Florence

If it were up to me (Jill) - we wouldn't have left Venice. I loved it there. But of course after our 2 day stay it was onto Florence and endless Renaissance art. We took a 2 hour train ride straight from Venice to Florence and from there walked to our hotel, Hotel Alessandra. The hotel was situated a few floors up in a row house type building. When we walked through the doors we were greeted by Monti, quite possibly the nicest hotel concierge EVER. Brian mentioned that it was our (belated) honeymoon and Monti was quick to upgrade our room and promise us a special surprise in our room. We unloaded our bags in our room with a view of the river and were pleased to see that the room and bathroom were triple the size of our room in Venice. YAY!! After a few minutes in the room, Monti came in with a small bottle of champagne and a nice Firenze postcard signed by the hotel staff. It was very sweet and Monti made it clear that the champagne was for "sexy, sexy" time…..nice.

After enjoying our champagne we ventured out to our first museum, Accademia. This is the museum where Michelangelo's David was located. After looking at it, nothing much else in the museum measured up so we weren't there for very long. The David was much larger that we both expected measuring around 20 ft tall (on the pedestal). The details of the sculpture were pretty impressive, you could see the veins in his arms, the bones in his hands and of course….the family jewels.

From Accademia we walked to Ponte Vecchio, a large bridge that links the the north and south sides of Florence. Its mostly known for the large amounts of gold shops lining the bridge. There is a well-known tradition of putting a pad lock on the bridge to ensure your return to Florence. There were pad locks all over the place! After walking across Ponte Vecchio, we made our way to Pitti Palace.

Pitti Palace is the largest of the city's palaces and is known for the artwork it houses and the Boboli Gardens located behind the palace. One of Florence's longest ruling families, the Medici's lived here for a very long time and acquired much of the artwork in the palace. From the front, it definitely looked more like a fortress than a palace. The walls were plain, but intimidating and you have to walk up a large gravel hill to enter. The collection of artwork was impressive, but the Boboli Gardens were much more memorable. We got some wonderful panoramic shots of Florence from the top of the grounds. We enjoyed walking around and admiring the sculptures and beautifully landscaped areas.

Monti (aka best concierge ever) had recommended a restaurant near Pitti Palace to try for dinner. We took his advice and headed to 4 Leoni (4 Lions). We enjoyed some great seafood, 2 liters of wine and met a nice couple from California. We also saw pictures of some celebrities who visited the restaurant such as Dustin Hoffman and Gary Busey (sp?). Our 2 liters of wine set us up for a nice stroll home, but along the way Jill decided we needed to have a little wine bar crawl. Not a good idea….
At our first stop we enjoyed a glass of Chianti each and watched the season finale of House in Italian. We also began taking pictures which would provide the only way we could recollect the evening come the following morning. Here's what we remember, kind of…we may have stopped at 2 more wine bars, where we may have had spumante and a chocolate dessert (Brian recalls the spumante and Jill had remnants of chocolate on her fingers the next morning.) We both remember Jill jumping from some steps and falling on her butt. The pictures tell us that Brian kissed a bronze boar in one of the piazzas, Jill got a rose from some random American tourist and we had someone take a picture of us together (see above).

Florence day 2 = hangovers…yuck.
We miss breakfast, which is free with the room. Those of you who know Brian well know that this did not make him happy and was not an ideal way to start our day. After a quick stop at a coffee shop we made our way to the Duomo. The Duomo is the largest dome built during the Renaissance period. It was here that Brian informed me we would be climbing the 463 steps to the top of the dome. Luckily the line was short and it was relatively cool out. The steps to the top varied from spiral, narrow and uneven to straight and steep. At some parts the walls seemed to close in making it hard to navigate and coordinate with people coming from the opposite direction. We were both happy and almost hangover free once we reached the top. As grumpy as I was about the whole thing it was well worth the climb, as we got some great pictures of Florence (and had a mild sense of accomplishment for the day :) . After descending down the steps we waited in a short line to walk through the Duomo's ground level (church). Like many of the churches we'd seen so far it was beautiful.

We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to the nearby Duomo museum. This museum had mostly sculptures and pieces of the Duomo that had been removed from the outside of the building. Lots of cool artifacts and artworks to see! Next we planned on going to the Medici chapels; known for the large collection of relics it houses (relics are preserved dead bones of famous religious people throughout history). We walked all the way across town and realized we didn't have enough cash to get in (only 3 Euro short)!

