Superficial Joy

For a while I thought I might come back to the United States because I knew I was done with Abu Dhabi. But a few close friends, and some acquaintances, told me they didn't think I was coming back. They were right! I am delighted to announce that I will be moving to Israel next year to join the staff of the  Walworth Balbour American International School ! My mind was mostly much made up when the school year began--it is time to leave Abu Dhabi. I like my job and love my friends and the community I have found here, but I don't love the weather. It is  so  hot! After all, I left Texas in part because of the heat (the other reason was the cockroaches, which we also have here in the UAE). And there is so little to do outside. I was rather spoiled by the weather and activities in Boise--skiing within an hour of finishing the work day, running in the mountains regularly, riding my bike to work. This has been an excellent first overseas job. Thus I attended a job fair ...

My second run of the year- the Zayed Sports City 10(ish)K. A fitting photo for a beautiful day! AND I had some friends there: AND I came in 5th/33 in my age division and was the 14th woman out of 128!   ....and it was all done before 9 a.m. What a great way to start a Friday (the first day of our weekends)!

I turned in my form on Tuesday of last week (which is now 3 weeks ago). It's official: I'm staying in Abu Dhabi for another year! The debate has been going on for months. In fact, I came back this year expecting to stay just a year. That's why I'm not coming home for Christmas vacation--so I can maximize travel time before I leave the Middle East. But the second year has been massively, fantastically, astronomically better than the first. The very first day back was better than any given day that first semester of last year (with the exception of the day I flew home): I knew how to get home I knew where I was going I knew how to talk to the taxi driver My rental car was all set up for 10 a.m. that morning When my apartment wasn't clean, I immediately email school, who immediately took action and within hours had my apartment restored to cleanliness The culture shock had worn off The wall of humid heat when I got off the plane didn't surprise me  ...

Summer is well underway, but I haven't officially disclosed my plans for next year. Partly this is out of laziness and partly because I was unsure about my decision. Here's what I've decided: I'm going back for another year at the 2nd, great school! As usual, there is commentary: 1. You may be wondering,  wait, I thought you signed up for 2 years originally anyways?  Yes. But when I was hired by the new school, I signed a 6 month contract. This turned out to be a perfect situation in which I could stay in Abu Dhabi and experience non-traumatic living, work at a great school with a fantastic math department and be able to go back to Boise next year if it didn't work out. 2. I was really torn about staying another year because I had to decide in late April. Back then I hadn't begun diving, was feeling stressed, hot, somewhat lonely and doubtful about Abu Dhabi in general. 3.  The Boise School District asked me to tell them if I was returning in early...

The cherry on top: spending the evening with a new friend Last Wednesday was a treat! A unique show about Vincent Van Gogh came to Abu Dhabi. It was called Van Gogh Alive: The Experience . Some of the places it's visited are Beijing, Berlin, Bogota, Budapest, Charlotte, Florence, Hangzhou, Istanbul, Krakow,  Milan, Moscow, Phoenix, Rome, Seville, Shanghai, Singapore, St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv and Warsaw (it you are near it, go!). It's really hard to describe, but is was amazing. It didn't involve paintings but instead, images projected on screens scattered all over a set of rooms. Every 34 minutes the program begins that involves sounds, images, words and sometimes video. Maybe it's easier to let you read about it yourself. You can see people standing and sitting while the program is playing. These are big! The landscape screen in the middle is probably 6 feet tall. Along a small corridor were 2 sets of exhibits. One side was a...

Random thing #17 you may or may not find interesting about Abu Dhabi: Fog. There is a lot of sunshine in Abu Dhabi, even in the winter. Apparently the other thing that happens in the winter is fog. I mean F.O.G. Like, local-schools-have-2-hour-delayed-start-times-because-the-busses-can't-get-through fog . School #1 was located in the city, so I didn't come to appreciate the full thickness of the fog until one work day recently. Here's what it looked like at one of the lights along the way: This picture is further back in the line at the same light Before I left in the morning I took a picture off the balcony. Compare it to the regular view! ...and looking the other direction...   Later in the week there was fog all day long. I hear it's because the authorities in Abu Dhabi seed the clouds to increase rainfall , a side effect of which could be the fog . Whatever the reason, it made my run better because the men working in the building...

A run on Town Lake in Austin After almost 3 weeks of sleeping, lounging, eating, exercising, resting and nourishing my soul in Austin and Dallas, it came time to return to the UAE for my new job. Three days before my return I felt panic returning. Even though my mind knew that my new job will be better, my body feared a repeat of the trauma of the first semester. I was able to talk to some friends who helped me calm down, but then my anxiety shifted to the plane ride back.  [Un]fortunately there is a direct flight from Dallas to Abu Dhabi (yay!) but it is 15 hours long (boo!). The ride back to Texas was agonizingly long, even though it was from Amman, Jordan to Austin and only 12 hours long  and  I had a aisle seat (which was a first and I learned how much better the aisle is than the window).  When I went online to check in, there were only middle seat left and my anxiety grew. So we got to the airport over 3 hours early so I could wait in line and hope for...

I AM REALLY MOVING TO ABU DHABI!!!! I'm ticketed!!! And look at the routing on my ticket. Before you look, though, let me just say that I did NOT ask for this... AND...there is an almost 9 hour layover in Dallas! Most of my family lives in Dallas, so I will not only get to spend the afternoon with them, but also get to be sent off to the other side of the world by family. This is not the only thing that has fallen into place. Some of the other things... A friend recommended a super great property manager that I feel totally good about I don't fly out until August 24th, and so get to be here in Idaho for the solar eclipse!! (No solar eclipse in the UAE) Another friend's husband just happens to be newly working for a company that packs pianos and precious items for moving and storage. I found this out just about two weeks ago, when my piano had just moved to the top of my "to do" list. Said piano-packer-for-storage company owner hooked me up with ...