Friendsgiving

For the past two Thanksgivings, Casey and I have celebrated in Raleigh, NC, aka the BEST Thanksgiving EVER.  I met his family three years ago at Thanksgiving and felt like I was in a movie.  It's the dream Thanksgiving - perfect weather, perfect house, delicious food, turkey smoking outside all day, wine and games before dinner, amazing people... It's really the best.  This year we were extra sad we wouldn't be there because Casey's brother flew in all the way from Taiwan.  This was definitely one of the sadder weeks in Dubai :(

I think everyone here was sad they were missing their family's Thanksgiving, so we decided to make the most of it and have Friendsgiving, the best alternative to movie-inspired Thanksgivings. :)

 These pictures aren't the best, but I wanted to document the occasion anyway.  There were about 15 of us, mostly from my school, and we had the best time eating, drinking wine and laughing. 

 

Lots of Americans and Canadians and one guy from Wales.

This is the school-provided housing - HUGE compared to our apartment.  I think our apartment would fit in Katherine's living room...

If we have to miss Thanksgiving in Raleigh, this is the best alternative.  :)

Our 'Hood (and a Tribute to Dubai's Beautiful Buildings) Part 2

Welcome to the Dubai Marina, the other side of our apartment.  It's hard to choose between JBR and the Marina Walk, but I think this side is my favorite.  

So many beautiful things to look at.

Even the stairs are fancy :)

These Reebok signs are everywhere giving you words of encouragement and telling you how far you've run.  The whole loop is about 7km.  This is where the beautiful people go to work out.

Our building is the smaller blue one on the left.  They're building a hotel on the right which means we'll get a neighborhood bar!  All of the bars have to be attached to a hotel, so that's where most of the nice restaurants are. 

This is Park Island, the most gorgeous apartment building ever.  Someday, when we're rich and famous, maybe we can live here :)

Doesn't it look like these buildings were plucked from the pages of Batman?

Cute cafes

 

The Marina Mall

It's all just so beautiful.  Of course there is construction everywhere too, but we'll save that post for another day.  I hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving!  This walk pulled me out of my Thanksgiving funk, so I'm very thankful for that. :)

Our 'Hood (and a Tribute to Dubai's Beautiful Buildings)

Welcome to our neighborhood!  I was feeling extra sorry for myself today because Casey's at work and our families are celebrating Thanksgiving without us, so my choices were to feel sorry for myself or go do something.  This is the something I chose to do, take you on a walk around our 'hood.  

We shall start with our walk to JBR, Jumeirah Beach Residence.

Across the street and up these beautiful stairs we go.

Dubai has some beautiful architecture.

It rained last night!  Here's proof.  

This little girl probably hasn't seen very much rain in her life.  Her mom was trying to get her to come with her, but the girl was mesmerized by the water.  This is the area between the marina and beach street.  We didn't even know it existed for a month after moving in because it's tucked away on the top of the stairs. 

Such pretty buildings!

Our favorite coffee shop :) We stop here on our way to the beach.

Clouds, something I never thought I'd miss.

Dude, people are PUMPED about IHOP! 

The beach is lined with fine eateries such as Cinnabon...

PAUL, our favorite :)

El Chico, not as many customers as PAUL.

Chili's, not so much either.

Our favorite bagel shop.

Our favorite juice bar.

That concludes our tour of JBR.  It's basically just a bunch of shops, restaurants, hotels, apartments and bars along the beach.  

And now we begin our tour of the marina.  This is on the other side of our apartment.

Lame.  We "ran out of space" so I have to start another post... Dubai Marina coming up!

Livin' the High Life

So, in the midst of all the happiness talk yesterday, Casey and I decided it's time to hire a housekeeper.  This is something I normally wouldn't do because I think there are better things I could spend my money on, but he has been a little overwhelmed with work and I have 3 papers to write today, and neither of us are really pumped about cleaning our apartment on our days off.  Soooooo, I called last night, she's here right now and it's AMAZING!  We're jamming out to music while I'm writing my papers (slash blogging) in the bedroom, and she's mopping, cleaning the bathrooms and ironing (double bonus - Casey doesn't have to iron this week!).  Housekeepers are so cheap here, about 55 dirhams per hour or $15ish, so there's really no point in not hiring one.  Kelly has the best philosophy.  She said because she works full-time,  the last thing she wants to do is spend her time off cleaning.  She'd rather spend it at the beach or MAKE or doing something fun.  And, because we work full-time, we can afford to spread the wealth (especially when it's so cheap) and pass it on to someone who probably needs it more.  One of the teachers at school has a housekeeper come three times a week because she's too busy teaching and raising her daughter.  I don't think we'll need someone that often, but just having someone come once a week or so will give us more than $30 worth of happiness.  Totally worth it, right?  I think it's worth it just for the ironing.  She's quite lovely, too.

