Boredom

It is so hard not having very many friends out here and hardly any family! We are so bored! At home we were always spending time with Vee and Artia or my parents, but now no one is really around that much. I take naps in the afternoon just to avoid the boredom and Levi stays up until all hours of the night just playing on the internet. I hope that things will get better in that aspect - maybe work will be more busy and I can bring stuff home to do (I never thought I would say that!).

We have been here for three months and we are just now getting into a normal routine - it's weird. Once our other things arrive I can really start to decorate our place with pictures and other items from home and then the place may feel a bit more cozy. All a part of the process I guess.

I hope you all are not bored at home, especially looking toward the holidays which are fast approaching. Send us your Halloween pictures because that is the best part to the start of the holidays!!!!

A Tour Guide?

Imagine only being in a place for three months and already showing the new people around. I am so not qualified to do that, but I did it anyway! Last week a new CSS arrived in my building - she will be working with the English teachers. She mentioned yesterday that she has not had the chance to do the tourist thing, so I told her that I would at least show her around a little bit. Tonight we took her around the city to point out some good shopping and site seeing then we took her to a restaurant called the Lebanese Flower. It was weird showing someone else around but I think we covered the big places that everyone likes to visit besides she has lived in at least three other countries and seems pretty independent so she will be fine!
On a completely different note - we are finally getting ALL of our stuff shipped over to us!!! I am so excited! It has been a struggle and the first company we tried to get to ship our stuff literally wanted to put it on a ship and it wouldn't arrive for 6 weeks. Now we are hooked up with a real company - UPS - so we can ship our stuff by plane and have it within the next 15 days or so. It will be so great to finally have our things. We have learned that having items from home with help with homesickness, so I think those pictures and other fun things will arrive just in time :) Ah, soon to be settled in.

MEIFF

TBG and I attended the Middle East International Film Festival this last weekend. We have never been to one before and it was a lot of fun - we regret not attending more films! They were really cheap, Dhs 10 each (like $3) and they were still at the movie theater so we could bring in popcorn.

We saw two series of shorts. One contained a bunch of short films from all over the world and about all topics. The second one was a series of animated short films, one by Bill Plimpton called "Hot Dog" (for those of you who know him). This was the most exciting thing for me, so much more interesting then watching regular actors and film, animation seems to be so much more creative.

We also saw a feature length film made in Denmark based on a book titled "Terribly Happy." Of course we had to read subtitles, but we realized that it was good to hear another language besides Arabic.

Since Abu Dhabi is trying to make a move towards bringing more culture to the UAE we hope that we will have a chance to experience more. This was only the second year for the MEIFF and we are already anticipating next years festival!

In the spirit of All Hallow's Eve

It is hard to feel like it is only two weeks away from Halloween when the daily temp is still in the high 90's and 100's, palm trees don't change color, and there is not a pumpkin anywhere in sight. So, my wonderfully creative wife came up with an idea to remedy the last two at least. We spent the evening "carving pumpkins" out of construction paper! We also cut out bats, spiders, and fall-colored leaves to decorate our front door. Now, it almost feels like snow is on its way (yeah, right!)

Be sure to let us see your own pumpkin creations and decorations!

cherish the good times

The last few days I have been learning to appreciate the good times in the present and not to fret about what the future may bring. All last week I was filled with an overwhelming sense of dread about the uncertainty of the future. It was tainting every moment and making me focus on the negative when I should be appreciating every facet of this rare experience. I realized that it is not worth worrying about the future if it prevents you from enjoying the present and causes regret about the past. Now, if I could only remember to not forget that ;)

Weekends always help to put things into perspective, too. (Hey, I may not be working right now, but I still enjoy the weekends.) Thursday night we went to see the latest Coen Brothers flick, Burn After Reading. Brad Pitt's quirkier roles (Snatch, Fight Club, 12 Monkeys, Kalifornia) are his best performances, but the bumbling moron he plays in this movie almost takes the cake. He is so convincing at playing unbalanced characters I am starting to wonder if he has a few screws loose himself. The scenes in which the upper-level CIA man is trying to explain the situation to his superior are also especially enjoyable.

