse than usual, they are all really, really, really bad. So I walk in ask if it's fixed yet, just like I had been doing every day, and he says yes. I grab my keys, say thank you and go up to my apartment. I walk in and hear this sound, so I go to the bathroom and there is literally water pouring out from the bathroom and into my bedroom. I just stared at it for a second and then went out to the other room and called a friend of mine and told him he had to come up right that second. He comes up and he just looked at me, he knew I'd had a horrible day at work, and then I just walked him back to the bathroom. He immediately asked if they were coming up to fix it, of course I hadn't bothered to tell them yet.... Instead, I let the water run all over while I opened my last bottle of wine and poured myself a glass. Even though it was Ramadan, I had my glass in hand and instead of being nice at all, I went down there screaming like a crazy person and he says he'll send up someone to fix it. The security guard shows up, apparently he is also the plumber, with some guy, they look at it, move the ceiling tiles around and then turn off the water. They leave my apartment an absolute mess with water everywhere, mud from their shoes etc. I go back down and am again, screaming at the building manager that he needs to have someone come and mop up the water, clean my floors and oh, I don't know, get my water turned back on? He says no, the cleaners have left, you'll need to do that yourself ma'am. I think I said something along the lines of "I don't care if you are personally mopping up my floors with your own clothes, I expect that somebody is up there to clean this up right now." Then I stormed off. Again, the security guard is apparently also the cleaner, he showed up and miraculously found a mop, bucket and was able to clean it all up. My friend's comment was only, uh, for tonight, you're on suicide watch. Within days.... I had my water back. Nice. I hope when I get home I am able to remember that you can actually ask for things to get done and they do, as opposed to this constant bantering that seems to be normal here, acutally, not only normal, but expected....

Ahhhh, the joys of living abroad.

Tan = Happy

So, as I previously wrote, or at least thought, I will try not to be too much of a bore with lots of details and pictures of all the cool things I saw in Sri Lanka... instead, I'll share the parts of the trip that were the most interesting. I'll start by saying that when I booked my flight, I checked and rechecked the flight I was supposed to get and still managed to book the wrong one.... A friend of mine did eventually convince me to change it, something about landing in Colombo alone in the middle of the night and hiring a driver and going through the jungle to meet everyone else just seemed like a bad idea. Especially with the whole fighting thing going on. There was a group of about 10 of us that loaded into a school bus, were dropped off at the Sharjah airport and boarded a middle of the night flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka.

When we arrived, after quite a bit of haggling, we ended up on this Vegas Style bus with all our luggage shoved in, girls dancing around, hanging out the windows, camera flashes every two seconds and all I could think was really? How am I ever going to survive a week of this? People are way, way, way too excited. I just put on my sunglasses and closed my eyes. We did have the opportunity to use the classy bathrooms on the side of the road, yes, it was just a hole in the ground. We arrived in Kandy, this crazy little town in the hills, I wasn't too impressed. I did get to lay by the pool and saw a few cool Buddhist temples, but I was ready to leave the next day. We stopped off at the Elephant Orphanage, which was basically too depressing for words.

Five of us hired a driver to take us to Adam's Peak and then on to Unawatuna, a beach town on the southern coast, we did decide to avoid the east coast, you know the risk of dying and all. Adam's peak was amazing, my packing job was not. I brought all this random hiking gear, winter clothes, head lamps, etc. to Dubai just in case I decided to hike. Well, in my haste of packing for my trip in under 10 minutes (I chose to go to Ikea for the day instead of pack my backpack... which, for those of you that were in Florence would recognize...) I didn't bring ANYTHING to hike in. It was unbelievable, if I was at home, I would have been so prepared for an international trip, but the Dubai Lisa doesn't seem to know how to be prepared for anything anymore, I was lucky I had my passport. The hike was literally 4800+ steps up to a well, peak, and another Buddhist temple. This girl Michelle, aka Irish, and I decided it was necessary to practically race to the top, because if we did, the sun would totally come up earlier... we were the first ones up, along with this 20 year old college guy we met on the plane, and were freezing as we waited for the sun to rise, I didn't have a melt down as I did at Kilimanjaro, so that was nice.

The road to the beach was ridiculously windy and the driving was a slow go, except that it felt like we were going a zillion miles an hour, on the wrong side of the road, passing vehicles and getting passed and basically narrowly avoiding head on collisions at every turn. It was sort of like an out of body experience watching it all happen from above, it wasn't until I realized I was actually in the van that I began to get scared for my life. We saw tons of tea plantations, locals, tiny towns and the VIP rest stops, they were nice, kind of like the equivalent of finding a McDonalds bathroom in Europe, very exciting.

