Culture Shock - Israel Day 1

After spending the better part of 5 months in Abu Dhabi (including the previous, consecutive, 48 days), you might expect a post about reverse culture shock as we got back to America. But that was not the direction of our travel. Instead, we made our way to Tel Aviv, Israel.

We had been invited to attend the wedding of a friend's daughter in Israel. Being so close (geographically, at least), we were excited by this opportunity to visit another country and experience another culture. I had visited Israel as a teenager, but Craig had never been before. This was another rare opportunity - to visit someplace I had more familiarity (barely) with than he did.

First, I will point out that it is not possible to fly directly from Abu Dhabi to Israel for reasons that I will not go into here. We had booked our travel on this trip using Turkish Airlines, so our flight to Tel Aviv included a layover in Istanbul. We took a red-eye flight out of Abu Dhabi and arrived in Tel Aviv some 9 hours later.

We had been warned that Israeli passport control may take some time, particularly given our most recent trip and Craig's various passport stamps and visas. I do not clearly recall entering Israel on my previous trip because I had taken a bit too much dramamine on my first international flight. But I do remember the Israeli security in the airport leaving on that trip - in large part because my parents had varied responses to the question of whether our party had been together* throughout our trip, which had rather dramatic effects on the officers until the misunderstanding could be cleared up.

So we were prepared to be honest, direct, and patient. In the event, this proved to be largely unnecessary. When asked about previous trips to Israel, Craig said that I had been before but he had not. When I gave the date of my previous trip, the woman laughed and told me that didn't count because Israel had changed so much since then. Craig was asked whether his multiple trips to the UAE were for business or pleasure, but when he responded "business" there were no additional questions. She did say, in passing,** that she was surprised he had not asked her not to stamp his passport (as this could cause problems returning to certain countries), but Craig simply laughed and said that he "knew that she would not" because we had researched this issue.

Indeed, she did not stamp our passports. We were given instead a small piece of paper to keep with our passports until we left. I'm not sure if the photo is from my passport or from that day, as I put my hair in braids for both my passport picture and travel. I took a picture of my passport and card together:

We collected our multitude of bags and set out into the airport. I did have one moment of relief that we were not questioned about our four day stay in Israel with our accompanying six checked bags, two carry on bags, and two backpacks. Despite the obvious answer that we had recently been living out of our suitcases, I think this might, at least, have raised a few more questions.

It was a bit of a struggle to find a taxi that could accommodate all our bags, but we soon set off for our hotel. Traffic was far more like that in Los Angeles than what we had grown accustomed to in the UAE. That is, until we came upon the reason for the delay - a motorcycle was pulled over, not entirely on the shoulder for reasons that will become obvious in this description, because the driver was attempting to move a full sized refrigerator on the back. To make this scenario even more absurd, the appliance was strapped to the back of the motorcycle sideways, with the result that the vehicle was wider than it was long. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of this insanity as our driver maneuvered around it.

Not unexpectedly, our room was not ready when we arrived at the hotel so early in the morning. We checked our bags with the bellhop and made our way to the breakfast buffet. I tried to sample as much as possible:

And I got the first of many wonderful lattes (we were at this hotel for only four breakfasts, but the staff knew our coffee and water orders on the second day):

We were fighting, not jetlag, but simple exhaustion. We had flown through the night, with little opportunity to sleep. We did manage to go out for lunch before collapsing in our room and taking naps.

One of the stories Craig had heard from my previous trip was about the falafel we had in Israel. My parents had taken my little brother and I to visit my sister, who was living and working in Israel at the time. We had arrived in Haifa, gotten checked into our hotel, and someone suggested that we should get something to eat. My sister asked if we would like to try falafel. To our great surprise, my father responded enthusiastically to this suggestion.

For those who don't know, my father is not known as an adventurous eater. As I recall this trip, my mother made and packed sandwiches for lunch each day and my dad frequently picked up something at McDonald's on our way back to the hotel in place of whatever the rest of us had eaten for dinner.

We arrived at the falafel stand and my sister eagerly explained the options available and made suggestions as to what we might like. In my memory, she ordered me a fairly plain version without any vegetables because I was at that point in life where any greenery is objectionable. My father patiently examined the offerings before he complained, "but where are the waffles?"

So, of course, we had to try falafel in Israel. Craig has never enjoyed the fried balls of ground chickpeas that we've tried in the States. But he is rather more adventurous about food than my father, so he was quite excited to give it a try. He found a highly rated falafel stand within easy walking distance of our hotel.

He loved it! So much, that we went back again another day. Pictured above is Craig's, as I enjoyed mine without pickles or peppers. Straying only slightly from my earlier experience, I did have some of the cabbage on mine.

*On one day of our trip, my younger brother had an upset stomach that prompted him and my mother to stay in the hotel while my father and I continued the planned sightseeing with my sister. One of my parents interpreted "been together" quite literally and said we had not been together the entire time. The other parent interpreted "been together" as something more along the lines of "no one disappeared without us knowing where they went" and said that we had been together the entire trip. This inconsistency in answers made us very glad the my sister had sent us to the airport with plenty of time to clear security before our flight.

**Given my previous experience and everything I have read about Israeli security, I do not actually believe that anything is said or asked "in passing" or by chance. Instead, I believe that his answer did not warrant further investigation.

Bryce's Visit

In preparation for Bryce's visit, I picked up a few snacks at the grocery store. I wanted him to have a few things that would be easy to find if he woke up inexplicably hungry (something I frequently do when I travel internationally). I choose a variety of things ranging from what I knew he would like to what I thought he might have fun trying.

When he left, we saw that the date bar and the two Pringles cans had been left on the dresser. Now, the fact that he did not try the date bar was unsurprising, but both Craig and I were confused that he hadn't tried either flavor of Pringles. It wasn't until we were packing up the apartment a few days later that we discovered he had eaten both cans of Pringles, but had not completely removed the seal from either can. With the lids back in place, the cans appeared untouched but were empty.

I did not take many pictures during his visit for a combination of reasons. On his first full day, he fought jetlag and somehow induced me to watch three movies. I even watched the entirety of UP, which I had stopped on previous attempts due to tears. I still cried, but I have now actually seen the whole movie.

The only day he did any sightseeing, I was hiding in the dark with a migraine. Craig had a rare day free and took him to the Louvre and the Grand Mosque. The rest of his trip was taken up with visits to the park and the grand opening event, which I'll let Craig write about.

Grand Mosque

A trip to Abu Dhabi can hardly be complete without a tour of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque. I had planned to wear one of my abayas and lend the other to my friend. But I'm enough taller that it didn't work as planned. Instead, she wore a floor length, long-sleeved dress and borrowed a headscarf. Still, this wasn't enough to get through security at the mosque. She had to add one of the mosque's loaner abayas over her dress. Here we are, near the entrance:

We removed our shoes and went into the mosque. At one point, my friend asked me to take a photo of her. I suggested that she step further out into the sunlight, to provide better light for the picture. But as she stepped out, she discovered that the marble in the sunlight was significantly warmer than the cooled marble in the shade. She took a few quick steps and gave a little shriek of laughter before posing for the picture.

