Quick Check-In

Yep, we're still alive. And very busy, which I think is a good sign.

We had a wonderful holiday to Oman with my sister and Tyler. (See pics here.) Oman is very different from the UAE, although it's just next door. It's still a developing country, with a slower pace of life. We were shocked that its capital, Muscat, has no high-rises, and were quickly out viewing gorgeous canyons, cool crystal-blue wadis, mountains, and the seas of sand. Though we had the best time ever with Suzy and Tyler, we were happy to return home from the trip, and happy to be happy to return home from the trip, if you know what I mean! Reflecting on 2012, we've built a nice life here. We're on the road to recovery emotionally and financially since our whirlwind Peace Corps experience, and finally able to do things for ourselves, like save money and pay down student loans, diet in the New Year (no more all-you-eat-and-drink meals for the time being...), and do more simply fun stay-at-home projects like George Clooney movie marathons.

Tim has started at the naval college at physics faculty, and it sounds like he may also be able to teach a few classes at a very nearby (blocks from our flat...) women's college next month. In all ways things are looking much better for him than they did a few months back, when he was teaching tenth-grade maths.

And life continues onward...I'm participating in a conference in Muscat in a few weeks, and we're already planning holidays for the summer, the next time we get a chunk of time off. Life is good.

2011 was a tough year for us, no doubt, but of course we weren't the only ones. Hope life similarly continues to improve for our friends and family in 2012!

More American than America

I've never been a huge Thanksgiving fan, owing in part to the celebration of turkey, which I don't eat. However this year, we have attended/will attend at least 2 Thanksgiving parties--and bring the green bean casserole and cranberry sauce. And I've heard of 2 more, pending confirmation.

Here, such a holiday is an excuse to visit with friends and family--none of our parties here for Thanksgiving are exclusively American events. My first Thanksgiving out of the country was in England, where the Americans of Cambridge had a special meal. British cuisine being what it is, I remember being fairly unimpressed, especially when combined with Americans in Cambridge being as they are (that is, snotty...not to crudely stereotype--of course I did have some great friends among Americans).

In Peace Corps in South Africa we had one sanctioned Thanksgiving party our first year, which was nicer than I expected it to be. And last year, we had KFC (known locally as "Kentucky") with our host family, seeing the day as fantastic excuse to treat the people who looked after us and sheltered us.

Although Ramadan was a huge deal here, fortunately December is also a thorough holiday season in Abu Dhabi as well. National Day (which we think very appropriately named) is on December 2. The United Arab Emirates celebrates 40 years as a modern nation-state this December, and just as in the states, nationalistic junk is on sale everywhere, and it's great fun. The UAE flag colors are red, green, white, and black, which means that everything looks very Christmas-y around town, with neon red, green, and white lights decorating buildings all over. We're also looking forward to the day itself, which we expect to be celebrated with a parade along the beach front of fancy cars suitably bedazzled, horrendous traffic, silly string, and related mayhem.

Being an avid explorer of nationalism wherever I go, I can't help but pause in the grocery store at the cowboy hats striped in red, green, and white, and scarves and shawls embroidered with images of the ruler of the UAE today, and/or the founder/father of the country, the late Sheikh Zayed. However, recently the Christmas trees in the same aisle also caught my eye. Though we passed by the gold metallic reindeer statues and neon pink metallic pine trees, we couldn't help but pick up a 5-foot green tree, along with plenty of ornaments and lights. We decorated our first Christmas tree together this week, which was great fun.

While we will be celebrating the winter holidays in the Middle East this year, we still feel like we have some of the best parts of American culture available to us in Abu Dhabi, including friends, turkey, cranberries, and family (my sister is coming!)...but no miserable weather--only sunny skies and moderate temperatures! Also unlike in the past, we have proper mobile phone service and fast internet for fairly hassle-free birthday calls, chats, and Skypes. Have fun and be in touch over the break. We'll be thinking of you.

The Disappearing Blog

Last month was the first month is over 2 years that we didn't post anything. I think it's fair to say that in the nearly 5 months we've lived in Abu Dhabi, blogging has become less of a priority.

There are a number of reasons for this.

For one, when we were in Peace Corps, we saw blogging as an important part of our work, because one of the major goals of the Peace Corps is to share with Americans the cultures and lifestyles in foreign lands. It was our job, in a sense, to share our daily lives, or what could be said of some general interest about our daily lives, with "the folks back home." Turns out our careers in Abu Dhabi don't prioritize cross-cultural or international understanding in quite the same way.

Another reason is that we are busier, and less lonely. We missed friends and family back home very badly in South Africa, because America had been our only home before. Also, as the only white people for some 5 miles in any direction in a fairly homogeneous Zulu-speaking black South-Africa context, we missed communicating complex thoughts in English day-to-day, which we couldn't do "in real life." Add to this that social life sort of stops after 5 pm in the village, and that we couldn't afford to do anything on a regular basis but sit at home....blogging was actually a social activity for us there, which is hard to imagine in many situations.

Finally, we just don't have the time now. Tim and I are both working 40 hours per week (and me, often much more outside of normal office hours...). Plus, the "home" we look back on today is as much a virtual network today of Peace Corps Volunteers and friends and family everywhere then a physical community we are trying to stay in contact with. Our "home" is the internet in a weird way now. When people here ask us where "home" is, we find ourselves hard-pressed to give any kind of succinct answer. South Africa has to come up. Then, Oregon, and California. But what about Illinois? And Washington?

On the plus side in all of this, is that we have much more of a social network here, day to day, than we had in South Africa, which also occupies our spare time more than it did in South Africa. We have friends! Yay! Not all of them are work colleagues, but many are. As in America, the sky is the limit now for us as far as socializing goes, so we just don't find ourselves sitting at home, praying for emails after writing blogs, the way we kind of did in South Africa.

Finally, we don't have as much to blog about. Our life is very much like any grown-up life in America, or at least within certain demographic and geographic parameters. We wake up, take showers, eat cereal and drink coffee, go to work, come home, eat dinner either out or using our kitchen with normal grocery-store food...what's to share? Sure, it was really freaking unbelievable hot in summer, and the norms here are Muslim, rather than Christian. There are some things that do set us apart from the folks back home, but we now find ourselves too busy to prioritize sharing them, especially since there aren't that many.

Tim is overdue for blogs about all the touristic fun he had with our Peace Corps friend Trevor last month, and we also enjoyed a great time with Katie and Emily from England last month. We still need to sell you a trip to Abu Dhabi for 2012, etc. Not to mention that Tim has a job now! Teaching math! But working full-time in normal grown-up jobs and blogging frequently just don't go hand-in-hand, so I guess he/we'll get to all that when we're able.

In the meantime, rest assured that life is good for us in Abu Dhabi, and be in touch. Stay on Facebook, and connect to us on chat, that's still our best bet. Or make a Skype date. Write an email, keep us posted on things. We still miss you! Just not as horribly and pathetically as we did when we were lowly (poor, and depressed) Peace Corps Volunteers.