Cue what we have termed the ATM debacle. (short backstory here -We can only withdraw a certain amount of cash each day, having int'l cards. We tried an ATM earlier in the morning (at Deutsche Bank) with no luck. The ATM sounded like it counted our cash, but nothing came out of the machine. We didn't think anything of it until we needed to get cash after being short at Medici chapels) So…ATM stop #1 - the machine tells us we cannot withdraw money using an International card. We walk 10 minutes to find another machine. ATM stop #2 - the machine tells us we have already withdrawn our daily limit. This is news to us since we have no cash. Again, those of you who know Brian probably know how he reacted to this. (read as punching machine, cussing, and general disgust.) We end up spending about an hour on the phone with our bank resolving the problem, thus missing the opportunity to see Medici chapels. Instead we got some gelato and went to the Galileo Museum of Science (for Jill = BORING). But it made Brian happy so all is well :). One of the highlights of the museum was seeing Galileo's finger. Afterwards we enjoyed a quiet (wine free) dinner and called it a night.

Florence Day 3
We make breakfast - yay!! First stop is the Medici chapels. We see a ton of weird relics including an entire hand of some important dead guy. We also saw some teeth, femur bones, ribs, vertebrae, and other odd stuff. Then it was off to another museum - the Bargello. This all sculpture museum houses most of Donatello's works. We remember it more for the insane amount of Vespas parked outside the exit (see picture below).

Next stop was the Church of Santa Croce. Compared to the other churches we'd seen this church didn't look like much from the outside. However, once we entered we realized the importance of the church due to the tombs inside it. Santa Croce houses the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, Dante, Machiavelli, Charlotte Napoleon Bonaparte, and Florence Nightengale. A lot of the tombs were constructed of beautiful marble with detailed sculptures and inscriptions on them. Definitely worth the visit. Our last stop in Florence was the Uffizi museum. This has got to be the largest, most well-known museum in Florence. We spent over 2 hours looking at the best paintings and sculptures created by Italian artists during the Renaissance.

All in all this visit was heavy on religious art and history, but definitely worth it.

Venice

Our flight left at 2 AM out of Abu Dhabi on 23 July, and after a quick jump through security, we were on board the plane and ready to experience our first Etihad flight in coach (instead of the usual business or first class we’ve gotten accustomed to).  The seats were somewhat comfortable (better than domestic coach in the States), but the temperature on the plane while waiting on the tarmac was unbearable.  The cabin doors were open, no air-conditioning, and it was a sweltering 100 degrees at 2 AM.  Let’s just say we were happy to take off.   The rest of the 6 hour flight was smooth and uneventful.  Jill had no problem sleeping, while I had serious back and neck issues and lack of leg room (yes, we are very spoiled).

We arrived in Malpensa airport outside of Milan, and immediately caught our first train in Italy to Milan.  We both felt a little overwhelmed.  Once in Milan, we caught a cab to another train station that would take us to Venice.  Of course, 30 minutes into the 18-day trip, Brian’s backpack broke.  Not a huge deal but enough to make us wonder if buying cheap knock off North Face bags for the trip was a good idea. 

The train ride from Milan to Venice was pleasant and about 2 ½ hours long.  Once we arrived in Venice, it was on

The first thing we needed to figure out, was how to use the Vaparetto taxis (those are the water taxis that service all of Venice).  After a few minutes of Brian huffing and puffing and fighting all of the other tourists, we found a self-service station, got our tickets, and boarded the taxi.  Venice is truly a city unlike any other with boats and walking being the only method of transportation.  They even have brown UPS boats, trash boats, fire boats, and of course the quintessential Gondolas. 

Our hotel was conveniently situated right down the street from Rialto Bridge and very near San Marco square where the famous San Marco Basilica, Doge’s Palace, and museums are located.  Brian had been reading up on all of these places in Rick Steves’ books, so we knew (or at least thought we knew) what we were getting into.  Hotel Centauro was a very nice, but quaint, hotel, and the staff was extremely friendly and welcoming.  Our room was small but comfortable, with the only surprise being the shower, which was about 1 ½ feet by 1 ½ feet (no this is not an exaggeration).  Jill could barely fit in the thing, and you can imagine how I did

