Dubai Pilgrims

This year was our first Thanksgiving away from our families and also as a married couple, so my husband and I were determined to have our own authentic American Thanksgiving in the ME and to start our own traditions, while keeping the old ones!
We did our celebration on Friday (reminder: the weekend here is Friday & Saturday) and because obviously Thanksgiving is an American holiday so businesses were open on Thursday.  My husband cooked his first turkey - 14 lbs, a brave task, and it was of course perfect and delicious!  This was not without lots of research and an entire day spent cooking and tending to the bird!  I also contributed my cooking skills to making some of the classics, with my own little twists of course!  I am not one to boil some frozen peas and call it a day especially because we invited some of our friends to join in. (We were not going to eat a giant bird alone.) Everyone was really excited, so the expectations were pretty high and we had a lot to live up to! The evening ended up being relatively successful in that everyone enjoyed the food and we had a great time. As Dubai Pilgrims, we hope that the locals (British and French?) enjoyed their Thanksgiving as much as the Native Americans did. (Very pc, I know!)

Roman Holiday

I am so excited to finally share some pics from my holiday to Rome! I studied in Florence, Italy for a semester during college, so I traveled throughout the country and went to Rome a few times, but I have not been back since or ever with my husband. It was so awesome to return during a new stage in my life and with him! I forgot how much fun it is to wander around and get lost through all the streets and little alley ways. We did hit up all the tourist sites, but in a very leisurely fashion.

 We spent six days in the city, so we were lucky enough to be able to take our time exploring without a schedule and most importantly to have long relaxing meals with plenty of wine. Rome is as opposite of Dubai as you can possibly get which is why we choose to spend the Eid holiday there. My husband and I have become excellent travel companions (as if we had a choice!) over the past year and we have found our favorite way to travel is basically without any sort of agenda. We love walking everywhere and just enjoying eachother's company, and Rome is perfect place to do just that.

We stayed in a lovely neighborhood in Centro Storico (for those familiar with Rome) near the Piazza Navona. I love this area, as you are walking distance to everything, but not overwhelmed by the chaos and noise of too many tourists and it's very quaint! There are also plenty of little osterias and trattorias that are family owned and are straight out of a post card and filled with more locals, so you know it will be delicious! It was so refreshing to spend a week in real Autumn weather in a jacket and scarf! As you will see from my pictures, we had in my opinion, perfect weather - rain, clouds, and sun - a very welcomed change! Enjoy!

Forever 21 Dubai

Today I spent a leisurely afternoon in the Dubai Mall enjoying one of my final days of "retirement" - yes after eight relaxing months of "easing in" to my new life in the Middle East, I will be rejoining the work force!  After all, I think 27 is a bit early for retirement... So during my shopping adventure I found myself in Forever21 (Don't judge... you can find some little gems in there!) and I was lucky enough to capture this choreographed song and dance routine of 20 or so store employees.  Moments like this are why we have video cameras on our cell phones.  I think this is absolutely hilarious and is just one example of the random and weird things I encounter here on a daily basis... 

I wish I could have been at the entrance of the store so I could have captured a front view but at least I was able to get this.  Please watch with the volume on.

Autumn, Not Fall, in Dubai

While everyone back west is enjoying chilly weather, foliage, and cozy sweaters, I am enjoying my first Autumn in Dubai. The temperature has finally cooled off to about 90 degrees everyday which means beach weather is here! Beach season in Dubai is from October - April, so we have been enjoying the more pleasant weather with beach bbqs, lounging poolside, dining al fresco, and my new obsession - Box Fit class, an awesome boxing work out class that takes place in the evenings on the beach. There is no better way to get into bikini shape than kicking butt Gulf side and coming home covered in sand.

I love this pic... I took it at breakfast I attended at a gorg villa on the Palm.  Not bad for a back yard :)

I think I should be recruited to do some fight scenes for the filming of Mission Impossible 4 which is currently being filmed in Dubai... I feel like everyone in town has had a Tom Cruise sighting expect me! I am determined to provide you all with some bad cell phone pics before the filming is complete. Btw - this is the biggest thing to happen here since the opening of the Burj Khalifa... Everyday in the paper I read the latest Tom Cruise in Dubai sighting - snowboarding at Ski Dubai, doing stunts by my husband's office, or climbing the Burj (nbd).

I wish I could provide a more exotic portrayal of life in the Middle East by saying I was riding camels all weekend in the desert but it gets boring doing that all the time... I promise for some more exciting posts soon because next week is Eid Al Adha, which means offices are closed for the holiday and that I will be heading on a little holiday myself... Where to?  Here's a hint...

The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio