Heart beats head... Vienna it is!

So much to write and so little time... lots has happened in the last couple weeks. I went to Portugal, I was planning on uploading some pictures, but since my computer crashed last night and I lost everything, that will never happen. Ugh. I'm choosing to ignore that for now. Backing up? What does that mean? I'm so mad at myself I could scream.

Let's see the short version of Portugal trip, flew in, went down to the Algarve. It was a crazy drive, it was pouring down rain, kind of dark and the windshield wipers didn't work. Reminded me a bit of driving in my old civic in the gorge with all the crazy truck drivers. We stayed in a great place in Lagos, which is this really cute, cobblestone, lit up for Christmas type of place. I kept saying, oh, it's so cute, it reminds me of Europe. Oh, right, I'm in Europe. We did our own personal wine tour, which basically went a little like this... let's get a glass of wine and a little snack at a bunch of places, aren't we responsible to be eating too? That happened one time, the first place. The second place didn't have nachos, so we gave up on the idea entirely and had two or three drinks before we moved on to martinis. Hilarious. The marathon was great. I was a bit disappointed with my time, it was 5 minutes from my goal time, but I "should" be happy because I have had bronchitis forever and was still getting over it. We went to a few different small towns around Lisbon, walked around, it was cold and beautiful! I also loved being able to just be outside and walk, even though it was cold. I spent the last day in Lisbon at this mall, shocking, trying to buy stuff for Everest base camp. Which, by the way, I'm totally not prepared for.

While all this was going on, I was also interviewing via skype for two different middle school counseling positions. One at an awesome school in Beijing and one at a school in Vienna. I don't know nearly as much about the school in Vienna, but after lots of debate and stressing out and endless conversations with patient friends and family, I decided to take the position in Vienna. I am so excited to be moving to Europe next year! It was my original goal, but I didn't think I would be able to find a school in Europe that paid enough to live comfortably and still travel, but I think I did... we'll see! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! In addition to being really happy about having a new job, I also am leaving for Everest Base Camp in three days, I can't believe it's here! I am so looking forward to it, but feel completely unprepared. I've been online trying to figure out exactly what to bring, and what type of insurance to buy and if I can or can't get Diamox there... it seems like I should be more organized, but it's just so hard! It seems like every night last week there was something really fun going on that I didn't want to miss out on... same thing this week, holiday get togethers, work Christmas party, (which for once an event not at Double Decker...), just lots of really fun stuff, but too much! We have one more day of school left and then we're on break. I keep hearing about all the snow and everything at home and really wish I was there! Next year... although... the Christmas markets look pretty amazing in Vienna!

Thanksgiving 2008, Dubai Style

There are times when pictures just say it all...

Girl's night at Oscar's Wine Bar...









Becky, Kate, Robin, Susan and I enjoyed free tastes, which of course led to three bottles and then we had to get one more quick glass before we headed off to Barasti to meet some friends who had just played in a beach volleyball game.










Good thing we went all the way to Barasti to meet our friends; we went straight to the lounge chairs, just like usual.













Kate is really thinking hard about, you know, life.










What is going on there....?











Kate and I before we decided shots were the best possible option. Or wait, was opening two bottles of wine when we got home the best option?

Rugby 7's... I had no idea what to it was going to be like, so in typical Dubai style, I expected nothing. It was way better than that! About 50+ of us loaded onto two school buses at 8:30 in the morning and headed out to the new Rugby stadium. We watched some Rugby, drank a bit, talked a lot, ate all kinds of terrible food and the night ended with random dancing...




















Go team DAA... Dale, Shane and Clive ready for the day...










Clive, Kim and I just getting started.













Jenny and Steph ready for the day!










Who says the photo doesn't count if you ask for it?







































Another rough day...










That's right, we're here to watch rugby.










One of the guys I work with played on one of the Dubai teams.










Becky and I watching another guy from work playing.













What is it with Jacob's Creek in Dubai?











April and Jenny, somehow day turned into night.










Jenny, Heather and I relaxing on the hill...













Apparently, we still do that...













Sad, check out how awful the stands look.













Grant, dancing the night away. Wait, what about the game?










And that's how the night ended...

Movin on up...

