The Hibernation

The blog's been a little dead lately, and I apologize. I don't really have a great excuse for you besides hibernation, which is relatively what I've been up to these days. I've still not got pictures for this post because for some reason my new phone isn't syncing to Google like it should, an issue I just discovered and will probably spend most of the day trying to figure out. Also, my ergonomic keyboard died a horrible death (actually one of the keys was mysteriously stuck without actually being stuck, and having the number 1 flash across your screen in long lines because you can't get it to stop is super annoying) and the stock Lenovo keyboard isn't as comfortable for me to use. You know, you get used to luxury and then downgrade and things just sort of seem sad...

Wait, is this thing on?

Okay, so, there you have it! Proof that I am still alive and well and my roots look absolutely awful. I think one of my goals for the next week is to find a salon and catch up on my monthly maintenance routine.

Seriously, when they all look this gorgeous, how do you choose?

I've been spending my time trying to sort through the 800+ photos from the wedding and pick out the ones I want in our album, which is a greater challenge than it should be because they are all spectacular.  I had the lovely Esta Eberhardt do our photos since I'd known her forever, and man, did she not disappoint. If you're looking for a photographer, North Florida, I can't recommend Captured Memories by Esta enough. Not only are the photos gorgeous, but you're getting to spend time with a pretty special lady, too.

In addition to the countless hours spent making decisions, I've also had the opportunity to get out a bit more and make some new friends. Sure, I didn't make the coffee hour because I sort of overslept and got distracted prepping that night's dinner (there's irony in there, somewhere), but our last two nights have been social events extraordinaire. Wednesday was New Faculty Orientation for Jon, and while he sat in boring meetings all day I got to experience the best part of it, being the dinner that night. We took a bus to one of the local beach hotels for the dinner, despite there being plenty of room on campus here to serve. The ballroom was gorgeously decorated, there was a pretty kicking band (I didn't ever think I'd hear jazz standards at dinner here), and the food was delicious and varied. There were spring rolls, sticky buns, curries, duck, lamb...but also some pretty predictable foods like pastas. For dessert there was coffee and a really delicious espresso panna cotta. The main reason I'm sure they chose to have this event off campus, however, was the fact that they served wine and beer, which is easier to do in the hotels since they automatically have licenses for that sort of thing. Living in a Muslim country, alcohol is obviously not served at most restaurants and events because of the laws, but tourist areas naturally become the exception.

Last night we were invited to a lovely get together by one of Jon's coworkers, who made a delicious traditional Indian dinner. Believe me, it doesn't compare to the things they call "Indian" food back in Tallahassee. It was another nice night of socialization and company. After two nights of staying out late, however, I think we're probably cool with laying low most of the weekend.

This week, I'm bound and determined to get to an actual coffee shop. We'll see.

Marhaba, Marhaba

The Arabic word for "welcome." You're starting to see it all over the campus as it's finally been opened to the public and students are being ushered in. Even the cab drivers suddenly know where it's at and where to take you, instead of having to give directions on every trip home.

With the advent of the major move onto campus nearly being complete, we've been able to start mingling with the other faculty who have finally arrived, which has been nice, but does mean the quiet sereneness of an empty campus is almost at an end. However with the students arriving soon, there'll also be more events happening, which could be fun.

Things around my neck of the woods have been predictably quiet, minus a small kitchen flood and a IKEA trip today (this one only took three hours). I also don't have any swanky pictures for this post because my phone decided it wanted to go home with a cab driver a few days ago, meaning it slipped out of my purse on a ride home. Since I'm convinced I'll never see it again (it has been four days and counting, after all), I've ordered its replacement from Souq, which is an Amazon like retailer here in the UAE, and was told today it'd be here by Saturday. The major issue has been getting a replacement SIM from T-Mobile, who doesn't ship internationally, but I've also ordered one that will just take a tad longer off of Ebay. So no worries, I'll be back up and running soon enough.

I'm also still combing the internet for work possibilities, so job hunting and house keeping takes up most of my days. Rather boring, admittedly, but I know in the end it'll pay off. If you happen to know someone who needs something translated from German to English, send them my way - freelance work has been my sole source of work lately. I don't mind, because it's nice to be home and I always get fun and interesting projects, but it is hard to maintain a steady stream. I also do editing for English manuscripts, papers, etc.

