The Race to Dubai

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Jared and I had the opportunity to go to the Dubai World Championship Golf Tournament aka "The Race to Dubai." I was very excited because it is a huge tournament and actually the last tournament of the European Tour Season (comparable to the Tour Championship in the PGA Tour... I think). I had never been to a big golf tournament before and was so excited to get to see all the big European golfers (some of who I had actually heard of..) Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, and Sergio Garcia.

It was a four day tournament and we went for the third day (tickets were free though, so we could have gone all four days, but obviously had to work, etc, and I also thought that one day of golf was probably enough for me). We were fairly under the weather from the night before (our friend Ebi got a private room at a bar called Left Bank in Souq Al Bahar with tons of apps and bottles of liquor to celebrate his birthday), so we didn't get as early of a start as we hoped. We got to the tournament about 2pm, which was actually great because all the leaders were on Hole 10 by the time we got there and so we were able to see their second nine, but not have to be there all day (you can see my interest level in the tournament out was quite high... now, if Tiger was playing on the other hand, I might have demanded we get there early).

So when we first got to the tournament we decided to chase the leaders around for awhile and walk from hole to hole. The course was so pretty and some of the more centrally located greens were set up with couches and bean bags for people to picnic and luxuriate on the course (which Jared loved... bean bags are big here for some reason). Then, after we got sick of running around the course we strategically placed ourselves by the green to Hole 17 (the island green seen below) at a bar they had set up on the course and had a beer while we waited for all the leaders/famous golfers to pass through and then were able to follow them to 18. The whole experience was a lot of fun and definitely worthwhile... It kind of turned me on to professional golf, although I actually think it might be more fun to watch on tv (because you know what's going on... it's easy to get distracted and just watch the guys holding up the 'Quiet' sign when you're there)... Lots of fun though and I'd definitely go again!

Hole 18 Green..

The Island Green, Hole 17

Random Hole.. I can't remember which, such a pretty course though, and weird because it's literally in the middle of the desert so everything had to be brought in and built up from the sand.

Welcome to Dubai.

This is a statement I have heard waaay too many times in the last few weeks, and not for good reasons. We have been having all sorts of bureaucratic issues in Dubai lately, that leave me wanting to scream at the top of my lungs, "I JUST WANT TO GO HOME!"

Example #1 is the lovely picture of the scaffolding you see above. We both left for work last Tuesday with everything fine and dandy, and then when Jared got home discovered a giant scaffolding inexplicably erected in our garden. Now, no one was home during the period of time when said scaffolding appeared, which obviously meant they climbed over an 8 foot wall and hauled tools and scaffolding over the wall in order to erect it. Not OK. So, for 2-3 days we battled with the building maintenance to get it out, spent countless time on the phone with our landlord's personal assistant, and in the building maintenance office screaming at the building manager and his secretary. We explained that we were perfectly happy to accommodate necessary maintenance, but that breaking and entering into our terrace was really unacceptable. They claimed to have knocked on our door to ask permission, but when no one answered decided to go ahead and build it anyway. I tried to explain how disturbing that whole concept was, because there could have been any number of reasons why no one would answer the door (in the shower, etc.) but that no one answering does not open the door to then climb over a wall to get in. I was horrified that I could have walked out of the bathroom after showering to find men staring at me through my sliding glass doors. Quite disturbing, and after battling for most of the week, it was removed and they put all our furniture back and cleaned (surprisingly well).

Example #2 of bureaucratic hell in Dubai is our rental car. The lease was about to be up and so we had been talking to the company about extending our one month rental into a year long rental. We came to an agreeable price (actually a very good deal) and arranged a time to go swap out the car (because they wanted to give us a 2009 Lancer - classy, instead of the 2007 we were driving since they were concerned about the reliability of a 2007 for such a long rental). So, on the planned day and time, Jared and I drove to Sharjah to sign the new contract and make the swap. We went during Jared's lunch hour, so needed to be quite quick about the whole thing, and because we were in a hurry, of course chaos ensued. They tried to give us a car that was missing a hubcap, which Jared deemed to be unacceptable (oh the trashiness of driving around for the next year with a car missing a hubcap!). So, after debating with the rental car guy about how to handle the situation we finally agreed that they would let us keep the current car (with which we were perfectly happy) for another day and they would then deliver a new car to us the following morning (before noon when I leave for work). So, needless to say, they obviously didn't show up before noon as planned (and despite several phone calls that morning to ensure it's delivery). So, as I was leaving for work (in the old car) I called and told them they would then have to deliver the car to my office. So, about an hour later they called to tell me they had arrived outside my office with the 'new' car. Well, the 'new' car was filthy on the inside and reeked of cigarette smoke and the rear-view window appeared to have been smeared with a dirty t-shirt on the inside, deeming it impossible to see out of. Oh, and it was not a 2009, but upon checking the registration, it was either a 2007 or 2008 (it was unclear). I was mid-lesson and pretty stressed that I had to leave in the middle of teaching one of my students, so I signed off on the car and they swapped it, but called the rental car place as I was walking back inside to complain. Oh so fun. So they said they would call me back within the hour with details of how they planned to replace the car. No call back, of course, so the following morning I called to complain, yet again, and was told, yet again, that they'd be dropping off a replacement to our apartment that morning. Of course, that did not happen and they told me they'd have to drop it off at work, again. So, now into Day 3 of the rental car saga, they dropped off a car at my office (this is following about 15-20 phone calls made by Jared and I). Finally, new car #2 was actually an acceptable car. 2010 Model Mitsubishi Lancer with less than 2000 kilometers on it and actually smelled like a 'new' car, however was full of crumbs (as in someone just ate an extremely crumbly samosa all over the car (picture greasy crumbs everywhere). But, at this point, I figured there was no way I was getting a nicer car than this (despite the crumbs) and complaining would get me no where (I could clean the car myself). So, after three days, the rental car saga was finally resolved.