Friday comprised of relaxing and being lazy not unlike how Sunday is usually spent in the states. We went to a gas station near our house for a midnight snack and stayed for the show. There is a KFC, Forty Fruitie (fruit smoothies), and Baskin Robbins inside the gas station and the KFC was just as busy at 12:30 as it was at lunch time. We couldn't resist sitting in our car and "people-watch" through the glass front wall of the gas station. We noticed a middle-aged man sitting at one of the tables. A couple young girls and a boy that seemed like his children visited him one at a time between walking out to a woman sitting in a car parked close to us. We tried to guess their story and imagined that he was an abusive father that was being allowed to visit his children in a public place while being supervised by his ex-wife. A little while later, he and his kids walked out with several bags full of food from KFC and got into the car with the woman proving our assumption was way off! Leave it to us; reality-TV riddled, overly dramatic Americans; to make a simple story of a man providing a meal for his family into a sad story of human tragedy, huh?!

On Saturday, we went to Carrefour to do some grocery shopping. There's something about having a refrigerator full of food that makes your life feel stable. Saturday evening, we sat on our back porch and relished the cooler weather (85 degrees feels cool compared to the 115 we experienced when we first got here!) I smoked apple tobacco in my shisha and let Sassafrass experiment while we web-cammed with my family back home. It was the first time I have been able to talk with my brothers and their families since coming here, so it felt like I wasn't so far away. Here are some pics of Pepe smoking shisha with me on a previous night. Monkeys love to smoke it up!

I had such a good time hanging out on the porch that I wanted to do it again the next night. But I should have learned by now that you can not recreate good times like that. You have to cherish the good times that are given to you spontaneously. I tried to sit out on the porch, smoke shisha, and listen to the Broncos game on Sunday night. I was by myself, the breeze wasn't blowing the same, the shisha wasn't as enjoyable, I was tired, and the Broncos were losing!

Well, we may not be able to recreate the good times but we can always be open to having more! Our annual Halloween party is still going on in our absence (thanks, Vee!) and we have a Halloween party to look forward to here at Kin and Barb's place. I was starting to think we were going to miss out on all the festivities of the season, but it sounds as though there are plenty of expats here that still celebrate it. It does seem to be missing the changing colors and scent of snow, though. Don't be shy about sending us any pictures you have taken that will help us feel like it is not eternally summer (changing leaves, pumpkin patches, costumes, corn field mazes are just a few suggestions, but you get the idea!)

Until next time, Inshallah!

Color Blind?

Thanks TBG - I scored a 60 on the Color IQ test! I guess I can't compare myself to you.

Anyway, I think I should give everyone a small update on what's been going on, or is it more of a rant about my neighbors?

We have crazy neighbors! They always lock all of the doors in our building when it is completely unnecessary. We don't have to worry too much about people wandering into our front entrance area if the rest of our doors are locked, but the neighbors are a little paranoid. They go to sleep at night and they lock all the doors between theirs and the front. This includes the front entrance to the building - when the key is left in the door then we are unable to unlock it from the outside. For the last few weeks this has happened and when we come home on a weekend night (around 1 am or so) the door is locked, with the key inside, and we have to call and wake them up. Last night we had to call them at 2 am and I called the wife. As she was hanging up the phone I heard her husband saying in the backgroud "They have a key!" So when he came downstairs to let us in I reminded him that we are unable to unlock the door when the key is in. He just apologized - even though he was the one that had to get out of bed due to his mistake! Anyway, I hope that we can work it out with them and make it clear how annoying it is to be locked out every night!!!

fun distraction

Test your color IQ and see how you compare with others. I scored an 8, which I'm guessing is pretty good since the monkey scored a 23! Let me know how you do...