Later next week I'm going out for a trip to a local coffee house, so I'm sure my barista self will have lots to share.

Playing Catch-up

So it's been a crazy couple of days around here and I keep meaning to get a blog posted but keep getting sidetracked. I've also had about a million ideas for different posts so this might be a bit scatter-brained, but hey, you should be used to that sort of behavior from me by now.

What has kept me so busy? Shopping. Dinner dates. Getting the pictures back from our wedding. Cooking. Movie dates. Skyrim (I'm just being honest here - video games). I'll try to go in that order.

This week we took a trip to a mall we haven't been to before - the Al Wahda Mall, mostly because we heard there was a really awesome kitchen supply store and I needed certain kitchen supplies I hadn't found yet. Al Wadha wasn't like the other two malls I'd been to here, in that to me, it seemed decidedly more mall-ish. This may also be because it's the biggest mall in the area (at least, we think it is). We explored for a while but we were on a mission, and stopped into Lakeland and Thinkkitchen to outfit our cookingware. I mostly picked up baking supplies, because hey, if I'm gonna be spending time at home I'm gonna bake deliciousness. We also took a visit to Al Wahda's hypermarket, Lulu, which is HUGE in comparison to the one we frequent - Carrefour. If I had to rank them in size, biggest to smallest, I'd say Lulu, then Cooperative Society, then Carrefour. It seems to be a mall standard around here that they all have hypermarkets, which is nice because you can get some grocery shopping done too.

One thing I also managed to get into at the mall this week was fast food, Abu Dhabi style. Which, surprisingly, isn't that different from fast food you'd find in the States. My first experience this week being with Burger King, and my second with Hardee's, I can honestly say that I didn't  notice too much of a difference with either - even in the menu. I hear McD's menu is more varied here, but I haven't seen it yet. One thing you will see that would never happen in the States - KFC and Popeye's in the same food court, two doors down from each other. This sounds downright sacrilegious to us, but people here eat a LOT of chicken. Chicken is pretty much the staple, because pork isn't eaten and beef just doesn't seem to be widely, cheaply available (excepting hamburger, of course).

Also this week I got to have a nice dinner date at a fancy local restaurant called Finz. Finz is located in one of the hotels (which had a good seven or eight additional restaurants) and is a seafood joint, situated nicely on one of the little inlets so you can see the water. I've taken a few shots just for reference.

Now Finz isn't right on the gulf, but as you can see, the views aren't shabby. The food was delicious too - all very fresh. I had a cream of crab and corn soup for a starter, grilled salmon for an entree, and a chocolate and cheese plate (which was really a warm chocolate cake, a chocolate mousse, and cheesecake flavored ice cream) for dessert. Jon had a crab starter, followed by a whole red snapper (which was the catch of the day) cooked in a tandoori oven with a mango sauce for entree, and something they called a Raspberry Progression for dessert. We tied this up in a nice little bow with two bottles of a nice German Riesling (between three of us!).I didn't managed to snap any pictures of the food, frankly, because I was much too busy chowing down and having a pleasant chat to bother with it. Plus, this was the kind of fancy joint where they served you lemon sorbet between starter and entree to cleanse your palate. Food selfies didn't exactly seem right.

In addition to dinner dates, I have been cooking some at home - I finally got to test out the slow cooker yesterday to see if I was going to get the same sort of quality results I'd come to expect from my ancient Crockpot, and I have to say, I'm pretty sure it passed the test. Jon seems to think so, anyway. I slow cooked some pork shoulder (a nice butt, for all you Southerners) for pulled pork, using a recipe but improvising a bit on the dry rub and cooking ingredients, and after about 7 hours, it came out pretty fantastic. I also made a peanut butter pie which was a little bit of a challenge, because I couldn't find instant pudding (which was puzzling at first, until you realized that instant pudding is made with gelatin and that tends to be a pork by-product). So that took some improvising with a cook and serve pudding, but I've been told it came out pretty delicious too. You can find pork here, even though locals don't eat it (against the Muslim religion) - we paid about $8 a lb for it, which seems pricey to those of you back home, but honestly is less than we'd expected it to be. One thing I can't find (please feel free to include in care packages) - Mac n' Cheese.