Well, I'm still not better and breathing is still fairly uncomfortable, but on Thursday I decided I was not sick anymore. Not because I actually felt better, but because I was BORED. On Tuesday it was a girlfriend of mines birthday, so I went down to her place for a wine and cheese party. I wasn't drinking and I wasn't running and we were sitting there talking and she looked at me funny and said something like you're not drinking wine, you're not running, I mean, what are you doing? Seriously though, it's making me crazy. On Wednesday we had our last soccer game of the season, we won 8 or 9 to 1 and we ended the season undefeated. It was great because it meant we move up to the next division. Oddly, if I were to pick the thing I would miss the most about Dubai, it would likely be soccer. Where ever I go, I really hope there is a team I can play on, but I can't imagine the people will be nearly as great. We got these bright new uniforms and a new name, how can I leave? We start again in February or March. We had our end of the season get together this weekend it was really fun. Shockingly enough, it was at Barasti. It was perfect though, we met at around 4:00 and I ended up staying till 11 or so. We just sat outside on these big loungy chairish/bedish things and ate and drank and talked for hours. By the end of the night I was making sweeping generalizations about certain careers and making huge stereotypes that weren't necessarily nice and think I may have said a bit too much and am debating if I should be making some apology phone calls. Before that, we somehow started talking about life goals and I decided it was perfectly acceptable to steal other peoples... I'm now thinking the seven summits are on my list. Speaking of lists, I actually have a notebook of about a zillion things I want to do and I brought it to work today so I could add/edit/etc. and make a plan for getting some of those things done. I also hadn't looked at it for a while and was able to cross some things off. Kate helped me break down the list into some smaller, manageable and achievable goals that I can do right now, so, I need to make a cheesecake, do a pull up and practice tennis. We'll see if any of those things happen this year. The rest of the weekend was actually awesome too. Both days I was outside, the weather is perfect. I went to an outdoor market, out to lunch, a tennis match, the Irish Village, ran errands and didn't get lost, not one time...all in all a very normal weekend. It's almost like I could live here...

Kim, Syma, Jesse and I at the Aviation Club

Here comes the rain again...

Yesterday was hilarious... the rain came back. But first, I'm still feeling awful; I went into work on Thursday because I had to get up for my first ever Skype interview anyways. Which, I think, went ok. Not great, but probably good enough. It was weird to see them and try to talk to them, do you look at the camera? Look at them on the screen? It's hard to feel professional while sitting on the floor in front of my computer. Well, anyways, I made it through the day at work, stayed in for most of the weekend. I went to the beach for a few hours and thought it was cold, later while talking to my mom I realized it was probably at least in the 80's, but apparently that's cold now. 

Ok, back to Saturday (yesterday), I ran errands all morning and then a friend called and asked if I wanted to go to lunch. A few of us ended up going to this beach bar and grill at my favorite hotel. It was going great, then out of nowhere, we started watching this cloud of sand start rolling in, it started getting a little windy, some people started moving in and we were just sort of sitting there watching, talking about it, next thing I know one umbrella goes flying, then in a matter of seconds, chaos... umbrellas started going everywhere, our entire table lifted up and dumped all of the coffee and desert all over me. I was thrown off my chair and somehow landed on this umbrella stand, or maybe the umbrella itself. I don't really remember. Then I sort of pulled myself up off the ground and started looking around, a friend of mine was yelling at me to "just go, go, go!" And I sort of looked blankly at him and then looked back out at the water and around for a second and then realized the three of us, a few other tables, and the waiters were pretty much the only ones still standing there. It was hilarious. We were in no real danger, but you definitely don't want to be around me in time of crisis, I pretty much froze. The thing I was most disappointed about, besides the random bruising from the dishes, table and all that, was that I thought my white pants were ruined, but don't worry, it all came out. We woke up to flooded streets this morning, but we still had school. Sad. I will say, the way they get rid of standing water is ridiculous. It's not just at school, but all over Duabi. They get out there with no shoes on and sweep the water towards a low point where it can collect, then there are guys standing there with buckets and they fill up the buckets and then throw the water. I'll really miss this place...

Bronchitis, again.

I've been out of work most of the week. Which is great because most of the time I feel useless while I am there and like I'm about to be screamed at about something that is either completely ridiculous, or something that I had nothing to do with. It basically contributes to my probably undiagnosed anxiety disorder. Well, not really, but whatever. I finally went in to the doctor this morning and after her asking me about a zillion times if I was pregnant or smoked, she finally had me take an x-ray to confirm that I have bronchitis. Really? They have to do that.

On a brighter note... my search file is activated, a few schools have contacted me and I've contacted a few that I'm interested in. I also have my first interview tomorrow morning. It's for one of the schools I'd love to work for, but I'm not sure about the location. I also expressed interest in a school in Zurich and one in Prague, although, the one in Prague is only possible openings. I was also contacted by ISB, one of the schools I interviewed with last time. It's exciting and nerve wrecking all at once. I really wish I could just fast forward to see where I'm going to end up. The idea of going home is actually pretty appealing too...

We'll see. For now, I'd just like this whole bronchitis thing to hurry up and be over because I am tired. Tired of being tired. And, I need to be getting ready for the marathon, it's soon!

Brunch, Barasti, Blue Bar, Bed.