As I was handing her phone over to her, a security guard approached us and told us that "only peaceful pictures were allowed". I thought he was objecting to the little dance my friend had done when she discovered the floor was so hot, but his objection was to the still photograph of her standing with her arms extended from her sides.  He insisted that we delete the photo and stood watching as she removed it from her phone.  We were confused, but obedient to his request, so I cannot show you the objectionable photo.

We did later see a sign that expressly forbid the pose she had taken:

As we were leaving the mosque, we saw another larger sign with even more prohibitions. Ironically, the reason we had not seen this sign when we entered is because it was further into the sunlight and I had been avoiding the heat of the sun. I do still wonder if he would have noticed the picture if she had not been shocked by the heat underfoot. And, of course, I really do wonder what exactly the objection is to this pose.

Even with that bit of drama, I was able to take some "peaceful" pictures of her:

After our tour of the mosque, we returned the borrowed abaya and found a taxi. We made our way to a Harley Davidson shop, where we struggled to pick out t-shirts for our respective partners. It turns out that this is a very difficult decision to make for someone else, even when you know them well. Or perhaps because we know them so well - it might have been easier to pick something for someone who doesn't expect you to choose perfectly for them. 

We finished our day by going to the local mall (not the international mall across from our hotel, but a more varied one just a few blocks away) to shop for souvenirs. I will say that the experience made me glad that I gave up buying souvenirs sometime before I had two granddaughters and ten nieces and nephews.

Adventures in Camel Trekking

One of the things my friend most wanted to do during her visit was experience the desert. Riding a camel featured highly on her list as well. I knew that we would have to get out of the city to experience the desert. Although I am listed as a driver on our rental car, I have not yet attempted driving here. So I decided the best way to accomplish this desert visit was to take a tour.

Our hotel offered several options, which I reviewed beforehand. I decided that I might be up to the challenge of a morning desert adventure. There was a camel trekking tour that ran from 7:30-11:00 in the morning.

When we stopped to book this tour, the concierge tried to talk us into the longer tour that runs from 3:00-9:00 p.m. - this includes a camel ride, belly dancing, and dinner in the desert. This is their "most popular" tour, we were told. But we held firm to our morning only limitation and booked the camel trek.

I was relieved to wake up on Tuesday morning without a migraine and without terrible lingering side effects. I wore a long-sleeved, SPF shirt and a hat to protect myself from the sun. I also wore a lightweight pair of athletic pants that I typically wear when riding our tandem bicycle at home. I knew these would be cooler than jeans but more comfortable and more sun protection than my slacks.

We were picked up by an SUV at the hotel. We were the only people riding in the SUV, which was nice. I was a bit surprised to see that the vehicle had rollbars inside:

We drove about 45 minutes out of Abu Dhabi into the desert. When we left the highway, our driver asked if we wanted a "desert safari". We agreed and found ourselves slipping and sliding across the sand. It wasn't exactly "dune bashing" - a very common tour activity in the region - but it was probably as close as I want to come. I don't mind driving off-road myself, but being driven wildly that way isn't my idea of fun.

We arrived at the camp to see two camels saddled up and ready to go. We made a trek to the restrooms on foot. And that was quite a trek, despite the short distance. Open desert sand makes difficult walking. We could see the set-up for belly-dancing, dinner, and picture spots that made up the "more popular" afternoon/evening adventure. Our guide gave us bottles of water and walked us back to the camels.

There, another guide was waiting with the camels. Each saddle has a spot for two riders, but he directed each of us to the back seat of each camel. The camels were sitting on the sand for easier mounting. (Honestly, I'm not sure how you would mount if they weren't on the ground - the saddles have no stirrups and camels are tall!)

I made two mistakes in my preparation for this trip. First, I brought my insulated metal water bottle. Now, I love this bottle. I love having cold water to drink. And I'd filled it with ice and water before we left, and refilled it with water from the proffered bottles. But I did not have a way to attach this bottle to my bag. So I had to use one hand to hold the bottle the entire ride. And it's a black, metal bottle, which quickly got hot in the sun.

Second, my athletic pants proved to be very slippery. I was reminded of a time when Court and I, both wearing leggings, rode Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters at California Adventure - we spent the entire ride slipping and sliding across the seat, crashing into one another, and laughing like mad. Let me just say that riding a camel with slippery pants and only one hand to hold on is not a laughing matter.

As a result, I spent the 35 minute ride clinging to the saddle handle and hoping that I would not slip off the side of the saddle. By contrast, my friend - with her water bottle clipped to her side and wearing cotton capris - found the ride very peaceful and relaxing.

I was glad to climb back into the air conditioned SUV (our driver had started the vehicle in time to cool it before our return) and ride back to Abu Dhabi. Back at the hotel, we had a little bit of a hassle because the tour guide did not take cards as we had been told, but we were able to run to the ATM to sort that out.

After showering and changing our clothes, we walked over to Al Wahda Mall for lunch. Then we returned to the apartment and spent the afternoon reading and recovering. When Craig returned from work, we went out for a lovely dinner at the Bentley Kitchen at The Galleria Mall.

High Tea at Emirates Palace

After our busy day and late night, we got a slow start on Monday. We walked over to the hotel pool - it's on the 25th floor of the connected building. But that pool got too much sun, so we returned to "my" pool at the apartments. It's on the 8th floor, so it's nearly all in the shade.

After "enjoying" the sauna-like air at the pool, we returned to the apartment to shower and get ready to go to tea. As we left the hotel, we stopped at the concierge to make arrangements for our "desert adventure". We had settled on the early morning camel ride, which we scheduled for the following day.

We took a taxi over to Emirates Palace. The High Tea was "enough for two to share" - but I think we could have used the help of a third person. It began with all this:

Here we are with the spread:

We made a significant dent in these offerings, unaware that the tea included a "chocolate fondant" for each of us. By "chocolate fondant", I mean a chocolate lava cake with edible gold flakes, berries, and a smear of yogurt...of course:

Don't be fooled by the appearance - that is a smear of sour, sour yogurt. Inexplicably. All I can think is that someone saw a picture and decided to replicate the plating with the ingredients at hand.

We were so full after tea that we barely managed to walk around Emirates Palace. While most of the shops sold incredibly expensive, high-end goods, we did find one shop that sold postcards. We decided it was too hot to walk on the Corniche or visit Heritage Village. Instead, we took a taxi back to Al Wahda Mall and picked up groceries to make dinner at home.

Unfortunately, that combination of heat and sugar (and who knows what else) proved the perfect recipe for a migraine. After I got dinner in the oven, I took my medication and crawled into bed, hoping that I had caught it early enough that I would recover in time for our 7:30 a.m. camel ride the following day.