Today was a long, busy day because we went to the mall this morning and after waiting nearly three weeks after the US premiere, I finally got to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Now I love Marvel movies (I love comics too), and the hype surrounding this one and the reviews from friends back home had heightened my expectations a bit. I also dragged along my husband who is not a Marvel/comic book/superhero fan, and was a little nervous that he'd hate it.

"I am Groot." - Jon's new favorite Vin Diesel role.

It was a smash hit. I don't even know where to begin. I suppose I should describe the cinema experience, because it was MUCH nicer than movie theaters back home. One of the first differences I noticed was that you do actually get assigned seats here, it's not done on a general admission basis. Since we got our tickets online two days before, we managed to pick fantastic seats and didn't have to worry about anyone taking them. It cost about the same for two tickets to a 3D movie as it would in the states, and you had to pay a few dirham for 3D glasses, but again, the perks were much better. Once we got there we decided to pick up some movie snacks, because it as about lunchtime but we weren't hungry enough for a full on meal after having morning coffee. Two medium sodas, a medium popcorn, and a thing of M&Ms was the "Couples Saver" combo so we picked one up, for around $13 for everything. Did I mention there were popcorn choices? Oh yes, not just salted, but also Maple and Caramel popcorn (we went for caramel and it was delicious). The concession sizes were just as much bigger-than-normal as they are in the States, too. Then we headed into the theater, where we were greeted with huge, cushion-y leather seats that had adequate cup holders and a little table in-between where you could set the popcorn so you didn't have to awkwardly balance it on your lap and fight over it during the movie. Seriously, I think the Vox Cinemas Max experience just became my new favorite theater.

I could talk for days about how much I loved Guardians, but I'm sure all of you have probably seen it multiple times by now, so I won't. If you haven't, shame on you, it's fantastic. I was a little worried because once the previews started rolling so did the subtitles, and I thought it would be annoying, but honestly, after about 10 minutes of being instantly sucked into the movie, I never even noticed them, and they were well done because they really weren't invasive enough to take away from the experience. If I had to say I was disappointed in one thing, it'd be that after credits scene - I won't spoil it here, but seriously Marvel? THAT'S what we get to tide us over?

I also won't bore you with the details of my Skyrim time. Instead, I'll just end with a picture of us looking cute.

See, we clean up well.

Testing, Testing, 1 2 - Is This Thing On?

Mmmm, sand.

It's been a slow couple of days around here, so this probably won't be the most involved blog, but I did want to put to test my new subscription features (and my swanky new banner, that I owe Matt S a huge thanks for - if you're not reading this on my blog in a browser, you're missing out). It would seem I've amassed a small following , so I don't want to disappoint anyone.

Today's a dusty day in the desert, if you couldn't tell from the picture on the left, which is a zoomed in shot of the same  view as the shot below - notice that unlike on clear days, on dusty ones you can't even see the building skylines. Of course, the merciful contrast to the fact that it's dusty out is that it is also much cooler. As I remarked to Jon when we were walking to the shuttles this morning, it was almost (dare I say) pleasant to be out in the shade. It's probably mid-nineties, but without the oppressive swampy humidity that's plagued most days.

An earlier shot of the same view.

Like I said, I haven't been out really exploring or had any new impressive encounters lately. We did travel out to the Marina Mall on Saturday, to see if we could find a PSU for my desktop, but were told we weren't likely to find the part at any retailers around here. So instead we've just ordered it from Amazon - even with international shipping, it was probably cheaper than trying to locate what I needed from a specialty shop anyway. I'm still running fine on my borrowed PSU for the moment, so it wasn't an urgent thing. We didn't pick up much else at Marina besides some kitchen supplies and groceries, at Carrefour (a French hypermarket, the one I mentioned earlier was a sort of Walmart). Carrefour's grocery is a magical place - there's a counter full of fresh local herbs, a counter that is fresh loose spices and nuts, a deli counter, a cheese counter, and most interestingly, a date counter, with all manner of dates - plain, stuffed with nuts, and my new guilty pleasure, candied and coated in chocolate.

Otherwise, my only other trip out so far this week has been today to the smaller grocery to pick up veggies for the stir fry Jon's making for dinner. Everything here is so fresh, and without all the preservatives that we see in the states, that things really don't keep for long, and you're better off picking up ingredients for individual meals when you need them. We also pick up fresh bread pretty regularly, and Spinneys makes delicious soft pretzels.