After grabbing a quick bite to eat (and an extremely large beer), we set off to San Marco square and began the sight seeing.  We started by going up in the Campanile, which is the very large tower that provides a wonderful view of all of Venice.  After snapping some awesome photos, we proceeded to visit the Correr Museum which was OK but forgettable.  After Correr, we walked across the Piazza and headed into Doge’s Palace.  This is where all of the Doges of Venice (kind of like the President) lived for many years.  This was a very cool place.  Aside from seeing how the Doge lived and all of the artwork in the Palace, we also got to see an inside view of the prison that is attached to the Palace as well as walk through the famous “Bridge of Sighs”.  People who were condemned to life in prison, must walk through this tunnel to the prison, where they could catch one last glimpse of Venice and the Piazza before they were locked away for good, hence the name.  Also, Brian enjoyed this for a much simpler fact that the video he has been playing has a few scenes from here in it.  I believe his quote was “Look Babe, I killed one of the Doges right over there last week”.  One interesting thing that happened while in the Palace was that the skies opened up and it poured buckets for about 15 minutes.  While those back home are saying, “Who cares”, we were SO happy to see rain since it’s been forever. 

That night, we decided to hire a Gondolier to take us on a nice tour through the Grand Canal, under Rialto Bridge, and through many of the local canals in Venice.  At one point, Brian had to move to the front of the gondola, and both of us had to lean to one side to get under one of the bridges.  Needless to say this was a highlight of ours in Venice.  Just watching the ordered chaos of gondoliers and Vaparettos avoiding each other is a sight to see.  Our gondolier was very informative and gave us lots of good facts about Venice. 

The next day, we started a very long walk over Rialto, through the local fish market, and to Frari Church.  Frari Church was interesting because of the artwork, but also it has the tomb of Titian, who was a very famous Venetian painter during the Renaissance.  Unfortunately, like many of the places during this trip, no pictures were allowed inside.  After the church we visited the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, which was an amazing building.  Another very important painter from Venice, Tintoretto, was commissioned to paint the entire inside of this building.  He spent 24 years of his life painting 50 scenes from the history of Christianity throughout the building.

After the Scuola, we walked through town to the Academia, which is the famous art museum in Venice.  Again, lots of paintings, very cool, but we both started realizing we might get a bit bored with Renaissance paintings for one simple fact.  Every painter basically painted his own interpretation of the 8 scenes depicting the life of Christ.  After seeing the 200th version of Mary ascending into Heaven, or Madonna and Bambino, you get a bit glazey-eyed.  But, it is important history and we both appreciated seeing it all. 

From Academia, we proceeded to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which we were both excited to see since it wouldn’t be the same stuff we’d been seeing for two days.  While the collection was cool since it was actually her house and she is buried in the back yard, Jill and I realized very quickly that modern art is not our forte.  There were a couple of neat Picassos, and one or two Dalis, but most of the art was a paint splattering that looked like someone took a brush and flung it at the canvas.  Slap a couple of neat words on it like “Dog sitting under a tree eating an apple while wearing a hat” and you got yourself a masterpiece

Last stop was the Basilica of San Marco, which was incredible!  This was the first time Rick Steves paid off.  In the book, he mentions a way of skipping the line (which was about 2 hours long) just by checking your bag first at a nearby church, and walking through past the guard.  It worked like a charm and all of the suckers standing in line had a priceless look on their faces   The Basilica was very cool.  Inside the entire ceiling is decorated in tiny mosaics that cover what is essentially the size of a football field.  It’s hard to describe it in words but it was definitely everything we thought it would be.  This would be the church to set the bar for the remaining churches we would be visiting in Italy, and it was set very high!

We decided to cap off the evening by walking around, and sitting in the Piazza drinking wine and listening to a live band play.  It just happened to also be the same night that Norah Jones was holding a concert there in the square so we got to listen to some of that as well.  What a way to end such a wonderful trip to the most unique city either one of us has seen. 

Venice, you are now on the top of our list of places we would gladly go back to if given the chance. 

Our Mazda is for sale!

Just a quick note if anyone knows of someone in the market for a great new car.  We recently put our 2008 Mazda 3 Grand Touring up for sale through Cars.com.  Here is the link to the listing - http://www.cars.com/go/search/fsbo_search.jsp?affiliateadid=4971669&affiliate=national

The car is in great shape - and we are willing to discuss the price (is listed for $16K or best offer).
Please feel free to forward the info onto anyone who you know may be interested.  The car is being stored at Brian's mom's place in Westminster.  Feel free to contact us via email if there are any questions.