Went to the first Brunch of the year. It was, well, what brunches here normally are! Very fun. This time it was great, it was just 5 girls, we had great wine, good food and I'm sure lively and entertaining conversations... I've been feeling sick for just about ever, had a really hard run in the morning, just over 22 miles, then collapsed into bed and had to give myself a pep talk about going to brunch. I was telling myself that once I got there it was going to be so fun and on and on, when really, all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed. It was great though. I was impressed that we managed to make it all the way into the evening and meet up with some non-brunch goers at the Blue Bar, where one of our friends was playing in the band. I saw one girl, Kate, get up and leave and thought it looked like a great option, so I did the same thing. I managed to convince Arz, the restaurant in my building, to let me in and begged them to serve me whatever they could come up with. Fortunately I eat there 5 times a week as it is, so they gave me my usual and I stayed and ate it there while they were cleaning up. The next day I got up nice and early, ran some errands, went grocery shopping at The Safestway, where I proceeded to spend a zillion dollars on imported American foods, such as Butterscotch chips for only $12 a bag. So necessary. I thought I would sit down on my couch, enjoy my $13 cottage cheese and watch Sex in the City. Next thing I know, I wake up and it's 5:30pm. I had slept for over 5 hours, I never sleep during the day. I called in sick to soccer and am only at work today because I have to do the ITBS testing. I already told my boss that I will be leaving the second testing is over tomorrow and I won't be in on Tuesday. It's ridiculous, I've been sick for about a month, but am in complete denial. Hopefully a couple of days off and I'll feel better... For now, back to work. No fun.

You know you've been in the Middle East too long when...

Forward e-mails are so annoying, yet sometimes we just have to do it... Someone passed this along, I condensed it down to my favorites...

• You need a sweater when it's 40 degrees Celsius
• Your idea of housework is leaving a list for the houseboy
• You believe that speed limits are only advisory
• You believe that the definition of a nanosecond is the time interval between the time the light turns green and the time that the guy behind you begins to blow his horn
• You expect all stores to stay open till midnight
• You understand that 'wadi bashing' isn't a criminal act
• You make left turns from the far right lane
• You think it perfectly normal to have a picnic in the middle of a round-about at 11pm
• You never say Saturday instead of Friday or Sunday instead of Saturday anymore
• You accept that there is no point in asking why you are not allowed to do something
• You carry 12 passport size photos around with you just in case
• Phrases like 'potato peeler', 'dish washer', 'coffee maker' and 'fly swatter' are no longer household items but are actually job titles
• You start to say 'Insha'allah' when you actually mean 'No f**king chance!'
• Problem with your car AC or horn is more serious to you than a problem with the brakes

And... that's my life. Week was busy, as they all are, of course work, random... Big boss resigned on Thursday, can't figure out what I do all day, but nothing ever gets done and then I became obsessive about the bulletin board. Weekend was good, went over to some friends for dinner on Thursday, got heat stroke (self diagnosed via the internet) during this crazy training run on this island out near Abu Dhabi, went to a really fun birthday dinner for Halloween, where at one point I said something along the lines of..."I used to have shoes on." I'm just so responsible. Spent half of Saturday driving all over town trying to go to breakfast, then soccer. Same old thing really. Now, another week... a few of us girls are going to a Champagne tasting tomorrow night and then an election party... I'm crossing my fingers!

It's officially outdoor weather...

Let's break it down to the highlights...

• Birthday: Awesome... we went out to Al Hambra, a tapas place I love. Surprisingly, it's a restaurant in a fancy 5 star hotel... great wine, food and people
• Running: Going really well, ran about 34-35 kilometers on Friday morning and felt great, only 7 or 8 kilometers less than a marathon, so I'm feeling not quite so nervous about Lisbon in December (I'm not sure when I made the switch to kilometers, I still spend most of my runs trying to calculate how many miles is that now...)
  
• Soccer: We won 8 to 1, I scored a couple goals and hit the posts, I think all of them, left, right and top at least 43 times...
• Work: Lame, signed up with my old recruiting company and am planning on attending a job fair in Cambridge, but also hoping that some school looks at my resume and hires me via skype interviews...

The weather has finally gotten to the stage that I am willing to be outdoors for activities other than exercise. We went to Barasti last night, it was really fun. It was a friend's birthday and we tried to get our soccer team out. I wore a super short, turquisy/bluish flapper dress for some reason, it was kind of like being in costume and I was cracking up because a friend of mine said something like, his mom has a lampshade that has tassels just like that... and the same night another friend said I only got a 6 of 10 on entertainment value that evening, yet one more person thought wheelie shoes, which I CANNOT stand would be cool and get girls.... who are these people and why do I love being around them so much? I'm anxiously waiting my check to my recruiting company to clear so I can reach active status and start searching for a new job. A friend of mine who works at another school here in Dubai keeps sending me openings for next year and I end up spending hours researching what it would be like to live in all the places that have openings, they have varied from Pakistan, to Colombia, to Syria, to Italy... when I was talking to someone the other day, I was saying how nice it would be to live in Europe because it would be closer and less expensive to fly home. What I'm wondering, is when did a ten hour flight and $1000 seem close and cheap?

Random update...

I thought work would seem really long now that Ramadan hours are over and we are working full weeks for a while, but not to worry time is still flying by! I started tutoring about 8 hours a week, soccer games have started, had a fall party and ran a 10k in the last week or so. It's been busy, but good. As per usual, had a bad week at work. I love kids, love being a school counselor yet somehow it just never works out the way it should here. 

Soccer, we've had two games and won them both. I scored a few goals which was fun, but also missed a penalty kick, I really did pretty much kick it directly at the keeper. Annoying. It is ridiculously hot and humid some days and then cool other days. Of course, cool now means in the 90's. It's great fun, but our practices switched to Saturday night, which is fine, but annoying because it means every day of the week I have something I have to do. Once I get there, it's always great, but Saturdays are just tough!