The only eventful moment today came when we got back from shopping. As we were making our way up to our floor in the elevator, the lift stopped one floor below ours to let on some construction workers, and then once the doors closed, suddenly sounded an alarm and kicked into Fire Service mode and immediately headed for the ground floor. Startled, we wandered off and let security know what had happened, and since they were walking toward the elevators anyway once we got off, I assume they had heard an alarm too. The elevators meanwhile either reset themselves or were manually reset, and security decided to escort us up this time to double check that there were no issues. Thankfully nothing seemed to be on fire and everyone chalked it up to an electrical hiccup - one I hope doesn't decide to repeat itself anytime soon.

Haus Rogers Gets a Makeover

The "Dining Room"

So blogging everyday may not be something that happens, but after today I felt the need to write another post. Today was IKEA delivery day, which means the apartment now has real person furniture! The IKEA guys wound up being an hour late getting here, thanks to the fact that this is a brand new location that isn't publicized and is not well known. On top of that, we hit a snafu with security not knowing that the delivery was coming...which they were definitely informed of a week ago when we scheduled the delivery. Hence, the poor guys were probably another 45 minutes waiting for us to clear up the confusion before our furniture FINALLY got in. What was supposed to be a 10 a.m. delivery wound up being closer to noon, and then of course everything had to be assembled. Thankfully along with IKEA's free delivery comes free assembly, and what would have taken us all evening and the greater part of tomorrow took the two man team about an hour and a half - these guys were so pro they didn't even need the instructions.

Yet now we have a fully furnished apartment, minus a few small things that we need to grab here and there. We've also got a configuration that we're pretty happy with, at least for the moment. Pictured above is the dining area, with our little table and water cooler table. We used a bookshelf to help divide and break up the massive space, and are pretty satisfied with the results.

My reading nook.

 
On the other side of the bookshelf is the lovely little space I claimed for my own as a mini-library/reading nook. We do have an office and it's where I'm currently working, but this is a nice little digital free zone where we can go to relax and read away from the computers and the TV. It's doubly nice because once the sunshade on the left is lifted, it sits right next to our huge living room windows and will have lovely views. We're also going to put a little end table there for purposes, and the chair DOES have a footstool that we need to get - IKEA just happened to be out of the matching birch wood frame on the day we picked out furniture. The dining room table and water cooler table are birch, as well.

As you can see in the corner of the dining room photo, we do have a couch and a living room, it's just still under construction so I didn't take a photo of it. We're still trying to iron out the details of it, the kitchen, and the office, so I'll have to update on those later. What I do have is a sneak peek of the bedroom - complete with swanky lamps.

We seriously need more pillows. Also yes, those are swanky lamps.

I'm currently coming to you from command central, also known as the office. I've got a shot of what command temporarily looks like, at least on my side:

Punch it, Chewie.

"Why temporarily?" one may ask, and that's a completely valid question. It also has an answer that may shock you (I'm going to answer for that later).

You see, having my office furniture delivered meant today was gonna be the greatest day ever, because I could FINALLY unpack and set up my super-powered desktop. I've been working off of my laptop for the first week I've been here: now, she's a fine laptop, but she's old and slow and gets hot very quickly which means I don't often get to stay on for extended periods of time, and she definitely doesn't handle intensive programs well anymore, which is 90% of what I do on my computers: gaming and visual heavy creative suites. So I purchased a Lenovo Ideacentre before I left the states, with everything a girl could want in a toy - 1TB hard drive, graphics card with on-board memory, etc. Not to mention my swanky ergonomic keyboard (oooohhh yea, avoiding carpal tunnel like a boss). My $800 think tank had a long and fairly pricey journey to get here, and almost didn't make it thanks to the boxes being technically an inch too big for shipping (shhh, we didn't tell the Post Office that when we dropped it off). 

Unpacking the boxes was like watching a kid at Christmas, as I'm sure Jon could tell you. Once everything was out of its respective shipping materials, we doubled checked the side panel that listed the voltage to make sure that everything was square (which, as a PC it should be universally adaptable) and once that checked out, I crawled under the desk to plug things in. I connected the power cable to the outlet, and then went to plug the cord into the back of the tower and BANG. Sparks flew, everything in the apartment turned off and my heart sank right into my stomach. I was incredulous - the computer was rated to be safe for a 240V outlet. I immediately grabbed the manual and started to flip through, only to discover that apparently, Lenovo is fond of sending out their machines with cheap power supplies, which meant that unlike my other appliances and Jon's desktop, this one had a voltage switch that needed to be changed before you plugged it into a different outlet. So when I plugged the computer set to 115 volts into an outlet rated  240, it FRIED. 

