**Fancy T-Day Tables**

Here are some more pictures of the holiday!!

I have inherited fancy, gold silverware and china.

Here is the whole table!! Definitely a table ready for a Vegas-style meal!!

**Thanksgiving Ready!**

The bar is finally clean!! My little sister is very productive with the correct motivation!!

**Delay in Pictures**

OK, I lied. The after pictures have been delayed until my sister arrives and helps me hang my blinds. Totally harder than expected!!

**The Master Bedroom Reloaded**

So, I have moved into the Master Bedroom in preparation for all my upcoming visitors in the upcoming months (you know who you are!!). Being true to my norm, here are the before pictures:



The after pictures will be posted tomorrow once I finish laundering linens...... yeah, I am totally unorganized!!

**The Master Bedroom**

So, I have been trying to follow the advice given in the movie, "Under the Tuscan Sun:" "Buyer's remorse is a very common affliction among new homeowners. Just because you have a sudden urge to weep, that doesn't mean you've made a mistake. Everybody knows old houses have their quirks. Especially old houses. I have inherited 800 empty wine bottles, one grape, every issue of "La Nazione" and assorted previous tenants. The trick to overcoming buyer's remorse is to have a plan. Pick one room and make it yours. Go slowly through the house. Be polite, introduce yourself, so it can introduce itself to you."

This has been my inspiration.  However, it must be much easier in a
villa in Tuscany.  An inherited house in Maryland is not as amazing! 
Here is my first attempt with paint to introduce myself!

Before:


After:


As soon as it is furnished, more pictures will come!!

**So, I am a grown up**

As the title implies, there is some question. Having said that, I don't know how to clean an oven. Who has an oven that is not self-cleaning? Answer: me, in my house from hell. Luckily, my mom was visiting and as she cleans, she becomes enraged and cleans faster, while slamming things around and swearing under her breath. I find it to be hilarious! So, here are the pictures!! Brace yourself!!!

Before:
After:Nice job, moms!! Also, if anyone is in a similar situation, Easy-Off has a fume-free oven cleaner that kicks a$$.

**New Adventures**

After a long hiatus, it is official: I am not returning to Dubai and I am now unemployed. Since I fully support the American business culture, I cannot be to upset about being the victim of corporate mindset. I was no longer any use to them so I was let go. However, I have been able to spend the entire summer dealing with my family and the new estate....

NEVER FEAR THOUGH.....

I still have adventures and will be returning to the Middle East at some point. Until that time, you will enjoy stories of my renovations of: my house, my job, my lovelife, and my crazy friends and family. Fun will be had by all. To start us off, here is the beginning of my before/after picture segments:

Here are my flower boxes..........
BEFORE:
AFTER:

Friendster

**Yes, I am in the States but I have so many stories that have been missed... so stay tuned!!**

So, now that facebook is blocked, I have been receiving a million messages on Friendster.

Here are some great ones:
New Messages:
"hi, this is talha 25m abu dhabi.u look really beautiful in ur pic and iam handsome too.would u like to be my friend?"

(He had a picture and was actually very handsome but I declined... despite his amazing description of me!!)

New Comment:
",How are You Doing ? I was very fortunate to come accross such a Lovely Profile Like Yours I'm lauren By Name .Am Honest,Caring,Easy Going,Compassionate, Loving,romantic and God Fearing .I Have a Good sense of Humor and am Down to Earth.. ,Race and Distance Differences are No excuse to Friendship or Relationship because Love and Feeling are measured with Heart and soul..RightNow , I can truely say if I was asked to define beauty i'd say it's you. Your Qualities made you Fascinated to Meet me..The minute I glance at your profile , It is as if God opened my eyes, My soul and my heart to truely comprehend the glory of your Inner beauty.I pray my words have touched the depth of your heart and Life the moment you read my message,i'll only appreciate if you respond.I am for real and Imean the words That I specially wrote.I'll really love to know More about you, Get along & see where It takes Us To.I want to Tell you More about me..Write or IM ME via brownlauren30@yahoo.com . I'd Love to"

(No picture with this profile and I am not sure if it is a girl or guy)

This comment was just a picture, so I had to take a screen shot:

**Air Taxis**

OK- this is hilarious and sadly, something that I think is ABSOLUTELY necessary for Dubai. The traffic here is impressive. I lived in DC for over 2 years and never had to deal with anything close to this. I have already ranted about the inability of people here to drive correctly, in any weather condition. On top of that, there is no plan for infrastructure. They have no consistent signage or road planning. It is like the Thunderdome of driving.

