Life at Twenty-five

I am so frustrated! I just wrote a huge long entry over the past week, and now it's disappeared. I don't know how I'm going to rewrite but I'll give it a brief shot.

August 11 was my birthday, and it was one of my best birthday weekends ever. On the 10th, I went to see the Simpsons movie at the Ibn Battuta mall, then went with coworkers to Ski Dubai in the Mall of the Emirates. There were crowds of women fully covered in abayas and men in dishdasha gearing up to head out into the snow. Fortunately, none of these people actually ski or use the slopes, they just go to the snow park and socialize. I decided to snowboard and remembered fairly well, only falling hard twice towards the end. For any skier or boarder, it would be a little unsatisfying, but those slopes are a good place to learn. It was strange to hear mariah carey and justin timberlake over the loudspeakers while skiing and also strange to take conveyor belts to and from the slopes. We then met some coworkers at a restaurant overlooking the slopes. For my birthday, some coworkers and I met some mutual friends for games (which turned out to be a little excruciating), then we joined others for a surprise party for another woman who shares my birthday.

Later that week on Thursday, I went with Rob to Charlie Parrots, a hotel restaurant and bar that we sometimes visit. We walked in to find a large runway set up, with hair stylists cutting the hair of bar patrons. Meanwhile loud music was playing and people were eating. Eventually two "Laugh-in" style go-go dancers came to either end of the hair stylists and began dancing. I'm sure it was strange to have a drink in your hand, having your hair cut, in a bar, with all these people watching you, and having some strange woman dancing a few feet away. Eventually they held a fashion show featuring lackluster models and less appealing clothes, and the midget with the captains hat turned up to dance on the runway.

We also had a house-warming party for a couple recently. They are from Mexico and the husband works with me. I brought them plants and finally bought some for myself. I don't have a yard to repot plants, so I had to use my tiny balcony, which is still filthy. One tree I bought (a plumeria) was 45 dirhams (about $12.25), and now I'm comparing every price I see to how many plumerias I could by at the same cost!

Thing have been a little down lately. Esteban leaves tomorrow for good, Rob will be leaving soon, and uncomfortable feelings persist through the office. Rob and Esteban are leaving me with a lot of responsibility for some projects, which is both a blessing and a curse. I still feel anxious and uncomfortable with some people I am left to work with, and with them gone, I feel like there won't be any buffer. It's exhausting trying to force myself to trust people when they haven't worked to earn that trust or make an effort to understand me. I always remind myself that I have no good reason to withhold my beliefs or values, compromising my integrity to maintain professional and personal acceptance from my coworkers. My first reaction is to wall off and just be distant, but I know that I need to focus on showing gentleness and kindness (while not conceding to offer my trust or the right to hurt my heart). Also, I read people's blogs like Ivy Mae on the right, and it makes me long for a domestic lifestyle that is stable and settled. I am having a difficult time getting involved with the church as there is not enough time in the day or weekend. They are doing their best to get me involved but it's almost impossible to comply. Luckily my church in Gainesville posts their sermons online, so I've been trying to work those into my day whenever possible.

Last weekend, one of my favorite coworkers from Gainesville came in. Carter is hysterical and keeps me laughing, but it takes a lot of funds to keep up. We have discovered we have the same taste in television in every way. He is here through next week.

This weekend was the Hops Festival 2007 at the Irish Village. A lot of our coworkers came out, and basically it's an excuse for expatriates to gather together and drink too much in this huge tent structure with industrial sized A/C units. Carter and I left the tent to find a bathroom, then found ourselves in the middle of a mob of aussies and brits trying to bust their way back into the tent. My foot got cut up a little, but all in all, it was a fun experience. We made it back in eventually, but then we were trapped inside the tent and couldn't get out of the place because the bouncers were too busy holding back the riots. We eventually managed to reconnect and escape.

Anyway, hope everything is going well stateside, thanks for reading and keeping up!