Of course my first instant reaction was that I had just killed my brand new machine. So while I had a mini meltdown, Jon was trying to figure out which one was the main breaker because we'd obviously tripped it since everything suddenly went dead. Once we got that turned back on and I pushed the switch over to the correct voltage, we tried plugging in the tower again and got zero response. After more cursing my awful luck and trying to figure out which way was up, I realized that I was far too intelligent to let something like this beat me, and that I'd probably just blown a PSU (power suppy unit), but where in the heck was I going to get a PSU in ABU DHABI, and if it wasn't the PSU, where was I gonna find a technician? Or heaven forbid, a new machine?

Fortunately I have a pretty great husband who let me cannibalize his desktop tower to borrow the PSU and check the state of my precious. Once we got it plugged in and I crossed my fingers, we turned everything back on to discover that YES, my machine would power on with a healthy supply and YES, everything was in working order and was going to be just fine. I was ready to relinquish the power supply and put it back in Jon's machine when he told me just to leave it in mine temporarily, until we could get a replacement, because he hadn't even set his desktop up yet and really wasn't using it. So now I have a perfectly functional command center with a temporary fix, and I get to go exploring again to try and find another PSU. How did I ever get so lucky? :)

A Girl's Favorite in Any Country: Shopping!

A daylight view of the Arabian Gulf from my balcony.

From anywhere you slice it, the views from my current home are gorgeous. The campus itself is lovely, with lots of shade and gorgeous architecture, but I can't quite divulge pictures just yet, so I'll leave you with some skyline shots. Saadiyat island is always under construction, so you'll see lots of that in pictures, but it's also gorgeous sandy beaches and desert and that sparking gulf water. I always wanted to live on a beach, even if this wasn't quite what I'd originally had in mind. Also a fair warning that this post will be lacking in pictures: privacy laws are very different over here and I still haven't grown accustomed to where I can and cannot take them, so I'm very careful and conservative.

My first week on Saadiyat has been a lot of adjusting, which isn't as awful as it sounds. My major hurdle was the toll the jet lag took on my body. For the first three or four days, I wasn't sleeping well through the night and I was a serial napper. Fortunately for my sanity and my husband's, that seems to have resolved itself. I can now stay up until a decent hour, even when rolling out of bed at 6am (which is WAAAAY out of my usual schedule). Of course, adjusting goes beyond jet lag. Surprisingly, the heat hasn't been too bad of an adjustment. As long as one sticks to the shade, it's really not completely unbearable - that being said, spend a good 10 or so minutes in the sun and you'll feel quite miserable. Also, thanks to the proximity of the gulf, it's impressively humid here. On any given day, the heat index can be 10-20 degrees above the actual temperature. For example, right now the temperature is only 95 degrees outside. Some of you are cringing - trust me, 95 is the coolest it's been in days. With the heat index, however, it's 108.

And then there's the elephant in the room, how does one adapt into living in a totally different culture? One that's, in some views, incredibly oppressive to the female gender? The answer is you just roll with it. I have seen, in my short time here, women dressed in every possible end of the spectrum, even in public places: women with full-on burkas, women with veils and abayas, women in t-shirts and jeans, women in short, short sleeved dresses. When I went looking for information on what was expected of me in my new home, I read everywhere that it's typical to keep shoulders and knees covered - that is, dress conservatively. Since I've been here, I've pretty much stuck to those rules, favoring my light linen pants or skirts and a breathable short sleeved or quarter length shirt. I've had no issues. Because the culture here is, as I mentioned before, so expat influenced, most people get away with skirting the norms. It's generally understood that unless you upset a local and they say something to you about your dress being offensive, you'll be okay. Now, I am and have always grown up to be a very culture tolerant person. That means that personally, if I wear something that's sleeveless, I won't go out without a light sweater or shawl to put over it. I'm living here in a land that isn't my own, and I'd like to respect their home culture.

The Abu Dhabi skyline peeking over a construction barrier.