We then went to the beach where we basically stayed at the nicest resort in town (amazingly cheap) and lounged around for 4 or 5 days eating buffet meals, a typical breakfast consisted of an omelet, french toast, regular toast, some fruit, coffee, and that was just round one, seriously? Dinner was the same way, I basically ate more than I thought humanly possible. A couple of nights there was this band, which was awesome. We sat around singing and cracking up for hours. Even in the nicest of places, we were still in Sri Lanka, and there were creepy bugs, a spider that literally terrified me to the point that I thought my throat was closing and then the cockroach incident. So, Michelle and I were sharing a room and had the funniest time. One night I was sound asleep and she basically punched me and said, oh you are still here, I screamed like a crazy person and then was up forever laughing. I woke up a few hours later being eaten alive by mosquitoes and really, really hot. I basically threw a fit right then and there. The next day we got one of those mosquito net things and as I was all tucked into bed, she was still getting ready for bed and saw a cockroach. She was outside the net so I just sat up and started directing her what she should do to make sure the cockroach didn't get into any of my things. I was saying things like, if you'd put up my shoes, that'd be great, could you close my backpack?, will you lift up my clothes and shake them out? I think she was so freaked out she just did it. Lucky for me since there was no chance I would be getting out of my bed.

The weather was both really hot and really rainy. One day when half the crew decided to head out snorkeling at this private beach and it was just dumping rain, a friend and I decided to hang back and just lay around. Eventually the sun came out and he wanted to start drinking, it was way too early in the day, but eventually I agreed, I know, shocking. I ordered a vodka soda, again surprising, and he ordered a Strawberry Daiquiri, figuring, hey we're on the beach get something tropical, the waiter did what we started to call the head boggle, and said oh yes, sir, no problem sir, we can do that. Next thing you know this yellowy colored icy drink comes out in a martini glass, my friend tastes it and says "Yes, very good, this is perfect." while I am thinking it looks like the worst drink ever. Once the waiter goes away, my initial thought is confirmed. Terrible. But, really, if that's the biggest complaint of the trip... I managed to burn myself so badly on the last day that it seriously hurts to sit down or lean back, which made for a great flight home. On the way to the airport we stopped in this town, I can't remember the name, to check it out and have some dinner. Every restaurant has the same menu for about the same prices and we're sitting at this one overlooking the beach, umbrellas in the sand, the whole thing and I look over and there is this creepy mural of the tsunami and people swimming in the ocean and standing on the roof tops, eerie. We decided to go to dinner someplace else. While we were sitting at dinner in this open air restaurant type of place that was pretty sketchy, rain was dumping down and the facilities left a lot to be desired, a friend of mine said "You might want to just lean forward a bit, there's a cockroach right there behind you and I ate my meal there anyways." Let's just say the expectations for cleanliness are at an all time low.

In my typical shopping style, I avoided the bargaining, cheap clothes and jewelry that everyone else purchased, and instead bought overpriced souvenirs at the Colombo airport after eating a snack and having a drink at 2:00 in the morning at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

At the end of the day, Sri Lanka was a great trip, good people, ridiculously inexpensive and a great tan. The surreal part of the trip was that when I got off the plane, I thought, ugh, it's so nice to be home...

I hope to add some pictures soon!

Running, Dubai style...

Right before I moved to Dubai, I was talking about how I really felt like I could live just about anywhere, as long as it was: a. walking distance to coffee shops and restaurants, b. no yard work and c. walk right out my door to go for a run. Apparently I should have been more specific. There are coffee shops and restaurants at the mall, but the weather just doesn't allow for walking. No yard work, well that's a given, but I didn't exactly mean that I wanted to be surrounded by construction sites. Here's the latest excerpt from an e-mail from a friend discussing how he had finally cleaned his apartment...

"At least we can now sit in relative cleanliness as we watch workers plummet from the surrounding rooftops, warn Jess, an evening of `farcical building and safety practices’ viewing is upon us, so stay glued to your phones just in case the text – `Get down here quick, you have to see this……..’ graces your screens."

