i know i’ve been a terrible blogger lately (understatement), but a few days ago we celebrated our year anniversary in dubai.  HOLY CRAP! expat life has been both exactly what i expected and the polar opposite. there have been hard moments - being a “trailing spouse” can make you feel pretty useless at times - but i know one thing for sure: i am not the girl i was 365 days ago. i’ve been taking notes for the past few weeks, and here are a few things i’ve learned along the way:

1. a double kiss in greeting is totally normal. you will go into the “real world” and try this on a friend and you will have a semi awkward cheek crash.

2. it’s ok to use stereotypes about my gender to my advantage. i have perfected my “i am just a woman, please help me with *insert various activity here*” face. this is somewhat useful in dragging heavy suitcases, skipping long lines, and getting pulled over in small town texas.

3. america is the best country in the world. there. i said it. 

4. if you’re going to move abroad, you better REALLY like your significant other. i wasn’t too concerned about this going in, but i am constantly reminded of how lucky i am in this aspect.

5. it’s important to have some semblance of a routine if you’re playing housewife sans children, even if it’s as cliche as walking to the grocery downstairs at noon everyday for that day’s food.

6. not everyone you meet has your be your OMGBFF. in fact, it’s ok to be without a “best friend” in your city. this was a hard lesson for me to learn.

7. it’s possible to live without an iphone. kinda.

8. seventeen hour flights are no big deal if your family is waiting on the other side. the 15 hour flight back to dubai is not quite as exciting.

9. i love country music. i’m a little concerned that this international lifestyle is turning me into a republican hick.

10. i don’t need a lot of people around me, but i do need some. this ties in with #6.

11. i like to cook! i’m not a great cook, but i’ve learned enough to be confident that i won’t have to serve my family tyson chicken nuggets or tv dinners.

12. i learned how to iron and sweep and mop! don’t laugh, i know this is embarrassing that i didn’t learn this until age 26. back in the states i’d just put on my roomba and let it take care of my floors, and all of ben’s shirts are either dry clean or non-iron, but our dryer sucks and doesn’t get out all the wrinkles. so there you go.

13. modesy isn’t such a bad thing. i’ve gotten so used to covering my shoulders and knees that when i go back to the states i’m continuously amazed at all the hoochie girls (in perfectly reasonable clothing, mind you. my perception has just totally changed.)

14. living far from your family and friends minimizes some problems but magnifies others. you get to avoid most of the day to day drama, but some things end up lost in translation. it’s also too easy to lose touch with people.

15. biological clocks are REAL! i’ll just leave it at that.

16. this is a frivolous, somewhat silly period of my life. it’s important to remember that when i feel too frivolous and silly. 

17. it’s important to get out of dubai semi-regularly, if for no other reason than a good dose of reality.

18. it’s never too early for a club beat. i find myself craving club music when i’m in houston. 

19. some things are universal; others are not. i was expecting to miss the big things, but it’s the little things that make it feel like home. there’s nothing like a well-timed trip to the chili’s in the dubai mall.

20. sometimes you have to fake it till you make it. say yes to every social invitation, weed them out later. you’re not in a place to be picky about friends!

21. i don’t know what i’d do without my dog. having companionship and responsibility has helped me through more than a few bad days.

22. never let yourself lose it. there have been a few times i haven’t been sucked into sadness just because of sheer will. 

23. anyone can travel, but not everyone can be an expat. it takes an entirely different mentality. just because you love to backpack or whatever doesn’t mean you’d enjoy expat life. the novelty of your new home wears off pretty quickly - it’ll come up in waves every now and then, but it is often extremely frustrating and annoying. this also makes it extremely rewarding.

moral of the story: i can’t believe we’ve pulled it off. our situation is different because we travel so much (and spend a good amount of time back in houston), so we haven’t totally settled in the way other people have. also we know that we’ve moving back to houston in a year, which is both comforting and makes it really difficult to make friends - it’s hard for me to get attached to people when i know we’re just going to leave next fall. this has definitely been a crazy adventure. i think my biggest challenge this upcoming year will be to live in the moment (story of my life), and to CHILL about the future. i don’t think i’m meant to be an expat for life, but i wouldn’t trade the experiences i’ve had for anything. and i know that when i’m living in houston in the future, saddled with 800 children, i’ll dream of these long, lazy days.

sorry this got a little personal, but i wanted to be sure to document where i am at this point. maybe i’ll even jump back on the blogging wagon :)

my new favorite show, discovered at 3:38 on saturday morning- a mix of karaoke and american idol. doesn’t get much better than that.

spotted in the windows of h&m at the dubai mall… apparently the sundress was just a bit too provocative on its own. yup, the white tank top and leggings are photoshopped in!

you know what’s fun? traveling with your friends.

duh, right? most people probably figured this out long ago. however, in the six+ years ben and i have been together, i don’t think we’ve ever traveled with anyone but ourselves! this past weekend we went to prague for a few days with some of our dear friends - the seans. to avoid confusion, the will be referred to as big sean and little sean (sorry little sean.) big sean and i have been best friends since middle school - he is a big brother to me, a constant, he was a groomsman in our wedding, and i know we’ll be friends for our entire lives. little sean and i didn’t really know each other (despite being at the same high school for a time) until several years ago when he and big sean became extremely close. they are both great guys, and even though we’re all different, we just get along really well. we’ve all hung out in houston, ft lauderdale, and now we can add europe to the list!