Thanks!

My month at BISAD and other updates :)

We have been long overdue for a blog update since our return from the States last month.  Sorry!!

Some of you know that while I was back in the states I was contacted by a private British school in Abu Dhabi about possibly doing some supply (British version of substitute) work in June.  I had interviewed with the school's head of Foundation Stages (ages 3-5) before I left for the States and was hoping that it might lead to a job this coming fall.  Initially I was asked to work 2 days in mid-June to fill in for teachers who would be out for professional development.  Fortunately for me, while I was gone a teacher in one of the FS2 (4 & 5 yr olds) classrooms decided to up and quit (I've heard numerous stories of how this all went down from different staff at the school and am not sure what "really" happened and thus won't bore you with the details.) Bad situation for the teacher, but good news for me because I was asked to fill in from June 6 (when we returned from US) until the end of the term on June 30.  After spending so much quality time with all of our friends and family I was not exactly excited to return to Abu Dhabi, but getting this teaching gig, even if only for a month, was just what I needed to motivate me to come back and get back to our life overseas.

I had no idea what to expect on my first day and was both nervous and excited to finally have the chance to run my own classroom.  I should mention too that before I came back to Abu Dhabi I had received a class list, from which I learned I would have 19 students, none of which were American and (according to the sheet) 1/3 of which did not speak any English...yikes!  Luckily for me, every child did speak English fairly fluently.  It was so cool to hear the boys and girls talk with British, Aussie, and numerous other accents.  I couldn't get enough of it!!  However, I learned very quickly that it is INCREDIBLY difficult to come into a classroom at the very end of the year and try and establish routines with a group of children who had gone through 3 different teachers throughout the school year.  Yes, you read that correctly - 3 teachers!!!  All throughout my first day I had staff and parents telling me, "Your class is such a lovely group of children!"  (My initial thought was - yeah right - how bad are these kids that they've driven away 3 teachers in one year?!?!).  Turns out, those staff and parents were right.  All in all they were a great group of kids - they just had a very tough year filled with lots of changes.  I won't go through the gory details of my 20 days of teaching, but I can say that it was definitely a great experience.  I had some good times, some bad times, some really frustrating times (which Brian can attest to) but it felt great to finally put my Master's degree to use.

Some of the highlights were: getting to take part in the FS2 graduation ceremony (similar to when American's "graduate" from kindergarten to 1st grade) which took place at Abu Dhabi University, meeting some great co-workers who I got to spend some time with outside of the classroom, and having the children being so nervous and apprehensive of trying to learn how to say "Mrs. Bartholomew" and by the end of the 20 days each one would come in and greet me in the morning with a "Good morning Mrs. Barfolomew (they had trouble with the "th" sound :).
The Lowlights:  learning a little about the politics of private school, seeing the reality of how absent some parents are from their child's schooling, and having to say goodbye to the kids after just getting to really know them and vice-a-versa. 

Unfortunately, I'm still not sure I have a job in the fall.  This particular school is a brand new school and this was its first year.  I heard plenty about the difficulties of the first year and it seems that the school is still working out some kinks.  In order to be hired as a full-time teacher my VISA has to be approved by the Abu Dhabi Education Council, which can take a very long time.  The council has been processing my paperwork since I began in June, and there is still no word on it.  I've been told that new requirements may have been put in place that require any person seeking to get a teaching VISA to have at least 2 years experience (in addition to a degree in Education and a certification).  If this is the case then I am SOL, but am hopeful that it's just a rumor or there is something I can do to get around the required experience.  In the meantime I am continuing to apply to schools around Abu Dhabi and hope to have some kind of job working with children when school starts back up in September.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Since school has ended I've been back to my normal domesticated duties and spending quality time with Tank. I bother our friends/neighbors Jess and Rhonda a lot as we enjoy making group trips to the grocery stores.  It is ridiculously hot here so we don't get outside too much unless it's to drive to somewhere that is air-conditioned. 

Brian recently joined a 4x4 club so that he can take his toy (the Jeep) out and learn how to SAFELY drive in the sand dunes.  His first venture is this weekend - wish him luck!! (hopefully I don't worry too much while he is gone).

