Team Beirut!

I'm not sure where to start besides, someday, I'm going to live in Beirut. It took the powers of Magical May to bring peace to Lebanon, but somehow, we were able to pull it all together and hop on a plane to Beirut just days after the country was, as our guide put it, as close to civil war as possible. He and his family spent three days in their bathroom. Our hotel was in the midst of what was the site of the most recent activity. It was weird though, because as much as there was a military presence, and I knew there was things I should be nervous about, I felt relatively safe. I did keep thinking, man, it would hurt so badly to get shot, but what, with all the machine guns and militants everywhere, it was hard not to think that! I went out running one morning and was thinking, this probably isn't the best idea, but it was so beautiful along the water, I just couldn't resist! A quick review of what we saw and did... we stayed in Beirut, spent the first day walking around and having sunset drinks before we headed out to dinner in the downtown area, we got up early the next morning and went wine tasting at Chateau Ksara, went to Baalback via the Bekka Valley, Aanjar Ruins and then went out to this very cool street, I'm sure it has a name I just don't know it, that evening. The next day we went to Beiteddine Palace and some completely freaky museum with these carved statues and people that were just scary, I'm pretty sure that was the desired summary of the museum, but it was weird, and in general, I'm not a museum person. The people in Lebanon were lovely, both to look at and to speak with. I'm not sure I've ever met nicer people! Our guide, Mr. Adel was hilarious.












Walking around the Cornice, and where I ran one morning.







Sunset drinks. This was after Mark and I gave up looking for a specific Shwarma stand with some other friends, surprisingly enough, we thought it would be a better idea to find a cool restaurant, sit down and split a bottle of wine, shocking. We were the only one's at the place and we were joking around about what a nice romantic lunch we were having. We met up with some others for drinks and the sunset. We asked for half a bottle of wine, but they only had full bottles, don't worry, we made due.










We made it back to the hotel to meet up with everyone else, enjoyed a few more bottles of wine, I once again spilled red wine on white pants, I keep wondering when I'll give up on the white pants in general, I'm sure that would make my friend Missy happy, who I think still believes white pants are a fashion no. We also went out to dinner, where we met our new best friend, Rogier.








The next day we had an all you can eat buffet breakfast, why not, it's what I do now; before we departed for the winery. Who can resist a little wine at 9:30 in the morning...




































Many people have hobbies, like reading, knitting or other things to keep themselves mentally stimulated. I'd love to say that I'm one of those people, but I would be lying, I enjoy those things, but I'm not sure there is a better way to spend a day besides a wine tour... while we were watching the informative video on the history of Chateau Ksara, there was mention of Jesus and I think I said something like, no wonder I believe in this whole Jesus thing, he was able to turn water into wine... We toured the caves, I should have put some pictures of that in actually, and we had a great time, our tour guide was giving us all the history and then telling us about the process when one of my friends looked at me and said it's nice to know how the wine gets from the vines to the bottle and all, but I'm more concerned about how it is going to get from the bottle to my mouth. The wine was actually pretty good, I wasn't sure what to expect and it was a beautiful area. Next we headed towards Baalback, via Bekka Valley.








This was a bridge that had been destroyed in earlier fighting. We saw many signs of destruction from the war from, 1975 - 1990 and also more recent clashes. We could see Syria from where we were, it was only a few kilometers away. The countryside was beautiful and it was amazing to see green again.

We eventually made it to Baalback, this area has strong ties with Hezzbolah and they were trying to sell us t-shirts that supported them. I'm sure that would somehow come back to haunt me and I would never get through security lines at airports seeing that I was supportive of them... obviously we avoided purchasing said items. I also was very proud of Mark and commented numerous times how he was able to just walk by the random stands and didn't stop for tea one time! Impressive after our Jordan trip.


















Our guide, which I have a picture of I should post, told me that this time I visit Lebanon and he is my guide, next time I come as his guest. I think I should take him up on that, I'm sure his wife and children would love to have me around. I love to see the sites and walk around, but I tend to get bored about mid way through and would prefer to just quickly finish up, we eventually learned that it didn't work that way, we had to follow him and he would just wait till we all showed up. He then had us posing for these pictures like we're holding things up or something, I didn't quite get it, but just like most things in Dubai, sometimes it's just easier to do what people tell you to do and not ask questions.