prague is beautiful, and MUCH less … eastern feeling than i was expecting. i thought it would have a strong soviet influence, but it seemed more like germany or brussels or amsterdam (maybe similar to the way i picture vienna.) the food was excellent - sausage, goulash, dumplings, and arguably the best beer in the world. we visited the cathedral and palace, and the jewish section, and the town square and the bridges and all that - but i thought the highlight was the food! 

the two best restaurants we visited were u medvidku and la degustacion. u medvidku is a typical beer hall-type place (but smaller), with a choice of either light or dark beer and lots of yummy pork products to accompany your drink. in my opinion, the beer cheese is not to be missed - it’s a whipped cheese that’s been soaked in ale. you spread it on dark, thick, buttery bread and pair it with a dark ale. the flavor is very strong and very unusual, but i LOVED it.

la degustacion is a small, intimate restaurant that is widely regarded as the most inventive in the city. thanks to the years under communism, the culinary landscape isn’t really too developed beyond sausage and beer. a fair amount of traditional czech cooking was lost during the last century, but chef oldrich sahajdak found a late 19th century cookbook and developed an incredible menu based on the more old world style. picture cabbage foam to get the essence of sauerkraut and rabbit kidneys instead of a huge hunk of meat. the fourteen course, 4 hour meal was outstanding, and i loved witnessing the beginning of creativity being allowed in the kitchen.

i left prague happy that we had gone (and very happy to see my friends) - but i wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a “must do” in europe. if you’re planning your first eurotrip, hit up the more well known cities first - they’re more famous for a reason. but if you’re looking for a good, second tier place to eat well and walk a lot, prague is perfect.

no, we’re not talking about soccer - this is the dubai world cup, the horse race with the biggest purse in the world (winner gets $10 million!) this was an event we had been looking forward to for quite some time, and vinson & elkins was nice enough to invite us as their guests for the day.  it was FABULOUS! you wouldn’t believe the people watching - every woman is dressed to the nines (complete with a hat) and men wore everything from tuxedos with top hats to kilt formals.  most women have their hats custom made, but since it was our first year, ben and i decided to go a bit more lowkey with a fascinator for me and a seersucker suit for ben (don’t have to wait till summer to break it out when you’re in dubai!) 

we spent the day in the bubble lounge and even watched a few races. we met up with a few friends later in the day (our friends matt and katie won the award for best dressed couple!) and enjoyed the most incredible fireworks display i’ve ever seen, followed by a performance by jessie j (she was pretty good, but apparently the performer last year was ELTON JOHN! not fair!)

it was a great day - i’m already planning my outfit for next year. i’m thinking purple…

with fiona and katie - their custom hats were incredible!

my family was in dubai last week and we had a GREAT time!  it was so great to see them and show off the city.  we did everything we possibly could - desert safari, top of the burj khalifa, dubai mall, the fountains, ski dubai, abu dhabi, the dubai museum, the souks, an abra ride, brunch at spectrum, tour of DIFC, dinner at ravi, the sheik’s palace, tons of middle eastern food, shisha, and tea at the burj al arab.  phew! 

the week was perfect - they got to see everything i wanted them to, and i’m pretty sure they left feeling much more comfortable about their daughter living in the middle east.  especially with all the goings-on in our region, sometimes it just takes experiencing a culture firsthand.  

it was one of the best weeks i’ve had in a long time, and i’m currently trying to figure out how to convince them to move here.  hmmm…

i posted most of these on facebook already, but here are some of the better pictures from our week together 

i love living in dubai, but by far the hardest thing about living abroad is being away from my family.  can’t wait to see them again in houston in three weeks!

ok y’all, i’m sorry to keep jumping around! this post will mostly be pictures, because i think they speak for themselves.  we had the opportunity to visit a maasai village on our way to the serengeti.  

they welcomed us warmly with dance and song. they made me dance with the women but i was self conscious and danced with one of the babies instead. that’s me bent over in the middle in the purple top … i was very color coordinated with these ladies!

these pictures of kids were all taken in their little school

the maasai are a fascinating people. their lives revolve around their cattle, and they’ll send boys out to herd the cows as soon as they can walk. you’ll see them wandering around the main roads, wondering who on earth would let their two year olds toddle around highways. they also live off their cattle - a typical meal is cow milk mixed with blood from their jugular (they seal the wound with dung.) i loved seeing them around the countryside - it was another instance where it was just something so exotic i felt it had to be a tourist trap - but no, this is actually where and how these people live. check out wikipedia for more information about them - they are really fascinating (but note that some of their practices are extremely controversial, especially from a feminist perspective.) some of the kids at peace house were maasai, so it was cool to see how they lived before they came to school.

a few weekends ago we gathered some friends for the dubai polo gold cup championship. if there’s one thing these expats love, it’s dressing in pastels and spending as much time as possible outdoors (preferably drinking) before the heat hits!