In the midst of all of this adjusting, I've gotten to do two of my favorite things: shopping and exploring. My second day here Jon took me to the larger of the two Spinneys, which is the local expat grocery, a British owned company. The larger Spinneys is in town, but we have shuttles running to it, so there was no need to grab a cab there. Spinneys was admittedly a blur, because it was again the day after I landed and I was exhausted. As far as groceries go, you can pretty much find a version of anything you're looking for here, albeit things we'd take for granted back home can be rather expensive. Produce of any kind can be pretty expensive, which means you need to have a pretty good knowledge of what you can find in the region. One thing they seem to do well, however, is bread. There is a large, delicious assortment of fresh breads at the groceries here. We loaded up on groceries and headed home, and I took my first Abu Dhabi cab ride, which Jon still swears was a tame one, and after seeing how other cabbies drive, I'm likely to agree. Cabs are impressively cheap here, which means we've been using them as our main source of transportation, and aren't looking to have our own car anywhere in the future.

My third day here was a trip out to the Marina Mall, and my first experience with retail shopping. The malls here tend to be a four or five story experience, with retail stores covering just about anything you could wavnt. You're assaulted with the aromas of incense and perfumes as you walk past the perfumeries, and you hear everything from arabic music to top 40 hits pumping out of systems in stores ranging from local tailors and robe sellers, to Nautica, Gap, etc. In the same block of stores you can find the two differing cultures clashing with each other: one store's windows are filled with gorgeous silks and abayas, and the next is a Victoria's Secret or a local version thereof (I've seen "Women'secret" here). The juxtapositions are not only fascinating, they're reflective of every day life. The trip to the Marina Mall ended with Carrefour in the basement, which is basically a French Walmart. Anyone familiar with the international hypermarkets will know about what I mean.

A few rest days thrown in and a trip to the smaller, albeit closer grocery in the rich beach resort complex next door to campus occupied the in-between. Then, of course, was the 5 hour marathon shopping trip to IKEA. I'm not going to write an extensive paragraph about IKEA. Those of you who've been, know. Those of you who haven't...well, you should have the experience at least once. We shopped and obtained nearly all of the furniture we wanted for the apartment, minus a footstool or two and a few other things we've come up with since. I'm sure there will be a return trip, and the furniture gets delivered to us tomorrow (HOORAY!!!). One neat thing I did find out about, that I managed to snag a picture of at IKEA, is that because shopping malls here tend to be multi-level, the escalators are adapted to fit carts. Instead of being stairs, they're more of slanted moving walkways that grab the cart wheels so they don't go careening down. It's probably one of the most genius inventions ever (also I'm amused by simple things).

The genius shopping cart carriers. 

 My latest shopping experience came yesterday, where we went to another local shopping mall, the Abu Dhabi mall. Yesterday was also the first day I really felt awake enough to enjoy the trip into the city and really soak in the sights and sounds. Abu Dhabi is such a bustling place, with crazy traffic. Every building in the city center seems to be some version of a skyscraper, and yet in the middle of all of this development and modernization there are still beautiful mosques everywhere. They really seem almost out of place in the city landscape, yet here they're as natural and as expected as can be. For the first time yesterday as I stepped out of the shuttle, I heard the call to prayer, which was hauntingly beautiful and melodic amongst the noise of the metropolitan setting - cars, horns, construction, everything you'd expect out of a city. It was a auditory reminder, just like the mosques are a visual one, that despite being a forward-pressing, modernizing nation, this country is still ripe in tradition, and often manages to find an perfect blend of the old and the new without compromising anything.

My slow cooker, in all its glory on my home counter.

Once inside the mall, the experience was about the same as the Marina, except that this time I did manage to wander in to H&M and stock up on much needed headbands to keep my hair back from my face, and we visited the Abu Dhabi Mall's version of a basement supermarket, the Cooperative Society, to pick up a few more household items we were missing, including something that was a complete and total wonderful surprise to find...a SLOW COOKER. My husband had told me that they simply didn't exist here, and I was inclined to believe it after having looked all over for one and not found one. Then, yesterday, we were perusing the aisles for a rice cooker, and I saw it sitting there, all alone on the shelf, one of the last in stock, in all its glory. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not too great of a cook, and a slow cooker is pretty much my savior, because it's super easy to make delicious meals. Finally, I feel like I may be able to contribute to this marriage in the kitchen a bit. ;)

We're pretty adorable.

