December 2, 2011 was the 40th anniversary of the formation of the UAE (United Arab Emirates). Things you need to know: this country is only 40 years old. It formed from seven tribal states into one super rich country sitting on loads of oil. The guy who united them all is very impressive (late UAE … Continue reading My first foreign National Day
When you live, well, not, in the USA, celebrating Thanksgiving can be awkward and downright depressing. The first Thanksgiving abroad is the worst: you haven't adopted new traditions yet and the old ones just don't work. But most people try to force it anyway. The only way around this is to have a big neighbor potluck on … Continue reading Thanksgiving in the middle east
This is a guest post written by my outstanding (and oh so patient) husband. He was personally invited by one of his high school students to visit the family's Bedouin style camel farm in the desert of the Arabian Peninsula. The time finally came, I جيمس والدو (James Waldo) was invited to be the guest … Continue reading Camel “Farm”
This is one of my favorite memories from our first month living in Abu Dhabi. We had a wonderful potluck this weekend with our neighbors, celebrating two weeks of living in our building. Everyone dragged chairs, food, and coolers into our building lobby. We ate chili and fry bread while the kids played soccer in … Continue reading Potluck Water Truck
On one of our road trips to Oman,we drove two hours straight into the desert from Muscat. Our minivan was crammed full of people. Our goal was to catch a real-live, once-a-week, no-tourists-here, souq in Sinaw. It was everything we dreamed of. "Souq" means "market." These are kind of like farmer's markets in the USA, but … Continue reading A desert souq
What is geocaching?
I wrote this about our first set of neighbors in our very first apartment building while living abroad. We still love these people like family.We are so thankful to have our neighbors. There are 10 units in our building. We are from at least 3 different countries, with all combinations of kids/married/single/etc. Each of us … Continue reading What expat neighbors are like
Throwing Rocks off a mountain
These are the actual steps we followed to get internet in our building. Approximate wait times in parenthesis: 1. Get an address ( 1.5 weeks from moving in) 2. Take passport, proof of employment, cash, and address to internet main office (there is only 1) and sign up (3-4 trips required to identify actual building … Continue reading How to get internet in the desert
