Consistency is key!

That's what I keep telling myself about writing this blog, anyway, and then I never really get around to doing it. To be fair, the last week has been surprisingly busy for me (us), but if I had written sooner I might not have needed to write a marathon post in which I can barely remember all the things I probably would've talked about anyway.

Within the past two weeks (what I'm figuring for time lapsed here, even though it's probably been longer, I've attended two coffees, four Arabic lessons, made a trip to Dubai, had a girl's night party, crashed a Literature department reception, and been actively looking for jobs. It's been exhausting, compared to the pace I had been running, which was pretty much nothing at all.

One of the coffees I went to was a newcomer coffee for women in the AWN, or American Women's Network. I had a pretty nice time, and as it was at the home of one of the senior board members who lives in Sama tower, I had an excellent view of Abu Dhabi from the 43rd floor. I didn't manage to snap pics. AWN seems like a great network resource for expat women living in the city, despite the fact that I was by a large margin the youngest person there and some women even made the offhand comment that they were definitely old enough to have been my mother. AWN has several events, committees, and something called an Explorer's club that takes local trips, so there's always something to get into.

Cappuccino.

The other coffee was just our weekly jaunt sponsored by NYUAD's community life department, which is pretty much always a welcome socialization hour overwhelmingly dominated by "trailing wives" - those of us who are here with our husbands who have jobs. There are a couple of reasons why you never really see anyone else in the mix, despite the fact that it's open to everyone, chief among them that it's at 10am on a Tuesday morning when most of campus is working or teaching. This week's event was at a Afghani-American fusion cafe on Al Raha Beach, and breakfast was pretty delicious. We even got to sit outside (!!!!!) because the weather was beautiful and the place was on the water and there was a lovely breeze (at least until noon rolled around).

My new obsession: Lemon Mint. It's pretty much lemonade muddled with fresh mint, and it's delicious.

 This past weekend Jon and I also got to take a trip to Dubai to see the Mall of the Emirates, what was once the largest mall that was outdone by Dubai Mall that will soon be outdone by Yas Mall which will be on the next island over from where we're living (and should open soon), and there are rumors that Saadiyat is getting its own mall that will outsize Yas...but that's probably an undertaking 10 years in the future. Seriously, keeping up with all the malls around here is exhausting.

I'll take to another post to write about our Dubai trip, in order to keep this one from becoming the longest post known to man, and I'll try to write a separate post on job searching so things don't get muddled. I'm also actively trying to campaign for Eid holiday destinations, which requires more research.

Sunday = Monday

Here in the desert, Sunday is the start of the work week. That means Friday and Saturday are our weekends, and Sunday = Monday. Sunday also comes with a case of the Mondays, as it were.

I decided to run to the mini grocery for a few things we'd missed at Carrefour this weekend, and it was supposed to just be a quick trip out to pick up a few things and come home. Well, a quick trip turned into classic "expat problems," and was a little longer than I'd expected.

We usually pick out a few recipes at the start of the week to make for meals, and this week Jon decided chili sounded good (despite being in the middle of a 100+ degree desert...), so we picked out a recipe and got, with a few exceptions, most of the things during our big Friday hypermarket run. Last night, I made Bacon Bbq Apple Chicken in the slow cooker, which was delicious. But we still needed a few things for the chili recipe that we couldn't find at Carrefour, and we were pretty sure we'd seen them at Spinneys. Quick, easy trip. Maybe hop by the liquor store to pick up some cider to enjoy.

This blog brought to you by my spirit animal, Grumpy Cat.

I got to the mini grocery using the shuttle, and dropped by the ATM to grab some cash, only to discover that once again, it was out of order. Oops. Well, no big deal. I walked into the grocery, grabbed a basket, lamented that I hadn't written a list, stood around for a few seconds recalling what I needed, and then went hunting. All I wanted was some baking soda so I could make some cookies and muffins (here, it's the British "bicarbonate of soda"), black beans, and pumpkin. Now, I knew the last thing was a long shot, but both Jon and I had seen it in stores before (he very enthusiastically pointed it out to me one time). We are being seriously affected by the influx of pumpkin in all of your Facebook feeds from back home, since it is approaching fall and Starbucks brought back pumpkin spice early and Pinterest is awash with pumpkin recipes. So, if you could kindly STOP TAUNTING US, maybe I wouldn't have to run all over the city looking for the elusive pumpkin.

They had my bicarbonate, and that was it. No black beans, no pumpkin. Well, that's fine, it is a smaller grocery and wasn't apt to have the more selective items. I put the bicarbonate back on the shelf and left. No big deal. I decided that since I was out and about, I'd just suck it up and head to its larger cousin in the city. Surely, they'd have what I needed.

After a 30 dirham cab ride, I was totally expecting to walk in, find everything I needed and walk out, champion of grocery shopping. Not so much. Not only did they not have the pumpkin (not really a surprise, again, it's pretty obscure and maybe we didn't see it there after all), but they didn't have the black beans, and I knew I'd seen those there. Strike two. Well, I figured, all is not lost, because this being the same chain they surely have my bicarbonate. 

My face in the baked goods aisle.

All they had was baking powder. You can find baking powder everywhere here, but good luck finding baking soda. Even the stores I knew had it seemed to be out of it when I went looking. You know, Murphy's Law and what not. So I grabbed some produce since it looked fresher than my previous stop, picked up those frozen pizzas and that bread Jon loves that you can only find at this grocery (a while I'm here situation), and picked myself up a bag of cookies for the trouble, since I figured I wasn't going to be baking any this week, obviously. I hopped a cab back home, with only frustration, a lot bread, and a 60 dirham total cab fare deficit to show for my outing.

