Exhausted!

Well, today was the first day for the kids at school, and all I can say is that Kindergarten is exhausting! I love love love the little ones, but they certainly tire you out! We only had 13 kids today (the max class size is 17, but 3 were not in today). The vast majority did fantastically well, and I was so impressed with how well they listened and by how much they seem to already know. They are all adorable and sweet and I am so excited to be starting from the beginning of the school year this year, so that I will be in the classroom with the kids from day 1. I'm sure I will have funny stories on a regular basis, but for now I am completely knackered and really looking forward to catching up on my sleep before we head into our first full week of school next week. I completely love working in a kindergarten classroom!

On another note, Nepal was absolutely amazing, but I have had no time this week to upload my photos or blog. Hopefully this weekend...

Nepal for Eid!

Eid Mubarak! At last Ramadan is over, and to celebrate the long Eid weekend we've decided to get out of town and spontaneously head to Kathmandu, Nepal! We've been debating going somewhere for the long weekend, especially since I'm back to school now (the kids start next Wednesday 9/15, but I've been back for two weeks getting things ready) and won't have any time off until Thanksgiving. We hemmed and hawed about whether we should just stay local and go to Abu Dhabi over night or someplace drivable, but when we realized how cheap it is to go to Nepal we figured it was an opportunity we couldn't pass up. So, tomorrow morning at 7am we'll be flying to Kathmandu for the weekend! I absolutely cannot wait! Report to follow!

1 Year.

One year ago right now, I was about to land in Dubai, not for a visit, but to call it home. We have lived in Dubai for exactly 1 year today, and so I thought it might be fitting to reflect on our first year here. A lot has changed in a year, and my knowledge and world-view continue to expand daily. Although many things have been hard or stressful, I do not regret my decision to move here for one minute, and continue to be grateful for the opportunities this experience has afforded me, and for the wonderful people we have met along the way. So, let's see if I can adequately sum up our first year living in the Middle East:

Living Arrangements: Actually, my living situation here for the last year has been more steady and consistent than any of my living arrangements in the last three years. In the four years I lived in Boston, I lived in five different places (moving three of those times in my last year!). We lived in the Belvedere Court Hotel for our first two weeks, but since September 17th of last year we've been in our lovely furnished apartment and have signed a lease renewal so will be staying in the same place for two years in a row! I haven't lived anywhere for more than a year since 2007! Our possessions will remain in storage for another year, but the longer I go without them, the less I miss them (perhaps it's because we've been acquiring mementos and art through our travels), or perhaps it's because I am just not even remembering what I have. We've been able to improvise in the kitchen without our excess gadgets (still miss my food processor and immersion blender all the time though), and we still love our garden and grill (so maybe that fills in the void)...

Jobs: Well, my job record hasn't exactly been as consistent as my living arrangement, but I think I am in a good place now. I now work at the American School of Dubai (ASD), which is my third job this year. To be fair though, I had to quit my first job because I was working illegally (without a visa, by no fault of my own) and I wasn't getting paid regularly or on time. My second job was for another tutoring company, which I still work for, but they could only employ me part-time. So in April, when I was offered the opportunity for a full-time position at an American school, how could I turn it down? I started as an elementary library aid, and with the new school year will be working in a Kindergarten classroom as an aid. I'm so excited, and love going to work everyday, so although I am not currently practicing family or juvenile law, I am happy and satisfied with the work I am doing (and I am making enough to pay my bills and save some), so given the continued state of the world economy, I can't complain. Jared's job record is exponentially more consistent than mine, and he is coming up to the third year anniversary of working for his firm. He was just promoted to head of employment and banking/finance, and is fairly happy. So really, we both count ourselves as extremely fortunate with our job situations in Dubai.

Health and Fitness: Well... right now is not the best time to discuss exercise frequency and healthful diet, in the height of Ramadan (Iftars!) and the summer heat (110 and humid everyday), and still recovering from summer travels and my birthday. But, generally speaking, we eat healthier here than when we lived in Boston (more Indian with grilled meat and natural spices and less fried wings and nachos). Also, having a free gym and pool on our floor has been wonderful, and something we definitely take advantage of. I have taken up swimming pretty regularly (so relaxing and such good toning!) and bike when I can't run. We also drink much less alcohol living here, so our overall health and fitness are better than when we lived in Boston. Just give it another couple weeks to get back into our good routines and habits.

Legal Status: We are both legal residents of the UAE with visas, bank accounts, P.O. boxes, and driver's licenses (however it took Jared 6+ months to get his due to 'failing' his eye test, but that's another story...). It took awhile to maneuver the bureaucracy on my own, but generally speaking, we've both been pretty settled for awhile (it only took 6 months...).