Next we headed towards the Aanjar Ruins with a stop at some restaurant for lunch. We were eating our lunch, which was more food than necessary for a small village I'm sure. After lunch Jess was ready to go, so she suggested that we get on the bus, a few people had wandered off, but most of us were there. After we got on the bus and one guy set off to find the others, our guide got kind of worked up with Jess and said something like, you didn't tell them, blah, blah, blah, I'm not sure exactly what the issue was, but he wasn't happy with her, this was the second time she had gotten "in trouble" with the guide, previously she had her shoes up on the seat. We were wondering if it was a three strike you're out kind of place or what.

Some of you may not know two of my biggest fears, but they are one, that I will be going up the stairs and somehow slip and my knee cap will end up basically slipping up my leg and the other is that I will fall through the grates (is that even a word). When we were in Florence, one of my friends was so sick of it he just screamed out one day as we were walking, "What is wrong with you, you don't eat meat and can't walk on grates!" Actually, if those were my biggest problems, life would be good... but, during this trip I was worried a lot about both things happening, and I really couldn't stop thinking how much it would hurt to get shot.





























That last photo has inspired a new idea... Poles around the world. I decided that I will eventually put together a little album of us looking like poles everywhere. That may seem like it's not that high, but it was quite entertaining to figure out how I was going to get up there. Jess and I were trying on our own, very ineffective and brought back memories of her trying to shove me up on this other ledge thing when we were in Jordan, plus I didn't want to get my pants dirty, so, as you can see I was facing a ton of obstacles. When do you think I will learn not to wear white? Probably right around the time I stop dressing for the weather I want it to be as opposed to what the weather actually is... We set off to find Mark to help me get up there, when we told him we needed some help, he gave us a look, but couldn't figure out exactly how to say no so was forced to come along. He just hopped up there with ease, which just bothered me, but then he was able to somehow pull me up. Then, since I was wearing flip flops, getting down was a whole other issue. Eventually Luke walked by and I just gave each of them a hand and then one leg at at time they somehow just lifted me down, which was nice, but at the same time annoyed me that boys are just stronger than girls, there is no way two girls could have just easily lifted me. It drives me crazy! And, I still can't do a pull up. Life really is hard. We were all very ready to get home at this point, it was a long day, but we did want to go out that night. Rogier, from the night before, was waiting at the hotel for us, we had told him to meet us at 6:00, but didn't get back to the hotel till 6:45 or so. We all eventually ended up drinking more wine in our room, checking our facebook accounts and downloading pictures while we heard some classic stories from Jess, I'm really wondering how it is possible that I have known her for months and we never talked about some of these things. It reminded me of the time we spent an hour talking about NOTHING and then she said, oh I forget to tell you, my Mom's moving to Oman. Seriously? At one point we were going to play drinking Jenga, one of the tiles I grabbed whild previewing the game said, tell the person two people to your left what makes you a good life partner. We had quite a good time with that one! I think I started off commenting on what a patient person I was... We ended up going out to a few different bars that were awesome! The cobblestone street we were on, I'm not sure what the name of it was, was just lined with tons of little cafes, bars and restaurants. The last place we were at was this swanky place, but between the loud music and smoke, Kim and I left early. The rest of Team Beirut (minus one sick soul...) stayed out a bit later. They went to I think two other places that night, I'll just give you some highlights... one girl fell off a table, one girl wasn't quite sure where she woke up and then kept saying "Where are my pants? I can't find my pants?" and one girl didn't make it home till the next morning. Those of us that did make it home were trying to figure out what to do, our discussion included brilliant statements, like, Are you worried? I'm just going to go to the bathroom and think about how worried we should be? Fortunately everybody made it back home and we had a fun day talking about Rogier, apparently our new best friend.