Luckily, they have tons of money so Air Taxis will become a viable option:
"An air taxi service is set to launch in Dubai next year for businessmen who want to avoid the city’s congested roads.

Cars Taxi is to operate a fleet of 10 helicopter taxis. General Manager Abdullah Sultan Al Sabbagh told Gulf News “We are finalising the plan to introduce helicopter taxi service in the UAE by 2009 and anyone who can afford it will be able to use it.”

The company is negotiating with European firms for the lease of the aircraft, AL Sabbagh told the paper, adding the service would be nationwide, not just in the city."

** I Heart Jets**

This is pretty cool.  Imagine how much we could get done
internationally if it only took 2 hours to cross the Atlantic?!!
We will need one of these when we take over the world.  Do you
think they have financing?

I don't think that my credit is good enough to
spend $80,000,000 on anything! I think it may be time for
a new job!!

**On the Camel Walk**

This is the best news I have heard in awhile... they are going to clean the camels:



ABU DHABI - At least 2,000 camels will fill the desert surrounding Zayed City in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, all washed, brushed and looking their best for the first international camel beauty contest.


Organised by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) under the patronage of General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of UAE Armed Forces, the Mazayin Dhafra Camel Festival 2008 will take place on April 2-10.


Owners of camels from both UAE and other Gulf countries are welcomed to bring their animals to the festival, in which prizes totalling Dh35 million and 100 cars, mostly four-wheels and pick-ups, will be given away.


The camel contest will be split between Asayel (pedigree) camels from this region and Majahim (dark-skinned) camels. Only pure-bred origin camels would be allowed to participate and they must be free of any contagious diseases or serious defects.
Apart from the camel shows, the festival will also showcase Bedouin traditions and folklore. “Every evening there will be poetry recitals and music,” said ADACH Director-General Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, who is also vice-chairman of the organising committee of the festival. “Also, local ladies will set up a souq featuring handicrafts and traditional clothes,” said Al Mazrouei.


“People will come to the festival for two reasons – to enjoy the shows and to enjoy camping in the desert,” Al Mazrouei pointed out.


Indeed, camping will be pretty much the only option for those wanting to enjoy the festival, apart from Liwa Hotel, which is located about 60km from Zayed City. The organisers, though, are offering all necessary facilities for overnight campers.


Hammoud Hamid Al Mansouri, Director-General of Western Region Municipality Council, added that environment protection will not be forgotten during the festival.


“We will provide garbage sacks and encourage everyone not to leave their waste in the sand, while we will also have cleaners who will make sure all rubbish will be collected,” he said.

**Burj Dubai View**

So, here is the view of the fog over Dubai from the World's Tallest Building, The Burj Dubai:

Now, I guess there is a little bit of an excuse for the car accident the other day. However, if you build up enough to create a new weather system just around your city, then there should be more preparation for living with the new situations!! My 20-story hotel should be at the bottom, right-hand corner of the picture.... to give you an idea of how tall these buildings stand.

**Holidays v 2.0**

So, I completely skipped over my Christmas holiday to Spain. My family met me in Madrid and then, we drove to Valencia. I flew through Amsterdam and did not think about the temperature difference. It was about 70 degrees when I took off and VERY COLD when we landed. I am in flipflops and a tank top. (Yeah, I am one of those snazzy business class travelers!!) When I got to Spain, it was raining. And that was the condition in Madrid most of the time we were there. I was freezing and coming from Dubai, it was a shock that no one spoke English. Everyone here speaks English. The signs are in English. Business is conducted in English. English and service oriented. Spain, especially Madrid, could have cared less that we even tried to speak Spanish. They could not have been more dis-interested with us. Apparently, they thought we were British and there to steal their land or something.

If you are interested, here are some photos and video of the days we spent in Madrid. The car we had was smaller than ANYTHING allowed in the US. The car parks were made to fit the cars with spirals of death as entrances/exits. That is what the video is supposed to be but it was dark and my camera can only do so much!!

Enjoy!!

**HATTA**

So, in December, one of my colleagues demanded that I not work the whole day of Saturday and join their trek to Hatta. While I assume that means we would be dune bashing, I was completely wrong- it is the milder, mountainous region of the UAE, near the border of Oman. So, we have a lovely early afternoon of driving through the area and seeing the local sites and then stopping for lunch.

This would be where I ran out of camera battery but the pictures are OK nonetheless. So, we set up a little camp for lunch in the Wadi. A new thing I learned is that a Wadi is is a valley and in some cases, it can refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain. Interesting.