Yet despite yesterday's exciting shopping trip and its incredibly fruitful results, I still think the best part of the day was the fact that I've been married to my wonderful husband for a full month and despite having dragged me halfway around the world to a strange (yet wonderful place), I still think he's a pretty swell guy. Here's a picture of the two of us before our mall trip, where we managed to celebrate by having a nice dinner at P.F. Chang's (Yes, yes, I know. An American chain is my first restaurant out. Don't judge me. It was there, we were there, we were hungry, and it was a nicer option than the food court...).

Getting Started: Flying First Class

View of the sunrise from my living room

Welcome to my new home. I'm currently a resident on Saadiyat Island, right on the outskirts of the second largest city in the United Arab Emirates - Abu Dhabi. Saadiyat is home to a growing cultural movement in the city, with expected expansions of both the Louvre and the Guggenheim opening in the next few years. Abu Dhabi itself is a bustling metropolis and a real melting pot - over 85 percent of the city's population is expats like myself, and this multicultural population has definitely left its mark on life here. I'm sure I'll be filling you in on more fun facts about Abu Dhabi as we go along, so I'll leave this brief introduction here.

I'm also not going to spend time on my first post doing a long introduction/about me type thing - I'll post a section on that to the blog later, but for the large part I expect this will mostly be shared amongst family and friends, and I'll be aiming to describe my experiences for you guys back home in the good ol' South.

On July 30, at the ungodly hour of 3am, Mom and I set off for JAX from Lake City, where I was to start the first leg of my grand adventure. Unfortunately, arriving well before 5am meant that none of the coffee shops were open at the airport - not even the Burger King. Seriously, someone needs to get on that. Mom and I sat talking until the very last possible moment that I had to get through security, and then I headed for the TSA lines. Saying goodbye to Mom ranked as one of the roughest moments of the whole leaving process, right next to saying goodbye to Oma and Opa. Having spent my whole life within a 90 mile radius of home and making my family the center of my life for 25 years, it was definitely difficult to leave. As my husband likes to remind me, however, I have a tendency not to do things halfway. So, following my usual style, my first big move from home would naturally be around 7500 miles more than my last move from home.

My husband is the reason I'm here. I'm sure everyone knows that. He has this wonderful opportunity to live and work in Abu Dhabi for the next year (maybe more), and so, not even a month after getting married, I threw in my lot with his and took off for the land of camels. Difficult? Yes. Worth it? Yes. I had always dreamed of going abroad after finishing my Masters degree, but was usually dreaming of landing somewhere in the heart of Europe, in a German speaking country, where my heritage lies. If you had told me two years ago I'd wind up in the deserts of the Middle East, I'd have give you the weirdest look ever and told you to go kick rocks. Yet here I am, and this blog will serve as a reminder and a reflection of the journey that life here will become.

Back to the main narrative for this post, however (You can expect a great deal of that on this blog). Once through the security lines at JAX, I nervously waited for my flight to JFK to board. Foregoing coffee on the thought of the effects it would have on an empty, nervous stomach (which somehow in my mind outweighed the benefits the caffeine would have on my extremely tired body), I was finally ready to board the plane when I was stopped at the gate because Delta had flagged my ticket, requiring a document scan. A very indignant flight agent asked to see my passport, and then said he had to scan my documents and asked if I was traveling international. When I replied yes, he said, "Canada, right?" to which I replied that I was traveling here, to the UAE, and received the very shocked and confused look I'd come to expect when announcing my move destination. After a brief back and forth about why I didn't have a visa ("Are you sure you don't need a visa to go there? I don't have time to investigate this" [with a very indignant "so you'd better not be lying" look]) I finally was on the plane to New York. My seat mate, of course, was extremely chatty for 6am, and I attempted to be as polite as possible while making it clear that I was exhausted and just wanted peace and quiet.

The flight to New York was uneventful, as most 2 hour hop rides are, and after that one minor hiccup with Delta I thankfully didn't have to deal with them again (everyone here knows my love affair with Delta...). I hiked all the way across JFK's Terminal 4 out to ticketing, so I could check in for my Etihad flight. After traveling again back through security (hooray!) I made my way into the terminal, stopping for a quick duty free shopping trip and then heading to the business class lounge, a luxury I was going to enjoy for the first time. I found a nice quiet comfy leather chair near some outlets and sat down to watch some Netflix to pass the time until boarding. It being only 9am, I wasn't really in a spot to enjoy the open bar or the open buffet, since it was still serving breakfast and I was quite over that.