Things I miss the most: I still miss all of the same things, especially with the fall coming, and the festive holiday season starting with Halloween. I think I miss New England the most in the fall, when it's still yucky here, and lovely at home. However, we've made more friends and become closer with others, so I don't usually get that heartache homesickness anymore (only when I miss something special like a friend's wedding). It was really hard to come back after my summer trip home, but as soon as I was back and into my routines, Dubai felt like home again. I still miss my friends (I love my friends, especially those who live in the Boston-area, as I was reminded of again when I was home in July). I still miss my little cousins, who I feel like are growing up in my absence (the youngest just started kindergarten!). I still miss Target (Carrefour just doesn't fill the cheap toiletry and seasonal goodies void). Most other things we've been able to work around, finding replacements for food and products we miss from home, and making the most of our time here. Instead of getaways to Vermont and NH (I love TINH!), we go to Oman and Qatar. It is what it is living here, and it won't last forever, so I am trying to embrace what we do have.

Things I love about Dubai: Wonderful interesting friends from around the world. Superlatives. Exotic weekend getaways and taking advantage of geographical proximity. Most of the other things I love about Dubai include the lack of winter and year-round outdoor activities, but those feelings are lost on me right now, while I've been living in constant air conditioning for the last 4 months. I miss fresh air. I miss precipitation. Hopefully within the next month or so, my love of Dubai weather will return, just about the time everyone back home has to start bundling up.

Countries Visited: Oman (x3: Muscat and the Musandam Peninsula). Qatar (Doha). England (London). France (Paris). Jared has also been to Spain (Madrid). More trips planned, and hopefully something for Eid in a week or so.

So when I think back on this year, I am first in awe of how fast it flew (we're half-way done!). I am also so grateful for all the once in a lifetime opportunities that have come our way, just by taking the risk of living here. You never know what tomorrow may hold, as evidenced by all the sad news I've received from home since I've been here (death and illness), so I try to live everyday of my life to the fullest, and never want to have any regrets in my life about missed opportunities. However, given the uncertainty with what life holds, while grasping opportunities, we are also mindful of not wanting to spend too much time 6000+ miles away from the people we care about the most... Let's see what the next year holds, shall we.

Ramadan Driving

Driving in Dubai is never a safe or fun thing to do. However, driving during Ramadan is like taking your life in your hands on a daily basis. You've got tons of crazy Muslims, who are already exceedingly bad drivers, and now they are fasting, so driving around while they are starving and dehydrated. Definitely a horrible combination. We didn't have our car yet during Ramadan last year, so driving during Ramadan is a new experience for me. For the first two months of driving here, I was thanking god on a daily basis that I didn't die that day in a car crash (it made me more religious than ever before in my life, even more than when I was studying for my bar exam and praying everyday that I'd pass that). Well, after about two and a half months or so of driving here, I kind of figured out that right balance of aggressive-defensive driving you need to do here, and stopped thinking I was going to die daily. Now, since Ramadan started, it's like I've regressed back to those early driving in Dubai days. Some days on the way to pick up Jared from work, I avoid no less than 10 accidents (literally, and it's only about a 20 minute drive round-trip). These people are maniacs, and I honestly feel like I am playing a real life game of Frogger on the roads. It's scary as hell, and on top of everything else I dislike about Ramadan, driving may be the worst. Still counting those days until it's over....

Another Year (officially)

Well, as of yesterday, we are officially living in Dubai for another year. Not that that is groundbreaking news, or surprising really, but, it's official in that we signed our apartment lease renewal until September 16, 2011. And in Dubai, rent payments are done quite differently than back home, or most places in the world. What you would think would be normal (paying your landlord on a monthly basis, ie, a check every month) is unheard of here. The best you can hope for here are 4 checks for the year (quarterly), but more commonly, they want you to pay for the year in 1 or 2 checks. Pretty crazy. Last year we paid in 2 checks, but in order to negotiate our landlord to knock 10,000 dirhams (roughly $3,000 USD) off our rent for the year we paid in one check. So, more binding than the lease is that we just paid the rent for our apartment for the whole year. Sooo, we'll be sticking around to live in our apartment that we've paid for until next September. Visitors still welcome, because we're going to be here until at least September 16, 2011.

27 on the 27th!

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, yesterday was my 27th birthday, on August 27th. I was pretty excited about that, so I kept telling Jared that it is a very special birthday. And although I didn't get any bling for a gift (as I was secretly hoping), Jared did spoil me and make my first Dubai birthday very special...

Crabcake Benedict for Breakfast! Yum!!

To start the day, I woke up to find Jared secretly cooking away in the kitchen to surprise me with my favorite food for breakfast: Crabcake Benedict. It's truly a New England thing that I can only find a few places in the South Shore and Cape (Grumpy's in Dennis being the best, where I memorably had crabcake benedict twice in one weekend. oops). Jared had wanted to take me out for brunch, but of course Ramadan put a wrinkle in that plan, so decided making it at home was the next best thing. He truly knows the way to my heart, and I kept saying, "I love you, you poached eggs for me..." (Poaching eggs is not something either one of us had ever done before...)

After breakfast I got to open my gifts which included an expensive peony scented lotion I had been oogling, a new beach hat (or rather coupon for me to pick one out myself), and a spa day at a luxurious spa at the Madinat Jumeirah Al Qasr Hotel. I was so surprised, and excited because they are all things I would not buy for myself (isn't that supposed to be what birthday gifts are about?).

