January 2012
5 posts
3 tags
Those Were the Days, My Friend
So yeah, you know how I’m running the Dubai marathon, um, tomorrow?
Well, I’d like you to meet my running buddies:
Proving once and for all that I’m Not As Young As I Used To Be (TM), my two weeks in the States - replete with late nights, cold weather, too much carousing with colleagues, and about 48 hours’ worth of time spent in airports or on airplanes - have taken...
Data Dump
Hey y’all!
Dubai, right now.
It’s 5:30 AM in Dubai and I’ve been up for an hour despite the fact that I took a heavy-duty ultra-profesh sleeping pill around 9 PM last night in the hopes of dealing a death knell to my jet lag… ‘twas not to be, apparently.
Well, as my mom says, “if wishes were horses then beggars would ride,” (hmm - that seemed more...
2 tags
A Word From Middle America
Broadcasting live from Chicago Midway airport - IT’S GUBBI!!!
(The crowd goes wild… oh wait, that’s just everyone around me watching the Packers-Giants game at the Terminal B sports bar… same same, right?)
Yep, back in America again - I know, right? Before I even had time to recap New Year’s Eve in Dubai (in a word: fireworks) or the awesome Palestinian wedding...
4 tags
Inevitable Sam Update
So obviously, I can’t make a trip home to Tennessee without the obligatory post on my family’s dachshund / yorkie mix Sam, The Dog of All Dogs.
In a recent development that is bizarre even for my family (and that’s saying a lot), my parents have taken to seating Sam on a high chair next to the table during family dinners so he doesn’t feel left out.
Note that I am not...
3 tags
Tennessee Festive
So at the risk of being the absolute last person on the interwebs to post a holiday recap… Merry Christmas!!!! It’s like, so passé that it’s almost not passé, am I right?
(You’d think I’d learn by now that a week at home with family + a week back in Dubai hosting visitors + a couple of 24-hour flight odysseys thrown in the mix = an inevitable 2-week Gubbi internet...
December 2011
12 posts
2 tags
Gubbi's Guide to Surviving Long-Haul Flights
Me ’n’ my baggages, triumphantly arriving back home after our 30-hour flight odyssey from South Carolina to Dubai last summer.
Since the holiday travel season is upon us and I am now in my fifth straight year of traveling 24 hours each way to get home for Christmas - and also since I am currently scheduled to be on no less than eight 15-hour flights in the next four months - I feel...
3 tags
A Haiku about Winter Running Clothes in Dubai
Tonight’s running wear:
Short shorts and a teeny tank.
I ALMOST shivered.
***
Pay no attention to the zen masters of traditional Japanese poetry rolling in their graves thanks to my use of CAPS LOCK in a haiku, and instead distract yourself with my moonrise view from the track at Safa Park…
(Yes, this will continue to be a weather-gloating blog until sometime around April.)
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Depressing Realization of the Week
Tuesday Morning, 8 AM (Dubai): wake up, think about upcoming travel plans, and excitedly realize, “Ooh, we’ll be leaving for the airport to fly home to the US at EXACTLY THIS TIME NEXT WEEK!”
Wednesday Morning, 8 AM (Dubai): wake up, calculate current time in the US, and not-so-excitedly realize, “Oh… we’ll be landing in Nashville at EXACTLY THIS TIME NEXT...
Love Letters from My Building Security Staff
It’s the personal touch that I find so beguiling…
“SIR, THIS IS NOT YOUR PARKING SLOT PLEASE CAN YOU PARK TO YOUR SLOT PROPALY THANKD YOU FAROOK.”
Love you too, Farook. <3
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A Haiku about Winter Wardrobe Selection in Dubai
Mid-December morn
Skimpy satin dress - too cold?
Nah, it’s 80 F
(And yes, you have to pronounce “farenheit” as “eff” to get the syllables to add up right… deal with it.)
2 tags
The Monkey Guide
Oh, how I love sitting down at my computer, locating this trusty old Microsoft Word document, and updating it for soon-to-arrive visitors:
(In fairness, not all my visitors to Dubai are monkeys, nor do they need a guide on how to fly into what is ultimately a modern and tourist-friendly airport. However, I originally compiled this guide for my mother - who onced missed a transatlantic flight by...
2 tags
Fridays Are For Running
30.5 kilometers / 19 miles: Trade Centre to Burj Khalifa, quick loop around Old Town, back through Za’abeel to Trade Centre, down Dhiyafah to Al Wasl Road, and then cruuuuuuuise the length of Wasl to Jumeirah Beach Hotel, where Alex will be waiting with Gatorade and sympathy and, most importantly, the car.