Grumpy Cat, my faithful travel companion, enjoying the lounge.

Finally approaching the time for boarding on my ticket, I headed down to the gate, where I was waiting to board when I heard the announcements start paging passengers to come to the desk. Surprised, I heard my name, so I made my way over and wondered if I needed another document scan. An agent then asked for my passport and boarding pass so I handed them over, and I must have had a quizzical look on my face because she said, "You've been upgraded to first class." Thanking her with some measure of shock, I took my new boarding pass with the first class designation. Not only was I in first, I was in seat 1A. Front of the plane.

Etihad's gate surprise

Let me briefly put this in perspective for you: Business class on Etihad is a luxury in itself. You have a lie flat seat, and a full menu available to you at any time. As flying goes, it far surpasses most everyone else's first class (If you want to read more: http://www.etihad.com/en-sg/experience-etihad/on-board/pearl-business-class/). That's what I was supposed to fly. What I wound up with, by the blessings of the airport gods and in repayment for the awful airport karma I've had lately in spades, was this.

My actual seat.

My second seat, and entertainment center with a 23" screen.

Champagne, truffles, and a hot towel with rose water.

Grumpy cat enjoying the second seat atop my luggage before I discovered the closet.

Etihad's first class boasts itself as "refined luxury air travel with individual suites, higher levels of comfort and more personal space than ever before" (http://www.etihad.com/en-sg/experience-etihad/on-board/diamond-first-class/). Not only did I now have a lie-flat bed, I had my own suite complete with a privacy screen, a comforter, pillows, sheets, and my own personal set of pajamas. As I mention in a caption below, the suite also had its own closet complete with a wooden hanger for my clothes and plenty, plenty of space. First class also comes with your very own personal chef. He's not just for you alone - he serves the entire first class, which couldn't be more than 10 people - but boy, was he a good cook for a guy dealing in airline food. Once he'd seen that I was settled in with my champagne, he asked what I'd like for lunch/dinner (I should add here that since we were delayed nearly an hour getting out of the gate, he also took the time later on after having the menu conversation to deliver fresh dates and coffee). Having just boarded and not had much time to look over the menu, I asked him for a few minutes to look things over. Instead, he took the time to sit with me, talk about the things I liked, and then catered a lunch just for me. The result was a delicious tandoori chicken with fresh veggies and steamed rice, preceded by samosas for an appetizer and a toffee gateaux for dessert. This was also accompanied by a bread basket with an assortment of delicious breads. I didn't think to snag pictures because by that point I was reaching sheer exhaustion. My lunch was served to me on china, with silverware, and of course flowing wine (or whatever else I chose to have, which would be nothing else in my case). Once lunch was over I changed into my new, comfy set of pajamas (first class also had access to a rather large lavatory that doubled as a changing room) and settled in to watch a movie while I fell asleep. I watched a total of 5 films on the 12 hour flight: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Amazing Spiderman 2 (which I admittedly fell asleep during after the first 10 or so minutes), The Muppets Take Manhattan, Transcendence, and The Lego Movie (which I half paid attention to during my breakfast). I did sleep a while on the plane, despite the turbulence, with the help of a hot cup of Arabian mint tea and Etihad's brilliant lighting system, which, once one closed the four window covers I had in my suite, simulated the night sky with stars. It was a wholly relaxing experience, and that may be the first and only time I ever say those words in relation to air travel. I did manage to snag a few shots of breakfast, which was again another catered meal, this time stuffed Indian pancakes along with fresh fruit and another bread basket, which had both a cinnamon roll and a muffin for breakfast.

The breakfast spread.

I honestly couldn't tell you much of the approach into Abu Dhabi, or of my experiences in the airport being my first in the county. I was so totally and completely exhausted from the trip, despite having slept a reasonable amount for air travel, that I don't remember much of it. I do know that thanks to the travel agency my flights were booked through, I had a handler coming off the plane who helped me navigate the airport, collect my luggage, and find my way out to the arrivals area where Jon was waiting. I was definitely happy to see that he'd made it to the airport to meet me - after 12 hours of unfamiliar faces and landing in a strange country, having my husband there was the ultimate comfort. We hopped in the car that the agency had arranged for me and made the trek to Saadiyat - to home.