Wedding + ReunionMike and I are in Los Angeles today celebrating the wedding of our good friends, Hannah and Allan. A lot of work has gone into this wedding so I’m really excited to see how it all comes together. Plus, other friends from Abu Dhabi will be in attendance as well so it will be like a little mini-reunion!

I couldn’t think of a better time to share a few engagement photos that the bride and groom asked me to take back in April. They wanted to showcase the desert so we raced to the dunes outside of Al Ain hoping to catch the sun just before it set. We barely made it.

I took about a million shots, but these were my favorite.

And then a blurry one of Mike and me when we finished. He was an excellent assistant.

xo, jill

 

Now the positive.A few days ago I wrote up a list of the 5 things I will not miss about living in Abu Dhabi. As much as I complained or felt frustrated while living there, I did find plenty of things to enjoy as well. I’m not counting friends and colleagues on my list because like not missing the heat and humidity, it’s just a given.Here are the rest of the vintage UAE postcards as well.Ready?The Top 5 Things I Will Miss About Abu Dhabi (in no particular order):

1. Delicious and cheap falafel. There are falafel shops on just about every corner in Abu Dhabi. Picking up a falafel sandwich is just about the easiest and cheapest snack or dinner option (5dhs/$1.37). I can’t say it’s the healthiest choice since the falafel balls are deep fried, but there are veggies too, and that should count for something. My favorite shop will hand you a hot and fresh falafel to eat while you wait for your order to be made. Yum. (And do you remember these heart shaped ones?)

2. The sun. Let’s face it. I’m from a particularly cloudy and rainy corner of the globe. Waking up to seemingly eternal sunshine is a real treat.

3. Desert camping + desert stars. Running off for some desert camping was one of my favorite activities to do. Being out in the desert at night under the stars is an incredible. feeling. If you ever need a reminder that you are in fact just a tiny small piece of the universe, walk out into the dunes at night and look up.

4. Interactions with other expats. The majority of people living in Abu Dhabi are from other places. As you interact with other workers you get a little taste of each person’s culture. For example, depending on where a person is from (or their job), I might be addressed as any of the following: Madame, Miss, M’amSir (yes, all one word), My Friend, or Sister. Sister was always my favorite.

5. Maghrib and Isha Prayers. While I wasn’t a big fan of the predawn call to prayer, the evening and night prayer calls were quite beautiful to hear. The Maghrib prayer call sounds just after sunset and is especially lovely accompanied by a colorful sky. Try to imagine hearing this faintly in the background while you watch the sunset. It always reminded me that even though day to day life could sometimes feel mundane, I truly was very far from home.

I suppose as time goes on I’ll think of more and more things to miss. Despite how frustrated I was much of the time, Abu Dhabi definitely had its enjoyable moments. I mean, I did meet Mike there!

xo, jill

 

Happy 29th, Molly!I have a fear of heights. Not many things will get me up and off the ground. But to celebrate my dear friend, I made an exception. You see,  this wasn’t just your standard birthday party, it was a celebration of life. Molly, the most courageous person I know, not only turned 29 but she also beat cancer!!! It was an occasion that called for something special, something like a hot air balloon.

We arrived at the launch site bright and early wearing warm clothing that we immediately stripped off. Apparently there had been some sort of miscommunication on the phone. It gets pretty hot standing directly beneath a giant flame. Actually, really hot.

We watched our balloon fill up and I tried not to squirm too much. I was nervous.

You might think that once we gained elevation and began to drift that I might relax a little, but nope! I stayed nervous the whole time and tried not to get motion sickness. I don’t know how the people hanging their arms over the sides of the basket managed it.

I looked like this the whole time. That’s a scared of heights + searing heat on my scalp combo.

We floated over the desert and enjoyed the beige scenery. I’m not sure if Abu Dhabi is the most scenic place to hot air balloon, but it was still interesting to see the desert from above.

My favorite part of the ride was landing. Well, the actual touch down was a little rough… but the location was perfect. We landed in a camel race track! There were camels all over the place! I can imagine the handlers were a little surprised to see a giant balloon descending towards them.

We enjoyed a few drinks and photo opportunities before the cars came and brought us back to the launch site.

I think it was a pretty good celebration. Definitely worth it.

xo, jill

The quintessential tourist experience.Going on a desert safari is a popular outing in the UAE. There are several companies that offer very similar safari packages. I kept putting off doing a safari because I thought it would be something fun to do when friends or family visited. Unfortunately, we were always trying to cram a million other things into their visits. As my time in Abu Dhabi was coming to a close, I figured I better go out and have the safari experience.

I chose the company we used carefully. I did not want to end up on a safari that included belly dancing. Nothing against it in general, but it is not traditional to the Arabian Peninsula, so why pretend? Sarah recommended Al Badeyah Eyes Tourism for a belly dance free experience. (If you live in UAE there’s a 2 for 1 coupon in the Entertainment Book.)

We met up with our safari group in the afternoon and rode in a small bus to the site, about an hour outside the city. Upon arrival we were free to relax, explore the area, take photos in traditional dress*, or try out sandboarding.