Adventures as a Tour Guide

This week, I'm playing tour guide for a girlfriend visiting from Los Angeles. We've exchanged countless emails, discussing various sites to visit and activities to try. She's only here for five full days and we have lots of things we want to cram in. Of course, we'll also be battling her jet-lag, my heat intolerance, and Craig's shifting schedule.

By the time she boarded her flight, we had settled on an outline for our five days:

Sunday - Craig had to work in the morning, but he would finish around 11 a.m. and take us to Dubai. We got tickets to go up the Burj Khalifa and I had a list of options depending on our energy level, including visiting the gold souk, viewing the fountain show at the Dubai Mall, looking at Ski Dubai in another mall in Dubai, driving around Dubai, and having a traditional Arabic dinner.

Monday - I made reservations for the High Tea at the Emirates Palace. I thought we might visit Heritage Village or walk to Corniche, if we felt up to it in the heat. I suspected that this second day would be the worst for jet lag and didn't want to over-program it.

For the other three days, I had one main goal for each day, with a few extras: (1) Grand Mosque, Al Wahda Mall, and local mall, (2) Craig's "secret" project, and (3) a dessert tour, to be selected from the hotel's offerings, with an afternoon recovering.

Of course, with Craig's schedule being so...fluid...we had to alter our plans before she even arrived. We picked her up at the airport Saturday night. On Sunday, Craig went to work and we caught a cab later that morning to spend the day at his project, pushing our Dubai trip later in the week.

We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Yas Mall. Our server grated parmesan onto my pasta, telling me to let her know when I had enough.

I think I got more than enough.

You know you're spoiled when...

In preparation for my monthly cravings, Craig and I stopped in the Godiva store at Yas Mall. I wanted chocolate covered caramels. Craig bought six of them for me, and the store put them in this somewhat oversized box:

I was a bit disappointed when I found that the consistency of the caramel was not what I expected. I was looking for a thick, chewy caramel like you find in a box of See's or Russell Stover chocolate. The Godiva chocolates were good, but they really weren't what I was craving.

I was having a bit of a struggle that day - homesick, shut-in by the heat, and generally cranky - and I made the mistake of complaining to Craig about the candy.

After dinner that evening, Craig told me he had a surprise for me. He had me hold out my hands and close my eyes. When I opened them, I found a bag of chocolate. He had me repeat this procedure with each item until I had this embarrassment of chocolate-caramel options:

I think it's safe to say that I am more than a little bit spoiled. :)

The Iceman Cometh (Craig's perspective)

[A guest post from Craig]

Our apartment, as you might expect, has a refrigerator and freezer, but making ice isn’t really an option with only one sad ice tray. Laura likes ice in her insulated water bottle. We like ice to chill our drinks and cocktails in the evening. So every day—if not multiple times a day—we have to call room service and request ice.

Most of the time, someone from room service shows up with 10-20 minutes with the ice.  Occasionally, it’s longer—or it doesn’t show up at all. This then requires an additional call to the service line to inquire as to the whereabouts of the ice. As you might imagine, it can be complicated.

Ice comes in one of two sizes of bucket at our hotel/executive apartment complex: an “individual” sized ice bucket really only good for putting a small amount of ice in two glasses, or the traditional champagne bottle ice bucket. I like the larger bucket—there’s more than enough ice for the evening. Laura likes the small, because she believes the ice is more hygienic as the exterior of a champagne or white wine bottle has not sidled into the bucket.

What I don’t understand is why we can’t get our own ice. There is no ice machine on our floor. No ice machine on any floor. It’s not a thing. I’d gladly take our (well cleaned) champagne bucket and go to any floor of the executive apartment building and fill it anytime I want with ice, rather than calling and then waiting (and sometimes waiting more) for it to show up.

It’s become a bit of a running joke with the lady on the service line. <<Phone ringing>> “Yes, Mr. Hanna? How can I be of assistance this evening.” Me: “Guess.” (Laughing) “Yes, I’ll send them with ice right away.”

Laura says the ice makes quite a journey. While visiting the pool on the roof of the hotel connected to our apartment she found a room labeled “Ice Making”. She believes the ice comes from there, travels down to the ground floor, is carried through the hotel lobby and through the connecting corridor to the lobby of the apartment tower and then up to our floor. Which is why the ice is often partially soupy upon arrival.

As if this post isn’t silly enough, talking about room service ice and all our “travails” with it, here’s even more: housekeeping do not remove the emptied ice buckets or ice serving utensils (which range from a large soup spoon to flat tongs to serrated tongs to a variety of other random utensils). We have to give the ice buckets to room service; otherwise they simply accumulate in our kitchen. I think at one point we had four ice buckets and a bevy of serving utensils stored up. So the ice delivery is often a dance of handing over the ice bucket from the service tray, asking them to wait, then balancing one or more other buckets and associated serving devices and handing them over.

Assorted ice paraphernalia.

Silly, really, when a simple ice machine would do.

Adventures at the thEATer

Craig had an afternoon off this weekend and we decided to go to the movies. Craig had previously gone to thEATer - a special movie theater that serves meals with the movie. But I was out of town and he went to a show too early to try the food. We planned to get appetizers before the movie and perhaps order one more thing for the movie if we were still hungry.

But that isn't how this place operates. We could (and did) wait in a special lounge before our movie, but all food is delivered in the theater. We had seen the special that included an appetizer, a main, a dessert, one cold drink and one hot drink, but we didn't think we wanted that much food. Then we looked at the prices. The special was cheaper than a single appetizer and bottle of water. So...we each got the special.

We placed our order and eventually made our way into the theater. We had assigned seats, of course. But this view of the theater shows how small it was (this is the center section, I think there were two seats to either side that aren't pictured).

My recliner came with a blanket and pillow:

Our drinks arrived first. Neither of us wanted coffee with dessert, so we talked them into giving us two cold beverages instead. Craig has water and sparkling water. I had water and a mocktail - some version of a virgin ginger and mint mojito.

Our appetizers came - nachos for me (with all the fresh-coriander/cilantro tainted items on the side) and pate for Craig.

I wasn't able to take pictures of our main dishes or our desserts, because they were served during the movie. The food was perfectly fine, but I don't know that it's an experience I want to repeat. I found it difficult to eat in the dark. And having an actual meal (not just popcorn) is distracting when you're trying to watch a movie on a big screen. I was surprised by this, because I don't have any trouble eating and watching television or movies at home. But it must have been something about the big screen and the darkness. Even so, I'm glad we gave it a try!

Adventures in People Watching (with Statistics)

I've written about my fascination with women's clothing in this region before, but today I took that to a new level. I set out for the mall this morning with the intention of tallying the number of women I saw dressed in a variety of ways. I've estimated before that I thought about 60% of women covered their hair in public here. I wanted to see how my perception stood against more concrete numbers.*

Trying to ignore the heat, I walked over to the mall. Once there, I ordered a latte at Starbucks and found a table with a decent** view of the mall entrance. I've actually wanted to conduct this experiment since the first time I came out to Dubai. But on that trip, I was too overwhelmed to consider it. Since then, I've been a little nervous about recording these observations. But I decided the worst that might happen is that I'd be asked to stop, so I plunged in.