Example #3 would be some issues I have been having with work in terms of still lacking a work visa and possible lack of payment. I won't get into detail on this issue on here, but suffice to say, my stress level has been high enough with the bureaucracy in Dubai that I have never been a more patriotic and US loving American before in my life. All I can say is, GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Lovely scaffolding which could be seen in our garden for about 4 days...

Grilling in the Garden & Almost Thanksgiving

Jared with his new toy... in absolute heaven... beer in one hand, pork ribs in the other, and wearing his bathing suit from just coming out of the pool... what could be better?

So, I've been a little lazy with my blog... It's hard to be motivated to write everyday, and we've actually been pretty busy. Plus, a lot of not so fun stressful things have been going on (scaffolding appearing out of no where into our garden, work and rental car issues), so I've been a little pre-occupied and not so excited about Dubai and therefore, not all that enthusiastic about writing about it. But, we did book our flights home this weekend, so I am pretty excited to be heading back to Boston for Christmas exactly one month from today!

And while, we have been a little stressed dealing with bureaucracy in the last week (maybe more on that later..), it hasn't been all doom and gloom because we've been absolutely LOVING our new grill! For our inaugural grill, we decided to go as American as we possibly could and made barbecued pork ribs (which were delicious once Jared got the hang of the heat level controls). And now we are pretty much trying to grill almost every night. So far we've done whole fish (Jared and his love of picking bones out of fish. yuck), chicken kebabs, veggies, HOT DOGS, and even German Curry-wurst. So, you could say we've been enjoying the grill.

This weekend, we were quite busy (as per usual) and headed back to our favorite brunch place, The Lime Tree Cafe for Friday brunch (breakfast bruschetta for me, yum), and then went to a UAE Handicrafts and Art sale to see about starting our Christmas shopping. We were successful on the Christmas shopping front, but also got a little carried way with stuff for us too, and ended up buying a painting... oops. It was too nice to pass up though because it is a painting of the Dubai skyline with the Burj (something that will mean something to us when we leave Dubai -- hopefully sooner rather than later), but done in a more modern art style, so it won't look all Middle Eastern where ever we hang it. Jared also got a little carried away with the homemade chutneys and dips this woman was selling and had to buy some tomato chutney (which was delicious) and then go back to her stand later to buy the delicious little crackers she was selling as well to dip in the chutney.

After we were able to pull ourselves away from the craft sale, we headed home and hung out at the pool for a bit, before cleaning our garden and getting ready to have our friends Melissa and Dom over for a BBQ. Melissa and Dom were running late though, so we ended up just having a couple drinks and nibbles in the garden first while we were waiting for Melissa and Dom to arrive and start the grilling. Soooo relaxing to just lounge in the garden and watch the sunset with a glass of wine, cheese & crackers (with REAL pepperoni), and fresh hummus and tabbouleh with flat bread.

Then when Melissa and Dom arrived we fired up the grill and had some chicken kebabs and German sausage that Dom had just brought back from his trip home to Germany. It was white sausage that he prepared by cutting it up in little pieces after it was grilled, and then covering it with ketchup and curry powder. He called it "Curry-wurst" and kept telling us it was the national dish of Germany... It was very interesting and surprisingly not bad... but not as good as the delicious German potato salad he also brought. So we chatted and drank in the garden for a few hours and then had waffles covered in vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup for dessert. Really a nice night in.

On Saturday, I went to a work event in the morning and then we headed to the beach for the afternoon (perfect beach weather here now!) and then grilled in the garden again for dinner and had hotdogs and homemade chicken shawarma with our leftover kebabs. Very yummy, and then after dinner I was pleasantly surprised to get TWO calls from home! My step-mom Deb and my Grandma both called me and I was just overjoyed because it was my very first calls to receive from people at home. So nice to hear familiar voices and it made me so excited for the holidays.