So, we finish lunch and it seems that instantly everyone is rushing around to break camp and pack up. I asked what was going on and my coworkers informed me that they didn't like the dark clouds over Oman at that moment because if it rained too hard there, the exact place we were having lunch would be hit with a flash flood; the prior year 13 people had died in the same . I am instantly motivated to the point that they are no longer moving fast enough for me. They inquired as to my new found nagging and I simply reply, "If you knew my friends then you would understand. I moved the the Middle East and live in a desert. If I die in a flash flood, they will never let that go!!"

I heart my friends. They raise the bar.

**More Birthday Fun**

So, I had Rugby the weekend before my birthday and my actual birthday on Tuesday and the the "office party" on Thursday afternoon/night. Here are the pictures from the last event; shared with my colleague, who is in the first picture in the album with me. It is weird. We have a small office of about 25 people and there are 2 sets of people who have birthdays on the same days. Must be the water!!

Everything's Bigger in Dubai

Thank you all for the emails checking on me to make sure I wasn't involved in the 350 car pile up on the border of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. I was not. I was already safely at work! The official story was that the initial accident was caused by fog. Here, people drive with their hazard lights flashing in fog instead of these handy things, called FOG LIGHTS! So, you cannot tell if they are signaling to change lanes. (They don't normally but whatever).

So, there was an accident and cars caught on fire. I believe that is where all this "fog" started. Then, since people here are very busy and cannot be bothered, they would drive in the breakdown lane around the accident scene and hit people as they were getting out of their cars and running away from their burning vehicles. This blocked the emergency vehicles on ground and the smoke from the initial 22 cars prevented the helicopters from assisting.

What have we learned from this? Four words: FOG LIGHTS, DUMB ASSES!! I sit here more confident than ever in the driving capabilities of American citizens. Please watch these videos for further proof. First, this is a normal day in the airport tunnel; and second, they installed a new speed bump and chaos ensued!!

**Holidays**

Well, Happy Valentines Day & President's Day to all! I am not very big on either of these holidays (not that anyone is really PUMPED up for President's Day) however, if you are a person with a sense of humor, please send your friends and significant others an e-card with style. I find these to be hilarious and perfect for all your friends; especially the ones who use annoying phrases like "politically correct."

Quick update on me:
-Vacation to Egypt has been canceled. One the upside, my boy, D, will be visiting Dubai instead. What can I say? I promised him a camel ride and it is going to happen, damn it!!
-Work is CRAZY. We are supposed to be done with site work by 29 February. Mission Impossible! (This would be why the vacation has been canceled)
-I am taking Thursday off so there should be some more pictures for your viewing pleasure very shortly!!

Facebook Banned

So I see that y'all have been sending messages & whatnot on Facebook. I am not being rude... I have a legitimate reason!! Can you believe this fascist crap? Now, before you send me the techie solution, be advises that I work for an IT company and I have already been informed. I don't exactly know how to do it but it will be resolved. Until then, you will have to email me directly or find me on myspace!

That's all from now. Everything is a little crazy in preparation for my big trip to Egypt on the 19th.

**Winter is Over**

So after 2 weeks of relative cold and rain, winter seems to have ended. It is still a little chilly and occasionally there is some rain sprinkles but for the most part, it is over. Now, everyone who has lived here for awhile keeps telling me that this will continue on (possibly) thru April. Whatever. No matter how long it lasts, it is not Maine with an average of 10 inches of snow a night. No matter how bad a$$ you think you are; you don't know cold until you get frostbite on any exposed skin in the 15 minute walk to class!

With that said, I am completely behind with posts. Here is what I will be talking about in the next couple of weeks:
-KOA's first trip to the Dubai Police Station!!
-KOA's holiday to Spain
-KOA's New Year
-Even more traffic stories
-Another impressive fight at the Double Decker
-KOA's attempt to get a loaner car while the Focus is being serviced

Not that it is an excuse but for the past two days, I have been trying to post and the site has been completely in Arabic. I couldn't figure out how to change it because the "Language" drop down menu was labeled in a foreign language. We will not even discuss what this says about my Arabic lessons! If you do not believe me, go to the login page and change the language to Arabic and don't forget that it flips everything to the other side of the page!!

Also, I have belated Xmas postcards that will be hitting the Emirates Post this weekend. I am sorry- especially to my sister's friends- for the late delivery but I am very busy. So busy, in fact, that my boss re-considered his rejection of renewing my contract and is in the process of trying to get HR to bribe me to stay. I miss you all but cross your fingers that I can get myself a sweet deal to stay out here another 8-12 months.