*BEST UPDATE EVER*
It was only 35 dirhams per hour!!  What?  That's $9.50!  Holy shiz!  We're stupid if we DON'T do this every week!

When You're Feeling Blue, Just Falafel

Casey's job is pretty awful right now, but I'm saving that for another post.  Today we're focusing on happy things.  I read this quote yesterday and think it applies perfectly.

"Let us decide on the route that we wish to take to pass our life, and attempt to sow that route with flowers." - Madame du Chatelet

We chose this route.  It has been quite stressful and difficult at times, but I think this is where we're supposed to be, and eventually it has to get easier, right?

 So instead of focusing on the bad parts of Dubai, we're focusing on the happy things. Here's our list so far...

1.  The kitties are here!!! :) :) :)

2.  We live in the Dubai Marina, and that's awesome even if we never see each other.

3.  We can see the ocean from our balcony!

4.  We're meeting Casey's dad in London in one month and 6 days!

5.  We're making a pit stop in Paris on the way home :)

6.  We found out today it's cheaper (like hundreds of dollars cheaper) to have a 23 hour layover in Istanbul on the way home, so we get to go to Istanul too!

7.  We're going to Roald Dahl's writing hut - woot!

This just turned into an "I'm so excited about Christmas" list.  Back to normal life...

8.  We're married :)

9.  We're healthy.

10.  We work with awesome people.

11.  We get to see each other every night.

12. We have a soft, comfy bed.

13. Casey learned he has a new obsession with dates.

14. We have house plants.  This one makes me really happy.

15.  We have AMAZING friends and family.

16. It's getting cooler in Dubai.  The highs are in the 80s.

17.  Costa coffee has delicious muffins and flat whites.

18. Casey gets to hunt for shells on his days off.

19. Casey just  bought new speakers so we can jam out to some sweet tunes.

 20. Lufthansa didn't lose the cats.

To continue with our post of happy things, we must appreciate one of the awesomest things about Dubai - delivery.  (21.  Dubai delivery.)  Literally every establishment with food delivers.  We can get pizza, sushi, ice cream, McDonald's, KFC (people in Dubai are obsessed with McDonald's and KFC), groceries, bottles of water, fancy cafe food, pre-planned meals for the week... It's pretty awesome.  Tonight we ordered Just Falafel - two Asian wraps, hummus, lentil salad, all for the low price of 51 dirhams, or about $13.   Check it...

It doesn't look as good as it tastes, but trust me, it's delicious, and it totally cheers us up on days that aren't as happy as others.  A little falafel and some kitty cuddles can cure the blues for a little while.

The Kitties Are Here! The Kitties Are Here!

I think this picture says it all...

The kitties are here, F-I-N-A-L-L-Y here, and we couldn't be happier!  It was such a long, hard process getting them here that I didn't let myself get excited until they were in our apartment.  I'm sure Jessica and Hunter feel the same way.  I had a fear that the UAE would send them back to the US, they'd die on the plane, or the awful company we had to hire to get them here would F something else up and they wouldn't make it.  We didn't even get their food and litter box until the night they arrived. 

We're so proud of the kitties!  They must have been SO freaked out on the plane.  Can you imagine riding in cargo for 15ish hours?  They left Denver Monday afternoon, made a pit-stop in Germany for some fresh air, food and a potty break, and were back on the plane headed to Dubai.  Casey picked them up at 3:00 Wednesday morning.  We were really expecting them to be mad at us when they got here, but they have adjusted so quickly.  Leon was pretty much normal after 15 minutes of exploring, and Owen, the cat who hid for an entire month after we moved to Denver, emerged from his hiding spot a day later. 

Here's proof.

We've been trying to get good pictures of them, but just when they're in the perfect position and we get the camera ready, they decide they'd rather have pets than glamor shots.   We have about a million pictures of them walking toward the camera.

His poor little nose was raw when he got here.  He must have been trying to dig his way off the plane :(

They've been super cuddly and sweet, and we're very thankful that they've forgiven us for leaving them for 4 months and making them fly all the way over here. 

In other news, there's not much going on.  Casey and I had our second day off together yesterday, and it was GLORIOUS!  We didn't do anything special, but being home together for more than a 3 hours feels amazing.  We started working on a special project for the apartment that I'm in love with, and I hope it turns out the way it is in my mind.  I'll show you when we're done. :)

Special Delivery!

Check out what we got in the mail this week!!!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Best present EVER!  And it only took 3.5 weeks to get here!  I was seriously so pumped when I opened this package.  It came all the way from Raleigh, NC, and I can't think of a better gift.
I have 12 glorious mornings of Pumpkin Spice Latte ahead of me, and I couldn't be happier. 
Thanks, Big Mama!!