The next morning was a bit of a rough start, some people ate their Shwarmas that they ordered at 5:00am on the bus for breakfast, it was that kind of night. Jess and I had an interesting walk down to the local store and spent some time explaining to them how we were going to move to Beirut someday... It was election day, so many of the roads were blocked, we were going to go to Byblos, but instead went to the Beiteddine Palace and then some weird twisted museum that portrayed students being hit and forced so kneel on hot coals and a hung Santa Claus in this room filled with freaky miniature things and animals on tracks moving about. Weird.

The Palace was awesome to walk around and lay in the sun. It was the best to actually see grass and trees and be able to be outside without being drenched in sweat!




























The picture below is of this guy at the end of creepy museum. He made us tea, sang some and pounded on a drum like thing. There was also about 8 zillion guns in the other section of the museum that I basically sprinted through so I could just sit outside to wait for everyone else.









Next we got back on the bus to head towards Pigeon Rock for lunch and some time to relax before we headed off to the airport. As I had said earlier, Jess and the bus driver and tour guide, were pretty much best friends and it only gets better. As we are all half asleep, the driver pulls over and the tour guide announces that there is water coming up along the floor what is it? Is it broken, do you need to put on the cap, etc. Basically treating it like it's this big crisis. So we're on the side of the road, we sort out that Jess's juice broke, they are panicing and cleaning it up and all this, then we get it sorted out, or so we think, and we're on the road again. All feeling kind of bad, but really, it was just some spilled juice. Then the tour guide stands up holding up this bag that is half soaked with juice and announces to everyone, really focusing in on Jess, this is the drivers medications! This is what happened, this is what we were concerned about. We all just went silent, or at least tried to be, but at the same time we couldn't stop laughing! Once again, all Jess's fault. We were just looking at her and cracking up. We eventually make it to our lunch spot, had an awesome lunch, drank some wine and walked around a bit. Jess tried apologizing to the driver again, but they were like, oh no problem. Yes, after the public humiliation, it was no problem. I was dying, it was just hilarious! We wander off to go and get some ice cream and Mark, Jess and I end up getting to the bus last, we weren't late, just last. Mark hops on and says, sorry Jessica got lost. To which the guide says something to Jessica about how she's the only one without her ticket ready, and can she go to the back and get it out? I guess it's not a three strike rule or we would have had to leave Jess there at Pigeon Rock.

We finally make it to the airport, we grab our bags, well at least most of us do and start heading towards the security gate. After a few minutes, Jess walks up to me and says, who'd you get to carry your bag? I had just decided the best idea was to leave an unattended bag in the middle east on election day, brilliant. Someone had grabbed it for me, really, what is my problem? If someone had told me a year ago that I would be going to Beirut for a long weekend, I would have thought they were crazy. As we were sitting on the plane, Jess, who had earlier said the next person that tells me I have a sunburn I'm just going to lose it on them, but when it happened it was the passport/customs guy, so she wisely chose to hold it together, but anyways, we're sitting on the plane, she leans over and says, I think I was so worried about dying this weekend that I forgot to take care of the normal everyday things, like sunscreen.

Beirut. Unbelievable, I can't wait to go back!

Unbelievable!