Our most exciting news is that we are gearing up for our long-awaited trip to Italy!  We leave on Friday July 23 and will be traveling throughout the country for 18 days.  Here is our schedule:

July 23 - fly into Milan
July 23, 24 - Venice
July 25, 26, 27 - Florence
July 28 - Pompeii
July 29, 30, 31 Aug 1, 2 - Rome
August 3, 4 - Tuscany
August 5, 6, 7 - Cinque Terre
August 8, 9 - Milan
we fly back to Abu Dhabi on August 9th.

I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures and experiences to share when we get back.  We recently purchased a new camera so we can catch some great shots of all the places we visit.  Thanks to Jess and Andre who have graciously agreed to house Tank while we are gone.  He and their dog, Pikey, have become great doggie friends :) 

Finally, we want to congratulate some family and friends who have big things happening while we are in Italy.  Brian's cousin Brooke and her fiance Chance will be tying the knot on July 24th and my good friend Abby and her fiance Rob will get hitched on August 7th!  We are so sad to be missing these big events, but wish both couples all the happiness in the world and can't wait to see pictures of what we know will be two beautiful weddings!

lots of love,
Jill, Brian and Tank.

Easter, FedEx, and April happenings

Hey ya'll,

Brian and I agreed that we need to try a bit harder to keep this blog up to date, so I thought I'd fill you in on some events from the past month or so....

   Some of you who have facebook accounts might have seen some of the pictures I posted from our Easter brunch.  For those of you who haven't seen the pictures (with captions that explained our experience) let me fill you in.  Living in a country where Islam is the national religion, I figured there would not be much in the way of Easter celebrations over here.  Turns out I was wrong.  Because around 86% of the population is expats, a lot of the hotels, restaurants and grocery stores had lots of stuff to offer regarding the Christian holiday.  The grocery stores were packed with chocolate Easter bunnies, Cadbury eggs (not so good for me because I will eat them ALL) and other goodies.  One of the free publications in Abu Dhabi, called Abu Dhabi week, published listings of numerous hotels that were offering Easter Brunch packages, many of which included Easter themed festivities for kids.  A friend invited us along to Easter Brunch at the Yas hotel - one of Abu Dhabi's "world's first" since it has an F1 race track running through it.  I convinced Brian to take a longer than normal lunch break (since Easter Sunday is a workday for him) and meet us for brunch.  Ohhh man was it worth it.  The food was absolutely spectacular!  The best for me was the desserts of course; complete with a chocolate fountain - YUM!
   In addition to brunch the hotel also offered face painting,  egg painting, a balloon artist, an Easter egg hunt hosted by the Easter Bunny (aka Bugs Bunny) along with some candy and small toys.  It was really nice to see so many activities for kids, and the hotel staff were extremely nice and accommodating with all the kids (particularly with the two girls in our brunch group).  The wait staff would escort the girls to the face painting area, balloon artist, offer to clean them up after enjoying the chocolate fountain, etc.  It was pretty funny to see the unlucky employee walking around in a Bugs Bunny costume, but you had to give them an "A" for effort I guess.
   Then came time for the Easter egg hunt... Growing up I can remember having Easter egg hunts in our back yard with all the cousins.  My dad and my uncles would go out and hide the eggs while we were sequestered in the house with the curtains drawn and my mom and aunts and grandma keeping watch.  Once given the signal we raced outside with one single objective - to find as many eggs as possible.  Afterwards we came back inside and got to open up all the brightly colored plastic eggs and see what we got.  It was awesome!!  Well...lets just say I felt bad for the 30-40 kids who participated in the Easter Egg hunt at Yas Hotel.  Before beginning, the staff informed the kids that only 22 eggs were hidden and the kids who found an egg would get a prize (or so we thought) - right away we knew this was bad news.  The egg to child ratio was waaaaay off, which I'm sure set a red flag off for parents near by who knew their child (like any) was going to be VERY upset if they didn't find an egg.  Oh dear....  So the kids were told the area in which the eggs were hidden and then sent off on their search.  I decided that with such horrible odds, I was going to help Ashli and Caitlin, the two girls (ages 5 and 6) that we were with.  After a few minutes Caitlin spotted a white egg and took off after it (with me screaming and jumping for her to run faster before a boy nearby spotted "her" egg).  You could imagine my confusion when she showed me that what she picked up was a REAL egg.  Who uses real eggs for an Easter egg hunt?!?!  Anyway she snatched it up and we set off to find one for her sister.  After a few more minutes the staff announced that all of the eggs had been found...no egg for Ashli :(  We figured at least Caitlin would get a prize, and her mom told her she needed to share with her younger sister.  Fair enough.  NOT SO MUCH.  Turns out that each of the 22 REAL eggs had a number written on it; 1, 2, 3, or 4.  Any child with a 1, 2, or 3 on their egg got a prize.  Any child with a 4 on their egg got squat.  Guess what number was on Caitlin's egg....Easter egg hunt FAIL!!!  I felt so bad for the girls - all excited about an Easter egg hunt and they left empty handed.  Luckily their mom had planned an Easter egg hunt at their house that afternoon for just the two of them so they still got to find some of the classic brightly colored plastic eggs with goodies tucked inside.  Maybe next year we will avoid the Easter egg hunts and just enjoy more chocolate fountain?