Sundays, man. They are just the same as Mondays. So enjoy your extra weekend day today, America.

P.S. - Despite the overall grumpy nature of today's blog, it does have a happy ending, because when I got home I put out an APB on the housewives' network for baking soda, and my good friend Rachel came to my rescue. So I do have muffins this week. And some extra cookies. Thanks, Rachel.

A Little Off the Top

I'd been meaning to write this post yesterday, and then I spent most of the day feeling horrible and doing some translation work so it got pushed to the side. Thankfully whatever was bugging me yesterday seems to have gone away, so here I am again.

Wednesday morning Jon and I went to "mini" Spinneys, and while we were in the St. Regis complex I decided enough was enough, the desert was killing my hair and if I waited any longer to redo my color they wouldn't just call it a root job. I walked over to the Amro ladies' salon, and made an appointment for Thursday morning at 10:30a, which, retrospectively, probably wasn't a good idea as that's when they opened. One thing I've learned about times around here - smaller stores, for the most part, seem to see the posted store opening times as more of guidelines, and rarely do they ever get going on time, or sometimes during their opening hours they're closed, etc. Anyway.

Thursday morning I woke up with more than a little apprehension about what I was about to do, as I am not a person that does change well (though you probably wouldn't know it from the fact that I got married and moved halfway around the world in the span of a month). I had a time trying to find a hair stylist who didn't continually butcher my cut in Tallahassee - after a few failed attempts, I wound up just waiting for trips home to LC to see the stylist I'd been using there for several years. Later in my Tally time I found Dennis, who is an absolutely fabulous stylist that I got to know from working with him at FSU, and I eventually made the transition to getting haircuts in Tallahassee - you know, scarcely two years before I left. The short version of this story is I am VERY picky about my hair.

I made my way over to the salon on the campus shuttle to Spinneys, so I wound up arriving probably a good 25 minutes before my scheduled appointment, and after consulting with a few of my lady friends I met at the last coffee hour, I was told there was a pretty awesome cafe around the corner so I decided to check it out. Shakespeare and Co. is apparently a chain, as my husband informed me today, but not knowing this I walked inside and immediately fell so in love with the place. It embodied everything I love about cafe culture that we just don't see too often back home - it was warm, inviting, and so, so kitschy. Seriously, if you look up kitschy in the dictionary, there should be a picture of Shakespeare and Co.

I mean, seriously, look at this place. It's adorable.

So very, very in love.

Comes with delicious cookies.

I had this super tasty cappuccino while I was waiting for my allotted time, which I actually wound up slurping a little faster than one should a super hot cappuccino, because I didn't want to be late. I made my way over to the salon a little after 10:30a (and when I say a little I mean like maybe 50 or so seconds). I walked in, they asked for my appointment, and I was taken to a chair. Then I was given a choice of beverage and a stack of magazines, and I waited for the stylist to show up so we could begin the process. The wait wasn't too bad - he showed up about 20 minutes later, and got immediately to work with getting a feel for my hair as we discussed what I wanted done. There was a bit of a communication barrier, as my stylist was Lebanese with limited English, but he was immediately welcoming and charming so we had no real issues. He set about to mixing my color and then applied it, and I waited another 30 or so minutes for it to develop. For someone who had never touched my hair before or seen me before and had no idea what color levels and products had previously been used, he matched it perfectly. I was so happy with the way it turned out - and so was he. He'd originally told me while applying the root color that my hair needed highlights to cancel out the darker roots, but once he'd finished and blown out a section so that I could see it dry, we both decided not to mess with perfection.

Then came the really challenging/nerve-wracking part for me - the cut. Fortunately I had pulled about 10 or so pictures of what I wanted off of the internet and brought them with me on my phone, and he had some great examples to look at. I was still a little nervous - after all, I was changing my cut completely from the standard I'd worn the past 7 or so years, and I was in a new place with a person whose skill was unknown to me, AND short hair isn't really a thing you see here. As soon as he pulled out a razor, though, I knew he knew what he was doing. Boy, did he. My cut was almost entirely done by razor, which is a super important part of a short, choppy cut. Not only that, but he treated my hair like he and it were old friends, and thinned it out considerably without me even asking. Truly, I think I may have found my new favorite stylist. By the end of my two and a half hour visit, I was totally at ease, and very happy with the result. It was worth the slightly higher than I'm used to price tag - cut, color, and blow dry were all separate charges, which racked up in the end, and the salon IS on a hotel resort property, so I'd expected to pay premium prices.

The picture I took before leaving the apartment.

The absolutely gorgeous end result.

Sorry, JLaw, I wear it better.

Again, look at this. TOTALLY worth it. The color is gorgeous, flawlessly integrated, and the cut looks pretty fantastic too. I can't praise my experience at Amro enough, or my stylist, who stuck with me through the whole ordeal.

I was pretty nervous about hacking off that much of my hair, but it is DEFINITELY a lot cooler and a lot more low maintenance, and if the desert decides it doesn't like my daily look, it doesn't really matter because this cut looks great when it's a little messy. I didn't post a blog or pics immediately when I got home, because Jon was still in the office, but once he came home and gave it the "It looks awesome" stamp of approval, I decided maybe it was okay to share.