Ranch Hand

John Piper quoted… (graphically)

I’m kind of against posting outside content on the blog but really liked this video.

4 Titles:

4 Titles: I went head to head with a female white westerner and won! or Things that make you want to GO NUTS!  or You are now entering the twilight zone or Just another Abu Dhabi Day

I don’t get up before 9:00. I don’t have to get up before 9:00 and since we get to bed late I typically don’t get up before 9:00. It’s just now 9:11, I’ve been up for an hour and a half and it’s proving to be an un-typical day for me.

I got up at 7:30, ate, bathed and clothed myself and was out the door by 8:00. My mission was to take the FJ back in to the body shop for a third time to get the second estimate done AGAIN. Apparently the first time we dropped it off for the second accident they either didn’t do the estimate or they lost it. No matter. Mafi mushkala. I can take it back in again.

I had to be there before 9:00. That’s when the insurance company shows up to start estimating. I pull up to the front of the building at about 8:35ish to start looking for a parking spot. Now remember… this is Abu Dhabi. People drive crazy here and consequently there are a lot of accidents. There are a lot of damaged vehicles parked everywhere, in no order and leaving me no space to park in the normal parking spaces. One of the attendants motioned for me to go into the drive that leads to the body shop area. Let me not fail to mention that the only drive into the body shop area, which is the only drive out of the body shop area, is constricted down to one lane most of the way because people have chosen to park their cars on either side of the drive. Ha!

As I am pulling in, and mind you I’m most of the way down the drive, a woman in a small compact car starts to pull out of the body shop. Here it is folks:

1. I am most of the way down the drive
2. She has just started coming down the drive
3. If I back up it would have to be into the busy street and I’m liable to get rear ended (again)
4. If she backs up 10 feet I can get around her

So what does she do? She throws up her hands and gives me this “Why the hell are you in front of me, in my way and not backing up?!” look. I even think she mouthed something. So what did I do? Well first, I’m flabbergasted by the fact that she’s not going to be a typical white western woman and love that she has the opportunity to be nice to someone. So I threw my hands up and mouthed “back up!” with that flabbergasted look on my face. I won!

But I feel horrible! I shouldn’t have had to do that. I SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO DO THAT.

I believe that this incident occurred because SHE has been here to long. More on that later. Let me get back to the FJ and the estimate.

So she backed up 10 feet and I drove around her. The whole incident took like… 30 seconds. I parked where the attended motioned me to and went into the waiting area ready to battle to have my estimate done first.

Well lucky for me I didn’t have to fight that battle. Unfortunately that fact isn’t stopping the maddening feeling from coming on. GO NUTS! I approached the Indian at the counter and after he is done talking to his associate Indian in Hindi/English about my FJ and the lack of an estimate he informs me that the insurance company doesn’t need to do the estimate now and that I can leave the FJ so they can get to the work some day. GO NUTS!

I asked him politely “Are your guys ready to fix the FJ? Do they have a guy available to start working on it? Because I don’t want to just leave it here to sit for weeks and not have any work done to it.” So the guy talked to his associate again in Hindi/English and then informed me that I could drop it off next Saturday. GO NUTS!

Instead of doing a second estimate the insurance company is now going to wait until the work is done and the bill is created and decide at that point what they are going to pay. MY theory is that the estimator for the insurance company just doesn’t want the work of creating a new estimate. GO NUTS!

So essentially my trip to the body shop was unnecessary. GO NUTS! EVERYBODY GO NUTS!

The cake topper: As I’m leaving the body shop area, driving down the street, a young Arab guy coming from the opposite direction stops and honks his horn at me and points to the front of my car. Now, I’m thinking, “Is something dangling off the front of my FJ?” Nope. He just wanted to ask me in his broken English, “Accident? How?”  I explained that it was a train wreck of an accident and that it wasn’t my fault. Then he asked, “Do you have paper?” I gave him a quizzical look. “Do you have police paper?” Oh! Do I have an accident report? Why yes, sir, I do. WTH?! What the heck?! Who was he and why did he care whether I had an accident report?  GO NUTS!

It’s at that point that I decided to get home as quickly as possible before something else strange happened.

I want to comment more on my theory of the woman in the compact car but I don’t think I have the brainpower right now. Maybe after I take nap this afternoon…

You have to know that as I’ve typed this over the last 45 minutes that I’ve laughed out loud at least five times. I haven’t cried yet though!!! : ) GO NUTS!