   All in all Easter wasn't so bad, just another new experience out here in Abu Dhabi.  A few days later i had another new (and pleasant) experience, much to my surprise.  One of the biggest pains to living out here, especially for me right now has been dealing with mail.  This is because I had been waiting for the arrival of official copies of my transcripts that I needed to submit to the state of MD in order to obtain my official teaching certificate.  The whole process took way longer than i would have cared for (another story in itself).  Anyway after I received my transcripts I had to turn around and send them back to the states for processing (electronic copies were not allowed...ugh!).  Sending anything via UAE mail to the states takes at least 3 weeks - not an option for me with such important material.  So I decided that I was going to pay to Fedex all my documents directly to the State of Maryland's certification dept.  Now I have absolutely NOTHING against Fedex or other shipping company employees, however, sometimes going to their locations to ship things can be a nightmare (long lines, disgruntled customers, unhappy employees, lost packages, etc. etc.).  Considering what country I was in and the fact that there are only 2 Fedex locations in Abu Dhabi I pretty much expected to be spending a large part of my day in line.  I drove into the city, located the Fedex facility and immediately found the nearest parking spot.  I expected to walk into a busy store, but instead walked in and it was completely empty except for the two employees at the counter.  WOW, awesome!  I walk up and hand the guy my papers and provide him the recipient information for the package.  He commented on the fact that I was sending my stuff to a certification branch and we got to talking about teaching and schools in Abu Dhabi.  He was incredibly nice!!  After he took care of my package and i paid him my 212 dhs we continued to talk about different things in Abu Dhabi.  Well, actually, he did most of the talking; telling me about his experiences (he has lived in Abu Dhabi for 19 years coming from Southern India).  He had quite a few strong opinions about the Nationals (Emiratis) in this country and the unfair treatment of labor workers and other "lower class" people.  He even told me a few jokes that he and his friends often tell regarding Dubai and Abu Dhabi.  I loved that he felt so comfortable talking to me about his own experiences here.  We discussed the increasingly high costs of housing in the city and he told me about how his one bedroom apartment in downtown Abu Dhabi cost 12,000 dhs a month when he first moved into it 5 years ago and now it costs 45,000 dhs a month!  (thank goodness that in 2008, the UAE created a law which prohibits rent costs from increasing beyond 5% annually).  Like I said, the guy definitely had his opinions (and rightfully so) about certain aspects of life in Abu Dhabi.
   After about a half hour of talk about life in Abu Dhabi, we moved onto discussing American television.  Turns out that like my husband, this guy was a LOST fanatic - too funny!  He even told me that sometimes he and another Fedex employee, at the other location in AD will sometimes refer to each other as "Dharma 1" and "Dharma 2".  If you don't watch LOST that won't make any sense, but I found it hilarious and knew that Brian would too.  He also proceeded to tell me about how he loved "The Sopranos" and another show called "Supernatural".  I had seen one episode of "Supernatural" a few days prior but wasn't really familiar with it.  In an attempt to try and make me a fan he told me I could bring some blank DVD's back to the Fedex store and he would burn all 5 episodes for me to take home and watch!  I was very appreciative but told him that my husband could most likely download them for me at home.  An hour after I first walked in, I finally told him that I had to get going since I was meeting friends for lunch.  I told him how much I enjoyed speaking with him and maybe I'd see him again soon.  After I walked out I realized that during my hour there not one other person walked in - it was the slowest Fedex facility I'd even been to!  Like I said it was an incredibly pleasant experience!

