But, I digress.
Along with that conversation, we were talking about the types of cars people drive here. Range Rovers are everywhere, Maserati's are common, Lamborghini's, nothing special, it is unreal. The amount of wealth is something I may never get used to, nor do I think it's something I'd like to get used to. We have kids that live on Palm Jumeirah in homes that are worth 20+ million US dollars and then stay at the Burj al Arab during the week so they don't have to deal with the commute. To put it into perspective, one night in a suite at the Burj is more than I make in an entire month, and as a teacher, that's a lot... but really, is that necessary? It's like we live in this little bubble outside of reality. I think I spend half my time just shaking my head and wondering if this is really happening to me. I just started tutoring more and now make about a third of my monthly salary by tutoring 3 hours a week. Unbelievable.
Only in Dubai and.... at home it wouldn't happen like that...
I just went out to dinner with some friends and two other girls that are here visiting. They noticed that just about every 7th word out of one of our mouths was something along the lines of, right, only in Dubai. Or, at home I would never say this but... It really is some type of warped reality.
I think I've missed a few weeks of writing because I've been trying to download pictures, but for whatever reason, it's not working. We went golfing the other day on this little chip and putt course, it was really fun. I'm trying to sort out lessons for April. I also went to a one year old birthday party, it was basically a great BBQ for adults, a few kids wandering around and then the birthday part was when the little boy blew out the candles on these super delicious cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I'd say that's a perfect first birthday party! It was also two other friends birthdays, one girl turned 30 and had a house party that was part Hawaiian and part Superhero theme. Basically it was just a bunch of us hanging out. I somehow managed to stay up until 5:15 in the morning, which is when I was supposed to be leaving for the last half marathon of the season, needless to say, I didn't make it. The other party was at this great place, I think I've mentioned it before, The Rooftop Bar, I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed back there. They overcharged us and I'm sure some people left without paying, but I was the one stuck trying to figure out the bill, it was pretty disastrous, in fact, I'm not even going to say any more than that.
I think I mentioned that I joined a soccer team. We had a tournament and lost in the semi finals by a shoot out, which is annoying; I would have rather just been allowed to play a few more minutes. Our team went out to Barasti afterwards and then a bunch of us went to watch a David Grey concert. It was such a perfect day! We also had our first couple games, we tied both. Tying is annoying. Both games we "should" have won but didn't, especially the first one. We practice once a week and then games on Wednesdays. It seems like it would only keep me busy those nights, but somehow it ended up totally changing my routine, I'm up way later now and drag myself out of bed to get to work on time. I love my team though, it's a great group and practice and games are really fun. We even have coaches, which continues to make me laugh. I haven't been yelled at by a coach on the sidelines in 15 years!
Somewhere in there we went to Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship. It was amazing! The court is in the middle of Irish Village and Century Village, so it's basically surrounded by restaurants and bars. Jess, Jesse and I sat out at the Irish Village listening to music and having a drink, went in and got front row seats to the men's double finals, watched that while drinking glasses of wine or beer and then had perfect seats for Roddick vs Lopez (from Spain) for the men's finals. It could not have been any better! We had amazing seats to yet one more sporting event.
This weekend we went camping in Oman, it was great to be outside! A group of us met at the school on Friday morning and caravaned out to the camping spot. It was pretty hot, but we still managed to get in some great hiking, it was very different from any hiking or camping I've done before. Instead of trees, lakes and fishing it was rocks, sand and sand angels. It was definitely a good time, although my legs look like I ran through thorn bushes and then smashed rocks on them for fun. I have no idea why I bruise so easily. Speaking of, the little stick in the leg incident that happened last summer, I thought it would get better, it basically looks like I dug out a little section of my leg. It's awful.
On to bigger and better, I officially resigned from my job at Wy'east and I'll be home in less than 100 hours. Happy days!
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