Dubai 2009

Sorry, no pictures :( ..... but,

The longest winter break I’ve ever had since college came to an end on January 4th. (of course, this doesn’t include my year long ‘break’ during the 2006-07 school year!). I was use to three week breaks from Colombia and Nepal, but this month long break was pretty good and probably one that I won’t see again. The reason for the long break was some Islamic holidays that came in December. These days will move 9 days forward next year, so I might have a really longer than normal Thanksgiving break – we’ll have to see.

My winter break started rather uneventfully as two trips that I wanted to go on fell through. First my friends living in Damascus (Joe and Trina Rosevear) were evacuated as their school closed for political reasons, then trips to Goa (too expensive for the amount of time I could be there) and Bangkok (airport closed due to political unrest) fell through. It was still all good as I played tennis and enjoyed a few days with nothing that I had to do in Dubai. After a few days, my old friend from the ASK (Kuwait) days arrived from Saudi Arabia to spend some of his vacation in my apartment in Dubai. It was good catching up with Andy Westerman and his family, whom I haven’t seen since I was in Australia in January of 2007. We were able to hang out for a few days before I left for the US on December 9th. Once in South Carolina I divided my time between the Upstate and my condo in Mt. Pleasant. After a week at home, where I checked the weather forecast every day for Park City, I headed towards a non-snowy Utah. Alas, I must be living right or something because the day after I got there it started snowing, and snowing, and snowing some more! I stayed with the Lunnens for a few nights before heading towards Park City and the condo that I rented with some cousins from Seattle (Mallin/Allan family). And the snow just keep right on falling!! In fact, it poured down snow for four of the six days I skied. All the falling snow made for some cold, windy, and not so clear conditions, but the snow underneath was fantastic – lots of the Utah powder which is billed as the “greatest snow on Earth.” On Christmas Day it was perhaps the worst day of conditions…around 18*, pouring down snow, 20-30 mph wind, and you couldn’t see anything. I had to be hardcore though knowing that I might not ski for the next two years (?), so I stayed out for a few hours. Even though most lifts were closed because of the conditions, the slopes were not at all crowded and Christmas music was playing! I skied with my cousin Claire for most of the day before heading back to spend some time with the cousins in the condo. We opened a few presents, hot-tubbed it a bit, and then headed out to dinner. Park City was practically shut down but the city shuttle bus was still running, so we took the bus to Main Street in search of a place to have a non-traditional Christmas dinner. We found a perfect place – some restaurant/grill – and were seated by the huge front window. From there we watched people slipping and sliding as they walked Main Street as the snow kept on falling. In all, it probably snowed about two feet that day! It was truly a winter wonderland type of feeling and one I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before. Yes, I’ve had a white Christmas or two in my past in Georgia/South Carolina but nothing like this. It was so cool….and of course, I didn’t have my camera!! On the Lunnen front, Alex skied with me for three days, and Brady and Jamie made it up for a day as well. That was really cool as it was the first time I’d been with the three Lunnen brothers since I was in Utah around Christmas 2003. I flew back to SC on the 26th and with the way the roads were cleared, you never would have known so much snow had fallen! The last week in SC was a blur as the time just seemed to fly by. Talk about an extreme change in weather. One day I’m skiing in a near blizzard in Park City and two days later I’m walking on the beach on Sullivans Island in warm weather and sunshine! New Year’s Eve was spent with my adorable niece and nephews (the House of Pain for those in the know!) and then after a traditional New Year’s dinner of a pork roast, collard greens, hoppin-john, and the pineapple casserole that I love on the Brown farm, I was off to the airport to fly back to Dubai in the late afternoon of January 1, 2009. There was drama in the airport as both of my bags were slightly overweight (by 3 and 4 pounds) and Delta wanting to charge me $150 per bag!! I readjusted stuff and put some books and things for school in my carry-on and my boots and two new pair of basketball shoes in a plastic bag, so I managed to avoid the payment. Usually or at least in the past, one got 70 lbs. per bag (two bag limit) on international flights, but now the weight total must be 50 lbs….or at least when flying out of Greenville-Spartanburg, SC! Flier beware!! The first week back was long and hard (inside joke break….Claire, that’s what she said, baaaaaaaaah!!) due mostly to not working in a month and jetlag. And this being Dubai, there was an ‘event’ that week that I had to go to. AC Milan was playing a soccer match in Dubai. It was a ‘must see’ event as AC Milan is one of the top soccer teams in the world and now have David Beckham on loan from his LA soccer team along with other elite world-famous soccer players Ronaldinho and Kaka. For those that don’t follow soccer, this would be like having Federer, Nadal, and Roddick playing in the same tournament or having LeBron, D-Wade, and Kevin Garnett playing in the same basketball game. There were rumors that Beckham was injured and wouldn’t play but they proved to be false. He played in the first half and when he lined up to take a free kick, the stands lit up with flashbulbs. When he sat out the second half, the energy and excitement of the game seemed to be sucked out of the game. Kaka ended up not playing but since I don’t really know him, it didn’t matter so much. One fun moment from the game was listening to these three Lebanese kids, no older than 10 and probably closer to seven or eight, giving a running commentary of the game in French and madly cheering for Ronaldinho and AC Milan. For the record, Milan won on penalty kicks.

That’s about all that’s going on in Dubai. Until the next blog, peace.