Podcasts are downloaded, water bottle is full, and it’s a beautiful day in...
All The Caffeine
This rambling post, in bullet-point form, brought to you by CAFFEINE! I didn’t drink much coffee when I was chillaxing during the Month of Gubbi, so this morning after a cup at home, a travel mug in the car, and a large “Reindeer Brew” at Caribou with a colleague, I’m buzzing with excitement about the following things:
It’s nice to wear work outfits again, especially...
2 tags
No, But Seriously This Time
Aaaaaaand… registered!
After skipping the Dubai Marathon last year and failing to get my act together to run Beirut this fall, I am doing this race come hell, high water, or 6-hour finish, mark my word.
And now that I’ve put my $120 registration fee where my mouth is… well, consider my word marked.
As of last week I’m up to 17 miles for my long run and 5 x Yasso 800s...
Nerd Patrol
Just clicking through Alex’s Christmas wish list on Amazon is enough to lull me into a peaceful sleep right here at my desk…
… have your eyes glazed over yet? No?
Theeeeeeeere you go… [zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]
Who needs Ambien when you have my boyfriend’s literary tastes?
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Scenes From A New Job
I started my new job in Dubai this week, and in grand back-to-school fashion there is much to be excited about, including…
… a stack of required reading to be perused in my first month:
(Complete with quizzes and all!)
… a travel schedule packed with business trips back to the US:
(Um, does anyone want to hang out with me in Nebraska?!)
… and perhaps MOST...
4 tags
Spirit of the Union
It’s been quiet around these parts as I’ve wrapped up the Month of Gubbi and prepared to start my new job, but I couldn’t let UAE National Day - my favorite local holiday in Dubai - come and go without a mention.
National Day is always a hoot, but given that this December 2nd was the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the United Arab Emirates, the powers that be pulled out...
November 2011
14 posts
2 tags
Dishes and Hubris in the Kitchen
Last week, thanks to the confluence of The Month of Gubbi and Operation Expat Thanksgiving, I spent about 30 hours right here:
Okay yes, this was partially an excuse to show you the awesome “No Women” sign that my male boss got me when we were working in Saudi Arabia, which hangs - appropriately? ironically? you be the judge! - in our kitchen.
I’m not really allowed to...
2 tags
United Colors of Thanksgiving
A day later and several pounds heavier, I’m pleased to report that Operation Expat Thanksgiving 2011: “Make All The Things, Invite All The People” was successfully executed and that 28 of our closest friends, acquaintances, and colleagues in Dubai - about half of whom were experiencing their first Turkey Day ever! - were successfully fed, intoxicated, and forced to publicly share...
2 tags
The Turkey Day Arriveth
Cross-cultural barriers successfully navigated (for the most part), Thanksgiving has arrived in the desert!
Although honestly, no thanks to the Dutch produce distributors that sell herbs here:
“Rozemarijin” was easy enough to figure out and I’m guessing “Dragon” is tarragon, but I needed marjoram for my stuffing and had no clue what it looked like, so I had to...
2 tags
Tradition
Just writing down my Thanksgiving shopping lists on notepads purloined from fancy hotels throughout the Middle East…
… you know, like the pilgrims used to do.
Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure the pilgrims also groaned about having to make an extra trip to the special American grocery store to get Velveeta, too.
(And yes, I have to translate everything into kilograms /...
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“Please let me know how much dosh we can donate to the cause, as we don’t have...”
– Email from our English friend Karen, who’s joining for the epic 21-person (22? 23? 35?! - Amy, can you verify?) Dubai Thanksgiving we’re co-hosting with our American friends J&A.
There is very little in life I love more than subjecting non-Americans to Thanksgiving… they tend...
2 tags
Only in Dubai
So you know how sometimes you’re sitting at your desk working on the computer and all of a sudden you hear this earsplitting “WHOOSH!” and you look outside and this is what you see, flying right past your window:
And you’re like, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, it’s actually happening, an Emirates flight has been hijacked, and they’ve scrambled fighter jets to...
2 tags
Fratty or Fabulous?
Oftentimes I cannot be trusted with my own home decor tastes, as they tend to trend in one of two unfortunate directions - either “OOH, SHINY THINGS!” or “yeah dude, frat-tastic!”
(“Shiny things” = our couches are covered with bedazzled pillows; “frat-tastic” = I unabashedly have an American flag hanging on our wall in Dubai.)
Anyhow, Alex and I...
1 tag
Horses, Not Zebras
[A morality play in three parts.]