my knowledge of polo begins and ends with “pretty woman,” so i was excited to try something new, and ben was excited to wear his red pants.  it was a win-win situation! we had a tent, and coolers, and even a washers set… it was like the college tailgate we never got to experience (nyu pride.)

our tent was right on the field - perfect view of the game we didn’t really watch :)

i really really loved his outfit. sadly he had to ditch the blazer because it passed 100 degrees that day!

at halftime we ran out on the field to divot stomp, with the help of a few professionals. we wanted to take a picture with a few of them, and they SWARMED us! hilarious!

we stayed ALL DAY … we were there for probably 12 hours.  the night ended with a win by abu dhabi (lame), and the celebrations included 5 paratroopers and a huge fireworks display.  it was just a teensy bit over the top.

oh, and the port a potties were air conditioned. i love dubai.

i decided to skip over lake manyara because we were only there for an afternoon and to be honest, the things we saw there couldn’t compare to the things we saw on the serengeti. we took this trip at this time of year because the baby wildebeests were just born, and the wildebeests are on their migration. this translates to seeing HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of wildebeests at a time.  the camp we stayed in was actually a mobile camp, which moves to follow the herds. it was easily the most “legit” of the places we stayed - showering involved a bucket heated over a fire! 

the coolest part of staying in the wilderness was really being a part all the animals - especially the lions! one night we were sitting around the campfire before dinner with the other people staying at the camp (probably 8 people in all), when we heard lions roaring (the noises they make are actually more like grunts.) sound can travel quite far in the serengeti, so we figured the lions were down in the valley by our camp.  then the guides came out and started putting lanterns around the perimeter of the camp - apparently there were several lions 30 feet from our fire!  so cool! 

the best animals were DEFINITELY the lions - especially the baby ones.  

on our second to last night, we heard some serious grass chomping going on outside our tent. i woke up ben and made him try to peek through the mesh on the side of the tent to see what kind of animal it was, but it was too dark to see anything.  we got back in bed and were able to distinguish three different creatures eating outside the tent.  we figured they were gazelles or impalas or something.  the animals worked their way around the tent to directly behind where our heads were - they were literally 3 inches from our heads on the bed - the only thing separating us was a metal “headboard” and the canvas of the tent. suddenly one of the animals tripped over the wire holding the tent to the ground and came CRASHING into our tent - i understand why we had a headboard, because if we hadn’t, we would have been squashed!  ben looked outside to see if there was better lighting from this side, and lo and behold he was eye-to-eye with a 1500 pound water buffalo.  HOLY CRAP! needless to say, i stayed awake for most of that night, listening to our not-so-little friend eat our grass.  sadly, steven told us that our dear friend didn’t return the next night because he was eaten by lions. crazy!

the most outright fun we had happened on the last day. the parks don’t allow cars out past a certain time (between 4-6pm), and we had spent a little bit too much time watching some cheetahs eating a wildebeest.  we had to speed back to the camp, and it was pretty much the most fun i’ve ever had in a car.  we were hanging out the top, the sun was setting, speeding through the serengeti … it was just a once-in-a-lifetime, joyful moment.

i have NO idea how i’m supposed to choose pictures to go with this post, so i think i’ll just pick a few favorites and direct the rest of you to my facebook page.

this was really sad - an impala with a stillbirth baby.  the mother was trying to pass it, but she would probably end up dying that day.  we sat and watched her for almost an hour, and it was the first moment of watching the circle of life - we could have gone and pulled the baby from her, but that wasn’t our job in that moment. we were just there to observe.

this lion literally took my breath away - this wasn’t taken with a zoom lens. he stayed on this patch of grass all day, just napping. male lions are LAZY!

mama and babies!

zebras and wildebeests as far as the eye could see

can you spot the cheetah hiding in the bushes, watching its prey?

lion with her dinner - a wildebeest.  there wasn’t anything gross or vicious about her tearing the wildebeest apart - it seemed incredibly natural and graceful.

baby spooning his napping mom :)

speeding back to our camp … such a happy moment.

hyenas!

three cheetah brothers - unusual, because cheetahs are generally solitary animals

yum

leaving the serengeti - dirty wilderness children!

i did a lot of research before moving here.  A LOT.  i spent countless hours on timeoutdubai.com, all the blogs i could find, and various expat websites. it’s important to me that i know what i’m getting into (and maaayyyyybeeee i’m a bit of an excessive planner.)  i knew march would be packed with social events in an attempt to squeeze them in before the summer arrives, but the one event we were most looking forward to was “taste of dubai.”

taste of dubai is an outdoor “fair” with live music and 20+ booths from various restaurants around town. the best of the best are represented, and you can order an appetizer-sized portion of their top selling items for around $10.  we indulged in everything from 3oz portions of filet from ruth’s chris (cooked to your liking) to the best fish and chips i’ve ever had.  there were also cooking demonstrations and retail booths from gourmet food shops around town.  there was even a carnival section where ben won me a giant stuffed toy!

we had a GREAT time and walked away with a few new restaurants to try! it absolutely lived up to our expectations!