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...

Summer 2008.Italian tour...

After a disastrous morning I barely made my train up to Seattle on Sunday, the 27th. I drove up to Battleground, WA to visit some friends of mine and meet their new little girl, Lindsey, which was AWESOME. As usual, I thought I had way more time to do way too many things, was driving all over town trying to do a zillion last minute errands, got to Katie's house late and then didn't have the right key. Perfect. Eventually I did make it to the train, the train guy said, you're really late, you'd better run. Dubai Lisa responded, well, I've checked in, are they going to leave without me if I don't run? He said no, so, I didn't run. I spent the next couple of days with my sister and her family, it was great; we had a lot of fun and the goodbye was pretty anti-climatic because my sister and I were both delirious, it was about 3:45am. Eric was awesome and drove me o the airport. It's awful to think about not seeing them until next summer. Ella, my niece, kept saying, so will I be seven when I see you next? Ugh.

I arrived into Rome around 11:00 on July 30th. I was very well rested, the champagne, wine, delicious dinner, sleeping pills and upgrade to First Class helped. Once again, my luggage did not make the journey with me. Delta is awful. This time I chose to be bumped to the next available flight (with the upgrade) but there were many angry people freaking out and sounding very similar to how I’m sure I sounded when I wasn’t allowed on my flight back to Seattle in June. Although, I was happy not to have my backpack as I made my way via, train, metro and about 15 minutes of wandering around aimlessly, before I used my best Italian to ask for help/directions from some lady smoking to find my bed and breakfast. Unlike Vancouver and Whistler, you are not seen as a complete loser for smoking here. Once I was settled, since I had nothing with me it didn’t take long, I went to the grocery store, bought a few essential items and my mom arrived shortly after I got back. We just sat around the room and then walked around and ate some pizza later that night.

I’m not sure who says you can’t see Rome in a day, we pretty much did. My mom loaned me some clothes and we walked about a zillion miles that second day. We had out our maps, were stopping at all the tourist places and eating; it was great! While we were wandering around we saw the most hilarious thing, it was these three guys working really hard to carry this massive fish to the restaurant, no, they didn't to through the back entrance, or straight to the kitchen, they went right on through Piazza Navona and then through the outdoor seating area, then they set the thing down while they tried to sort out how they were going to get through the door, it was hilarious!









We had some really delicious gelato, I didn’t like it when I lived in Florence, but now I think it’s one of the greatest foods ever. I love being back in Italy and being able to be here with my mom.

Colosseum









Mom in the Colosseum












Arco de Costantino, which I am convinced is different from when I was here before in 1996, the grassy area in front (which is not there) is where we all "camped". Or, more likely, we all slept out on the streets instead of paying for a hotel room...









Mom and I walking through the Roman Forum









View of the Roman Forum from Capitol Hill









My bags eventually arrived that day, which I really wasn’t expecting after last time, but I was very happy.

The next day I got up and went for a run, I saw another guy running on the street and followed him at a very good stalking distance and he led me to a park. It was nothing special, lots of warning signs in Italian, I know they said danger and I just pretended it was warning me of the rough terrain and kept on going. In the morning we grabbed coffee at the "world's best coffee shop", now, shouldn't that be in Dubai? And then walked through the Vatican Museum, my mom and I did it at the exact same pace, pretty much as fast as possible, I’m lucky she’s not a big museum person, I think it’s great and all, but I can look at everything pretty quickly and feel good about it. We wandered around the city a bit more, found a cute place for lunch, went to see the first McDonalds in Europe, nothing special (… shocking!) then after that we came back to our hotel for our daily siesta and my mid day shower.

View of Vatican City









Mom and I in front of Trevi Fountain












Mom on the Spanish Steps












Cute little cafe









It’s really, really hot;I have just been dripping with sweat. The thing is, while it is hotter and more humid in Dubai, we don’t try to do anything outside, here life just goes on as normal. We didn’t wake up till 7:00pm that evening, so we just got ready real fast and took the metro to Piazza del Popolo, it seemed less touristy, really cute and we had a great dinner and finally some wine. I’m not sure how I’ve been here for so long without having wine, well, I guess it’s only been a few days, but still!

We thought about taking a little day trip today, but considering we haven't made it one day without a siesta, we instead decided to go back and see St. Peter's Basilica, walk through this park and try to go to a museum. I also went back to that same place I ran yesterday, only I went a different way and it was awesome. The views were amazing and there were all these old aqua ducts and well, ancient looking things around. It was also hilly and shaded. Very fun!

The basilica was beautiful.









The walk through the park was gorgeous and the views were amazing!





















We wandered down to the Trastevere area and stopping at a little fruit market, it was so great!









I had a minor meltdown due to heat stroke, well, not really (there was definitely a meltdown, but no heatstroke). I was miserable and could not even think straight. I was literally dripping with sweat and freaking out. Nobody else seemed to be in such a frantic state, not that eeryone looked comfortable or anything, but I seriously believe my body cannot handle heat the wame way as other people's. Maybe that's part of prediabetes... We sat and had these huge delicious salads for lunch at this cute place, I felt way better after that. Then we headed over to the National Museum. There was nothing there that was that interesting to me, I'm sure it's a great museum and all, and there were a few cool mosaics, but I'm just not a huge sculpture person. We came back, hung out for a bit, I got my daily mid afternoon shower and then we headed out for dinner. We went to this really cute place













and then came home so that we could get ready to go to Venice in the morning. I am loving every second of this vacation! I am wishing the weather would cool down a bit, but that doesn't seem likely...