I thought it would be easiest to divide my count into two broad categories - those who were covering their hair and those who were not. Within each category, I had a few subcategories. For those who were covering their hair, I divided them into (1) those who were completely covered, including those with only eyes visible; (2) those wearing the typical local dress - an abaya and headscarf, with faces showing; (3) those wearing a headscarf and modest western dress; and (4) those wearing another "national costume." For those women not wearing a hijab, I made several categories going from the most modest (covering knees, elbows, and everything between) to the least (showing arms, shoulders, and knees). I also made separate note of anyone wearing leggings without a dress/shirt reaching the top of the knees, for...*reasons.

Over 50 minutes, starting just after 11 and continuing until noon, I took note of 366 women entering or passing me in the mall. Of them, 160 wore a hijab and modest clothing - 44%. Another 95 wore modest clothing covering their knees, shoulders, elbows and everything in between - 26%. An additional 88 had only their elbows showing - 24%. I saw only 3 women wearing leggings without a top that reached the knee - 0.82%.

Of those wearing a hijab, the overwhelming majority wore what I think of as "local" attire - an abaya and a headscarf that leaves their full face showing. Next most common was modest western attire. I'm sure I could have divided this into more categories, but I stuck with the things I could determine quickly and easily.

For the last 30 minutes, I also made note of those women who were not wearing a hijab but wore or carried a scarf large enough for such a purpose. Of the 112 women who entered, 8 of them (7.14%) had a scarf with them. I wish I had tracked this the entire time.

Because I made minor changes to my tracking, I made a second chart for my tallies after 11:30 AM. This lead me to another interesting observation. Before 11:30, 36% of the women I saw were wearing a hijab. After 11:30, 49% of the women I saw were wearing a hijab. I would like to track another day to see if this trend holds. Either way, it was not quite the 60% I had estimated.

*I also may have been motivated by an "argument" that Craig and I had, yesterday, over whether it was appropriate for me to go out in leggings.

**If I repeat this experiment, I might choose a different location. I was not able to see the entire entrance and my view was hindered by an enormous column.

Jet Lag or Migraine

I woke early on Monday. The combination of the early morning call to prayer and my jet lag has not been pretty. I know that I will be able to sleep through the call to prayer when I've adjusted, but that time has not yet arrived. I settled in on my "window seat" with a book and my tea and watched the sun come up.

When Craig left for work, I had a busy day planned for myself in the apartment. I started laundry - a chore that takes a disproportionate amount of my time here due to the small machine and lack of a functioning dryer. I planned to write my blog and do some other things, but I felt like everything was strangely challenging.

I thought that I was still struggling with the jet lag. I alternated between thinking that I was tired and believing that I was starving. I had a headache that prevented me from reading or writing. I put this down to the combination of jet lag and possible dehydration. I drank more water and made tea, but I should have known better.

It wasn't until after lunch and a swim that I finally gave in to the idea that a nap might help. I hate taking naps before I'm fully adjusted to the time because it seems to do more harm than good. I tried the window seat but couldn't get comfortable. I curled up on one of the beds in our guest room, but didn't like that either. I finally went into our bedroom, closed the black out curtains, and crawled into bed with my tshirt over my eyes. Only in that moment, having gotten myself into complete darkness and near silence, did I realize that my problem was not jet lag, but a migraine.

It's hard to explain (and honestly, somewhat had to comprehend myself), the lengths of self-delusion that I will go to when I have a migraine, particularly when I am alone. In the presence of anyone else, or even with a commitment to go and meet someone, I will know that I am fighting a migraine.

But alone, I can engage in a series of things that mitigate the pain and complications just enough that I can convince myself it is not a migraine but something else. I will position myself in such a way to avoid the most direct light. I will avoid turning on lights out of sheer "laziness" and because there is plenty of light for me to see what I'm doing. I will stay motionless to avoid the dizziness and help mitigate the nausea. I'll decide that any neck pain I'm having comes from the uncomfortable place I've chosen to sit for so long. I'll avoid anything that requires concentration for any reason I can think of. Without even the mundane sounds of another person to upset me, I won't notice how quiet I am taking care to be.

At best, this means that I lose an entire day to the migraine instead of terminating it with my rescue meds. But my rescue meds put me out for the day anyway. No, the real problem is that my rescue meds don't work as well if I let the migraine set in before I take them.

So after spending Monday in a migraine haze, taking my rescue medicine after dinner and spending the evening and night in a medicine induced near-coma, I woke up in a post-migraine daze on Tuesday just to have the migraine come roaring back. Another pill and another day lost. It's almost evening on Wednesday and I'm only just recovering from the migraine hangover that follows most of my migraines.

I really should know better.

Back to the Sandbox (Craig's perspective)

[A guest post from Craig]

I was so eager to go home after nearly three months in the Middle East. I’d begun thinking about all the things I was looking forward to—the evening air cooled by the sea, Mexican food (REAL Mexican food!), our bed (and pillows and sheets!). Then, almost at the last minute, I was asked to stay an extra eight days. Laura went home (then on to Kansas with Dani) on our original date of May 16. I returned home May 24.

Laura was supposed to go to Kansas on the 24th with Dani, but with me arriving on that day we pushed her and Dani’s travels to Kansas about 36 hours so we’d have a couple evenings and a day overlap just to enjoy our time at home together. I landed on a Thursday afternoon, I took a day off and we had Friday together, then Laura and Dani flew out early Saturday morning, which left the weekend for me to relax and recuperate from my jet lag, which was heavy duty after three months in Abu Dhabi.

Going back to work the following Monday was easy enough, but I realized my heart wasn’t in it. I had had a really hard time leaving the team in Abu Dhabi, the work far from done, the project in the heat (literally and figuratively) of the action, the peak of activity. I felt I had abandoned them, a bit.

The Abu Dhabi team uses WeChat (a messaging app), broken down into attraction groups and other distinct teams. Each group is part of a team chat and a person can be on multiple groups and many chats. Given my role as Executive Creative Director, I’m on most chats. So when I’d wake up in the morning in Los Angeles there would be 80, 100, 120 chats waiting for me on my nightstand. There would be another dozen or more in the more private Google Hangouts (which were limited to Thinkwellians, and not the broader Project Delivery Team which includes vendors, general contractor, and client), and another few dozen project-specific emails. I would consume all of them, attempting to not get out of touch with what was going on.

Don’t get me wrong—I was very happy to be home. I had Mexican at least four times over three weeks. Laura and I went to our favorite sushi place a couple of times. We enjoyed the cool night air by opening our windows every evening and having a relaxing conversation on the deck. We slept in bliss (such bliss!) in our own bed (and with our own pillows, lying between our own sheets). And we saw friends, enjoyed cooking our favorite foods, and simply took it easy at home.