As if there isn't enough annoying things that happen at work, I've spent the last couple of hours dealing with a very, very, very serious incident that occurred this morning. I'm not sure if you are all aware or not, "other duties as assigned" is written in on my job description. While most tasks I find annoying there are a few that seem unreasonable, the first being if there is ever a lock down situation, I am to be patrolling the halls, right. Secondly, if there is a fire, I am meant to go into the building and assist as necessary, and lastly, my favorite, Wal-mart greeter. Every morning I am assigned an area where I need to open doors and help manage traffic situations in the back lot. Well, today, I just was done dealing with this one woman who continually has her driver park the car in the drop off lane, takes about a zillion years to get her and her kids out and then yells at us on a daily basis complaining about one thing or another. So, this morning, her driver had been standing on the curb with the backpacks for about 5 minutes, and that was once I started timing it, and cars were all backed up and double parked, kids started getting out in unsupervised areas, certain cars were trapped into their parking spaces, all because of this one car. So, I went out, asked the driver to move the car, and as usual he looked at me like, what do you want me to do, if I listen to you and move the car, Ms. Princess in the back seat will go crazy? I walked over to the car, ripped open the door screamed at her that I didn't care that she was pregnant and that she needed to come with me immediately to see the Principal. Or not, depending on who you believe. I informed her that her car was creating an unsafe situation for many children. She proceeded to tell me that "you guys" doubled the enrollment and did not allow for additional parking and she was pregnant and it was only going to get worse when the baby was born. Great, as if I care and/or had anything to do with increasing the enrollment and there is plenty of parking, which is beside the fact, because she has a driver. I just asked her to move her car again, wrote down her license plate number and then walked inside. A few minutes later she comes flying into the hallway, yelling about how there were other cars and why was I only asking her to move, so, I told her it was because she was from Pakistan. Just kidding. She went on and on about how she was going to go tell the Principal and I said, oh actually, one of the administrators happens to be right here, lets go talk to her, to which Ms. Princess yelled, I need to get my kids to class. Well, maybe if she just would have done that to start with this wouldn't be an issue. At this point in the day, Roberta and I have had to type up what happened, said Princess has stated she's going to call the owner of GEMS, has already called our superintendent to make an appointment and she has had some sort of speaker phone conversation with my principal and vice principal. Are you kidding me? Our vice principal has come into my office more than once to get clarification on how the "situation" was handled. What a waste of time. This is my work life. And, the thing is, there is no way of knowing whether or not this will end up being my fault and I may actually get in trouble for enforcing the rules, because that's the way it works around here. Since I'm being all negative at this point, I'll fill you in on something we've been working on, the top 5 things we learned at DAA. I'll just start with one, it's what's on the outside that counts. The rest will be just as entertaining I'm sure. 4 and 1/2 hours till the weekend. I hope I make it.

Bon Jovi rocks.... as does soccer!

This week really was the best possible outcome, let's hope that lasts through the weekend, which I will fill you all in on if, I mean when, I return. The video above is from our game last night, it was so fun and we won! But, first let's start with how freakin AMAZING the Bon Jovi concert was. Every single thing about it, awesome. Pre party at Jesse's, totally fun, bus ride down, great, although it was pretty long, random bathroom stop, hilarious, concert, every single song was one that we knew, although, Bon Jovi did go all country on us... which I loved! I have tons of photo's; I'll post them later, I brought the wrong connector cable to work. The bus ride home was fun too, one of our friends has this phone that has all this music on it, so we were all singing random love songs from the 80's and 90's, Chicago, Cheap Trick, well, just about anything you can come up with. We sounded great. I didn't even drink that night, but still took the day off because I knew how late we'd be getting home. So, the next day Jess and I went over to Liz's house and had a spa day. We lounged in and around her pool and talked. Then, she made us the best lunch ever, it was the perfect "personal day". I told Liz I was going to be back again soon. After Spa Day, it was pretty tough to motivate to get to soccer, but once there, it was a fun game. It really is one of the best things about living in Dubai! We only have two games left, sad.

Bon Jovi = Best possible outcome

Tonight is the night! We have a bus arranged and I have the day off tomorrow, which I plan to spend lounging by a pool. What could be better! I've been holding these "counseling out or retention" meetings all day. They are awful; so I have just been focusing on the idea that at 5:00 we will be on our way. We were discussing different clothing options, but really, what is appropriate for a 80's rock band outdoor concert when the weather is 110 degrees and humid? Last night we were at soccer practice and literally, just standing there, we were all dripping with sweat. Disgusting. We also did this drill where I ended up being taken out by a teammate and am currently covered in bruises on both legs. Hopefully that pays off in our game tomorrow. Here's a photo from "American Night" a few weeks ago, good times!

Birthday weekend!

It's Sunday and I'm at work, it will never feel normal... Bon Jovi this week, I could not be more excited! The concert is down at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi and apparently we are taking one of the school buses down at 5:00, the concert starts at 9:00, I'm hoping I don't melt. Outdoor weather is officially over, it's freakishly hot, temperatures have been as high as 109 degrees and the humidity is unbearable. The weekend was great, we went to Barasti for Kim and Mark's birthdays on Thursday evening. I went for a ridiculously hot run with the running club on Friday morning, it was over 90 degrees at 6:00 in the morning and we ran till 9:00, I think it was a little over 100 degrees and humid by the time we finished. I honestly thought I was going to pass out.