This evening after I finished my run, I was waiting for an elevator in the lobby of our building. A South Asian man - probably Indian, maybe Pakistani - was waiting as well, but when the elevator arrived and I charged in, he quite deliberately did not follow.
Chagrined that someone had deemed me an unsuitable elevator companion, here is what went through my...
3 tags
In Between
Driving back towards Dubai after our weekend away, I couldn’t help but chuckle about living in a city where you see this:
“Yeehaw momma, the truck bed’s fulla camels!”
… on the same highway where 30 seconds later, you round a bend and see this:
An uber-modern skyline featuring the world’s tallest building.
We live between worlds here, in more ways than...
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In Which I Attempt To Be "Artsy"
I have to say, we really wanted for nothing during our visit to Al Maha last weekend. In fact, so great is the resort’s attention to detail that each room is equipped with a sketchpad, easel, and pastels so artsy types can sketch out the romantic desert vistas to their heart’s content.
And then there’s me…
No no, we didn’t invite an eight year-old to our suite...
The Inner Workings of My Teenage-Girl Mind
[While attempting to take the pictures below but repeatedly screwing up the self-timer, all while making Alex stand at the ready.]
Me: Just humor me and let me get a couple more shots!
Alex: [indiscernible groan]
Me: You’ll thank me later, when we’re engaged and we have lots of cool pictures to post on our wedding website!
Alex: [incredulously] Wait, I thought we made fun of those...
3 tags
Gratuitous Picture of Your Christmas Card Photo...
And by that I mean, what could be our Christmas card photo if we hypothetically lived in a country that celebrated Christmas…
… and / or had a functioning postal system through which to mail cards.
So… there would be some details to be worked out. But still, you get the idea.
Taken on our Eid trip to Al Maha.
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Al Maha (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and...
This past week marked the Eid Al Adha holiday in Dubai: a time when locals slaughter sheep / goats / camels to celebrate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice Ismael, and expats get the heck out of dodge to enjoy one of the few public holidays universally granted by our labor contracts.
Alex and I had initially booked tickets to go to the Philippines, but as luck would have it the imams in...
1 tag
The Month of Gubbi
Oh heeeeeeeeey interwebs!
So I wish I had a better excuse for my absence over the past few weeks, and I kinda do (friends in town from Germany and England, Eid holidays, etc.) but truth be told the biggest reason I haven’t been blogging is because I quit my job (woohoo!) but I’m not starting my new job until early December (double woohoo!). In between, I am taking a “Month of...
October 2011
11 posts
3 tags
Gratuitous Picture of Your TV Reactions Wednesday
Alex just emailed me the following image with this caption:
“What you look like after watching Dexter.”
It’s true, if you replace the branch he’s clutching with a glass of wine.
Oh Dex, you hurt terrify me so good…
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The Day
This weekend featured the day.
What is the day, you ask?
The day is the moment that summer ends in Dubai. The day you walk outside and the sun feels pleasant, not parching. The day you roll your car windows down and feel a breeze, not a blast of hair dryer-hot heat. The day the ocean feels like ocean, not soup. The day you can’t stop conferring with everyone you see, “Today’s...
That Awkward Cross-Cultural Moment...
… when you pop out to the party supply store to grab decorations for the 30th birthday party of your best friend in Dubai, who just so happens to be gay.
… and when you get there, you can’t not buy the giant pride balloon that must have snuck its way through customs as a harmless party decoration into a country where homosexuality (and, one would assume, balloons promoting it)...
Cooking Hair
I got my highlights done this evening and all I can say is praise Jesus, I’m blonde again!
When I told my cute Hungarian colorist that she didn’t have to do anything special for the blow dry because I was staying in tonight to make dinner and would probably just pull it back, she insisted on giving me “cooking hair” pinned away from my face so I could leave it down.
Now...
4 tags
In Which I Run Beirut
Beirut is by far my favorite place to run in the greater Middle East and North Africa region.
Now, I should be clear that a statement like “Beirut is my favorite place to run in the Middle East” is akin to saying someone’s the smartest student on the short bus or the skinniest kid at fat camp - damning with faint praise, to be sure.
But in this particularly running-unfriendly...
3 tags
Lebanese Lovin'
I spent this past week in Beirut, where the internet crawls along at 1998-era dial-up speeds (hence the lack of blogging) but the views of the Mediterranean from your hotel room balcony aren’t too shabby:
It’s a trade-off, I suppose.
Beirut’s a funny place. If you’ve never spent time in the Middle East, the images you associate with the city probably come straight from...
2 tags
The Canaries in My Coal Mine
This weekend marked a great seasonal milestone here in the desert…
… the return of the Pakistani cricket players in the empty lot behind our apartment!
