It's all good in the Hood...

I am just about to head out and watch the Euro 2008 Finals with some friends and am LOVING being back in the Hood! I had a great time up at my sister's house. The kids are awesome, some family came up for my nephew's baptism, I went and visited a girlfriend up in Bellevue, enjoyed the sun, the cool mornings, running, NW wine, fruits and vegetables with flavor... Yeah! After a few days in WA I headed down to PDX, met up with some friends for dinner,









saw my nanny kids, BBQ, went to an outdoor concert at Edgefield,










and then headed out to HR for the weekend.













It has been awesome! 6th Street for dinner and to see Chris,









the river for some sun, the water is ICE cold, went to Dog River for coffee, ran 13 miles on an old favorite trail, walked around town taking pictures of everything, I was basically being that tourist that I make fun of. Linds and I went to the Naked Winery tasting room. Look it up, it's got some very provocative names and descriptions of their wine, as you can imagine. We sat outside both days and I never want to leave... Someday I'll be back here, I love OR, but HR is definitely where I'd like to call home again someday, it just doesn't get better than this!

Update

Made it to Seattle, eventually. It was the worst travel experience ever. It was topped off by my luggage not making it home with me. If it's not here in three days, I should call.

And that's how that goes...

It's June 20, 3:47am. Where should I be? Flying. Where am I? Sitting in the Dubai airport. Unfreakin believable! I arrived to the ticket counter 2 hours before departure, long story short, they overbooked our flight by approximately 30 people. Too slow to catch the 12:05am flight, too late once they ticketed me on the 2:10am flight. Now, 7 hours after arriving to the airport, I am sitting in some lounge drinking free red wine and working on this, exactly what I want to be doing right now. It doesn't help that I stayed out till 2ish for our soccer thing the other night, I guess yesterday or sort of anyways. So, Wednesday was quite eventful. Kids last day, drink with Diana, E.S. Happy Hour, met Liz at the Westin wine bar, walked straight over to the, you guessed it, all you can eat/drink buffet for our soccer team and then we went to Barasti to watch some soccer. Long day, which is making this whole thing even more painful. In the end, I'm only arriving into Seattle 3 and a half hours later than expected, but the torturous way it came about and the fact that I am literally staying up all night is just frustrating! I can't wait to get home...

Dubai Summary...

Dubai, there is no way to summarize the lifestyle over here; there are definite ups and downs, with high highs and low lows! Over the past 10 months I’ve joined a running club that I love, ran many races including, two 10K’s, the Creek Relay, the Dubai Half Marathon, the RAK Half Marathon and the Dubai Marathon. I also joined a women’s soccer league, which has been the best thing I've done since moving here. I've also enjoyed the big city life of fancy dinners and luxurious hotels, which along with that comes the high prices, traffic and crazy taxi rides. The weather has been much like life in general here, horrifically unbearable and then really great. The beaches are beautiful and I’ve had lots of opportunities to travel; including Sri Lanka, Doha, Jordan, Oman and Beirut. I've also attended sporting events, including the Dubai Desert Classic, World Cup Horse Races, World Cup 2010 Qualifier soccer match between Australia and Iraq, a major tennis event, plus we saw David Gray and my favorite, Bon Jovi. I’ve met tons of interesting and amazing people, along with people that I would be happy to never see again. Work. That’s about all I want to say about that.

I'm definitely ready to get on the plane, it's just under 40 hours! Today is the kids last day of school, then we have our ES Happy Hour, then I head right to the Westin wine bar to meet Liz and then our soccer party is at some all you can eat/drink dinner... what is it about all you cans in Dubai! It should be fun, but I'm sure the next morning work won't be. I am literally counting down the minutes!

72 hours and counting....

So, I've become addicted to facebook, this goes against all that I think is good. But my latest "status update" is something like... Lisa is wondering if passengers on her flight would prefer"You're a Grand Old Flag" or "The Star Spangled Banner" when the plane takes off in, well now, 72 hours... I'm going to take a moment to defend my newly acquired affection for facebook. It really does make it easy to keep in touch with other people, share pictures, have a quick laugh, play some scrabble... yes, I realize I'm only trying to convince myself here...




I have a few pictures from this weekend...

Jumeriah Beach Hotel









Dancing at ???