It was a nice “vacation” to go home for a little bit, but I’m glad to be back in Abu Dhabi. We have a monumental task ahead of us, but it’s coming together.

And, this time, we didn’t get stuck in Istanbul!

Back to the Routine

I managed to stay awake Saturday afternoon, mostly by playing Sims 4. Craig claims that he never fell asleep, but I will say that he spent a remarkable amount of time laying on the sofa with his eyes closed. When he decided that he was done "resting his eyes", we ran some errands which gave us both a bit of a second wind. That carried us about through dinner to a respectable bedtime.

Sunday was Craig's first real day back to work, as that's the first day of the work week here. I decided that I would make my first trek over to the mall. Craig had agreed on an amount that I might spend on things for the apartment that, while not absolutely necessary, would make this stay more enjoyable. As I've discussed before, the apartment has everything we really need, so this amounts to things like a lemon juicer, a wooden spoon and a plastic spatula. (For reasons we cannot comprehend, the apartment is furnished with some nonstick pans, but all metal cooking utensils.)

At 10 AM, it was 97 degrees out, with a real feel of 110. I braved the heat and headed out. Perhaps because I was expecting pure misery, my walk over to the mall was not as bad as I had feared. But inside the mall, I started shivering. Those who know me, know that I do not get cold. Perhaps the air conditioning is really powerful...or perhaps it was simply the abrupt change in temperature.

Because I had braved such temperatures to get to the mall, I decided I would stay awhile. I wandered through a LUSH store, which had very similar products to those back home. A few of the scents were different, I think, at least compared to the last time I looked in the States.

I also browsed the Sephora. While the Sephora in the Dubai mall was about "normal" sized to my recollection, this one was rather tiny in comparison to those in the States. They had one full wall of fragrances and what appeared to be the complete collection of Sephora brand basic makeup - foundation and such. But from other brands, they only carried eye makeup - eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, and more. In fact, I saw a range of brow products that I've never seen before - from eyebrow pomades to special brushes and other tools (granted, I don't spend that much time in Sephora, but how much makeup do you put on your eyebrows?).

Eventually, I decided that I would splurge and visit the pedicure place that I had gone to before. I was able to get right in and get my toenails painted, which was great. The only thing I didn't think about was how the lotion they put on would interact with my flip flops. So I slipped and slid my way down to Lulu to find a few cooking utensils and some groceries we had forgotten.

When I arrived at Lulu, it was just starting to get busy. There were still plenty of carts and I didn't have any trouble navigating the aisles (excepting that caused by my lotion covered shoes, that is). But I must have spent too much time comparing lemon juicers - as you would only expect in this store, the five different types were not actually displayed in the same location - because by the time I went to check out the lines were as long as I have seen. Given the number of school age children, either summer vacation had started or it was a school holiday for Eid.

Stepping outside with my bags, I discovered the true magnitude of my mistake with the pedicure. It had not gotten any cooler outside. The heat, combined with the lotion, made me fear losing my shoes with every step. And these temperatures do not create a place you want to lose a flipflop and step on the asphalt. Even after I was safely back in the hotel, I wondered if I should have gotten a taxi. In the future, I will at least wear sandals that have a heel strap!

I made dinner and Craig got home at a reasonable time to eat. We struggled a bit to stay awake. I gave in earlier than Craig. I haven't been able to shake waking up at the first call to prayer.

Adventures in Jet Lag

I did my best to stay up last night, managing to stay up until about 9:30. Even so, I woke up just after midnight, again at 1:30, again around 3:15, and one final time at the 4:02 call to prayer. This last time, I woke up so hungry that I knew I would not be able to fall asleep again.

I decided to get up and make a snack. I made my herbal tea, without caffeine, hoping that I would be able to go back to sleep. But neither the snack nor the tea made me sleepy and before long I heard Craig was up as well.

He was planning to go to work for a few hours this morning. Finding himself awake with no chance of going back to sleep, he decided to go in earlier than he had planned. I made him coffee and attempted to find him something to eat for breakfast. (He spent the week after I left eating the rest of his food, so more of my shelf stable goods were in our storage bins.)

I switched to my English breakfast tea and settled in on my window seat with my computer. I spent the morning writing blog posts and responding to emails related to my ancestry research. I've had such good luck with that here and making discoveries can be such a joy. I think there's something about knowing that everyone I am writing to is probably asleep that makes me more patient while waiting for a response. And we are planning a combined ancestry search and cruise trip with my parents next year, so I have a couple areas to focus my research.

Around 8:30, Craig texted complaining that he wasn't sure if he was hungry or wanted a nap. I told him that I felt the same but had decided I was hungry because that was something I could fix. I made myself some chicken alphabet soup. By the time it was ready, I wasn't even sure that I was hungry, but I ate it just in case.

I took a bath and got dressed. I felt like I was very busy this morning, but in retrospect, I don't think that I actually did that much.

At 11:00, Craig texted to say that he was on his way home. We debated whether I would change - I was wearing jeans and a tshirt - and I decided that I would just moments before the housekeeping staff came and changed my mind. They were remarkably quick, however, so I did end up changing before I went downstairs to meet Craig at the car.

I'm still not used to this new rental car. I hesitated some before going outside because I couldn't see Craig well enough to be sure that it was him and I didn't recognize the car. But also, have I mentioned the heat? It was hot when we left, but it's only hotter now. I really don't appreciate these temperatures.

Craig drove over to the mall. We had already discussed how his work schedule had destroyed our plan to go to Lulu earlier today. Traffic seemed lighter, but we refused to discuss it for fear of jinxing it. Instead, we discussed how hungry we were and how it felt like we had already been awake for an entire day and we should be going to dinner.

We hadn't discussed meals or made a real grocery list, so we decided to start that as we walked through the mall. Craig was adding things to the list and I had no idea where the Starbucks was, so I'll leave you to imagine how we looked walking through the mall.

I finally told Craig that I didn't know where the Starbucks was and I needed him to look up from his phone and help me find it. He looked up and exclaimed, "It's right here. Or this is where I thought it was."

It was not visible from where we stood. He pointed to a pastry shop, claiming it had been there before. I mentioned that this was the entrance I had used when walking over from the apartment and that particular pastry shop had always been there. I remembered there being a coffee shop around the corner, but I wasn't sure it was Starbucks. We walked around the corner to check - it was the Starbucks. Jet-lag has left the two of us wandering around like two people sharing half a brain.

We took Craig's coffee to the counter and asked them to grind it for a metal cone filter.  They started on that and then asked where we had gotten it because the packaging was unfamiliar. We had brought it from Los Angeles because the type Craig prefers isn't sold here. We decided to order coffee as well, hoping that the caffeine would help.

With the coffee in hand and something of a grocery list, we made our way back to Lulu. There were shopping carts available, which we took as a good sign (when it gets busy, they run out of carts and sometimes even baskets). We made our way through the grocery store as if we didn't have a list (we did) and had never been in this store before (we've been here many times) - two people, half a brain. We finally made our way to the checkout. The lines had gotten fairly long, but not as long as we've seen them in the past. Leaving, we had to push our way through crowds coming in and I noticed that they had run out of shopping carts. We had made it just in time!