My pumpkin chocolate chip muffins... So easy and yummy and a little taste of fall and home.

Before we can get to that though, we've got our Dubai Thanksgiving coming up.. I can't believe how fast November is flying and how soon Thanksgiving will be here. We have begun planning and have invited all our Dubai friends to come over and have a traditional American Thanksgiving with us. Thanksgiving is probably our favorite holiday because, although I LOVE Christmas, it really becomes all about the gifts and not about togetherness. Thanksgiving is better because it is really just focused on being with family, enjoying a delicious meal (you already know about our obsession with good food), and relaxing while watching American football. And while we're very sad that we'll be missing out on Thanksgiving with family (at Jared's mom's house), we're still excited to have a relaxing day of cooking together and then eating and drinking with friends. We keep debating how big of a bird we can fit in our oven and have begun to discuss the menu... I can't believe it's next week...

And thinking about the weekend before Thanksgiving just conjurs up memories of when I was little and would go to the Plainville Turkey Farm with my Grandma and Grandpa Weske the weekend before Thanksgiving to pick out our enormous turkey (Grandma never made anything smaller than 23 pounds) and pet the chicks and bring home a turkey feather... And more recent memories of going to the Harvard-Yale Football game with Jared's dad and brothers... Oh how I miss fall in New England!

The finished product of my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins... I tried to make them look festive with my limited supply of festive fall things... They'll be on the Thanksgiving dessert menu at the Jared/Jen Thanksgiving Feast.

Tissues

People in the Middle East have this weirdo obsession with tissues. I noticed it when I came to visit Jared when he lived in Dubai before, but now that I live here it's really in my face. It's the strangest thing. Tissues here are used like napkins and you seriously see boxes of tissues everywhere. Taxis, on the tables at restaurants, the coffee station at work... EVERYWHERE! Paper towels or napkins anywhere to be seen? Nope. Tissues? 2 Boxes. If we have donuts or cookies at work, what do people reach for? Tissues to wipe their hands. I just can't wrap my mind around it... It's as if the whole country has chronic allergies or is afraid of coming down with a cold any minute and wants to be super prepared. I find it to be quite annoying, and I'm even more annoyed that I'm being forced to take up the habit of using tissues for things other than blowing my nose, since there are not other options around. I'm at work and I need to shine my apple before eating it... Do I go out of my way and go into the bathroom to get a paper towel, or do I reach for a tissue from one of the three boxes within arms length? At first I was rejecting it and going out of my way to get paper towels for things I would normally use paper towels for, but laziness and availability has resulted in me using tissues for these things now... I really don't want this to be an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" or "When in Rome..." moment, but I don't know if I have a choice... So, if you're feeling a little stuffy when you step off the plane on your way to visit us (because I know you are all looking into booking your flights as I write this), have no fear, in Dubai, there will always be a box of tissues within reach. Grrr....

JARED PASSED THE NY BAR!!!!

Off to dinner at Karma Kafe at Souq Al Bahar to celebrate, then back here to finish this bottle of white wine... :)

Aquaventure

This Friday was an absolute blast! We spent the day with our friends Clare, Diana, and Mahmoud at the Aquaventure Water Park at the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah. We had originally planned to go to the park on Thursday night because they do special nights where the park is open and djs play music and it's more of an adult thing, but since it's getting colder here (yup, you heard it from me, the temp drops to probably about 70-75 at night now, so a little cold to be going down water slides, especially if there is a breeze), we missed the last night session. We were disappointed, but Diana suggested we all just go the next day anyway...

We were really excited because Jared and I LOVE water parks. We had been wanting to go to Aquaventure since we got here because it's new in the last year and we hadn't been before. The other big water park in Dubai is located next to the Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach Hotel and is called Wild Wadi. We went when I visited Jared in March '08 and absolutely loved it, and so we wanted to go to Aquaventure to get a basis of comparison (you know research on which is better for when people to come visit us... hint hint). I think we love water parks so much because it really allows us to feel like kids again (and Jared especially is in heaven), and you just run around from ride to ride having fun and not thinking about anything other than what ride you're going to do next.

