Thanksgiving in Dubai

We celebrated Thanksgiving today (Friday). We planned on buying a duck this year since we don't have a roasting pan, but we found a half turkey at Lulu's, so we brought that home instead. This is the first year I've cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving, and it turned out pretty good!

It was small enough to shove put in the crockpot. I rubbed the skin with sea salt, then poured cranberry sauce all over the top, and let it cook for about 4 hours. Then I put the whole dutch oven into the big oven for another hour and basted it with butter. Yum!


I also made stuffing (Joe's Maw-Maw's recipe), garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet peas, and a lemon pound cake. It actually smelled like Thanksgiving in here :)
Here's my plate. Mmmmmm.

I cut apart some of Colin's 18-month pajamas and made a turkey shirt for the festivities. Here's some pictures of him after Thanksgiving dinner:

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

So Very Grateful

We have so many things to be grateful for this year!

::Joe found a job after two years of searching.

::All 3 of us are together for the holidays.

::My brother made it home safely from Afghanistan....and I'll have a new sister-in-law next year!

::Joe's brother made it home safely from Afghanistan! I'm blessed to have a great sister-in-law and a sweet neice who turned 2 this year.



::I have a loving set of in-laws who would do anything for our family.


::I have parents who have persevered through a devistating diagnosis.
::We have a sweet dog that we had to leave at home, but we're thankful that my brother willingly took her into his home until we get back.

::My baby boy is more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. I'm amazed at all the things he learns, and blessed to have his smile to get me through the tough times.

::And I have a husband that has been by my side, regardless of the trials we may encounter.


Happy Thanksgiving from Dubai!

A Different Kind of Thankful

I just finished reading my friend Brynn's blog, Coconut Water. The post is entitled "Expat Mashochists." Certainly something I can relate to right now.

To give you a little background, Brynn and I have been friends since we were about 13. We went out separate ways in college - she to American University in D.C., and I went to Wesleyan College in Macon. She got further and further away from home...had a summer in Croatia, a semester in Morocco, and a semester in India. I got closer and closer to home...moved to Milledgeville, then back in with my parents for nursing school. Brynn and I met over chips and queso dip at Frontera in the summertime and discuss her worldly adventures.

Towards the end of her time at AU, she met a handsome Brazilian fellow, fell in love, and moved to Brazil...then they got married :) So, she's a total hardcore expat. She made a permanent move to a place where she didn't know the language. I'm kind of an Expat Light. We're here temporarily, and almost everyone speaks English. My admiration for her has grown tremendously since we moved here!

In her most recent blog post, she talks about "volunteering for banishment." People always tell me "I could never move that far away from my family." You know what? I bet you could. I don't possess a super power that enables this be to easy. Joe and I love our families just as much as you love your families.

The difference in our situations? We had a need to fulfill, we saw an opportunity, prayed about it, stepped over the imaginary boundaries we'd created for ourselves, and just kept moving forward.

The pains of separation really set in around Halloween. The pictures of pumpkin patches, carving jack-o-lanterns, and trick or treating made me sad that we wouldn't get to partake in any of those activities this year. 4 days later was my birthday. Then the weather started getting cooler at home. I imagined seeing Colin run around in our back yard, crunching the leaves and chasing Dakota. Now it's the week of Thanksgiving and I'm really feeling the homesickness.

Is it better here than at home? I choose not to ponder that question.

I have moments where I want to, but I refrain. I have moments of satisfaction that I've been resourceful or creative in ways I never would have experienced at home. I have teary moments. I have a tiny human who smiles and makes it all ok. I have a husband who I like to spend time with. I have a desert on one side, a beach on the other, and a list of things to see and do that most people will never experience in their lifetime.

I keep going back to the notion that the right thing isn't always the easiest thing.

This Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for something I've always taken for granted: the chance for the whole family to gather around one table.

I'm thankful that the country we call home allows me to walk around wearing whatever I please, worship wherever I please, kiss my husband wherever I please, and buy a bottle of wine whenever I please. I will no longer gripe about the ban on Sunday alcohol sales.

I'm thankful that family and friends have always been within driving distance. New Jersey, Brownsville, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Murfreesboro, Ft. Walton Beach, Tampa, and Tallahassee don't seem so far away anymore.

I'm thankful for the awesome opportunity to stay home with Colin for these few months.

I won't ask anyone to understand our reasons for moving 8,000 miles away, because I don't think we fully understand, either. However, I hope that our journey will inspire you to look beyond your comfort zone, and experience things that make you really appreciate how much you have waiting for you when you come back home.

Happy Thanksgiving from Dubai!

Al Ain Zoo

On Friday we planned to go to the Dubai Zoo. Upon searching for it's website, Joe came across several articles protesting the zoo's cramped conditions. Apparently, PETA was here in Dubai for their first Middle Eastern protest this July! According to numerous articles, the animals live on concrete in small cages, and more than 80% are animals brought in by smugglers and confiscated by customs. We thought it would be a sad sight, so we decided to look elsewhere. Fortunately, the city of Al Ain in the emirate of Abu Dhabi has a wonderful zoo! Colin was impressed. This is the entrance to the Al Ain Zoo. Al Ain is a little over an hour's drive through the desert from Dubai. It costs 15 dirhams per person to enter, and Colin was free.