We had a girl's lunch for Kim's birthday at The One and Only Royal Mirage, it is definitely my favorite hotel in Dubai. It cracked me up because while Jesse and I were heading to the hotel, I got one text from Kim that said, "It's nice here" and then about 30 seconds later I got one from Jess that said, "Prepare to sweat." I was cracking up! We ended up moving to the inside for our lunch, honestly, it was probably 105 degrees and humid, too hot for outdoor dining. Later that night Caroline hosted a surprise birthday cake party for Kim, it was hilarious, when Caroline called Kim to come over and help her with something, Kim walked in with her pajamas on and was very surprised to say the least. I took a personal day on Wednesday, I figure I will be too exhausted to work after the big night out... I also am pretty much done working for the year. I am so disgusted with administration that I can't deal. I was telling a co-worker who got hired for the high school position and she just said, "wait till that gets out...". Whatever.

And so it goes...

Well, I interviewed for a high school position and didn't get it. I'm stuck in the E.S. for one more year, which will almost 100% be my last here at this school, but you know, I fail to commit to anything, ever, so I may change my mind. I set up about a zillion different scenarios of what I would be okay with as far as who they were to hire. Then, a new one was thrown in and I knew it was game over. So, to be fair, I am licensed to work at the high school and middle school level, but have no experience with high school counseling, which at our school is basically scheduling and college counseling. I could do it; if they can throw me in to my current position as a coffee pouring, assessing, parent schmoozing, report writing, master of controlling three year old minds position, I don't feel like there is anything I can't learn to do here. During the interview, they spent some time stressing how it would all be new and they were really looking for an experienced college placement counselor. So, they decided to hire a woman who has just completed 4 maybe 5 courses in Canada that allow her to have a Canadian Guidance Counseling License, she has no experience, no internship and oh, did I mention she's married to our superintendent?

New pictures... midweek...

Well, this week I have finally been taking full advantage of the Vonage phone service. What I've learned is that people are actually reading this, would like more pictures and maybe some midweek updates. So, since I'm feeling accommodating, here goes...

Work = Lame

The rest of life continues to go well. We got an e-mail from our soccer captain, asking us if we were willing to commit 100% for September. What I'm not sure she knows about me is that I have a pretty difficult time committing to dinner plans.

We have another birthday party this weekend, surprisingly it's at Barasti, fortunately nobody has suggested Friday Brunch this weekend. It's teacher appreciation week, you would not believe the lunch that our parent organized for us! The food was amazing.









Ok, so the two girls on the lounge chairs are Kim and Jesse. We were at Barasti watching Manchester U. vs Chelsea with some friends. The next one is Jesse, Alice, Jessica and I on American Night. About 10 - 15 of us met out for an evening of tax evasion, political bashing, general stereotyping all with massive quantities of food and drink... as our friend Josh was leaving he suggested making it a monthly event. I had a great time, but was feeling Catholic Guilt and I'm not even Catholic... The next picture is Jesse, Jessica, our waiter and me at The Cellar brunch we went to last weekend. Does it seem like there are more wine glasses than there are people?
Lastly, here is a picture of my ceiling. I wish I could explain what a poor job they do of solving any sort of maintenance issues. There was what appeared to be a small mold problem, I let them know and in a few short weeks they were up to fix it. The solution, easy, just cut a massive hole in the ceiling, leave it for about a week, paint over the mold and put the exact same piece of ceiling back up. Of course, it's totally acceptable to leave a massive disaster of my entire apartment. Really?

Champagne wishes and caviar dreams...

Once you've made it into Ahlan, you know you've made it in Dubai. Here are some of my friends at the Westin Hotel Grand opening last week...

Brunch, Barasti, Bed...the new 3 B's...