   Sending my documents via Fedex proved to be a smart decision.  I am happy to report that my I received an electronic copy of my official Maryland Teaching Certificate this week and am not a certified teacher!  I am excited to begin the job hunt process and already have a few schools in mind to apply to.  In a stroke of good luck (I think) I also met a nice guy while running in our community last night who works for a new British International School here in Abu Dhabi.  He offered to take my resume and forward it to the principal of the school for review.  The whole encounter seemed a bit questionable at first (Brian figured the guy was just trying to hit on me) but I figured it couldn't do any harm to send him my resume, so what the heck!  Now I just have to wait and see what happens.

   As most of you know, Brian and I are making our first trip back to the US in a few weeks.  We are excited to come back as see as many people as we can.  We've broken our trip up among Pittsburgh, Virginia, DC, and Maryland in hopes to make time for everyone.  Be on the lookout for emails from us letting you know why we are in what city and what we will be up to!

3 Days of Mourning

I know it's been a long long time since we've posted anything.  Today marked one of those moments where I definitely learned a lot and appreciate some of the things folks do out here.  Jill and I have now been witness to two Royal deaths in the last couple of months and I wanted to just share with everyone how they do things out here.

Much like back home when a President or Senator dies, the body is transported and presented in a place where the public can come pay their respects.  Back home, it's usually the Capitol...Here it's the Grand Mosque right down the street from where we live.  People come from all different countries to visit the family and offer their condolences.

What's interesting to me is that they also do something else that we don't do back home.  They declare 3 days of mourning where no music is played on the radio except for classical, somber type music.  Also no major government functions or events are held.  This may not sound like it's a big deal, but lemme tell you...When you're driving around and all you hear for three days is sad, piano music or the orchestral version of "Bitter Sweet Memories", it really impacts you.  I found myself today driving home, past the Mosque while the funeral was letting out, listening to that music on the radio, and really thinking to myself that everyone dies at some point and this is really nice that they basically make everyone realize thsi for three days.  Sounds weird, I know.

I also asked an Emirati today what the significance of the three days is.  He said that it's a cultural thing where people back in the day would visit someone's camp for three days, offer condolences, help with the grieving process, and then after three days, people move on.  You don't ever offer condolences after the three days.

For those who don't know, Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan who was 41 years old and the Director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, dies this week after a glider crash in Morocco Story Here.  He was a younger brother of Sheikh Khalifa (President of the UAE) and one of 18 living sons of Sheikh Zayed (founder of the country).

So, Jill and I will be experiencing two more days of this.  Just thought we'd let you all in on something they do out here that caught my eye...

Tank is here!

Hello everyone,
We just wanted to let you all know that Tank has arrived in Abu Dhabi safe and sound.  He left Dulles International airport on Friday Feb. 12th.  From there he flew to Amsterdam where he spent the night and a doggie hotel.  On Sunday Feb 14th he left Amsterdam and arrived in Abu Dhabi at about 9 pm.  The American Vet Clinic took care of getting him through customs and delivered him to our house around 11 pm on Sunday.  Both Brian and I were so anxious and excited to see him after 5 weeks. 

Initially, he seemed a bit dazed and confused getting out of his crate, but it didn't take him long to start exploring the yard.  Even though it was late Brian thought it best to take him for a walk to stretch his legs and give him some feeling of normalcy after what we could only imagine was a pretty intense couple of days.  After our walk we let him check out his new home, which he really seems to love.  He's already picked out numerous napping spots and really likes to lay on the cold tile floor. 
Of course he started to get antsy and excited right before bed time (leave it to Tank).  Although we let him climb into bed with us, he didn't stay put for long and spent most of the night pacing around the bedroom.  We pretty much figured that he'd have some time adjustment issues, just like we do, but hopefully he'll be on track in a few days.  Needless to say last night was pretty sleepless for the three of us so we're hoping tonight goes a little better.

We introduced him to Pikey, Andre and Jess's dog, who lives down the street.  Jess, Pikey, Tank and myself went for a nice long walk today and they seemed to get along great!  Only a few of the workers in the community seemed wary of the two dogs and two women walking through the neighborhood (dogs as pets aren't a popular thing over here).

Overall he seems to have come through his traveling unharmed and is still the same Tank we all know and love.  His hair is already covering every surface of the house, yippee!  It feels great to have our family back together.  Now as soon we get the rest of our belongings we will be all set!