We came home and debated whether we should have lunch or take a nap. We decided on lunch. We made up a plate of charcuterie and cheese:

Craig had even found grilling cheese! We decided against having wine with our meal because of the potential that it would put us both to sleep. Craig kept debating taking a nap. I am anti-nap because I haven't had good luck with naps and jet-lag here. No matter how many alarms I set, if I take a nap, my body decides it is night time and refuses to wake up.

I settled in to write this post while Craig was working on his computer. It's almost 3:00 and he's laying on the sofa doing his best impression of a person who is asleep. I refuse, so I'm going to try playing a game for awhile. Wish me luck!

Settling In - "Regulars"

We arrived in Abu Dhabi in the early morning hours on Friday. After checking into our hotel, getting room service, and unpacking enough to shower and get ready for bed, we ended up in bed around 4 AM - just after the first call to prayer, actually. Craig said that I could wake him if I woke up after 10 AM. Naturally, I first woke up just after 8 AM. But I was able to go back to sleep. When I finally woke up again, it was 11 AM and Craig was playing on his phone next to me.

We had planned to go over to the mall, primarily to go to Lulu for groceries. We also needed to stop at Starbucks because Craig brought whole bean coffee with him instead of ground coffee. Our goal had been to go over as early as possible because we know that the mall, and Lulu in particular, tends to get busier in the afternoons.

But we got a very slow start. We discovered that the coffee maker had not made the transfer from the office to our apartment, so I made instant coffee for Craig. I got a little distracted digging through boxes and unpacking. Generally, I think the jet lag was setting in.

We discussed getting a late breakfast or lunch at the mall, but the options weren't very appealing. Craig decided to walk over to Texas Chicken and get fried chicken for us. Meanwhile, I managed a shower and got dressed to go to the mall. After we ate, we gathered up the coffee and called the valet to bring up the car.

We had gotten a parking garage key when we checked in, but we'd already left the car with the valet. Craig has figured out the parking here and is, I think, happier with self-park than the valet. But we had checked in at the hotel, because the apartment doesn't have front desk staff at that time of day, and they don't allow self-park at the hotel.

When we got to the front desk of the apartments, the man on duty there said, "Mr. Craig, is this your car?" Craig and I both stared at the car outside, trying to figure out if it was, indeed, our car. We rented from the same company, but the car was predictably different. Craig gave him the valet ticket to confirm that it was our car before we got in. But we did remark that the front desk man had recognized Craig, even though we hadn't checked in there.

From the entrance where valet brings the car, we could see the mall. We'd left it too late; the mall was packed. Craig pulled out into the street and got in the left turn lane. As we made the turn, some cars next to us made left turns from the straight-only lanes (this is an ongoing source of frustration for Craig, for various reasons, in a number of situations). Craig managed to avoid being hit by people making illegal turns.

We avoided the taxi lane - taxis going into the mall cause an enormous crush on weekend afternoons. But even the lanes for the parking garage were hardly moving. We got into one of those and marveled at the crowds for a few minutes.

Suddenly, I looked at Craig and said, "Why are we here? You said we were going to JW Steakhouse for dinner! And we don't even have a coffee maker yet, so there's no point in getting this coffee ground! We should do this tomorrow, in the morning!"

Craig considered for a moment, but we were still making no progress toward the mall. He pulled out of the lane and back onto the street. We turned around and made our way back to the hotel. "Well, thanks for coming with me to move the car from valet to self park," he said as we parked the car in the garage.

We headed back to our apartment where we continued to unpack. We are making use of the closet in the second bedroom to store our luggage and the storage bins. I also made some small adjustments with the furniture and extras, moving things into the "spare bedroom" so that we have more room in ours. This apartment is just enough different from the last that I haven't found the perfect spot for everything yet.

I called for more hangers and for a water dispenser. Craig had some work to do, so I answered the door when the hangers arrived. Perhaps two minutes later, there was another knock. A housekeeper I recognized was standing there with the water dispenser. He smiled at me and said, "Welcome back!" (I think this is the same man who recognized that I had disappeared for the road trip with Court and the girls; one of them asked Craig where his wife had gone when I was away.)

After setting up the water dispenser in the corner, we chatted briefly about our return. During check in, I had been struck by the fact that we were checking in for 51 days. Our last trip was undoubtably longer, but that number jumped out at me. He left and I returned to unpacking.

With most of the unpacking finished, I had to interrupt Craig to get help moving the larger furniture. I wanted to sectional closer to the television. And I decided on a new location for the water dispenser. Then I wanted to move the table in the living room, so we would be able to both sit and view the television (as we like to do on occasion). 

Another small change for this trip - I brought along a roll of non-slip shelf lining. I put this everywhere at home because I like how it cushions things and keeps them from sliding around. I had meant to bring some back after the road trip, but it wasn't where I thought it would be. I did find it for this trip and tucked it into the suitcase, much to Craig's confusion. But when I rolled it out in the bathroom drawers, he immediately understood. One of our frustrations on the previous trip was that the bathroom drawers were so difficult to open that everything inside slammed to the back every time you managed to open them. Now, if you organize the drawer, everything stays were you put it. It really is the little things...

Craig called down to make reservations at the JW Steakhouse. This is one of the restaurants in the hotel and it probably is our favorite place to eat that does not require a taxi ride. (Butcher & Still, at the Four Seasons Hotel, is probably our favorite, but that requires a taxi.) As an added bonus, the hotel is attached to the apartments, so we don't even have to step outside to get there.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, we were recognized by nearly all the wait staff. The hostess knew we wanted the "it takes two" special, though she described the other current special to tempt us. (We've actually gotten this special on a day it wasn't offered, because it is such a regular order for us.) The waitress knew we wanted "it takes two," she knew we wanted the 500 g tenderloin divided as a 300 g steak for Craig and a 200 g steak for me, after a moment's thought she remembered that we both like our steak medium, she knew that Craig wanted a large bottle of sparkling water and that I wanted still water. Craig had only to remind her that I only wanted a small bottle. And we had to pick out our starters and sides, because we get different things each time.

It is unusual for us to be "regulars" anywhere. When we moved to Eagle Rock, one of Craig's stated goals was to become regulars someplace. But there are too many interesting places to try and Craig loves the variety. And at home, our schedule is too varied and Craig travels too much for us to go someplace even once a week. We are recognized at our favorite sushi place - but only by the owner, not the waitstaff; so there's never anyone to ask if we want "our usual" or anything like that.

But here, where we joke that even the best staff can only be 80% correct with anything, we have become regulars in just a few months. We are recognized by the staff at the hotel. We are recognized by everyone at the JW Steakhouse - all the way to remembering our food and drink preferences. 