The work week was as disappointing as it always is, what really gets me, is that somehow, things still surprise me. I had already been playing a secret game of "only speak when spoken to" to try to limit the amount of conversations I had to have with anyone, when things just turned bizarre. I have to move offices, they are turning our current V.P. office into 4 shared offices with little to no privacy. Yes, we are counselors, supposedly dealing with sensitive issues, but don't worry, they'll be another room that we can use for our meetings. I'm wondering if by"meetings" they mean babysitting quarters for the first part of the year next year? Even our phone calls should be done in private, I'm not sure who they are kidding. I'm very curious to see what it looks like. Anyways, when I asked my administrator when I should expect boxes so I could pack up and label my things, she tells me, boxes are 600aed, and you'll just have to do that yourself. Really? They can't even provide boxes?

I'm so excited to get out of there! Underhanded, negative, back stabbing, cover your back, nepotism at it's best, then, I think about all the things I love about Dubai, I mean, look at the Burj... it's amazing! We had lunch at the Madinat and that's what we were looking at. Notice, it's way too hot to be outside again, empty tables everywhere... A few girls from my soccer team went out to Old Town for dinner last night, it was a beautiful night, and oddly for this time of year, it cooled off enough that we were able to sit outside. Then tonight I went out with a few friends to this Indian place in Satwa, it's totally different there. It's not the glitzy hotels, or fancy restaurants, it's more like real people doing real life. I still feel like I'm on vacation. Speaking of... I guess I should go pack...

Life, Dubai Style

It's hard to sum up what life is like here, as I've said about a zillion times. I'm imagining if I took the time to type up characteristics of a number of different disorders as listed in the DSM - IV TR, or maybe there's a new version..., it might begin to define the Dubai Personality Disorder. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I've started statements with: "in real life I..." or "the Dubai Lisa...". I'm really starting to wonder about the type of person that moves to Dubai, I mean, there are all ages (although, they do restrict visas, and it is difficult to get one, or maybe just way more expensive, if you are above the age of 60), nationalities, career types, singles, couples and families. Wait, not the type of person that moves, maybe better said, they type of person that stays. There seems to be a different type of drive and motivation in careers, money, who you know, what you've done, what you have, then what I'm used to. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm in the education field and was living in small town USA for the last 4 years, but it's like a whole new breed of people! Not better, worse, good or bad, just for me, really hard to adjust to. The work world dynamics, or at least what I understand from them, remind me a little of the small town high school graduate who was the best of the best academically, socially and in sports and then they go away to college and everyone was the best of the best, so in order to prove themselves, they work like crazy and become these really focused, driven people. But, the thing is, and this is only my opinion, I think many people here tend to lose sight of the end goal and instead get caught up in the game. I'm sure it happens all over the world, but in Dubai, I think it really is just more intense, bigger, better, best, the land of superlatives (which I belong in by the way...). I ran into a friend that I hadn't seen in a while at this soccer game I went to last night, and it was great to see him, we were talking and he just started mentioning about his promotion etc., and just the way it was said was what bothered me. Of course, I'm excited that he got the promotion, he deserved it, I think it's great, but it doesn't make me like him more or less based on his work title. And, is there ever a time when it makes sense to work 6 days a week, 14 - 16 hour days, as a lifestyle, not just because of an extenuating circumstance? For me, there's not. How is that a life? The environment seems to breed huge egos. This, combined with this predetermined class system of workers, the language barriers, the level of stress, not having family support close by, it's just crazy! It's almost like you never know how you'll react to any given situation. I really worry about the way I will talk to people when I'm home this summer, and how much, in such a short time, I've seen my attitude towards other people and cultures literally change. I have never been so careless with statements about entire groups of people, or social structures in other countries! I hear myself and am shocked and embarrassed. And, what makes it all worse, is that there is a part of me that really does like it here. In a typical weekend, I do more than what I would do in a month at home. I spend a lot of time comparing life in Dubai to life at home. There are definitely good/bad parts to both, but for now, and the fact that I signed a two year contract, Dubai seems to be winning out. Although, I can't wait to get home for the summer. I think I need a break from this place.

Speaking of comparing... on Thursday night, our Friday (I don't think I'll ever really adjust to the new weekend), I went out to dinner with three friends. It was at one of my favorite hotels, the place was nice, the service was fine, food was good, conversation great, overall, just a random good night. We had a couple bottles of wine, one of the girls looked at the list and literally ordered the cheapest bottle of the kind she wanted. I don't generally think about the bill anymore, but it was around $400. And that's normal, that's what you pay here to have a good meal, the least expensive bottle of wine and an okay atmosphere. It's not even really a complaint, it's just shocking sometimes how expensive things are and how that has become normal. If I was at home, another statement used far too often, I would think about it before I ordered an $80 bottle of wine, or it would be some type of occasion, or my favorite, but here, it's not even something you can be bothered to think about.

