Happy 2009!

Happy 2009 to anyone and everyone out there!

Ed - this is for you, since I think you may be the only living soul out there who reads this! So, here's my 2008 recap - i'll try to keep it short (it probably won't be sweet), but hopefully, enlightening/interesting/entertaining. Dunno...hopefully, you'll get something out of it!

Well, since May, I've had a decent year!

June/July:

Went camping in Jebel Shams, Oman with a few friends - supposedly the "Grand Canyon" of the Middle East or something like that. A 4-hr drive to Oman, turned into about 10 hrs, but nonetheless, we arrived at our campsite and had a great time! You can't really see behind us and the fog didn't allow for much good photography, but three steps back behind the "guardrail" is about a 2000m drop into a bottomless abyss!)

In case you're interested, that's Kwame, me, Thoby, Greg and Mike. And in case you can't really tell, I'm the short one! :)

After Oman, I left for Greece to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law for his good friend George's wedding. Spent a day in Athens and then almost a week on the lovely little island of Kythira. Basically spent the week at George's villa, Muscata chatting in the courtyard, driving around the winding little roads of the island at one beautiful place after another, eating the freshest seafood at Kiro's Tavern, eating more along the shoreline of Capsali, sunbathing, swimming, yada yada yada. Pretty much the most picturesque holiday you can imagine!

Acropolis, duh.

Me and my sis at Capsali precisely 10 minutes after my arrival

Kythira

The Happy Couple

Just your average night at Muscata

As you can see, terrific holiday. The pictures say it all. The only photo missing is that of the really cute baker in the village! Ha ha.

After Greece, my sister returned with me to Dubai for a short visit.

Then, headed off to Muscat for the weekend with some friends.

Kickin back at the Shangri La

Overlook on the drive from the hotel

Pre-dinner drinks at the Chedi, fancy hotel

Us at the Grand Mosque in Muscat, notice how the girls have to be covered head to toe while men, well, obviously, doesn't matter

After Muscat, the Prophet Ascended or something so we got another day off of work. My friend Thoby and I decided to go to Kish Island, Iran for the weekend. Big mistake. Not mistake really, but rather shock, I suppose? As you can see, Kish, Iran is another place where women must be covered. Upon arrival at the Kish airport, I was instructed that my shirt, just your average long-sleeve, waist-length shirt, was too short and to put on an airport-issue smock which would cover my rear end. Fortunately, the airport check-in guy in Dubai told me about the hair-covering so I bought a scarf in the airport. My too-short pants were getting me death-glares from other women all weekend. Mind you, it was about 120 degrees F so not entirely pleasant under sleeves and scarves and long pants, etc. Notice again, Thoby's in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt - no problem. When we arrived, being that our mission was a cheap weekend getaway (and no, we're not dating) we tried to check into the hotel and get one room (progressive Westerners that we are).

Thoby: yes, we'd like a room
Innkeeper: one room?
Thoby: yes
Innkeeper: you married?
Thoby: yes, of course (as I adjust my rings to the "correct" finger) Innkeeper: you have papers then? Thoby: no, why would we carry our marriage papers with us? Innkeeper: no papers, then two rooms. police come, big trouble
Thoby: so you're telling me without papers, I can't sleep in a room with my wife?
Innkeeper: no papers, then two rooms. police come, big trouble
Thoby: fine. two rooms.

the next day, we go back to the airport to check out what there is to do (after doing all we could come up with - mind you, in this what I might refer to as "less-than-free" place, I was not about to separate from Thoby at any time which eliminated the possibility of beaches as there are only separate men's and women's beaches). We meet this lovely Kuwaiti woman at the information desk and tell her about our hotel woes. She says, "no, go to Arun Hotel, ask for my friend Naser, tell him you want to know about tours of island, he'll arrange room." After she makes a call, all in Arabic (for all we knew, she could've been reporting us to police or something) we've got notes in hand and head off to our next home.

Here's our conversation there:

Thoby: Yes, is Naser here?

Naser: Yes?

Thoby: Fatma at airport called you about a room for us?

Naser: ah, yes.

Thoby: so it's ok to stay in one room, no papers?

Naser: no problem

Thoby: great.

Naser: you want single or double bed?

(Thoby and I exchange uncomfortable glance. Is this a trick? Reminder: we are not dating.)

Thoby: Singles are fine

Naser: singles? no double? double ok?

Thoby: No, singles are fine. My wife is very conservative.

and away we go to our room. we must've confused them dearly. oh well. mission accomplished. much better room in a much better hotel and cheaper 'cuz we could share! after all that, really, all there was to do was smoke shisha and wander around to all the knock-off malls. Kish is a dry island so no drinking. Before this trip, I'd only hung out with Thoby a few times. After 2 full days of conversation, I think I can safely say, we survived and came out the other side. Have a great friend who I now know is good craic on an adventure!

Thoby at a toy store in Iran

Hangin out in some earthquake ruins

At the old aquaduct/caves

In August, I was home briefly for my old roommate Sarah's wedding - went to Scituate, Mass for a few days, then back to Chicago to the old stomping grounds and down south to my sister's to visit the fam too!

The Sabers in their wedding gift!

The Sabers' wedding

Old Roomies just chillin out before the wedding!

So that was the summer. In October, I went to Beirut for a weekend with my friend Wael. Interesting place. Still not sure why the Lebanese love it soo much, like, literally think it's the greatest place on earth love it? But it was cool. The trip was far too quick to form a real opinion but it was fun. Can't find my pics though.

What else? Oh, October, the month that I officially became and old lady. Turned 30. Less painful than I thought but man, 30 really sounds old!

Aside from that, just hangin out really. Our German housemate, Achim got married over the summer and his wife came for a visit in November.

Went on a little jaunt with Jeremy and Alysia to Atlantis - here are some of our goofy photos! This is the place that, in the midst of global economic crisis, springs for a $20m USD opening party! Fireworks, which we watched from the roof of our villa, were supposedly 8x bigger than Beijing. Madness. Sheer madness.

At the end of November, I went to Spain - Barcelona and Seville - for 10 days. Was meant to also go to Bucharest, Romania at the end of that, but got "mugged" in Barcelona on our last night. Spain's an amazingly beautiful place and would post pictures, but my camera was in my wallet that was stolen, so until I can download photos from my friend who was travelling with me, I think these are the last of my photos!

December in the middle east is great 'cuz you don't really work much. National Day is December 2. It's our only "fixed" holiday. All others, as mentioned in earlier posts, are determined by the moon. Eid, another Islamic holiday, happened to fall on Dec 8-10, while I was supposed to be in Bucharest. And then you have Christmas, then Islamic New Year was on Dec 28, then Gregorian New Years Day (which I know is technically not December anymore, but you get my meaning).

And alas, we've arrived at January 5, 2009. How the hell did that happen?