Tis the Season... in Dubai

One of the things that recently many of my home people have asked is about holidays in Dubai. So here I am to write about it!

This is actually my 2nd holiday season in Dubai, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut the 1st one was when I literally just got here, didn't know anyone, and was in that newbee fog or cloud, so honestly, it just kind of came and went. And last year I went back HOME to USA and celebrated with my family in Colorado, sniff sniff (who, by the way are there now and I miss it and them!).

Sooo... here we are over 2 years of being in Dubai, I'm settled, have good friends, have a good life, so ah ha! Time to experience "Holidays in Dubai!"

Hmm.... what can I say? When I was at home I was one of those people that complained about how over-done and how commercial Xmas is. It is EVERYWHERE! Music, red and green, and people ARE spirited, yes, but also very stressed at the same time. Then I come here, especially my 1st year when it was the exact opposite problem, there was NO spirit and it was just like any other month. So that was when I made my executive decision to come home that next year and get some holiday spirit. I will admit I missed Xmas music. There, I said it. :-)

Soo... now, I would still say the "spirit" here is like 1/23942034823948230984230th of what it is in some countries (which I think is overdone anyway), BUT Dubai has put in a bit more of an effort (I thought they would be smarter with seeing money making opportunities!). Many of the hotels put up nice Christmas trees and decorations and even some of the malls and probably 1/4th of the stores here put in some effort. The other thing it is still bizarre for me to be in a warmer climate during the winter, so no snowy Xmas for me this year! I won't complain though and actually, it was a bit chilly for Dubai standards, in the upper 50's! (gasp!).

I think it kind of came and went because life has been so busy!!! Work has been busy, then this marathon training is almost like a 2nd job, then there were a lot of social events, and THEN... I had to work both Xmas Eve and Xmas Day! :-( Well, actually, I had the option of taking a vacation day, but #1. my vacation days are precious and #2. This isn't even my Xmas anyway, I celebrate on the 7th and #3. If i had it off, I wouldn't be doing anything anyway, so why not? It ended up being an okay day, not too busy and not too sloow. That evening I went to a really nice spirited Xmas dinner with my closest friends here in Dubai, and I have to mention because I think this is awesome - when we were planning this Xmas dinner, some emails went around about maybe doing a Secret Santa type thing. But then someone (I forgot who) said since Xmas is a time of giving, and we are all fortunate to have so much in our lives, that instead we would do a Secret Donation and donate money to a charity to help the recent natural disasters that happened in the Philippines. It was soo great! And among the 7 of us, we actually raised more than $2000USD! (we think one of our friends in the oil business donated a big chunk of that, but still). Isn't that great?? I was sooo happy we did that!!!

Also, the fun part was that my running group did a Xmas run, and we all (mostly) ran in Xmas gear (like Santa hats) and part of the 'social' run was to stop for Mince Pies, which I am learning a LOT about as I guess it's a super Xmas'y thing they do in the UK. Do we even have Mince Pies in USA? Who knows!

Here's a couple of snaps of the run;

There's me waving on the right (and yes, it's Dec 25th and we are wearing shorts and t-shirts, he eh)

Here's my awesome Dubai Creek Striders running group, I'm the 3rd person in on the top left

All and all, I would say a 'somewhat' festive Holiday Season in Dubai! Considering it's a Muslim country, I admit, and people say, every year they are getting more and more involved in it, and even though I was in a daze the 1st year, there was a bit more of spirit than what I remember :-)  

Sooo... here we are, last day of 2013 and wanted to write one last blog. Not an exciting one at that, but hey, what to do? The next one will recap my 2013 and intro my 2014. To all, HAPPY NEW YEAR and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!

National Day, Expo2020, Rugby 7's, DCS 1/2 marathon, and more!

I thought it is a nice time for a little update on life here in Dubai, and gasp, it is not about travel!!!

Ahh.... it feels like a lot has been going on, now I just have to sort it out and make it comprehensible so that when I read this later and reflect on My Life as an Expat, it will make sense to me!

I have to start out with a "only in Dubai" story. You hear this expression a lot, and although it can have different meanings, this one is a positive one.....