The weather has cooled off enough to lay by the pool, but not enough to be at the beach, the water is still HOT, not warm, uncomfortably hot. I didn't even realize that was possible until I moved here. We did lay by the pool last weekend. We were going to do that in the morning and then run some errands and go to this art show in the afternoon, instead we ended up drinking all day and then heading over to our friends birthday party and then out to a dance club, definitely not what I typically do, but it was fun! I have some great pictures I'll try to post. Later that week, a few of us went to an art gallery thing with champagne and snacks, it was a different side of Dubai, and fun!

The fall party was great. We had really good soups (thanks to cooking light), fondue, mulled wine, hot spiced cider, delicious breads and pies. Our apartments are not set up for large groups, but we managed. Witches, bats, tombstones and other Halloween items were deemed "culturally insensitive" so a friend of mine gave me a bunch of things that were going to be used in her classroom to decorate with, so that was fun. 

Running, let's see, it's been going pretty well. A group of us are still going to Safa Park three or four times a week in the mornings before work and my long runs are pretty long, I did 20+ miles last weekend, and did a 6 mile run before the 10k race this morning, but I'll have to be back up at 20+ next weekend. The race was really fun. Four of us did it and then went to breakfast afterwards. We went to JBR, this area where there are these tall apartment buildings and they are in process (just like everything in Dubai) of opening restaurants, coffee shops and retail stores. We found a great place and it was even cool enough to sit outside and eat our breakfast, although we were basically being attacked by flies. I was cracking up because I never go out on Thursdays because of running and last night it was a 5:00 girls night/happy hour. I thought, perfect! I'll just go for a bit and get home early. Right. I think we got in a cab around 11:45. Oh well, I guess it was fine because I had a great race. 

Today I'm just hanging out and waiting for Kristin and Hans, I work with their parents and they were on my flight over last year when I arrived, to make cookies. It will be fun, they are some of the cutest kids ever! A bunch of us are going to the Irish Village tonight to watch a bunch of bands, including Arrested Development. Seriously? Oh well, it should be fun. I'm hoping the weather isn't horrific. I think I'm getting sick too, how does one get a cold with weather like this?

Eid Al Fitr Holiday 2008

So, you all know what that is, right? Don't worry, I really don't either. What it meant to me was a last minute trip to Oktoberfest in Munich and a long weekend in Salalah, Oman. The last couple of weeks I was seriously thinking that it would be my last year in Dubai, I love it here, but, as you all know from my endless complaining, my job leaves a lot to be desired. It's making me crazy. Supposedly next week, or sometime soon, or... we'll get some news on what, if anything, they are going to do about our office space, or I guess, lack there of. But, after this trip I'm wondering where else I could live where I could book a ticket to Oktoberfest for some freezing cold fall weather and then head on out to a deserted beach for a weekend of relaxing...

I hope to add some pictures, but I couldn't get it to work. I'll keep trying to add them, but for now, they are on the my picasa website and should be doing a slideshow on the screen, but who knows!

Anyways, back to the important stuff... Thursday, September 25th around 9ish in the morning, they confirmed that we would, in fact, have off work until Sunday, October 5th, something to do with lunar sightings and the Ministry of Education. I walked over to Mark's room and he mentioned that Jesse was considering Oktoberfest... for about three seconds I thought that sounded like a great idea. She walked by, we decided it was too crazy and that was that. Or not, about a half an hour later she called and next thing you know four of us had booked our ticket to Munich. In less than 24 hours we were on the plane; fortunately, we would had an overnight flight on Wednesday and would get back in time for Jesse and I to catch our flight to Salalah and Luke and Heather to drive to their diving weekend in Muscat. Seriously?

Munich was amazing! Jesse's host family was gracious enough to allow us to stay with them for the week at the last minute. Luke, Heather, Jesse and I arrived into Munich and made our way to the train station closest to them and Klause picked us up. The first night we stayed up late, drank some wine and ate some potato salad and pork products, what else would we do in Germany? The next morning Klause took me on a trail run through a forest, I have never been so excited to be freezing cold and outside in all my life! We rode our bikes there and then ran, the whole time I was trying to figure out how I could make that my life, not my vacation... After our run, we rode our bikes to the local, and apparently very well known, bakery for some fresh bread. It was for our delicious breakfast of breads, cheeses, meats, freshly picked apples, coffee, tea... After breakfast the four of us headed off to explore the town, or drink lots of German beer (wine for me...)... We started with a walk around the famous clock tower, hit H & M for some winter clothing and then wandered through an outdoor market, ate some lunch and had a few drinks at the HB House, which was crazy busy and then toured around town for a bit and made our way to the English Garden. The weather was awesome! I was wearing a wool hat and gloves and thrilled! We walked, watched these river surfing guys and then ended up at this place in the middle of the garden drinking again. It was hilarious, I was asking Jesse if it was normal to have 8 zillion people just sitting and drinking huge beers, or if it was because of Oktoberfest. She said it was the norm, what I want to know, is where are all the ladies? It seemed like an excess of older men just hanging out with their friends for hours, what are their wives doing? At this point, we went and sat in some grass, we don't see much of that in Dubai until it was time for us to head to drinks and dinner while Jesse met up with her host sister for her hen party (aka bachelorette party). Luke, Heather and I sat at a random pub for hours then went to this place for dinner that was delicious and then meet up with Jesse and all the girls. The party was hilarious, it is a bunch of girls running around the streets and asking men to buy those little mini alcohol bottles from them and then take the shots right there. Then, apparently, the money is used to help the girls have a good time the rest of the night. I think that would be illegal in the good ole US of A. But, it was great to watch it all happen. There was also some singing, this crazy guy named Tim and many other entertaining aspects of the night. We swung through Oktoberfest that night, but believe it or not, we were just too with it to be ok with the randomness of the whole place. There were people just laying on the ground and it was, well, Oktoberfest on a Saturday night. I just realized I am giving way too much detail here...