We got there first thing when they opened at 10am, and reserved chairs in front of the giant wave pool. There aren't a huge number of rides, but they are all pretty awesome, and center around the huge temple looking structure above called "The Ziggurat." The big slide you can see coming down the front in the middle is one of those scary, straight down, have to cross your ankles and your arms across your chest like a mummy ones. We did that first, and while it was pretty scary, it's also kind of awesome because unlike every other slide like that I've ever been on, you end in a big pool instead of just coming to a stop while on the slide... you also go through a shark tank on this one, but can't see it because you are screaming and your eyes are closed to keep from getting water in them. The rest of the slides on the Ziggurat are all tube slides, and very fun and cool in various ways: one you go through an aquarium with sharks while on your tube, others are slides where you get pushed uphill with surges of water and then get water dumped on your head before going into a completely dark tunnel and occasionally getting water squirted in your face. They also have a ton of different versions of 'lazy rivers' there, but one has rapids and waves that pass through every 20 seconds or so, so you feel like you are white water rafting in a way... For that one we linked all our tubes up to create a giant raft. A really awesome time!

Us Lounging and Jared enjoying his fresh coconut milk.

We played for a few hours before getting hungry and deciding we wanted lunch. We were expecting just burgers and chicken fingers and things of that nature since it was a water park, but were really surprised to see that not only did they have those kind of normal water/amusement park foods, but also had shawarma, a salad bar, and a stir fry station where you could get stir fry cooked to order (think Saga "Show Time" or Fire & Ice). Unfortunately, we didn't notice the stir fry area until we had already ordered, but Diana, Clare, and Mahmoud all got shawarma.

Afterward we wanted to get a little snack and were excited because they had fresh fruit stands where you could get fresh coconut milk, and also fresh pineapples and watermelon cut just for you.

Jared was pretty psyched about his coconut and decided that drinking his coconut milk was not enough, but that he also needed to eat the coconut meat inside. Lacking utensils he tried to kill the coconut with a plastic fork. Ultimately, he was successful, only to realize that the coconut inside was not ripe yet, so not good for eating... Quite disappointing after working so hard...

After finishing our lunch and snacks we headed back for a few more hours of slides and also discovered the kiddie area, which is traditionally Jared's favorite part of any water park because he LOVES the dump bucket. You know, the giant bucket that dumps 500 gallons of water on your head? When we went to Wild Wadi, Jared probably spent 2 hours playing in the kiddie area alone for this feature, so naturally Jared and Mahmoud had to play in it at Aquaventure as well. Such a fun and relaxing day... and then after we decided we didn't want our fun to end, so planned an impromptu barbecue for the evening.

Spontaneous BBQ

So after we left Aquaventure, we decided we wanted to have a barbecue, but could not decide on a venue. Our friend Elizabeth had suggested her house since she lives right on the water in Jumeirah (where the Yellow Party was), but concluded that it was too windy. Then we talked about having it at a public park that has grills called "Al Safa Park," but thought that might be a bit iffy because all the grills might have been occupied and also we wouldn't have been able to drink (the main point of a BBQ, right?). So we suggested having it at our apartment since we have a nice outdoor area in our garden, and even though our grill hasn't arrived yet, we could use the communal grills in our pool area (another fantastic feature about our building I failed to mention before) that we could grill on, and then just eat in our garden. So at about 6pm we set the wheels in motion to have a BBQ Party at our apartment and had about 40 minutes to get showered/changed from the water park and also get our apartment ready for guests (as we had not been planning on company so had not cleaned, etc.). A bit stressful, but not atypical for when Jared and I throw parties (even planned ones... Jess, you know exactly what I'm talking about..). So Jared started feverishly hosing down and cleaning the garden (it gets dusty from the construction and could use to be cleaned daily if we were so inclined, but we try to not obsess about it and only clean when we're going to use it), while I tried to do what I could with the inside of the apartment. Luckily it was already 'clean' given my OCD tendencies, but a little dusty and the floors could have used a vacuum, and the dish washer needed to be unloaded. So after speed cleaning, people started arriving at 6:45. We did the best we could, and it turned out to be a success, despite the lack of planning.

Group picture at the BBQ. I was so psyched to actually be able to use our garden! We had lanterns spread around and lit tea lights on the ledges... Very pretty and created a nice atmosphere.

Some of our friends stopped at the market on the way, because on top of not having the house ready for a bbq, we also had no food to have a party with. We ended up with delicious chicken kebabs, burgers, PORK sausage, corn on the cobb, and salad... plus lots of chocolate, potato chips, and cheese and crackers. Plus people brought lots of wine and liquor, so fun could not be avoided with that combination of items.

Mahmoud and Ruch enjoying the glider.

Elizabeth, Diana, and Clare in our kitchen.

Clare cutting a watermelon.

So the use of the communal grill in our building was pretty convenient (although we had to improvise using our oven rack since there was no grill grate), and we were excited to be able to use our new grilling tools. People ate and drank a lot, an animated game of Uno occurred, and we were up late having political debates in the garden. Where else in the world would you have 2 Americans, 2 Australians, a German, a Brit, an Egyptian, a Kenyan, a Sri Lanken, an Iranian-American, and a Croatian in one place engaged in deep political conversation. Only in Dubai! Once our grill arrives, I can't wait to host another barbecue!