We then lounged around the house for a bit to recover from our delicious breakfast, before heading out to the mall so that I could search for a beach hat. An hour and a half or so of looking and I found a perfect hat at Bloomy's (Jared having vetoed approximately 40 hats before finding the right straw hat). Then home we headed so that I could try out my new hat. We headed to the pool and swam and lounged away the afternoon (having my birthday during Ramadan really limited the number of activities we could do, since everything is closed on Fridays, and even more so during Ramadan).

After we got our fill of swimming and felt that we'd spent enough time in the heat, we lounged around the house until it was time to get ready for dinner. Jared surprised me by making a dinner booking at Gary Rhodes' new steak restaurant Twenty10. It only opened 3 weeks ago, and some of the reviews were mixed, so Jared was a little hesitant to go there. Well, it was probably top 5 best meals we've had in Dubai, so a perfect choice.

We got there a little early and got a drink at the bar (mmm, white cranberry cosmo!), and then proceeded to have an amazing meal. The restaurant embraces a sharable starters concept, so we split the Rillettes Fritters (yummy pork rillettes we discovered in Paris once again!), and a Lobster Caesar Salad. We both then got steaks (the restaurant gained brownie points with us right away as they only serve American beef and [some] Wagyu (overrated uberexpensive Australian beef). I got a 12 oz. fillet, and Jared got a giant ribeye. They both came well-seasoned and cooked to medium-rare perfection, with free sauces. I chose the Bearnaise and Jared the horseradish whip. Between Hollandaise and Bearnaise in one day, I was floating in French sauces, which only Jared knows will make me love you forever. The steaks were a la carte, so we also shared spinach and homemade frites as sides (give me steak frites and I'm in heaven). And although we had cake waiting at home, we could not resist getting an order of the sticky toffee pudding to share, which the chef kindly divided into two portions for us on our own plates. All the food was cooked and prepared to perfection, and I could not possibly have wished for a better birthday (whilst in Dubai during Ramadan....). I still maintain that I am 'mid' twenties for one more year (whereas, most of my friends are late twenties...), and I certainly enjoyed my 27 on the 27th!

Back in Dubai and Ramadan

Ramadan Kareem!

So, I've actually been back to Dubai for about two weeks now, but I haven't been on the ball with updating my blog. It could be because I'm lazy, but I think more likely, it's because I've been so depressed that the holy month of Ramadan has begun again. When we moved to Dubai almost a year ago, we arrived mid-Ramadan, but I had forgotten how restrictive and annoying it is... Ramadan is the holy month of the year in Islam, where Muslims fast from food, water, and smoking during daylight hours (to show their solidarity to those less fortunate). And in support of the Muslims' hardship with fasting, the UAE has made it illegal to eat, drink, or smoke in public during daylight hours (because just seeing food or other people eating or drinking would make it impossible to fast and restrain themselves from eating or drinking water. This falls under the same mentality of women wearing abayas, that seeing anything more than a woman's ankle will turn men on to the point of being unable to restrain themselves from sexual assault, yet, somehow, all the other men in the world can... but I digress).

In addition to outlawing public eating, pretty much all food establishments are closed during daylight hours. Not very fun. So, the day before Ramadan began, I stocked up at the supermarket and so have been binging on food and drinks in the privacy of my own home. Economical, but reclusive. Incredibly annoying when it comes to going to the gym and working out in the desert summer (when you can't bring water to rehydrate yourself).

Fortunately though, a few restaurants are open during the day for delivery or take-away. Not without going to extraordinary measures though, to 'hide' the food. Heaven forbid a Muslim should see it.

The giant 30 foot curtain that covers the Dubai Mall Food Court during daylight hours.

Then, when you enter the Food Court, those minimal places that are open (mostly trashy trashy American fast food, including but not limited to McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut), have to go to extreme levels to cover their food. Such as, covering their counters with blankets.

Or covering their counters with place mats. Oh the madness.

Then, after fasting all day, the Muslims more than make up for it when the sun goes down by gorging on Iftar buffets, which all the hotels and big restaurants have every night. It's basically all-you-can-eat international buffets with Arabic, Indian, and other random food from around the world (sometimes pasta and/or pizza, mashed potatoes, fries, pretty much a random mishmash). Although I am usually not that interested in all-you-can-eat buffets (unless it's dirty Chinese food at Ling Ling in Geneva, NY), Iftars are delicious, and I have pretty much been eating my weight in them since Ramadan began. Delicious, but not so conducive to losing the 5 lbs of holiday weight. The first Thursday of Ramadan I was still embracing the holiday spirit, so had my first Iftar of the year at The Palace Hotel's Ewaan Restaurant to catch up with friends after my vacation. One Iftar a year is probably all that any one (non-fasting) person really needs, but I have subsequently been to the One & Only Royal Mirage's Moroccan Iftar at Tagine (for a bday celebration with friends), and participated in an Iftar Potluck at our friends Dom and Melissa's. Next weekend I think we're doing another with my work, with the potential for another one with Jared's work. So, by the end of this month, I will probably have put on 5 more pounds and never want to see another buffet in my life. Two weeks down, two weeks to go. I am definitely counting the days until the unpleasantness that is Ramadan is OVER!