**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.