The next day we rode our bikes to the old airport to go on a run, they converted it to a park with a lake. It was beautiful! After another delicious breakfast, we headed out to their friends house near a lake. There was hiking, beautiful views, wonderful food and an all around perfect day! By the time we got back to their house it was a bit late, Luke and Heather were back from meeting Luke's parents and the Jesse's host sister and her fiance came over and we all sat around and talked. It was really fun to meet the people that Jesse stayed and get to know more about them.

We decided to take a day trip to Salzburg and had another awesome day, each one seemed to be a bit better than the last. We met up with Luke's parents again, then they went on the hop on, hop off bus and Jesse and I walked all over town, I learned that she can't stand public buses and then we wandered over to meet the rest of them at this brewery, it took us about a zillion years to find the main entrance, we eventually did, and had a lunch of cheese and bread with wine, shocking. We split a bottle of Prosecco and chatted the whole way back to Munich, it was great fun! We met up with her host family for dinner at a German place where I shared two traditional German foods, both were wonderful. Although, at this point, I was wondering if I may get scurvy, I hadn't eaten anything but meat and potatoes with a little fruit from the wine, that counts, right?

The next day we went to Oktoberfest, it was great! We also found a Starbucks that day, which as usual, makes me happy when I can get my soy latte... We met up with Luke's parents and all of their friends, so there was about 20 of us and we managed to get a few tables at one of the tents and then the day just got a bit crazy from there! I'll let the pictures explain the day... It was AWESOME to meet up with some friends from home, Shelly and Jessica, who happened to be at Oktoberfest too!!! It was hilarious, we kept trying to leave the wine tent and head to the crazy tents, but the free bottles of champagne kept coming... what were we to do?

We eventually made it home that night and the next day was our last, sad! We got up and headed into Munich to hang out and then we meet Klause for lunch and then walked all over town and had coffee and cake at this cool outdoor cafe place and did some more walking. By the time we got back to the house it was about time to head to the airport for our overnight flight home. I was so sad to be leaving! It really made me want to move to a Western European country, not sure which one, but Germany is now high on my list! Klause says I can come back and visit anytime, he'll be surprised when I show up on his doorstep!

So, we arrived back to Dubai around 7am and caught a flight to Salalah, Oman at 1:20 that afternoon, by 5:00pm we were laying on the beach, relaxing and eventually watching the sunset. We walked around to the souqs, somehow ended up crammed into this car because one of the girls just waved over this guy and we decided the best possible option was to get in and let him drive us around. That is so something I would NEVER do, but I fell to peer pressure and there were 7 of us and only one of him... He dropped us off in the old souq and we eventually split into two groups, the shoppers and the eaters... so I headed off to this random local place to eat with a few other people where we ordered everything you can imagine for next to nothing. Fun!

The next morning Katie and I got up and went on a long run on the beach, which was really hard! Then sat on the beach reading a book till everyone else was up and then we had a lazy breakfast while we thought about what we should do that day. We ended up piling into Mark's car, sure glad he drove the 16+ hours... and went North to try to find some ruins or something and then south to find a great beach and some other cool things. Long story short, too late I know, we ended up laying at the beach, swimming and relaxing. It was perfect! When we got back to out hotel, we found out someone had drowned and there was all this commotion, well, not really that much, but the helicopter was searching the water and it was just all freaky. It was hard to watch, but you couldn't help but stare. That night we went down the beach to the Crown Plaza where we ate dinner and then sat around at the bar there. It was the perfect way to end the Eid Al Fitr Holiday...

Now, I'm back to work.

Mars and Coke? Doritos and Wine? Running, Dubai style...

The heat and humidity it torturous... I took some photos of my windows, it really was so humid in that morning that it looked like it was pouring down rain... By the way, it was over 100 degrees out too...