So, I think I might be going for the world record of the most Brunch/Barasti weekends in a row. Ridiculous. Last year a friend of mine created the 3 B's program, it was going to be Big Brother Bullying, when an older high school student mentored a middle school student who just needed to be pushed around a bit to understand that they should not be bullying others just because they were the toughest of their grade, there is always somebody bigger and stronger. Of course the program never even got off the ground... but I thought it would be successful! This new 3 B's program, well, so far so good. I've been enjoying it as of late. Thursday we went to this great wine bar that I LOVED! We did a blind tasting had some snacks and then walked right next door to eat Sushi and share another bottle of wine. I got up Friday and ran with Blind Dave, it was cool, the guy just pretty much amazes me! After the run, a few of us went to The Cellar Brunch. We carried on the rest of the afternoon and well into the early hours of the morning, we went to Irish Village, Barasti, The Agency and eventually made it home. Saturday was spent lounging about, I watched King Kong, with all these creepy people, animal planet, ate a couple of different lunches, then went up to a friend's to eat dinner and watch Lost. I also spent a fair amount of time thinking about how I need to go grocery shopping. It's hot. It was 103 degrees by 11:00 in the morning, we tried to sit outside for lunch at the Beach Bar and Grille and realized pretty quickly outdoor weather is officially over... sad.

Magical May...

That last entry was a little bit of a downer...

A friend of mine just coined the term "Magical May" it's when we set goals and they will all come true because we believe they will, through the power of positive thinking our dreams will become reality. Before I get all positive, I would like to share my most recent transaction with one of the four accountants that are sitting in the accounting office at their computers looking very busy.

Me: No, the housing fee is only 338 dirhams, you’re giving me 388 dirhams.
Accountant: I give you 2 dirhams later. I bring to you. 388.
Me: No, the housing fee is only 338, you’re giving me too much money.
Accountant: Yes, I know, I bring to you 2 dirhams.
Me: You’re giving me too much money.
Accountant: Yes, 2 dirhams I bring.
Me: I give up you bring me whatever you want.

That is a typical conversation.

Ok, on to Magical May. Everyone sets different goals, we have all been analyzing them to be sure that they are both measurable and achievable. I have only come up with one so far, I want to figure out the process for getting my Professional Counseling License in Dubai. Notice I don't say actually "get" the license because that is definitely not something that is within my control. A couple different people chose the goal to find a "mutual romantic interest". We were in the car driving home from the mall (which we spent half the day looking for soccer shoes that I never did find) when a friend of mine got a text inviting him to join some other friends at Barasti (shocking, I know) to hang out and have a few drinks. We were commenting on how he should go because that's how he'll meet people, etc. and I think his comment was something like, well I should go, but I wasn't really planning on doing that, I'd like to watch Lost, eat chips and salsa and I need to go to the grocery store, it may surprise you, but I don't actually want to spend all my money out every evening drinking too much... He's not going to have much luck with finding a "mutual romantic interest" like that...

I had a very typical college dorm day on Saturday, I woke up, went out to lunch with one friend, stopped by another friend's place for about an hour, three of us went to the mall and drank some coffee at Starbucks before we did some group shopping, had planned on watching Lost at a friend's house at 6:00. As I was walking up the stairs to her room I saw another friend coming down and he was like, she's not home. So what was my solution? Let's go sit outside her door, I'm sure she'll be home soon. We sit down and just start talking, then she calls to say she's going to be late and we'll have to do it a different time. One would think that would be enough motivation to get us off the floor, but no, we're still sitting there talking when she gets home. We go in, eat chips and salsa and watch her try on clothes for the "champagne opening" of the Westin that she was just randomly invited to... only in Dubai!

You might be wondering about the weather... I'm sure there is not anything better to think about... but, this weekend after the baby shower brunch, I went down to my apartment to get a few things done before the birthday thing I was going to that night, and I thought, oh, I wonder how hot it's been lately, it seems to be warm during the days... so I get online to check. I could not believe how hot it had been! When I was at home, I was pretty convinced that by the time I got back from the states, it would be too hot to do anything outside. Well, I was totally wrong, April was great, the weather seemed perfect, a few days it seemed pretty hot, but nothing too bad. I was SHOCKED to find that the weather had been in the hundreds for much of the month of April, I honestly had no idea! I thought it was maybe in the mid 80's, possibly low 90's. Crazy. It seems like the humidity is heading in though, that should be fun, I've been missing foggy glasses.

6 weeks from Thursday... let the countdown begin...