Eid Mubarak!!!

Wow, I survived Ramadan.  I also think I gained about 6 pounds.  I was sure this would be the skinny season, but those Iftars and excess evening merriment made it impossible. Yes, I went to the gym, but not as often as I should have.

On Thursday we were told that the office would be closed from September 29 – October 2 for Eid. I do LOVE this country. I’d hoped to go to the UK for the week, but nobody was home so I decided to stay in Abu Dhabi. Guess where my friends and I chose to celebrate the end of Ramadan? Yes, at the Shangri-La. The food was amazing as always; I highly recommend the marinated grilled beef with gorgonzola.

I’m really looking forward to a relaxing week. It would be nice to get out of the city and do some exploring, but I don’t think anyone around me is up for it. I do have plans to play mah jongg on Wednesday. One of my colleagues plays regularly and has agreed to teach a few of us.

They Really Do Love Me

I received my “you’ve got mail” message from the mail room this morning. I was so excited, but assumed it was a bunch of bills that Alex had sent me. Boy was I wrong! I had a birthday card from Jill & Paul, a postcard from Ingrid and Christopher, and a birthday card from Gary & Junie, and a care package from Junie and Lesa. I thought I’d burst into tears right there in the mail room. Who knew that things from home could mean so much? I mean, I love Abu Dhabi a lot, but I am envious of all my colleagues who receive packages from their folks on a regular basis. I completely understand that my parents can’t even send me a card but it still hits me hard when I see everyone else getting stuff. So the cards and the care package with all my goodies meant more to me than anyone can imagine. I can’t believe that they remembered how much I love Goldfish and Junie remembered my dental floss! Junie is one of my true constants. When I was a lonely little undergrad in Canada (many moons ago), she got her sister to put together my first ever care package. Now she and Lesa have done it again. I am a very lucky woman. The highlights of my care package were my birthday card from the kids with their adorable childish handwriting, the September issue of Real Simple magazine (love that magazine), and a cool Goldfish case into which I immediately dumped a pack of Goldfish (from my care package)! This has been a great day.

There’s something I’ve not been writing about. I finally rented a car and have been driving myself to and from work and have been trying to familiarize myself with Abu Dhabi. I’m not trying to be an elitist but my little rental car, a Peugeot 307, is not going to cut it here. This is the land of the SUV and they drive them fast and hard here. My poor little rental car does not stand a chance. It gets no respect whatsoever. People decide that I’m not going fast enough (at 120km/hour) and they just ride my tail and honk at me until I get out of the way so that they can continue at 160km/hour. At stop signs, when I have the right of way, the big cars just cut me off or if I’m actually at a stop, they just drive around me to get through the intersection. It’s not like I’m stopping for fun, I’m actually stopping to because there’s a sign that says to do so. Funnily, even pedestrians don’t respect my little car. They just walk in front of it. I can’t wait for my own car to finally get here. It’s not a huge expensive car, but it is just big enough to garner some respect.

The other thing about the car that really bugs me is that I’m paying $600/month for it while I still making payments on my own car. I wish mine would get here already as this is proving to be quite expensive! I am enjoying the freedom and must confess I prefer to get used to the driving style here in someone else’s car.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I walked into the office this morning, and my boss handed me two invitations: one to a press conference and another to an Iftar dinner, both at Emirates Palace. I have been dying to go there, but I had hoped to have a less work oriented birthday. Fortunately I was wearing a suit today. The press conference was really grand. It was an announcement of a new Red Crescent program. It was the first official event that I’d attended on my own.

The Emirates Palace is actually a hotel, but it was built to look like a grand palace. I didn’t really explore the Palace because I knew I’d be back that evening anyway.

When I got into the car, my phone beeped to announce a text message. I figured it was someone sending me a birthday message. I was right: “do you know that your birthday will be forever known as Black Monday”. Yes, it was my brother wishing me a happy birthday! He’s right, today the world as we know it ended: Lehman Brothers collapsed and Merrill Lynch got taken over by Bank of America! In business school, these were the companies my classmates dreamt of. How could this be? The question is, if banks as solid as these have collapsed, what about the less stable banks? AIG, a company that, as an actuary, I really wanted to get into, has had to be bailed out otherwise it too would collapse. This is so scary. For all of you who made fun of me for leaving the private sector: how do you like me now?

This evening, I went to the Iftar with two of my colleagues. It was in a great big tent outside where the press conference was held this morning. This was a tent like none I’ve seen before. It was beautifully done and felt like an extension of the hotel. The food was a buffet but we all had assigned seating. The dessert buffet was right next to our table and I decided that I deserved dessert as a birthday treat (yeah, as if I needed an excuse)!

I am really tired today. I am all Iftar-ed out and although my day was ok, I would have liked a birthday that was more about me, but perhaps it’s time I accepted that I’m an adult and I should get over it.

Knitting in Abu Dhabi

Before I moved to Abu Dhabi, I was really worried that I wouldn’t have anyone to knit with, so being me, I googled “knitting Abu Dhabi”. Sure enough, Charmaine’s blog popped up. Long story short, we now have a knitting group! We agreed to meet every second Friday of the month at the Caribou Coffee in Marina Mall. We expected about 4 people including me to show up, but I think we forgot that September 12 fell during Ramadan and that Caribou, like all eating public eating places, would be closed. I was really nervous about going to meet everyone; all I knew was that Charmaine had blonde hair so I figured I’d just find a blonde haired woman with an Australian accent and ask her if she liked to knit. Easy right? Actually, it really was that easy. Charmaine was easy to spot because during Ramadan, everything is shut down in the daytime including Caribou Coffee. So when I saw a pretty blonde lady in front of Caribou Coffee, I figured I was in the right place.

I’m really excited about our group; there are five of us: Charmaine, Lindsey, Sydney, Eva, and me. We are a motley crew. Poor Charmaine, surrounded by all these Yankees! Sydney is currently the funniest member of the group: she doesn’t knit or crochet, she just showed up because it sounded like fun; isn’t that great? Just as we were getting comfy, the security guards at Marina Mall told us we had to move because gathering in front of an eating place during Ramadan is not permitted. I don’t know if that is actually true, but I think he figured that a bunch of giggling women with pointy things and yarn in their hand were up to no good and were just loitering; all he knew was that he wanted us out of the way. We eventually moved to some benches nearby and started to show each other our WIPs (works in progress), completed projects, and knitted happily away. I think this is going to be a lot of fun, if only we can find a name for ourselves. We want the name to be one that welcomes anyone who likes yarn but to also reflect that we are Abu Dhabi yarn lovers. Our next meeting is October 10.

Last but not least, happy birthday Mom!

My First Iftar

Yesterday my boss asked me to accompany him to an Iftar at the Intercontinental Hotel. I was happy to go because I really wanted to go to an Iftar, I need to network, and I’ve never been to the Intercontinental… when you’re new, everything is a first!

Anyway, when I walked into the Iftar room, I was blown away. The tables were so beautifully decorated, there were an assortment of mezzes and appetizers already on the table and there were so many people. We were shown to a table and started making small talk with the people at our table. There were a few hundred people. Around 6:35 there was a call to announce the breaking of the fast. It was kind of like the call to prayer. In any case, waiters came round and gave us each a date and a drink that tasted kind of like buttermilk. The combination of the date’s sweetness and the milk’s tartness was quite nice. I find dates very rich so don’t like to eat them often, but this was nice.

I met some very interesting people tonight and given that it was my first official outing, I think it went pretty well.  I was surprised by how short it was. We were in and out of the restaurant in just over an hour.