I had a pretty crazy weekend, kind of like being back in college crazy and very unnecessary, but extremely fun. Enough adjectives? Thursday I went over to a friend's house to bake a birthday cake for our friend, I had brought a bottle of NW wine, he had a bottle of good wine too, we HAD to make sure we drank them before everyone else showed up, who wants to share? So, after two bottles of wine, Doritos for dinner and breaking a few things, I was home and in bed by 9:30 and up and running by 5:00. Surprisingly the run was awesome! It was beyond hot and somehow I ended up running around 16 - 17 miles at a minute and a half faster per mile than what I had been doing. When I first joined the running club I was shocked by the Mars bars and coke and water stops, I'm pretty sure they would think I was crazy if I carried around wine and ate Doritos, but whatever works. After the run all the counselors were all invited over to Diana's house for a Champagne Brunch. It turned into quite a day. We had a great time talking, drinking and just relaxing. A few of us went over to one of the apartments and went swimming, dancing and eating till late at night, very fun!

So, I'll take a quick break here... the other night, after not sleeping the night before and missing a day of work, I decided to write in my blog, take an ambien and go to sleep. I think it made me a bit crazy, the keyboard started swimming and I hardly made it to my bed. I vaguely remember it; the next morning it was all kind of coming back to me, then I went to check my e-mail and saw my blog, I was cracking up. Misspelled words, it didn't make any sense and then a long string of dddddd's....

Anyways, the rest of the weekend and the beginning of the week were ok. For whatever reason, I have stopped sleeping, I used to not sleep at home, but I was never tired, this week, I've been exhausted, and annoyed. I tried nothing and didn't sleep, ambien, and lost it, a different drug that didn't work and last night Benedryl, which just made me ridiculously tired and edgy all at once. I did eventually fall asleep around 2:30. Hopefully tonight will be different.

I'm trying to figure out what I should do next year. It's pretty much all I think about. I still cannot stand my job, I wish it would get better, because I like Dubai; it is a great place to travel from and there are tons of places I still want to see in the Middle East and I know that I won't have time to this year, I've already planned all my vacations. But... work is horrible. I keep thinking it can't get worse and then one more thing will happen. There is a job fair in Cambridge in February that I'm thinking about attending. I'd have to decide soon and I have no idea how I would pay for it and get the time off, but, I may try to work something out. I'd like to go to South America. Who knows...

HOT!!!

Well, the weather had been hot, and miserable, and humid... but nothing compared to last year. Just like most things, the second time around seemed much better. We'd had a zillion hot days and a bunch of humid days, but only a few hot and humid days. Looks like that's all going to change. This morning before 6 a.m., we were driving home from Safa, and Jess just said something along the lines of, I may be being overly dramatic, but I think this is the most humidity I've ever run in. I noticed that the running track was slippery, I didn't even realize that was possible! I got home and it looked as if it was raining because of all the condensation on the windows... apparently there is some 48 degree Celcius thing happening this weekend and still humid, that should be fun!

Weekend away...

Can you see us? Oh, no, you can't, you have to love the humidity! I'm sitting at home, watching the first season of Alias (I know, I'm just about 10 years behind) thinking about how nice it is to have NOTHING to do at times. Ramadan hours are great for work and tutoring, it leaves the whole afternoon and evening to relax. A group of us went to Fujairah, an emirate on the E. Coast, this weekend. We left Friday morning and came back Saturday night, just in time for Kim, Caroline and I to rush to the last half of soccer practice.

I was reminded of a bunch of different things about myself this weekend. Here's a few things, I'm not the best at group travel, I get overly annoyed at certain situations, people who get bothered by what kids may potentially do make me a bit crazy, even if they are my closest friends here and Dubai Lisa just can't get over it. I, of course, set some rules for myself to deal with the situation and ended up worked up anyways. I did not, however, decide not to go, which was an option earlier in the week. Cryptic enough? It has to go on the list of things that I just can't be annoyed about, yet, I'm still annoyed.

The weekend was AWESOME! It started off with a great Friday morning run, then we loaded up the car and left by 10:00. I rode out with Kate, one of the new counselor's and her family. It was a quick and easy drive out, at any given moment the roads and/or road signs change, so it's nice that we made it out there! We met everyone else out there, ate some lunch, lounged around on the beach and by the pool. We spent the evening out at the hotel restaurants (welcome to life in the UAE) having a completely relaxing time. The next day we I spent the whole day by/in the pool while other people did some snorkeling. Could not have asked for a better weekend!









View from our hotel room









Humidity at it's best...










Enjoying the Iftar tent










Becky and I at dinner










Does Mark have enough drinks? And what a creepy smile...











Patrick and Becky

Oh what a night... being in Dubai is at times the worst possible outcome, but this weekend, that wasn't how it felt at all... just another day in paradise...

Here we go again...

Almost time to start another week... I had a great weekend. Thursday was wine and snacks at a friends house, Friday was a 5 a.m. run, Lime Tree and errands, followed by wine and snacks at my place, then dinner out at this Italian place, Saturday, Lime Tree again, Nike store, hung photos, put together this kitchen thing I bought on Friday, cooked meals for the week, skype date with my sister, booked a long weekend trip... yes, another eventful weekend.