You see, I use the level of pick-up cricket activity visible from our window as a gauge for whether it’s too hot for me to go running outside during daylight hours. From June through September, you’re hard-pressed to see...
4 tags
An Update
For those who are still coveting my most recent footwear purchase, I present an update:
Gratuitous Picture of Your New Pink Asics and the Tallest Building in the World Wednesday.
(As a sidenote, it was recently revealed that the course of the Dubai Marathon will be changed next year to start and finish at the base of the Burj Khalifa… so this won’t be the last time you’ll see...
2 tags
Twitchy Post
Okay, I am really not trying to be mean-spirited, but I come across this kind of thing on LinkedIn all the time and it drives the editor’s daughter (and uh, native English speaker) in me crazy…
… presented without comment other than to say, “PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING: YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.”
(That said, I think “Manger of the Vechiles” is a pretty...
3 tags
The Dog of All Dogs
[Ed. Note: In putting together this post, I am forced to realize that people outside my immediate family might not find a half-dozen pictures of our dog as fascinating as I do. I sort of feel like one of those parents who post 200-photo albums of their lumpy newborns on Facebook, only to be met by a resounding chorus of crickets… but hey, it’s my blog.]
I suspect that almost everyone...
Birthday Quilt
I got several awesome presents for my 30th birthday (which yes, was at the end of August and which I conveniently glossed over in my blog absence and subsequent travel posts), but none more awesome than this quilt, which my mom had made for me from a selection of the obscure travel t-shirts I’ve amassed over the past decade.
I mean, a comfy blanket is already a great gift to begin with,...
September 2011
14 posts
1 tag
Today in Questionable English
I mean, I’m usually pretty good at figuring out what non-native English speakers mean when they write gibberish like this.
But I have to say I’m pretty stumped as to what the line of thinking was that led someone to misguidedly call fire-alarm testing a “primordial activity.”
In the beginning, God created… the need for preventative maintenance?
Same Same But Different
When we were back in the US last month, Alex and I came across this picture at his mom’s house in California.
Alex’s mom was living in Tehran when this photo was taken, serving as an officer in the US Navy and working to conduct joint training exercises with the Iranian naval forces. The man on the left is the Iranian tea boy from her office… and yes, sharp eyes will notice...
1 tag
Yesterday's Awkward Cross-Cultural Running Moment,...
Scene: Running a quick 3-mile loop through the back streets of Satwa at dusk.
Me: [Singing out loud to Rihanna’s “S&M” using iPod as pretend mike, as is my wont.] ‘Cause I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it…
Me: [Look up; realize I am passing one of the roving groups of conservative Pakistani men who stroll the ‘twa between prayer time and...
3 tags
Censored Pizza
Recently, a great new pizza place opened up in Dubai.
NKD Pizza is so great, in fact, that although we’d never heard of it elsewhere, we knew it couldn’t be a local start-up. The concept was a little too logical (fresh, healthy pizza in a city dominated by Pizza Hut and Domino’s?!) and the English on the menu a little too perfect (local pizza joints, after all, tend to list...
3 tags
Terrifying Revelations From A Happy Hour Bar Tab
I blogged last week about the idyllic vineyards and puppies side of our recent trip to California. But because you know I always strive to paint an accurate and honest picture of my experiences, I thought I would share with you the flip side of our time in CA, in the form of terrifying revelations from a happy hour bar tab - look closely and I think you’ll share my terror at the following...
1 tag
Bills, Bills, Bills
Despite my recent regression to adolescent pastimes, I managed to do one adult thing over the weekend: pay the rent.
Wait, what? You don’t live in a country where you have to pay your rent in cash? How… civilized!
(I should be clear that not everyone here has to pay their rent in cash. But certain details of my living circumstances - which you can probably surmise if you are a...
Regression
So, you know you’ve been blog-slacking when your mother calls you in Dubai to tell you that your 76 75 year-old great aunt (EDIT: UPDATED TO REFLECT EMAIL AGE CORRECTION I IMMEDIATELY RECEIVED FROM SAID AUNT) in Ohio is raging because she goes to your page every day in search of an update and she’s “sick of seeing that picture of Alex’s big face!”
Sorry, Aunt...
4 tags
Wine & Puppies
Once we had been in Germany long enough to feel quite certain that we would die if we so much as looked at another wiessbier (approximate time required: one week), we hopped on a Lufthansa A380 in Frankfurt and coursed westwards for twelve hours to San Francisco to begin the American leg of Operation CASH in Paso Robles. Because obviously, the best way to follow up your German beerstravaganza is...