Random Day #2

OK- so it is winter here, a.k.a the rainy season. For the first 2 months of this "season," it was sunny (sometimes foggy in the morning) and at the lowest 70 degrees. Starting on 7 January, however, it got cold. It was 72 degrees at the high point of the day and rain started sprinkling now and again. Then, 2 days ago, it started to rain and it hasn't stopped.

In any normal place, this would just suck. Here, in the desert, no one is ready for rain. The city is simply not built for it. Since they don't have a lot of rain over the year, there is no drainage. None. The water floods all the low areas. And due to the huge amount of construction, the sand runs off and creates these muddy wash outs in the roads. On top of that, no one can drive in the rain. They just run their hazards; making it impossible to know when they are turning or merging. Nice. Add on tons of accidents.

Finally, the buildings are not built to withstand any bad weather. Every building, finished or otherwise, flooding as we speak. The electrical systems go bad so now, we add everyone who made it to work, is stuck in an elevator or has no power in the office. Even our glass panel in the front lobby shattered when the wind picked up. It sounded like an explosion. God forbid if this place ever had a hurricane or an ice storm. They have no idea what to do and I find that to be bizarre. It is one thing not to be used to it but they are acting like this never happens, as opposed to occurring every year!

So, I went to work today. It took 40 minutes to travel a distance that normally takes 10 minutes. Then, I went to site- same deal. I did my Technical Room site walk, yelled at people, and called for the driver. I went to the meeting point, immediately regretting the beige shirt I chose this morning. The meeting place has no cover and I wait an hour for the van. In the meantime, the site closes and 9,000 laborers leave site; walking by me in my now soaking wet shirt. I can safely say that I have cemented my place as the Most Popular Girl on site.

My life is one humiliating event after another. Good thing I don't take it too seriously! Hopefully the rain will stop tomorrow and we can get in to assess the damage of the nearly finished project. I guess we do not need to test out the building cleaning system for leaks!!

**Happy New Year + Randomness**

OK, I have been HUGELY late in wishing you all a happy new year. I have TONS of vacation stories and pictures to share! I returned to work on the 7th of January and was informed that our project team will now be working 6 day weeks. This isn't the worst thing ever - as I have been working this schedule for past 3 months - except now, I get paid for the extra day. Bonus.

With that said, there is a huge difference between coming in on a Saturday voluntarily and having that be mandatory. Usually, there is no one there when I used to come in on Saturday and I could get tons of paperwork done (which is never ending and the biggest bottleneck of my job). This past Saturday was horrible.

1) Thursday was a holiday for the Islamic New Year and we worked a half day. I stayed until 4pm because of aforementioned paperwork.
2) Everyone was at work (of course) and all of our subcontractors and clients knew we were working so it was a normal, crazy day. I got nothing done.
3) On Sunday, I had no idea what day it was. I try to keep my team on a strict schedule and this threw a wrench into my system. Then, the random hit us at 4:30 pm...

A public holiday was called in the afternoon for Monday. Let me repeat that. The government of the United Arab Emirates gave the country Monday off of work. Everyone was supposed to stay home. My management was beside themselves. They love to have us work on holidays. I have a month of leave and 3 holidays just waiting to be taken whenever I drop dead from exhaustion. However, we could not get to work. They closed all major roads in Dubai...

Apparently, President George W. Bush is visiting the leaders of the UAE and this is their security plan. Everyone is basically under 12 hour curfew during the day. Seriously. My roommate tried to get to IKEA this morning and hit armed guards and roadblocks at every route! I cannot believe that people living here accepts this. I am an ex-pat so really it is just a day off for me but there have been many problems due to this! I think my final thought on this is that I now feel mildly unsafe here. The situation has been tense since the assassination in Pakistan but I feel that this shows the reality of the current political state here. No one city is a true safe haven for Western travelers in the Middle East; no matter how pretty the hotels are and how many people speak English. I love it here but I am feel that the infrastructure has a long way to go until it is a "developed" country!!

On a completely different note, please let me introduce you to my friend, Craig. I met him randomly in college- now, nearly 11 years ago- and let me tell you that he and my father are the only reasons I can work with engineers today. They have broken my mindset of engineers being impossible. Please listen to Craig's podcasts because they are HILARIOUS! He and his friends are very smart but are still nice, normal, and accessible. I hope you like these as much as I do.