Next issue, run right out my door... for the last month I've been running around the track at school at 5:00 in the morning. It's been great fun, I've started to add in loops around the building to make it even more exciting. The other day I thought it felt "cool" so when I got to work, I thought I would check the weather. Right, apparently cool = 87 degrees. Unbelievable! I wanted to do a long run this weekend, so I thought it was about time I ventured out and about, so I went to the, well, let's call it a "lake". Here in Dubai, lake means, a concrete pond, filled with smelly water and surrounded by a make shift dump. Somehow, that is better than the track. The upside is, that the distance is 3/4 of a mile as opposed to the 1/4 mile track. Lovely. It went so well on Friday morning, that I decided I would do it again this morning. What I'm having trouble figuring out is what my favorite part of this mornings run was. Was it running alone in the dark? The foggy conditions? The workers sleeping on the benches? Finishing up my run just in time to run by three of the "guest worker" buses as the men were pouring out and then into the half finished buildings? Really, it's hard to choose. At least it's flat...

This is my life....

So, I'm at work and just got the following e-mail from a friend who works here also. I couldn't resist passing it on for everyone else to read....

"So here’s a question I have never come across in teaching so far, ‘Um excuse me sir, I got a nose bleed during music class and some of the blood went down my throat. I think that means I have broken my fast, so am I meant to go and eat lunch now with all the other kids?’ My response, “Um…………………………(must’ve had the blankest face ever!)”……..what do you think it means?’……So you as student counselor must have had all kinds of briefings on the do’s and don’ts of Ramadan (sense the sarcasm) what would be your advice on handling the situation?"

So, I guess international schools really do have an entirely new set of issues.

Life is improving. This weekend I'm meeting to discuss our travel plans for Sri Lanka, I'll end with one more line from an e-mail that somebody sent about traveling to Sri Lanka...

THE best beaches are in the east. The problem is you could get killed if you go there.

That would be quite a problem...

September 23, 2007
So, I finally started this..... let's see, I'll give you a brief summary of life in Dubai. I arrived in the middle of the night to the most horrific heat/humidity imaginable, a filthy apartment and then told on the first day of work that I was going to be a Pre-K to Grade 1 counselor as opposed to a Grade 3 - 5 counselor. So things didn't start off so great. They are slowly improving. The first week I spent assessing students and the following week the rest of the new staff arrived. We had various "social gatherings" and "orientations" around town which basically meant we were shuttled off to different bars, hotels and golf clubs and given a random amount of drink tickets. The GEMS Orientation was at the Jumeriah Beach Resort.

Notice there are no people.... way too hot!!!
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Kristen and I


Katie, Syma, Lisa and Kristen

Lisa and Gregg


We also had happy hour at Apres at the Mall of Emirates.


Mall of Emirates ,
Ski Dubai


Syma, I'm sure she'd love the picture... just wanted to show the "view". Season Pass??



We live what qualifies as "walking distance" from the mall, but really, up until the past week or so, when you walk outside you are hit with this wall of humidity that makes crossing the street unbearable, let alone walking to the mall. What's really fun is when you go to Carrefour's (the local version of WalMart) and have about 362 bags of groceries, home items and random other items deemed necessary that you are trying to get home so you grab a taxi and then get screamed at the entire way home b/c we live so close. It's fun. Almost as much fun as helping Jess carry her clothes drying rack home one time. Really, it's been super awesome.

So work, I really can't even get into it b/c it's so bad. Worse than I thought possible with little to no hope of improvement, the best I can hope for is that I can learn to live with a major amount of dysfunction and we all know how well I handle that.
Front of the campus Jesse, Lisa, Cyndi, and Jess

We live in the "teacher projects" across the street from the school. The place is brand new, but watching the way these buildings are built makes me think I'm risking my life getting into the elevator, but the dimly lit, dirty non-air conditioned stair wells are not a good alternative. Yesterday Jess and I sat at her table and just watched the men working and it's amazing that we have not witnessed anyone just falling right off the building. These guys are literally hanging off the sides, standing on moving equiptment, swinging around like they are monkeys, cimbing on ladders with no harnests and all this is happening while the world's largest cranes are swinging around with large heavy walls attached only with dental floss. They bus the "guest workers" in from these labor camps that are unreal. I can't even think about it, if I do, it starts to make me feel sick. These men are over here without their families, literally risking their lives at work every day, wearing these matching blue outfits as if they're prisoners and being bussed in/out of the city to work 12 - 15 hour days for next to nothing. There are all these "Safety First" signs all over the place that require workers to have on helmets, safety goggles, etc. half the time they don't even have shoes.

More later, I have to run to Lulu's the Vegas version of Walmart.