Moving on...there are a million different end of the year activities planned and different things to take care of, so it's really busy! This weekend was awesome, like I said, dinner on Thursday, had a stroll down memory lane and had carrot cake at The Lime Tree for breakfast on Friday, went to my end of the year soccer party that night, a long, leisurely breakfast on Saturday, followed by a World Cup Qualifier match between Iraq and Australia. And, I wonder why I like this place!

Here we are in our uniforms...

The end of the year party was at the Radisson SAS in Media City, so pretty close by to where I live. It was a "pool party" but nobody on our team chose to partake in that part. Although, it did add to the excitement of the evening watching others. Another team went to a brunch before the party, I'm sure you can imagine at this point how that turned out for them! This is the beginning of the evening, by the end, we had livened up a bit.

Kelli, myself, Kim and Kathleen

Pauline and Jen, doing a little jig

We were putting on a show. When our official soccer party ended we moved to a new location in the same hotel. You know those groups of people that walk into a bar, go straight for the crowded dance floor and then somehow become the only ones dancing? Right, we were those people. As you can see, we were amazing, if only you could hear us too.

The following day, I got a text from a friend in the morning that said he was able to get tickets to the Australia vs. Iraq game that evening. I was totally excited because I had been trying to sort out how to get them and couldn't figure it out. The tickets were $100 US for Australians and $20 for Iraqi's. Interesting. While we were there, a friend came up to us (I was with another American girl) and asked why we were for Australia, or something like that, I think the response was, well, it's like you're our 51 state, followed shortly by a comment like, and, we're bombing Iraq, I'm not sure we'd be welcomed over there. It was ridiculously hot, I was almost laughing about it, except that I was so miserable. But, I find it hilarious that at this stage in my life, sweat was literally running down my arms as if someone had dumped water on me, and while it was completely unpleasant and I hated it, it wasn't nearly as embarrassing as one might thing. Likely because I was one of many people feeling the same way, but I'm not sure I ever thought it would be reasonable to be using a friends t-shirt to wipe sweat off me... I think I'm supposed to say the game was awful because Iraq won, but, I'm not going to because I really had a great time! I'm sure it would have been better had "we" won, maybe next week, in Qatar. I love Australians, yes, all of them. They just seem so fun and into the game and having a good time!

So there it is, more random thoughts and weekend news. I should probably get back to work...

It's arrived...

It's back! The heat and humidity just descended on us... Last night we had our last soccer game of the season, at first I was feeling sad and disappointed that it was coming to an end, but I have never felt anything quite as uncomfortable as our game last night. The heat and humidity was unreal; it's been hot before, literally in the 100's, but it was the first night that it has been ridiculously hot and humid, I've honestly never felt anything like it before, it was like the heat was radiating through me and at me. I wonder if that's what it would be like to be microwaved.

Just a quick work story too... so a friend of mine applied for a job at the middle school a few weeks ago, of course they basically tell him whatever is easier for us to fill, your current position, or the one you are applying for, is basically how that's going to work out. Makes sense, I guess, annoying, because one would think you would want to keep current staff happy and help them work towards their professional goals, maybe keep them around longer, but that would involve "forward thinking"... and I thought that was one of our corporate goals... but anyways, this is how they chose to tell him he got the job. My friend is sitting in his classroom, with a tutoring student, and our superintendent walks in and says, so, we hired a great teacher for the MS position, sorry, it must feel pretty bad, you've applied for two positions over there, blah, blah, blah. This is all, by the way, in front of a student. Then, the superintendent leaves for about a minute, and then walks back in and says, well, you're a great teacher. My friend is thinking, what, is this his way of making me feel better? Then, this is unbelievable, admin really never does stop amazing me, just when I think they couldn't get any worse, he says you're the great teacher, you are the one we hired for the position. I could not believe it, it would not be difficult to have the whole thing be professional and great. All he had to do was say, hey, can I talk to you when you are available, then say Congratulations! I'm happy to tell you that you are the most qualified person and we are excited that you will be able to move into the position you applied for. Now, I don't have my doctorate in human relations or anything, but it just doesn't seem that hard. What a funny "joke"! I mean, really, could they do things any more unprofessionally?

Better day...

