Christmas Cheer and The New Year

Well we made it through our first Dubai Christmas.  When you are an expat and so far away from home what do you do on Christmas Day?  Brunch!  E and I hightailed it to the Atlantis to drink bubbly and feast of the magnificent spread.  We donned Santa hats and dined by the gorgeous Atlantis pool.  There was even a cotton candy machine, which was my go to for dessert.  It really was lovely and we had lots of fun. BUT I missed the cold, grey skies of the midwest, the fire crackling, and the family all together.  As much as we tried to mask the day in opulent fun it just was not the same as home.

My Hollywood finish, my prince
found me to cross the finish
line with me!

Now we are looking towards the New Year.  Currently we are planning to stay in Abu Dhabi and attend the Coldplay concert after a few days down on the island that E works on.  But we all know what comes with the new year...resolutions.  I know everyone says that they do not believe in them but we all still make them so often just to be broken.  In past blogs I have discussed E's health kick and it has jump started my running, most recently completing a half marathon.  So I thought that I am going to make a resolution that I can work towards everyday.  A mileage goal.  E brought up the thought of running 1000k in the year, which would be about 621 miles, which is only 1.7 miles per day.  That's less than 20 minutes of running.  Completely doable, so I am going to do it.  So from here and there you may be reading about some milage updates.  Here's to keep resolutions!!

What's your New Years Resolution?

Cheers! 

To Home and Back...Home

Back home in Iowa with my brother and his lovely lady!

And we are back in action.  E and I made our way to the states for Turkey day and got some much needed family time along with my two most important creature comforts: chipotle and target.  Yepp, those are the two things that I miss the most (barring family and friends obvi!).  My biggest fear at the end of the trip was that I would not want to return back to the concrete jungle of Dubai.  But after staying with two lovely ladies and enjoying their homes I was anxious to get back and attempt to "homify" our apartment.

Electrifying!

First order of business was to assemble Christmas in our Middle East apartment.  I must admit though, and my last roomie will attest, I tend to be a bit of a grinch when it comes to decorating.  I think that is because I logged so many hours at my last job that I really never even got to properly celebrate Christmas or even be home, but not this year.  We went to the local grocery store/Walmart type outlet and scooped up a 4 foot fakie and some plastic ornaments.  The biggest obstacle was to find lights, a tree skirt, and a topper.  I can tell you a week later we now have outdoor icle lights draping our tree (and E negotiated 60% off of those bad boys so we made them work!), a tree skirt that was meant for a table cloth but some scissors and I got to work and viola, and still no topper but two little love birds are perched up there.  It is a bit eclectic and the lights are practically electric that I do believe planes have been distracted by them flying over, but we are celebrating darn it.  Today I scooped up some yummy candles and E bought pine scented air freshener, which we dowsed our tree in to make it a bit more authentic.  We are two crafty kids.

A view from JBR beach, it looks like a postcard!

I have hit my 6 month anniversary and Dubai is starting to be more like a home to me.  I cannot really claim myself as a newbie any longer.  Dubai has some absolutely amazing things to offer, but one thing it is truly lacking is a sense of community. Yesterday E and I participated in the Dubai Creek Striders Half Marathon and I felt that community a bit more.  Races always seem like a place were there is a kinship and bond amongst strangers.  It was a huge feat for me and it was nice to run along 1500 people, watch the sun rise of the Burj Dubai, and run through the souks of old town Dubai.   I never, ever thought, I would run a half marathon, but not only did I complete it but ran the entire way!  That was really my goal.  I am  fighting some soreness today, definitely proud of us, but not running (ha!) out to do another one any time soon.

So we have gone home and come back home in the last few weeks.  How nice it is to have two homes and appreciate living life in such opposite spectrums.  

Woah

Something bizarre just happened. I am sitting at the beach reading, "Is everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" By Mindy Kaling and I stopped on the word "favorite," and I paused. I thought to myself, "that's not spelled right?!" I have become so Britishly acclimated that I was thinking it should be"favourite." It's happening! It's official the Brits have invaded my vernacular!

I know I have been on hiatus but vow to be back soon, with some colourful tales.