Let's see, what were the highlights... I drank NW wine two times... that may not seem like a big deal, but finding 14 Hands and Erath Vineyards in MMI was more exciting than winning the lottery. Oh, so the run was horrific. We started out at 5ish, went for a fast 10K, met up with the rest of the group a little before 6:00, and by 6:15 I was completely soaked with sweat, it looked like I had jumped in a lake or something, and it was really cool, my socks were completely brown because of the sand and dirt blowing up and combining with sweat to make a muddy disaster on my socks. Disgusting. We ran about 23km, I'm not sure how I'll manage the next couple of weeks, well six more apparently, before the weather becomes a bit more reasonable. So, I took one of the new teachers out to run errands, they (new teachers) probably think I'm crazy, constantly offering them rides, or trying to answer their questions, I could not have been more miserable if I tried at the beginning of last year. Not being able to do the normal everyday things, like drive to the grocery store, or buy a rug, etc is AWFUL! Ramadan is making life interesting. Work hours are great, but traffic and malls and everything is super busy at random times and not eating/drinking in public is bizarre.

We went out to dinner and used our coupon book, the buy one get one free deal is awesome... I made Jesse sit down with me because I hadn't taken any pictures in Dubai yet... so there we are looking so cute. That was right before we walked out to a wall of humidity.









Lime Tree was once again delicious... it's one of the few places we can go out to eat this month. We were planning on going out to IKEA to get a few things, but we stopped at the Nike store (where I had to pay nearly $200 for a new pair of running shoes...) and also to this jewelry store and by the time we left we didn't have the energy or patience necessary to deal with the traffic to get to IKEA or the store itself. I spent the rest of the day at my house trying to get it all organized and stuff up on the walls. It's really taking forever to get this place together...

I took a few pictures of my "office" at work. Otherwise know as the Counseling Cubes...












This is what you see when you walk in the door, Diana is a saint and she took the "front cube", basically you act as a secretary. People are scared to walk in, and when they do, you have to call out from your corner to see who's there and if you need to get up... it is humiliating and makes a mockery of our jobs.













This is my "cube". I'm in the back corner, so I have to go through two different cubes before I can get to mine. A far cry from my office last year...










I never thought I'd say that there was something good about last year at work, but I did have a door... It was particularly embarrassing last week when we had an assessment in one cube, a crying parent in one and then I was having a parent meeting in another. Awesome. I'm pretty sure if I was working in the states my counseling license would get revoked, here it's "just" unethical.

Ramadan...

This year during Ramadan I'm going to learn about the Emirates, maybe pick up a few Arabic words, get to know the locals, join in on the fast... or not. Ramadan starts tomorrow and so do Ramadan hours, we only have to work from 8:00 - 2:00, yeah! I'm ready for the Kentucky Fried Chicken Iftar dinners, traffic jams, mall food courts open till 4am... this really is the most bizarre place ever. Speaking of bizarre... this is the e-mail that we got at work today, and I'm just wondering on what planet this would be acceptable; here goes, for your entertainment.

Dear Colleagues,

Please be advised that National Bank of Dubai has informed us that salary transfer to bank accounts for the month August’08 has been delayed for couple of days, as they updates their new payroll system. They have informed us that funds should be in your account before the end of this week. They also informed us that this will not happen again and sincerely apologies for the delay.

Thanks & Regards

Accounts Officer,

I think what I can do, is just forward that to any bank or bills I might owe, I'm sure they would be totally understanding. Just when I think work can't be any more annoying they do one more thing that shocks me and then shocks me that it shocks me.

I've decided to embrace the cubicle lifestyle, what else can one do? It would be unethical for me to do any counseling, so I'll just have to sort out exactly what it is I'm supposed to be doing all day long. I did find Erath Vineyards Pinot Noir earlier today, they have it listed as Californian wine, but that's fine with me! And, it's not even expensive, or at least the same price as it is at home. I saw it when I was busy stocking up for the Ramadan holiday...

Back to reality...

So, life is just too fast! I can't remember when I wrote last and can't be bothered to open a new window to figure it out. But, I think I wrote that I was back in Dubai and Italy was awesome! It's been nice being back. It's actually pretty funny how fast it all just came back, Lulu's, MOE, crazy driving, ridiculous heat, hating work. It's so frustrating because we have four counselors and the opportunity to make a huge difference and actually do our job and instead we are in an office divided by four walls with an open ceiling and no doors. Really? That's confidential. That shows that we care about students and parents privacy. They (the admin) actually said that it doesn't allow us an area to work with parents and kids. What is it that they think we do? And, what are we supposed to do? I have to walk by two desks to get to mine, when people open the door they have to just call out for who they are looking for and then we play a quick game of chase until we eventually meet up. To make it even worse, we''re just tripping over each other all the time. It's just obnoxious.

Ugh

I think the text I sent to Jess the first time I saw the "office" said it best. I'm shocked and I'm shocked that I'm shocked.

Running has been going ok. It's hot and humid, but we've been getting up early and heading out to Safa. I'm also trying to start swimming, which is a bit annoying because I am horrible.

I've met some of the new staff, those that I have met are great, but I've hardly talked to anyone. It's been fun catching up with people that I haven't seen all summer and there are still a few people I haven't had a chance to talk to yet. There are a few different "get together" things happening this weekend, so hopefully we'll all get a chance to talk. We're having a happy hour at Apres this afternoon, just what we all need a view of a ski slope to remind us where we live. A few of us just started this meal trade thing last week. It should be fun. We'll each make a meal once a week and then trade so we have a variety of different things to eat. So far everythings been great!

