Pictures... finally!

I've finally managed to upload some pictures to a picasa website.

Here's the link, hope it works!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lnrivera76

It's over now.

So, it's been a good day. Woke up early, ran a marathon and went to an all you can eat/drink brunch. Crazy. For those of you that knew, this is old news, but I ran a marathon this weekend and it was well, it was awful and great all at once. The first 20k felt great, next 5k still felt good, 25 - 30k, still ok, 30k-35k pretty hard, 35 - 40 ok, 40k-42k horrible. I had to walk a bit, about 50 meters, between 40 -41k, every time my feet hit the ground, my knees just about killed me, it was pretty awful. In a real world I would have finished strong and loved the whole thing and it would have been this great experience, anyone who ever says that is lying. One of the guys from my running group yelled out "400 meters, you're almost there" and basically I wanted to kill him. I could see the finish line, but it seemed like it was a zillion miles away; I don't care how much training anyone does 42 kilometers is just too far. I waited around for my friends to finish the marathon and the 10k that started later, then we all showered real quick and headed to Double Decker for brunch. I didn't eat or drink enough during the race, as expected, but I surely made up for it at out brunch. A bunch of people went to Waxy O'Conners after brunch,  Jess and I went to Starbucks (shocking) had a sandwich and some coffee, and then went to go meet everyone else. We walked in, feet sticking to the floor, pushing our way through the crowds, it was only 6:00pm, pathetic. Before we even made it up to our friends, we decided we couldn't take the place and went to a wine bar instead. Our friend came with us and called another friend and said she was trapped in "yuppie hell" and was going to meet her wherever she was. Nice. I thought the place was great, but what do I know. I'm so happy the marathon is over, I'll still go to the Friday morning running club, but now I won't feel obligated... Apparently the floods have dried up, I guess we'll have to go back to work next week, sad.

School Cancelled

Work was a complete joke today. Our superintendent was out in a suit, soaking wet, shoes off, pants rolled up directing traffic, the conductors were all in a row with brooms sweeping the water away (very ineffective), water was pouring into the building, there are no floor mats, so the entire school was "slippery when wet." And, best part tomorrow, no school. We also got to leave early today, and I've been sitting at my window enjoying the view.

Road closures

Only in Dubai... President George W. Bush came to the U.A.E. for a visit. Typical Dubai style, parents were text messaged on Sunday evening that there would be no school the following day due to the President's visit. Did they let the teachers and staff of the school know? Of course, they e-mailed us around 5:30. What time do we get off work? 3:30. They intended to close all of the main roads around town, planned extra security for all of the government offices and schools and then the day before the Dubai visit, the government declared a national holiday. It was nice to have an extra day off work, but also interesting because it was the first time since I've been living here that I was actually a little wary about working at an American School and being in the Middle East. With all the recent happenings in Iran and well, all over the place near here, you start to just think about it all a little more. The weather has been crazy, just cold and rainy. I ran in the rain Sunday afternoon and people were looking at me as if I was crazy. Yesterday we were just sitting at our windows watching the few cars that were out go through these massive puddles, I know good way to spend our day off, we did go see a movie for the first time too, which was fun. It rained a bunch more this morning and the city is literally flooded. They do not have any sort of drainage system, just walking to work was a disaster. I am soaking wet, boots drenched and freezing. Our school is totally flooded and different rooms are leaking. Cars were getting stuck in the sand, kids were taking off their shoes and wading through the parking lot to get to the front door, they were trying some crazy pumping system out front, but it wasn't working. It's as if this town has never seen rain before. I'm sure the pictures in the paper tomorrow will be hilarious! There are these huge round abouts that have no signage or system, you just have to sort of figure it out and sometimes there are cones in the roads to help out a little. Apparently at one of the largest ones in town, all the cones are floating around, cars are stuck and so it goes... I'm really hoping the rain stops before the marathon. I'm not sure what the sidewalks and roads are made of, but they are completely slippery and I have a tendency to fall a lot, so, hopefully no rain.

Top 5 things of the day

1. Cowboy boots and wine bars
2. Organic Food Store
3. 15 miles seemed short and easy
4. Pony tail with no bobby pins
5. CAR!!!!!

Best of Dubai in 2007: Tough Decisions and Random Comments

So, it must seem a little Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to read my blog, or e-mails or talk to me on the phone. One day things are great and I'm never leaving and the next I'm complaining dramatically about this being the most awful third world country filled with completely incompetent people. Well, that's pretty much because that's the way it is over here. High highs, low lows and hardly any in between, but really, what fun would it be if things just went as planned.

Some random thoughts to start the New Year; this morning I had to choose between making toast (in a Foreman Grill by the way) or keeping my coffee warm and it got me thinking I've had to make some tough choices this year...

• Should I buy a Ford Focus or a Honda Citi? (What's that you ask? Honda makes a Citi? I have no idea, apparently)
  
• Should I ask them to fix my leaky washer or use it as an opportunity to mop my kitchen?
• Watch the "guest workers" swinging from the cranes or pirated DVD's?
  
• Spend $100 (again) to call Washington Mutual to try to resolve the "card used round the world" problem or just let it go...(something I'm really good at)
• Buy a new phone or continue to shove folded up paper to keep the sim card flush to the battery?
  
• Call the Internet people and have mine fixed or continue to steal from the neighbors? I mean, is it really stealing if I'm paying for it too?
• How big of a deal is the bird flu? Should I eat the eggs or not?

In addition to some tough decisions... I thought you all might appreciate some things we've said over here...

• When I got off the bus with 7 Canadians I thought, this is going to be a long year.
• I don't care if you use your own clothes, but somebody has to get up there and clean my floor!
• So, tell me what you don't like about her... "Well, first of all, I don't like her accent."
• I just got a new house boy, but I don't think he's going to work out...
• When referring to guest workers... "they are human after all"
• Most Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25th
• Roots Canada
• You do realize your baby from Ethiopia will be black, don't you?
• After stealing a taxi from the front of a very, very long line "I guess they haven't lived in Dubai long enough"

Now... just a few from work

• I don't know that word because my sister printed my report off the Internet and I just copied it.
• Well, I don't think his vision is affecting his academics because he can see his video games just fine.
• We just figure he'll send his nanny out of his room when he reaches puberty.

Now, back to my busy day... goals for today include:

• Check dubizzle for the eight zillionth time for cars 
• Grocery store (but not too many things, I have to be able to carry it home)
• Wait for the calls from home to start flooding in...
• Continue the 3 month long debate about hiring a maid (I had to fire the last one, I think she just came in my apartment and sat here for two hours, it never looked any different) or mopping my floors myself
• Check to see if the prices from Dubai, to Seattle, to Rome to Dubai for this summer have changed at all since I checked last (approximately 37 seconds ago...)  or if any new direct flights have been added

As you can see, life in Dubai is very exciting.