Facelift…

The blog is getting a facelift corresponding to our current residence in the UAE.  I’ll be tinkering over the next few days… feel free to chime in with any input.

Golden Cappuccino

In our first few weeks in Abu Dhabi we spent many evenings with my co-workers eating out and seeing various sights.  One such evening found us meeting for coffee at the Emirates Palace hotel, a luxury hotel on the beach of Abu Dhabi.  This hotel is paradoxically both ostentatious and classy.  You feel rich just walking in.

When it came time to order drinks Amy had a cosmopolitan and I had a cappuccino, but not just any cappuccino.  I opted for the Emirates’ Cappuccino.  They offered a basic cappuccino for AED30 ($8.17 US), but the Emirates’ Cappuccino was AED50 ($13.61 US).  I figured that for an extra AED20 they must be using better beans, or steamed milk, or whipped cream.  You know… it had to be a better cappuccino.

It was a very good cappuccino indeed.  Heck! It even came with real gold-leaf flakes on top of it.

Tony, on the other hand, opted for the AED30 cappuccino.  Ah yes, Tony the cheapskate.  I guess he got what he paid for.

If only that were the case.  Reality is that Tony is intelligent.  He asked the waitress the difference prior to ordering and it turns out the joke is on me.  You see, the ONLY difference between my Emirates’ Cappuccino and his basic one was the gold-leaf flakes.  In fact, his had chocolate flakes on top.  I wager his was a bit more tasty than mine with gold-leaf flakes.

Little did I realize that this gold-leaf facade on my cappuccino would be analogous to many things I’d later discover here in Abu Dhabi.

The Month of March

Unfortunately for you our life is not one big adventure. It’s a little adventure here and a little adventure there with a bunch of work squeezed in the middle. However, I did make it to Oman this weekend!!!

Yeah, it’s not as exciting as it sounds and I was only in Oman for 15 minutes. I did have some great conversation with my neighbor in the car on the way though. Her visa had expired and she needed someone with a vehicle that they owned to take her across the border. (In order to take a vehicle across the border you either have to own it or have a document by the owner saying that it’s okay to take it out of the country.) I don’t think she wanted to go by herself, being a single white female in a Muslim country, and I don’t really blame her. I was happy to go. I learned the value of knowing a least a little bit of Arabic on this trip as she was able to converse a little with each border guard. A co-worker of hers said it would only take an hour and a half to get there, via Al Ain, but it ended up taking us more like two and a half hours. The cool part is that now I can say I’ve been to Oman and have a stamp in my passport to prove it.

If you’ve not seen the pictures, we are now proud owners of a very blue Toyota FJ Cruiser. Here is a picture of it in Oman near the base of Jebel Hafeet, across the boarder from Al Ain, UAE.

I think we have had record rain fall here over the past two days. There are high winds right now and we’ve had a couple of big thunderstorms come through with lightening and everything. One of our friends said he saw hail as well. In the desert! It made it feel more like home. Rain can be so refreshing.

On another note, I’ve thought of a great little side business I could start here. Many men come over here to work for weeks at a time only to get back on plane and go home to their wives. It’s hard to convince a woman to move to the desert with out first visiting this place. So my thought is that I could introduce expat women to Abu Dhabi by driving them around, taking them to malls, restaurants and the spa for a massage for the purpose of helping them see that they too can live here. I did that last week with one of Joel’s co-workers wives from the US. We walked to a small mall near her hotel and ate at the Lebanese Flower with our husbands. After visiting a store that had Abayas in it I mentioned that I wouldn’t mind wearing one just because of their beauty here. It’s really because I am a sucker for rhinestones and they really like to deck these Abayas out with them. This picture is just an example of a few designs.

The head scarfs are great for keeping the sun off of your head but really… black is just not the right color. So you won’t catch me in one anytime soon but you may start seeing me wear more colorful headscarves and shawls. I’m starting to love accessorizing.

Here are a couple of pictures that we’ve taken recently and a little explanation of each.

We have had several dust storms roll through. This was on our way to Dubai.

They occasionally have boat races out by the corniche. 

St. Patrick’s day took us to the English Pub at the Royal Meridian hotel with 3 other Americans from our small group. This is the most recent picture of Joel and I.

They were messing with the lights on the Grand Mosque that same day. It’s usually just all white.

They LOVE fountains here and there are several around the city. This is Joel’s favorite. It’s just outside the Sheik Zayed Sports Center and looks like a torch. Pretty cool!

Things you stumble upon in the desert. We had an amazing camp out with our small group in the desert. A couple of the guys found this tent seemingly abandoned in a dune.