The Al Ain Zoo collaborates with the San Diego Zoo, which may explain why it's such a great place.
Guess what the first exhibit is...flamingos of course! Colin loved watching them in the water. He was pretty mad when we rolled him away in the stoller. Little did he know that the monkeys were just around the corner. Oh, but first, we saw MEERKATS! There were 2 playing in this window and Colin just giggled and giggled. I didn't see any primetime drama like on Meerkat Manor, but I guess the zoo makes life a little more stable. This monkey appeared to have fallen asleep suddenly while trying to lie down. His limbs were stuck out like rigor mortis. Don't worry, though. He's definitely alive.

Humongous ostrich. Colin got a laugh out of this one, too. She was pecking at the gate incessantly.
One view of the African Safari exhibit with giraffes, zebras, and rhinos. No elephants at this zoo, though. It's a very scenic zoo with the mountains in the background. A little chinchilla in the noctural animal house.
The White Sambona Lions are the most popular exhibit at this zoo. This one was snoozing, so I couldn't get a good picture.

The expression on this monkey's face cracks me up....

It was hotter than I expected, so we had to break out the sunscreen.

Fortunately, they have these super awesome cool mist lines all throughout the zoo. They turn on automatically and really help you cool down!We hit the "food court" on the way out: KFC, Hardee's, Pizza Hut, or Krispy Kreme (not pictured).

There is a mosque inside the zoo for prayer time.

And I thought this fountain was lovely.

I was really pleased with our zoo trip! I'd even go back again sometime. Colin had a lot of fun. He took a good nap on the way home :)

The Bomb

Today is the start of Eid al-Adha...a Muslim holiday observed in the UAE. This means Joe will be home for the rest of the week! Woohoo!

I wanted to research the observance, so naturally, I googled it. I found a website called "Answering Islam" which sparked my interest. It's a Christian website...which I believe is devoted to rebuking the Islamic faith. So, I clicked on the link. Lo and behold...I got this: THE BOMB! I suppose this is their maternal variation of censorship. Once I defeat the bomb, I will post more on Eid al-Adha...

Bathrooms, Dubai style

We have 2 1/2 bathrooms in our 2 bedroom apartment. There are no light switches inside of the bathrooms...they are all outside of the door. This takes some getting used to, particularly early in the morning when I'm fumbling around. The light switches in the apartment look like this:

Which also takes some getting used to! The switch on the left is in the "on" position, and the other two are "off". There are tiny lights that you can see if it's dark and the light switch is off.

And look! I found the sprayer!

Right next to the toilet! According to numerous Internet articles, in particular A Girl's Guide to Being Muslim, cleaning after using the toilet is a religious expectation in the Islamic faith. It must only be done with the left hand, and using a water sprayer is necessary to be "clean." Being physically clean is the same as being spiritually clean in this case. We just sort of ignore the sprayer and hope that we don't find Colin playing with it.

We also keep a lock on the toilet since his little frog Buddy has a tendency to jump in there to swim.

There are no outlets in the bathrooms, either, except for this low voltage socket for electric razors. I have to drag a surge protector into the bathroom to blow dry my hair since there are no other mirrors in the apartment.

Here's the tub...pretty standard, really, and littered with Colin's bath toys. All of the tile in the apartment has these nice brownish-orange accent tiles.

Our bathroom is pretty much the same as Colin's except we have a navy blue shower curtain and less cabinet space. The third 1/2 bathroom has been converted into a storage room :)

Our Kitchen

Not sure if you heard the news, but we finally got a dishwasher! I have gained back 2 hours per day that I was spending washing dishes. Most apartments here don't come with any appliances, so you have to buy your own.

Here is a view of our kitchen when you walk in the door. You can see in this picture that the sink is one-sided, and doesn't have a sprayer. I found the sprayer, but it wasn't in the kitchen. You'll have to read my next post...

Anyway, the dishwasher is beside the sink, and the washer/dryer is on the left. Having it in the kitchen is strange...and loud. The dishwasher is smaller than your average-sized machine. I can only put 4 full-sized plates in the bottom rack and I have to put them around the perimeter so the rinsing arm can turn. To the left side of the kitchen is the opening into the living room, and the shelves where we store our food.

We have a little collection of office supplies there in the corner. On the opposite side is a surge protector/converter. There are no plugs in the kitchen except the ones behind the appliances, so we have to use that for everything.

This is what you see if you look in from the living room. We have a gas range. There is a thick glass pane on hinges that covers the eyes when we're not using it. I believe it's there to keep dust from settling near the flame. Then, when you cook, you just lift it up and it acts as a splatter guard. The oven is sort of a pain. I can't ever get it to turn on! As I said in the post about Joe's birthday cake, there are no temperature settings on the oven, just the numbers 1-6. We have a little thermometer that hangs from the oven rack which helps. The oven and refrigerator are also quite small, but they work just fine for us.

This is our kitchen table in the living room

And the long awaited water cooler. You can't drink from the tap here, so having this is a life-saver.

One of my favorite features in the kitchen is the DOOR! It's great to keep it closed so little hands don't accidently stop the washing machine in mid-cycle, start the dishwasher, or ignite a flame on the stove.