Love this pic Ashley took of me when I was watching the sun set, and a commuter train (below) go by, while soaking in a rooftop infinity pool.  Seriously, life does not get much better than that…

It’s almost 8 p.m. on a Tuesday (my hump day). I’m on my balcony, sipping a glass of french grapes, watching Bibin (the man I affectionally call the Indian on the roof) move my car (so that he can wash it…how awesome is that?) while listening to the vehicles buzz by on the E-22, the road that leads to Abu Dhabi city.  It’s gratefully cooler than it’s been, but still hot by anyone-who-doesn’t-live-in-a-desert-or-tropical-place standards.

Oddly enough there’s also a traffic jam in front of my complex.  Yesterday a big-ass tent with an industrial generator and a/c unit as well as water tank popped up on the plot of land between my road and the E-22.  It has a canopy leading to it’s entrance, carpets and throne chairs.  Shannan and I saw the servants enter yesterday, and some big shin dig took place.  I assumed it was a wedding.  Going by the amount of cars pulling up and parking every which way, I’m thinking something else is going down tonight.  Wish I knew what it was, but I don’t think it’s a wedding.  Hmmmm, something new for me to discover.  Maybe when I take my evening walk tomorrow there will be someone around I can ask about it.  Inshallah they speak English.

I’m still discovering so much about this place I now call home.

I work until July, but it seems I have only around 4, maybe 5, weeks of actual teaching left.  Apparently, my girls will quit coming the end of May, returning for a week or two in June to take their finals, and then khalas.  Can you believe?  I can’t.  While the first trimester slogged by, the rest of this year has flown by as fast as an Emirate SUV (hehehe I’m teaching similes right now and might just share that one with them).

I’m so at peace with my decision to come here.  While there’s so much I miss about ‘home,’ there is now so much I embrace about here.  The irony of it all is I will once again be homesick when I do return to my own country.  It’s a catch 22, damn it!

And, I know I still owe you my posts about Jordan and Michelle’s visit.  I promise they will come.  I’ve just been busy readjusting to the whole work thing (and, well, I had some fun this past weekend too —- so much for my promise to myself to be a couch potato).  While I said I was going to take it easy and not do any more traveling before the summer, it seems I lied because I’m going on a dhow cruise and overnight camping trip somewhere in Oman this weekend.  So, I won’t get to post much until maybe next week, but I swear I will get to those Jordan pics and the recount of Michelle’s time here.  We truly had an amazing time, and I have some fun photos to share.

For now I’ll just share some pics Ashley sent me of our Sri Lanka trip, which now seems so long ago.  Ha!  It was just over a week ago.  And for you financial freaks out there, yes I am also still paying my bills and saving money.

 hahahaha this is so cheesy, but screw it we’re cheesy girls.

Ashley’s looking hot while I totally dork out here next to our lovely guide.  He lives in the village alongside the river.  This young man wakes to tropical birds singing, earns his keep by riding rapids all day and yanking tourists out of the water (yep after we went for a swim, he pulled both of us back into the boat — dude has strength!), and goes to bed at night while monkeys play on his roof.  And I thought my life was good.

Hahahaha yep I totally felt like the jolly green giant next to Chomi’s family.  Just call me the blonde sasquatch!  And below is a shot of the meal they cooked for us.  People, I’m telling you if you’ve never had curried pumpkin you must give it a try, and the coconut, lime chili thing is spicy but oh so good.  Oh wait and they also had a boiled cashew dish that was quite tasty.  Maybe if I ate Sri Lankan food all the time, I wouldn’t be so Amazonian.

And my sunset, goodbye photo.  Yeah I know … again with the cheesy poses, but hot damn look at that sunset.  Amazing.

oh and wait.  I also finally sent another blog post to TeachUAE.  I finally got to meet my editor and Leisa, a fellow writer who always has something nice to say.  I like them even more now that we’ve met, so I sorta feel like I gotta get on the ball and write more for them too.  Here’s a link to the last post (if you’re a new hire scrolling through sites, please do read through all of their blog posts and articles; it’ll give you a taste of what you’re in for):  http://teachuae.com/same-same-but-oh-so-different/