We sat around the campfire and shared our testimonies, how each couple met and what brought them to Abu Dhabi. God is so awesome!

Until next time… have a great month of April!

Fortunate. Blessed. American.

Some random thoughts and observations on US citizenship.

Americans take a lot for granted.  One aspect of American blessing that I’ve been more keenly aware of lately is my citizenship.  As a US citizen I can travel to nearly anywhere in the world no questions asked… or at least very few.  Many people from other countries are denied a visa to even tour the US.

A couple in our small group tonight highlighted that when they have kids they’ll have to decide what nationality to have their child be… South African or Sri Lankan.  At first I thought that was kind of a uniquely cool thing to get to pick your child’s nationality.  However, they have legitimate concerns over what benefits, opportunities, and perhaps restrictions come with each option.

I’ve heard people from Egypt, Nepal, and Bangladesh speak of a US Visa lottery.  There is a Green Card Lottery and I know of an Egyptian couple here who won the lottery… they’ll be visiting the US once a year to preserve their Green Card.  They want the option to move to the US if necessary, and this is an option sought by many.  Are there lotteries for citizenship in other countries?  Not that I’ve ever heard of.

Things I Miss

Finally starting to really miss some things.  The “vacation” feeling may be wearing off a bit.

• I miss my Friday AM Panera meetings with Nathan.
• I miss Diet Coke.
• I miss my monthly meetings with Chris.
• I miss my truck, especially when folks here go “dune-bashing.”
• I miss Sunday lunches with Jerry and Elizabeth.
• I miss Pastor Mark’s preaching.
• I miss my guns.  =)
• I miss friends… a lot.  God, in his providence, is bringing our neighbors to the UAE for a week-long visit.
• I miss family… a lot.  Living so close to Amy’s folks has spoiled me.
• I miss sharing.  There is so much here that I want to share with friends and family back in the States, but the blog just doesn’t do it justice.

To clarify, the “missing” of these things isn’t a bad or mournful feeling.  Rather, it is that yearning that will make these things all the more sweeter when visited again.  Our appreciation for these good things back in the States is being deepened.

Abu Dhabi - A Quick Run

Went for a run tonight… my first since moving to Abu Dhabi.  Finally starting to get some daily disciplines back in line.  Moving a third of the way around the world really disrupts normalcy.

At the end of my run I came upon two Emirati boys out riding their bicycles.  They were probably 8 and 12 years old.  The younger one came alongside me and I pretended to race him… and I congratulated him when he “won.”  Not content with my pretending he circled around for a rematch.  I decided to humor him and 1 mile into my run I sprinted and beat him handily though I had to slow back down and he passed me.  I told him he won and he said, “No, you win.”

He and his brother followed me and the older boy now wanted some of the action.  I told them “Halas,” to which the older boy replied, “No Halas.”  So, after they followed me for a while longer I decided to oblige the older brother.  I gave it a good sprint but didn’t last long.  In my sprint I was winning but I had to give up and he proudly proclaimed “I win!”

Conclusion: little boys are the same the world around.

*Halas is an Arabic word and I’ll let you all figure out what it means.  Google should solve it pretty quickly.

A Dubai Kind of Weekend

The Dubai Shopping Festival is here! This means that many stores in Dubai have deep savings on many items. Admittedly we went to Dubai last weekend and didn’t buy anything. But this past Saturday… I struck gold! I bought a nice shirt for $13.00 usd and some other clothing for $24.00 usd! Joel got a deal on a purchase as well. He saved 43% on the surround sound speakers and accessories he bought.

The most awesome part about the Dubai Shopping Festival is that Abu Dhabi shops are having their own deep savings. I think in attempt to keep the Abu Dhabi money in the Abu Dhabi economy. Well… I don’t have a problem with that. I am going to the Abu Dhabi mall tomorrow to do some more shopping. Yay! I might even pick up a couple of new shirts for Joel too.

Oh, we also went to the Atlantis on the Palm Jumeirah and a really cool modern Souk while in Dubai. Atlantis has a huge aquarium. Pictures of our weekend are available on my Facebook site. 

Abu Dhabi - Name this object?

This is a picture of a common object in Abu Dhabi.  If you can correctly guess what this object is, you win a free visit to Abu Dhabi (airfare not included).  You and a guest will stay in the lavish Ericson flat and enjoy the best, domestically-engineered cooking.  All you have to do is leave a comment with your guess as to what this object is.  Every correct answer is a winner, no limit!

Name this object!