From what I could tell you don’t go very fast… I didn’t get a chance to try it out because it was soon our turn to go dune bashing! This is what I was most excited for. We piled into a 4×4 and went crashing about the dunes. It’s incredible that the trucks don’t fall over. They stop so you can get a desert photo op.

You can also ride camels or horses, rent quads, or get henna. Since I’m not a proponent of camel riding and have been on plenty of quads in my lifetime, I opted to get some henna. Then Mike and Allan wanted some too.

A falconer showed off his talented bird, and then it was time to eat. The food wasn’t bad and included enough vegetarian options that I went away full. When you are finished eating you are welcome to have tea around a campfire.

Then the bus drove us back to the city.

xo, jill

*Playing dress up always makes me really uncomfortable, so we skipped it. During my cultural orientation to the UAE we were told by a local that they take great pride in their national dress. If you want to wear local clothing you are welcome to, as long as it’s respectful. He said that if you are dressing like us to just take pictures and laugh, please don’t.

Starting negative.Before I left Abu Dhabi, I started making a list of the top 5 things I’d miss and the top 5 things I would not miss. Unfortunately, I misplaced that list somewhere during the process of moving. However, I’ve done my best to recreate it to the best of my memory.The plan is to post the things I will not miss today… and the things I will miss later. That way I’m ending it on a positive note!

Because I don’t have photographs to illustrate each of these points, I’m going to include scans of vintage UAE postcards. Remember when I asked if you’d like one? Now you can see what other readers received. I’ll post a few of the more recent ones here, and a few of the older ones with the list of things I will miss.

Here we go.

Top 5 Things I Will Not Miss About Abu Dhabi (in no particular order):

1. Scalding hot water. There seems to be no regulation as to how hot water can be out of the tap. I don’t know how many times I burned my hands while doing dishes or had to jump out of the way in the shower. It’s hot, I mean, steaming hot. You can make a decent cup of tea straight from the tap. I think each of my visitors let out a yelp at least once or twice while washing their hands or helping with dishes. I couldn’t help but wonder about how many small children get serious burns from the dangerous water temperature. Plus, it’s tricky to continue cooking/cleaning when you need to keep your hand in a bag of ice.

2. Lack of correct change. This really drove me nuts at times. When you pay for something at the store, you will rarely get correct change handed back to you and will often be asked to pay more than you owe. For example, if your total comes to 10.85Dhs, you’ll be asked to pay 11Dhs. Don’t expect change. Or if your change should total something like 17 fils, you won’t be getting it. I’m not the only one this annoyed. There are news articles about how markets are costing the people money by rounding up and down. Personally, I don’t understand how cashiers balance the till at night.

3. Staring. It’s a fact of life in Abu Dhabi. If you are a female, you will be started at. If you have blonde hair, it will be even worse. It’s something I got used to over time while never quite forgetting. When I was in a silly mood it helped to play a little mental dialog “That’s right… I’m hot. You want it but you can’t have it!” At other times, it just pissed me off. I mean, they aren’t subtle. You can try to stare back but if you don’t want to have sex with them, I don’t recommend it.

4. Inshallah. A word and attitude that means “If God wills it.” You hear it all the time and will start to say it yourself. In general, it’s not a bad thing. When you tell your co-workers “See you tomorrow!” and they say, “Inshallah.” No problem. When you really need to get paperwork completed on a deadline and the person in charge will only say, “Inshallah, inshallah,” you’ll probably want to slap someone. In short, hearing “Inshallah” in a casual conversation…totally ok. Hearing “Inshallah” when your passport, paycheck, or visa are involved…incredibly frustrating. You might cry.

5. Fajr Prayer. This is the first prayer call of the day. Depending on the time of year and your location it can sound as early as 4am. This is not pleasant. Remember, the call to prayer sounds like this, is very loud, and sounds even louder to your sleepy ears at 4 in the morning.*

So those are the 5 things I will not miss about living in Abu Dhabi. I didn’t include the severe heat and humidity because those are just a given. In the near future I’ll post all of the lovely things that I will miss, or do miss already.

xo, jill

P.S. Did you see your postcard?

*I couldn’t find the earliest fajr prayer can be, but it’s the predawn prayer so it can be quite early. The earliest I remember hearing it in Abu Dhabi was 3:58am.

And no one got hurt.

A while ago I posted a few quick snaps from a color fight my friends and I held on the beach in Abu Dhabi. Our photographers (Hannah, Allan, and Molly) did their best to document the event, but it was quite the challenge considering the action and fading light. I finally took a few minutes to search through and find my favorite photos.

We arrived at the beach just as the swimmers were asked to exit the water for the evening. Luckily, we were able to sweet talk a security guard into letting us splash around for a little pre-shower. We didn’t want to make too big of a mess when we used the public showers.

The powder washed off fairly easily… except for the pink.  My stomach and chest remained pink for several days despite several attempts at scrubbing it off. Thanks to Sarah for shoving a handful of pink down my shirt!

I really like how the background appears to be almost black and white, while we are vividly in color. That’s pretty close to how it really was considering that all the other beach goers were wearing traditional dress.

After the color we sat down to a lovely picnic dinner prepared by Hannah and Allan. It was a fun and out of the ordinary Abu Dhabi evening.

xo, jill