I guess I should get back to work. Not sure what I should do... but I really should get to it.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Just a quick little Dubai update... I got home the other night to a flooded apartment, no AC and just thought to myself, huh, some things just never change. Fortunately I had the key to a girlfriend's apartment and slept quite comfortably in her place. The next day I ran around grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking all the fun things. Jess and I grabbed dinner that night and now, I'm sitting at work. My "office"is hilarious. There are four desks shoved into one room all in a line as a temporary set up while they finish off our new offices. Our new offices are basically one big room divided by a cross shaped wall that doesn't hit the ceiling or either wall and then eventually we will each have a desk in there. It is quite a joke and not ready, typical DAA style. Whatever.



On to bigger and better... I could go on and on about how great Italy was with my mom, because it was, but instead I think I'll just give you some highlights and then let you look at all the pictures. First, traveling with my mom was awesome! The weather was ridiculously hot and while one would think I might be used to it, having lived in Dubai and all, I'm not. There were days when I was literally drenched in sweat and freaking out. The difference between Dubai and Italy, is Dubai is set up to avoid the heat and places are air conditioned to the point of being freezing. In Italy, everyone is still doing the same old thing, walking around and acting as if it isn't a zillion degrees outside and humid.



Venice was great! We took a train ride up from Rome, stayed at a great little place right near the Rialto Bridge and basically walked around, ate awesome food and took tons of pictures. We got up early one morning to take pictures and there was this massive rat right on the bridge, I was thinking maybe the pictures with people weren't so bad...

Venitian Masks























St. Marks Square




















Mom on the Rialto Bridge























Rialto Bridge























After a few days in Venice, we went to Murano Island too, this really cute place where Venetian Glass is made, we went up to Lake Como. We stayed in Varenna, it was gorgeous! It was also a nice break from the heat. It wasn't cold, but I wasn't dripping in sweat either. We hiked up to our hotel from the train station, lugging our backpacks and then hit the "beach" for a few hours. The beach was hilarious. It was this cement slab, covered in pebbles and a boat dock landing that went into a freezing lake. I'm not sure I realized how great the OR and CA beaches are till I realized this was the "much better equipped"beach in Varenna. We relaxed, ate more great food and took a boat ride to Bellagio, which was another cute little city.

Mom and her backpack


























Me and my backpack
















Bellagio




















Lake Como





















View from our hotel, where we had breakfast every day





















View from our hotel room in Varenna





















Varenna





















Next we moved on to Cinque Terra. We stayed in Vernazza in yet another really cute place with great views! We hiked, relaxed, drank wine and ate lots of pesto. It was AMAZING and incredibly relaxing. I think I read 3 books. I took lots of pictures, but you really can't see how gorgeous the hike is and how much fun it is to hike into each city. Each city was a little different, of course, I think I liked Vernazza the most :-)

Manarola




















Mom hiking




























Mom and I just about to Manarola




















This is for all you GU in Florence people... remember the bridge?


























Here it is again




















For those of you that jumped off that thing, crazy. Way too high, probably dangerous and so typical of things Bruno suggested.



Terraces


























Vernazza


























Vernazza





















View from our deck





















Me, very busy





















Next, we went to Florence. I can't say enough about how great it was to show my mom where I went to school, different places we ate, or the markets we went to and all the little things I did 12 years ago. That is impossible to believe, how is it that 12 years have passed since I went to school there? We once again, stayed at an awesome hotel, it was about a mile from the Ponte Vecchio, so we had to walk a little ways and in the heat it was potentially miserable... but it worked out great! They had this evening apertif, which my mom and I turned into our free dinner every night. How could we resist? Wine and snacks every night at 6:30? Delicious... We spent our time in Florence walking around, had our "museum day" and went to San Giminano (Sp??) one day, took a ton of pictures, ate, drank etc. same thing in a new city! I absolutely LOVED showing it all to my mom. And, I loved seeing it all again myself. Every time I go to Italy, I think, I can't believe it's taken me this long to get back here and when am I going to come back again?

Ponte Vecchio @ night (you wouldn't believe how many pictures of that bridge I have, and how many different settings I tried...)















Where I lived










Me in SG










Mom in SG










SG










Santa Maria Novella (right next to where I lived)









School













Mom and I









I just accidentally erased two great pictures... but I guess this will do. And, I'm getting paranoid somebody is going to notice that I'm working on my blog at work... I''ll try to get a little slideshow thing just in case someone is interested in more pictures... I took about a zillion. Someday I'm going to read that manual that came with my camera.

So, I'm sad that summer is over. I had so much to look forward to, loved every part of it, including my time in Canada, I know, shocking. I didn't have near enough time with anyone that I wanted to see, but I guess that's the way it goes... maybe next summer... or not, who knows.

Dubai should be interesting. I'm heading over to a friend's house to go for a swim after work, then dinner at some place that I won a voucher to that has to be used by August 18th... then another day at work...