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Published: November 11th 2013
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Package
My incredible parents and sister sent me a package with peanut butter, variety of pretzels, movies, maple syrup, bisquick, and some other goodies!!! After the dreadful last few weeks of work, I was looking forward to taking a break in Dubai. I'd been promising friends that I'd come visit and had to keep postponing because I was working such crazy hours.
I got in Wednesday night and headed to the office on thursday to meet with my manager. I am now officially the Engineering Manager of our Qatar branch! Woohoo!!!! Now, I just need to finalize that in writing... I also got to see a bunch of my old coworkers who I almost never get to see or even talk to anymore. I miss a lot of these people, but I do like the atmosphere of our dirty old office in Qatar better.
I was a little bummed because I was in Dubai for almost four days and plans with my friends never really materialized. I guess things have just moved on. It makes it easier for me actually, so that when I do come to Dubai now, I can spend my time relaxing there.
I always have time for Jamie though and vice versa! That's all I need. So, thursday night and friday morning I had the place to myself.
Italian Festival
more like Italian tasting I was able to sleep in, then took myself to the Mall of the Emirates for my favorite thing: early VIP movie! I watched the new Thor movie and just enjoyed my free time. I did some of my usual errands, such as banking, and headed back to the apartment. She and Addi came in the early afternoon, he having run a 10k that morning (in great time too!).
We relaxed for a while then headed back to the MOE for yet another movie. Hahaha! I had seen Ender's Game and was not overly impressed, but I love the book and Jamie was looking forward to seeing the movie. I think she felt the way I did - they didn't do anything wrong in the movie per say, but the book was just sooooo much better. I think it is one of those books that just cannot translate well visually - it is all about the inner struggles of Ender. Before the movie however, we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. The food was ok (their salads are pretty good), but we splurged on two big pieces of two types of peanut butter cheesecake... We were all unbuttoning our pants
Westin
looks like a gorgeous hotel for the movie... But I do love this place at the MOE - it looks right out on the indoor ski slope. I said next time I come to Dubai, I want to go to one of the water parks, then ski later that day. Southern California always brags about being able to surf and ski in the same day - well, so can we and we're in the desert!!! :p
The next day, Jamie and I took some bikes to be fixed and went grocery shopping. There was an Italian festival at the Westin and Jamie was looking forward to going later to get some good ingredients, then she was planning to cook a big Italian meal. After the preliminary shopping, we went home, grabbed Addi and headed to the festival. What. A. Bust. I was so disappointed for Jamie. She said that they advertised it as a "Market", but when we got there it was basically a taste test with wines. It looked nice actually, but it ruined our plans for the evening (she had invited a couple of people over). We debated whether or not to stay, but decided to ultimately just return to the store
Westin
pretty resort area for the remaining supplies and go home. I'm glad we did. It's so funny how hard it is to find the little things here sometimes, like it was almost impossible to get lasagna noodles; we found some but they were not the same and she worried about how it would cook. Ultimately, the dinner was fabulous. Fabulous. We had tomato caprese salad, lasagna, garlic bread, and wine, with a chilled berry pie for dessert. So friggin good.
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