Friday Brunch, Deep Sea Fishing, and NEW JOB!!

Well, we had another busy weekend! This weekend we decided to host an American-style brunch for our friends, because getting a truly "American" breakfast/brunch out is completely non-existent here (trust me, we've looked -- the interpretation usually involves grilled mushrooms and tomatoes, which is clearly a British breakfast thing. There are no vegetables involved in American breakfast, unless you count potatoes...). So, we invited 8 or 10 friends over and decided to show them what a real American breakfast is all about. Bagels with cream cheese, croissants, and toast, spinach quiche, pancakes with real maple syrup ala Canada, fruit (watermelon, pineapple, and cantaloupe), Oscar Mayer Bacon, real American breakfast pork sausage links we managed to find at Waitrose, homefries, and eggs cooked to order. Anyone who has been to our Marathon Monday parties knows, we don't mess around with breakfast. Oh, and fresh fruit juice to drink (plus spirits of your choice to make it spirited). Everyone seemed to enjoy it and our American friends gave their approval on meeting 'American' standards and guidelines. :) It started at noon and people hung out and drank in the garden with us until about 4:30pm. A lovely and delicious way to spend a Friday.

After brunch was over, we decided to check out the Dubai International Boat Show which was going on at the Marina. Jared was dying to see the giant yachts, but overall the show was a bit disappointing because we didn't manage to get on any of the yachts (you had to make appointments and presumably appear to have an actual interest or intent in buying one, which we obviously couldn't really pull off). After a couple hours and a 35 minute shuttle bus ride later + a 45 minute wait to take the water taxi back to our car, we decided we probably won't be going again next year. Cool boats though. I want to be rich.

On Saturday I had my first day at my new job (!), while Jared spent the day deep sea fishing. Our American friends (I say that because they are the only Americans we know, literally), Marisa and Kevin, had invited Jared to join them when they were at our brunch on Friday. He was really excited because he's been dying to go fishing since we got here, because apparently you can catch some big fish. And big fish he did catch as he came home with two approximately 15 pound barracudas. Now, barracuda isn't really a fish I thought I would ever have any interest in trying, but Jared was so proud of his catch that we of course had to have it on Saturday night for dinner (grilled and seasoned with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper). Luckily, there was a lot of left over quiche to supplement the meal.  

Jared filleting his barracuda. I have to give him credit, I would not know how to fillet a 15 pound fish and I would be completely grossed out. He did a really good job, however, our whole apartment smelled like raw fish for 24 hours despite lighting every scented candle I have. Yum. Although, I do have to admit that the barracuda tasted much better than we could have possibly imagined (despite the captain on the boat describing barracuda as the 'scavengers of the sea' and 'not really good for eating'). To me it just tasted like a grilled swordfish fillet, and Jared loved it!

Meanwhile, while Jared was catching our dinner, I started my first day at Sylvan Learning. I have decided to continue tutoring for the time being because I really do enjoy it and love working with the kids. I should be able make basically the same amount of money if I work enough hours a week (I might start out with only 15 or so, but then hopefully increase that to 30 when one of the teachers goes out on maternity leave in the next couple weeks). I really enjoyed my first day, observing for one hour and tutoring for two. It will be nice because it's a completely established program, so the lesson plans are all written and materials all organized and I just literally have to teach it. I'm so excited to have gotten another job already and to be starting just a week after quitting my old job. I'm sure it will take a little while to get used to, but overall I am hugely relieved and excited. And, my level of stress is sooo much lower now that I am out of the awful place I worked before. So, life in Dubai is good again.