Back to Abu Dhabi (Home Again, Home Again)

Packing for Abu Dhabi did not take long this time. We had a small collection of things on the desk in my craft room - primarily vitamins and specific toiletries we had ordered - waiting to be packed. And we had a small list of items we wanted to remember to bring with us. We had left two medium sized bags and Craig's carry on bag in Abu Dhabi, filled with clothing.

We had a few oversized toiletry items, so we packed my carry on bag to check. We packed Craig's international carry on bag (a tiny, four-wheeled spinner that meets international carry on size requirements) as an overnight bag in case we missed our connection in Istanbul again. My first packing attempt included a few extras, but those had to be removed to get the bag under the 7kg weight limit imposed by Turkish Airlines. With all the pill bottles and things, I had to pack a small duffle bag, which we checked as well. I hope that we will have used enough of those things that I can pack everything, including the duffle, into the suitcases for our return.

While Craig and I were busy preparing the house to leave, Mallarie brought over lunch from Spitz. She remarked upon how little we had packed for a two month trip. But, of course, we had left so much in Abu Dhabi that we didn't need to take much with us. After emptying the fridge and taking out the trash one last time, we called a Lyft to go to the airport.

We'd had some trouble checking in for our flight online (no great surprise there, in the four roundtrips we've taken, I don't think a single leg has allowed us to check in online without any problems) so we didn't have seats together for our flight to Istanbul. When we checked in at the airport, we were told to check at the gate for seats together. When we asked at the gate, we were told we should have done that during check in.

Turkish Airlines - where customer service is not really a thing.

After the typical (for Turkish Airlines) curfluffle of boarding, we were able to switch seats with another passenger so that we were able to sit together. Some highlights of Turkish Airlines service:

• Craig asked for champagne to celebrate our anniversary. (Yes, we spent our anniversary on a 13 hour flight, why do you ask?) You might have thought no one had ever asked for champagne before.
• The switch for the cabin lights must have been in an awkward location - there's no other explanation for how often the lights were dimmed, brought up, dimmed again, and changed...all before dinner service began.
• We "enjoyed" the longest dinner service I've ever experienced on a plane. Honestly, I don't know what was happening in the galley. Food kept appearing, but in far more courses that described in the menu. But drinks, even water, were nearly impossible to get.
• At some point in the middle of dinner, they suddenly decided to offer us more champagne. We had both switched to different drinks and they had already removed our glasses.
• But in the theme of removing glasses, my glass of port was not picked up until landing. The half filled glass sat between us while we slept, remained through breakfast service and clean up, and miraculously managed not to spill during some turbulence that woke me after I'd gone back to sleep.
• Upon landing, they announced that we should remain in our seats to allow a medical team to remove the "person having medical issues." But it soon became obvious that they wanted business class passengers to get off before they dealt with this medical issue, whatever that was. I can only hope they did manage that.
• Another passenger asked how far his gate was from our gate and was told "the ground crew will help you with that."
• Another passenger was hoping to make a tight connection to Berlin, but she was also told that "the ground crew will handle that."
• We didn't bother to ask about our tight connection - we merely hit the terminal at a run.

The ground crew provided no information about our flight or others. This is our third time making this particular connection - the first resulted in a 24 hour stay in Istanbul and I made it the second time because an employee took me back on the bus and drove me to another part of the airport. This time, we got off the bus and ran while trying to follow the signs. Luckily, we've now spent enough time in the Istanbul airport to make sense of the signs. Or maybe that's just me - the arrows aren't quite right, but I have figured them out to a certain degree.

As it turned out, we made it to our gate before boarding began. They were taking tickets, but the jetway wasn't actually open. We milled about for some time after having our tickets scanned, waiting for the door to open. 

Business class on this flight was practically empty - just us and one other lady. Perhaps because of this, the flight attendants took several "breaks" during dinner service. Or perhaps that's just the Turkish Airlines customer service we have come to expect. Oddly, they did not ask us for our choice of entrees before service began, but somehow they were able to serve hot entrees immediately after we made our selection. Lucky guess? Or had they heated up a few of each because they had extras?

Other than a touch of excitement during take off - we must have hit turbulence or a microburst, because the plane wobbled most distressingly just as we left the ground - the flight was uneventful. We did end up switching seats when my wine glass leapt off the tray and landed upright on the floor. The flight attendant stopped by to ask if everything was alright and did bring us a single wash cloth to deal with the spill. Then he suggested we move to another aisle because business class was so empty. It wasn't until some time later (Craig was asleep) that he finally returned to clean up any wine that hadn't evaporated.

We did not have high hopes of getting our checked bags in Abu Dhabi, given the tight connection in Istanbul, but we had to wait and see. Both our bags actually made it! So we collected our things and made our way to the rental car counter. With our bags in the car, we were on our way to our "temporary third home" - our apartment at the Marriott Downtown.

We arrived to find that we had already been checked in by someone from the office. He had also brought over the suitcases and storage containers left there. (Most likely because we arrived on a holiday weekend and this saved him having to go into the office the following day to meet us, but I don't appreciate the effort any less.) With all the suitcases and bins, it did appear that we were actually moving in here.

For reasons that are not entirely clear to us, we have a two bedroom apartment this time around. It is very similar to our previous apartment here, except that it's on the other side of the building. So I don't have a view of the mall and the busy intersection from my "window seat". But we do have more furniture, including a chaise longue in front of the window - so I didn't have to take apart the sectional to create my window seat. We've also got a table and chairs both in the living room area and in the kitchen. And, of course, we have a second bedroom with its own full bathroom, which will be great because we have guests coming a couple times during this trip. It'll be nice to offer them something more than a sofa and half-bath in the living room.

We ordered room service for our first meal here, because we had arrived at the apartment sometime after two a.m. Not being very hungry, we decided we would split an order of butter chicken. Being very thirsty and unsure when we would get a water dispenser, we ordered two liters of still water and one liter of sparkling water.

When our order arrived, Craig had just finished his shower (so the water was off, but he was hidden). The man took a long look around the apartment, taking in the fact that it is a two bedroom apartment, with enough suitcases and boxes for an entire family, then looking back at the single service on his cart. After a moment, he asked, "You are traveling alone?"

I could only laugh, though I did manage to tell him that my husband and I were planning to split the meal as we weren't that hungry. He set out the single set of silverware with one glass...and three liters of water. The rice and butter chicken are in serving containers, but they did not send up a plate. But, we have a full kitchen so we were able to easily make up for the lack.

I am a little disappointed, though, that I didn't think to order appropriately to provide certain "extras" that I had taken for granted in our last apartment. It will take a bit to collect such things again.

Travel Journal

Are you taking your children on a road trip or vacation this summer? My collection of printables will help you create the perfect travel journal for your kids!

You can start with my Printable Kids Travel Journal, also available in pink or blue. This includes a title page, a colorable map of the U.S. for tracking travel, a trip overview page, a trip planning or dreaming page, and two different options for daily journal pages.

