Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe it is already 2015 and I haven't blogged in over a month! The past few weeks have gone by really quickly and I haven't really had time a desire to blog. It was just really nice to spend time enjoying the company of friends and family.

So let's back track...

We had a fun holiday party at school. The kids made marshmallow snowmen and ate way too many sweets. Even though I don't normally like classroom parties because my ocd self doesn't like straying away from our typical schedule or not being in control of my classroom, I did really enjoy this party thanks to the help of my room mom and other parent volunteers. I do have a class full of adorable little sweethearts, but you'll have to just take my word for it because I'm not sure how my school feels about posting pictures of children so I'm going to err on the side of caution and blur their faces

I flew home for a week and got to spend Christmas with my family.  I was completely unprepared for the jetlag and cold weather, it took me about 2 days to adjust. I was actually kind of sad that I didn't get to see any snow while I was home. My most favorite part of any trip home is getting to spend time with my brothers, they are some hilarious people, as am I, if I do say so myself. I suppose we get it from my mom, she got my 17 year old brother this t-shirt and he so boldly decided to wear it to a family lunch

I got back to Abu Dhabi just in time to ring in the new year. I spent it quietly at home because I was still a little jet-lagged and I was preparing for an early morning flight to Zanzibar. That turned out to be unnecessary because I got to the airport and was told I couldn't leave the country due to my residence visa being under process. Boo!!! I'm glad to be finally getting my residence visa so that I won't have to do any more visa runs but I was really looking forward to relaxing on the beach. Oh well, I guess I'll have to make that trip happen another time. If you're thinking of using Travelstart to book a trip I highly suggest that you not, their customer service team leaves a lot to be desired. You'd be better off just doing everything on your own.

So what do you do when you're supposed to be in Africa but you're stuck (literally) in the UAE and you still have a week of break left? You spend a lot of time being lazy reading by the pool, order a lot of take out, and go to no less than three malls of course. I did all of that and also managed to get some lesson plans done, worked in my classroom a bit, and went to Dubai to see my friend Lisa for a day.

We started the day with mani/pedis at this cute little salon and caught up on each other's travels over the break. Then we went on to brunch at Dusit Thani, which has great views of the Burj Khalifa. This was my first brunch, what an experience! They had a pasta station, sushi, Thai and Chinese food, barbecue, breakfast, and so much more. I definitely ate way too much, but the food was so good and the atmosphere was great

You can kind of see the Burj Khalifa out of the window behind me. I'm not sure if it was smog or just hazy outside, but it was kind of hard to see the Burj until we got really close. It's really very impressive.

I'm really starting to love afternoon tea, especially with the way they present it. So fancy! And what better to do after you've just engorged yourself at a buffet but to go to a carnival type place to walk it all off. 

After brunch, we decided to go check out Global Village, which is kind of like a state fair. There are 'villages' set up for each country where vendors sell everything from honey to fur coats, food vendors, a cultural center, military exhibits, a haunted house (?), and an amusement area with rides and games for adults and children. I think my favorite village was Africa because it was so colorful and had beautiful fabrics, wood carvings, and trinkets that were different than what I had seen in all the other villages.

My other favorite thing was the sword dance that the men do here. I don't know why but the pride that they obviously have and the music really just make me happy.

It probably wasn't the smartest idea after having eaten so much at brunch, but we decided to check out the carnival rides as well. It really reminded me of the fair, excuse me, The Great New York State Fair, we have at home. We only rode two rides but that was enough, I really needed the laughs and thrill that came along with them.

before

during

after :)