Apparently yesterday was just a bad day. Still can't wait to get home, but am not feeling quite so crazed this morning. I sorted out a thing or two last night and somehow didn't feel like throwing myself off a crane this morning. I got quite a laugh about something that wasn't really funny this morning to start my day. A friend of mine comes into my office and explains, long story short, that her son and another boy were talking after school yesterday and one boy said to the other, I'm sure I'll mess this up, but you'll get the general idea... If somebody knocked over your stuff would you be sad? The other kid said yes, or whatever, then the kid says, would you be so sad that you would take a gun and shoot yourself dead forever? I'm sure my friend, the mom, probably nearly had a heart attack. I'm not real sure what happened, admin is looking into it, but apparently in art they were learning about Vincent Van Gogh. Did I mention the kids are 5?

Tonight is our last soccer game, sad. We're going to go early and watch the Australian team practice. Apparently their is a world cup qualifier match Iraq v. Australia on Saturday night, we've been trying everything we can think of to figure out how to get tickets, no luck. It's driving me crazy because I'd really like to go!

Homesick... finally

So, with less than 16 days to go, I'm finally feeling a little homesick. I was standing outside yesterday talking with a friend and realizing that I can actually deal with 109 degree weather without sweat dripping down my face, have come to the realization that work is what it is (awful), people are the way they are and basically that's just how it goes. The more I think about how close getting on that plane is, the farther away it seems. I'm both totally excited and really nervous about coming home. Yesterday I was talking to a friend about the weather and realizing I'm going to freeze, fine. Then this morning I was talking to another friend about a different friend that is just moving home after living abroad forever and I just couldn't get the conversation out of my head most of the day. I was telling him this morning that I returned to the table the other night when we were all out to dinner because I'd gotten up to complain about something, I can't even remember what it was, and when I got back I said something like, I didn't even have to yell at him. I'm not sure when, or if, I have ever yelled at a waiter or waitress in the states, but now, it's noteworthy when I don't do it. That's totally embarrassing! I had sort of a bad day yesterday, nothing too bad, and I was sitting up in my apartment, basically feeling sorry for myself because I didn't really have anybody here to talk to about it. Not that I don't have great friends or people that I could have called, but here, you almost have to watch how often you talk to people about things that are bothering you, because we all have so much to deal with you don't want to burden someone with the dumb things. I think maybe it's just that everything is ending, people are moving, lots of change and it's all stressful. The end of the year is usually chaotic and awful in schools, but in true Dubai style, nothing compares to this year... I think we all need to just get out of here for a while, it's hard, living, working, breathing, socializing everything with the same people all the time. I think with my 4:15 run times, I'm probably just tired now too. We have our last soccer game tomorrow and I'm thinking about just giving up on running these last few weeks, it's ridiculously uncomfortable by the end of the runs and it's not really that fun. Ugh. I'm ready to come home and do nothing but drink wine, talk to friends and family and run in reasonable temperatures... and, I hope I'm not the demanding, cynical, self centered, short tempered person I've somehow become since moving here!

Magical May highlights...

Bringing peace to Lebanon was quite possibly the highlight of Magical May, but there were also some very stellar events... Last night we had a Magical May dinner celebration up at Jesse's place and then watched Lost. It seemed to be the month of B's... Brunches, Barasti, Baby shower, Blind Dave, Boys, Beirut, Birthdays and we can't forget Bon Jovi... Jess Tanner was the only one who really made Magical May goals and I am happy to report that all five of her goals were achieved. This weekend was fun, went and saw Indiana Jones, quite possibly the worst movie ever, on Thursday, ran at 5:15 in the morning on Friday, the whole way home I was running and thinking about how hot it was, only to check when I got home at 7:00 and it was already 97 degrees, no wonder I was dying! I finally bought a new phone and some computer speakers before we all headed out to the JW Marriot brunch. It was great, I think there were about 15 - 20 of us there and then we headed over to Waxy's afterwards. I was home and in bed by 8:00 that night. I can't wait to get home! It's two weeks from Thursday. I sent an e-mail to one of the new counselors basically saying how awful this place is, I realize it's unprofessional and probably not the best idea, but I almost feel like it would be unethical to NOT tell her what it's really like... one of my facebook entries went something like, when you are throwing up at work, it probably means it's time for a new job... This is the last week for soccer, we have our end of year league party and our staff party on Friday, I'm definitely going to the soccer one and debating about the other one... I'm not sure I really need to have one more night at Double Decker, apparently our schools venue of choice.... we'll see!