You can add a fun activity pack (also available in pink or blue). This includes: (1) a colorable title page, (2) an A to Z puzzle that prompts your child to describe themselves using every letter in the alphabet, (3) an All About Me puzzle that guides your child to describe various aspects of their life, (4) A Few of my Favorite Things puzzle, which encourages your child to identify things they like (this is particularly fun to look back upon years later), (5) a page to draw or color your own puzzle, and (6) a variety of Family Puzzles (for four, five, and six person families), which encourages your child to identify various family members and each of their traits.

Add a few calendar pages (also in pink or blue). These monthly pages provide a place to mark important upcoming events or simply mark or color the progress of days.

Or you might consider a customized travel journal, created just for your trip! This option allows you to change writing prompts, create a custom title page, and so much more!

Make sure to check out my shop - PuzzlePrintables - for even more options and additions! Or use the links above to put together your perfect travel journal today!

Home Again - Kansas edition

After a week in Los Angeles, Dani and I were heading to Kansas. That, of course, is my second home. Dani and I had moved our flight so that we didn't miss Craig entirely. With our original schedule, we would have flown out Thursday morning when Craig arrived Thursday afternoon. Instead, we had a couple of days together before we went to Kansas.

My mom and my sister, Ann, picked us up at the airport. We had lunch together in Kansas City, then we dropped Ann and Dani off at their house. Mom and I made our way to her house, where Dave and family were waiting for us. I stayed one night at my mom's house before braving the construction dust and moving into my own house. After so many nights away from home, I just wanted my bed.

Craig and I, perhaps ridiculously, have the same bed in Los Angeles and Kansas. We recently found a perfect pillow* and Craig had sent one of those to the house in Kansas as well. We've fallen in love with the bamboo sheets my sister-in-law recommended, so Craig sent a set of those to the farmhouse while I was there. Now I only need to find the perfect comforter** solution and my bedroom will be finished.

Of course, the best part of visiting the farmhouse is that it is always Christmas there. In addition to the items Craig sent, I found a number of things we had ordered for the house after our last trip. (We have a habit of doing this - ordering the things we've missed just as we leave.) Given the length of time between trips, we often forget what we've ordered, so opening the boxes is something of a Christmas surprise every time.

The first surprise - a box cutting knife (shown here with the knife I had used to open all the boxes):

Next up, a small strainer (purpose still unclear).

Finally, a gift from friends:

I was thrilled to see the progress on my den turned playroom, though it isn't as close to finished as I would like. But mom and I went to Toys R Us, shopping for a birthday party, so I picked up a couple things on sale for my new playroom. It will have a lego theme, so I got this storage bin (you can also see the markers I picked up on sale, because, well...sale...markers...).

My trip was a little short, but it always feels that way. I was able to catch up with several friends, but I missed some others. There's never quite enough time for everything and everyone that I want to see. But we are going back for a longer stay in August, which I am very much looking forward to.

*The perfect pillow for Craig and I is, in fact, a single Casper pillow taken apart. Craig likes to sleep with only the inner pillow, while I prefer only the outer pillow.

**In Los Angeles, we switch between a summer-weight down comforter (for winter) and a light quilt (for summer). Given the difference in weather between Kansas and Los Angeles, I doubt the same solution will work both places.

Home Again - Los Angeles

My trip from Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles was about as uneventful as you might expect some thirty hours of travel to be. Craig dropped me off at the airport. Turkish Airlines provided the expected level of customer service (that is, primarily, figure it out yourself and take care of it yourself). The lounge in Istanbul was crowded when I arrived, but it cleared out some during my seven hour layover. A few highlights:

When we landed in Istanbul, the woman sitting across the aisle from me took off her seatbelt before the seatbelt light went off. We had not yet reached the gate; I could see that we were still some distance away. When the plane jolted forward to the gate, the woman literally fell out of her seat. We were in business class, so there was some actual legroom. And this lady fell completely out of her seat and ended up on the floor. I've never seen such a thing, but I guess there's a reason they tell you not to remove your seatbelt before the light goes out!

Walking through the airport in Istanbul, I noticed a number of people who seemed to be walking very quickly. While I vaguely wondered where they were off to in such a rush - "were they late for a flight? I thought the gates were in the other direction" - I suddenly realized they weren't pulling ahead of me. They weren't actually walking any faster than I was, as I meandered toward the lounge. This was my first moment of reverse culture shock - I had become so accustomed to how slowly most people walk in the UAE.

Arriving in Los Angeles, I had my second moment of reverse culture shock. So many of the people I saw outside the airport were practically naked! Perhaps we were having a warm spell or maybe everyone was dressed for summer vacation, but I haven't seen that much uncovered skin in months!

I also found myself a little bemused by the sameness of attire in Los Angeles. That might seem odd, if you imagine people in this region clothed in identical black abayas. But the reality in the UAE is actually far more varied. There are plenty of women in black abayas (and men in white dishdashas), but even among those there is as much variety in detail as you will see among jeans and t-shirts in the States.  More striking, though, is the variety of national costumes people wear in this region. There is similarity in the level of modesty, but not the color or even general shape of the clothing here. Perhaps it is merely familiarity with the clothing in the States, but everything looked so similar.

It was nice to be home, but the week ahead was quite full. Dani flew out to join me for a couple of concerts. We were able to go to a few of our favorite restaurants, as well. There were plenty of household chores to keep me busy - the mail, even with Mal going through it as it came in, was incredible. But I was able to find some time to catch up with friends and family before it was time for my next trip...

Adventures in Packing - Preparing to Leave

Craig and I had planned to leave Abu Dhabi on May 16 to spend about a month at home before returning. Because we would be coming back, we had planned to pack up the majority of our clothing and all of our household goods, to be stored for our return. On our return, however, we will need to be able to pack everything into suitcases for a trip home that includes a several day stop in Tel Aviv. I had some complicated suitcase-management planned.

Unfortunately, some schedule changes meant that Craig would be flying home a week after me. As a result, I would not be able to pack everything for storage. I would not even be here, with all the suitcases, to adjust packing at the last minute. Instead, I packed everything up, took pictures and made detailed lists, and upacked everything again. I left Craig with overly complicated directions to ensure that everything would work.

I packed his suitcase in layers, so he could see where everything would fit. Of course, after doing this, I realized that even if he couldn't make everything fit into the suitcase, he could toss any excess into the bins with the household goods. I had proved that everything would fit into the suitcase, so I was covered for our August trip.

 

Craig had purchased several storage bins for our household goods. I made a checklist of things to put in each bin, so that everything would be organized. Of course, to make this list I had to put all the things into each bin to make sure things would fit...and then I had to unpack everything again so that Craig wasn't forced to live out of boxes. Here's one side of the checklist:

Craig sent me this picture of everything packed up before taking it to storage (only the three suitcases will ultimately return with us):

I probably went to more work than was absolutely necessary. We weren't even gone for a month. And I have confidence in my ability to pack things when we finally return home.