So every country has some sort of special day for that country alone, i.e. Independence day. Well, the U.A.E has no one to be independent from, so their National Day is on December 2nd. Well, this day happens to fall on a Monday (with a reminder that our weeks are from Sunday to Thursday). Big deal, right? In the States we have 4th of July and whatever day it falls on, we take that day off, right? It's a public holiday and that actual day should be the day to acknowledge the holiday. Well, Dubai is Dubai, and basically, depending on what company you work for, private, semi-private, government, everyone for this National Day happens to have a different day of celebrating. Many people were given Sunday off.... basically giving people a loooooooooooong weekend, even though it is the day before the actual National Day. I just thought it was hilarious that they pretty much changed National Day so that people will have a long weekend. Of course with the confusion of this, as always, things here are decided last minute, companies like mine had already blocked off December 2nd, again, the 'real' National Day, but lo and behold, they decided to give us the 'fake' National Day, December 1st, off... again, to make it a looooooong weekend. Ha! On top of that, (will talk about it later), I had already taken Thursday off, so I pretty much am in the midst of enjoying a 5-day loooooooooooong weekend. Gotta love it! Happy 42nd National Day U.A.E!

Sooooo..... as the flags and National Day decorations were starting weeks ago, the city has become a bit more alive. THEN..... Dubai managed to accomplish 'the impossible.' After a HUGE campaign and a TON of marketing (and money), just a few days before National Day, it was formally and officially announced that Dubai is to host the World Expo 2020!!! This is BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG news, almost unbelievable because Duba is such a young country and to not only to bid for something like this but to also win it shows the true vision of Dubai. People generally are thrilled. Of course there was the immediate complaints about increasing traffic and rent, but this is expected to (hopefully) happen in a few years, which I'll probably be gone by then. I didn't realize what a big deal these World Expo's are, but what I am hearing is pretty amazing. It's a 6-month convention of all the latest and greatest business, technology, and engineering. It's supposed to bring in billions to the host country, which of course Dubai is thrilled about (cha-ching $$). The really amazing thing is that their proposed projects for this are reasonable, realistic, and will probably happen... a lot of forward thinking on this. It will be quite something in 2020 when I am wherever I am and look back to know I was here for the big announcement and saw life here before the Big Boom, they call it. Kinda exciting!

Needless to say, between this BIG win AND National Day, the spirit here is amazing! I don't know if I've mentioned the lack of spirit here generally, so it's nice to see how proud people are of living here and being here. Yay for excitement and spirit!!! :-)

My next update is about ME!

Will start with work stuff... my BFF colleague moved to another clinic, somewhere where he will be well respected and acknowledged and he definitely deserves this. It's a shame our management is letting amazing and remarkable people like him go, but I'm happy for his change although I miss having a colleague to not only to talk work stuff, but truly a good friend. Fortunately, he is in the same building, so we still get to hang out. So now we are short-staffed a bit more, and because we are on the same page with our rehab, I'm getting a flood of referrals and it's been pretty busy, but good busy. In other professional development, I took a dry needling course last weekend and that has been real eye-opening and will be a great tool (I hope!) in my practice. Learned about myofascial trigger points and referral patterns, VERY interesting!

Another kinda work-related thing is I decided to volunteer myself to work at the Rugby 7's, which on a side note, I really know nothing about. It's funny because the 1st year I came I had JUST come to Dubai and they needed people, but I had my back problem and couldn't do it. Then the next year I literally was leaving for the States the day before, so missed it again. So finally I thought this year was no excuse. I volunteered to do it to get out of my comfort level a little because this is kinda on-the-field stuff that we don't do in the States, Athletic Trainers do things like what would be needed, i.e. strapping (taping). So when I said I would do it, I was first asked if I knew how to strap. Umm.... kinda? For the ATP tennis I reviewed some of it, but thank gawd they relied on the ATP guys. But long story short is I said I did but was "rusty," which is true. So not just for me, but for everyone, we had a review of strapping just to be more comfy. And fortunately, my colleague came buy and let me practice a bit. I was a bit hesitant, but actually, when I got there the other physios were equally lacking confidence, so we had time to talk about it and to practice on each other. Or if someone was known to be good, we let him have them, he he. So when the time came, granted, it wasn't perfect, but I somehow managed with the player saying it felt good. Hey, that's all I ask for! It was a fun experience, good to network with colleagues in Dubai and this is where my extra day off came in, to do this! The 1st day we saw a lot of referees, hey, they get injured too! And then the 2nd day was a bit busier, but really, not too bad. According to the oldies, the physio room used to be a nut house with so many players, but nowadays, many of them have their own trainers and physios... especially the professional (and good!) teams. And also a 'competitor' opened up, whose location was right pitch side, so he got a lot of players go there (ours was a bit far away). It was still a great experience and something to tack on to the resume, he he. I have to say though, it was a crazy atmosphere! Dubai generally is super conservative and you don't often see people in drunken stupor's, wild, and obnoxious AND wearing costumes, but that was 90% of the audience there! I realized how by not being exposed to these things that often (compared to the States), it was a bit overwhelming! Especially that I was there for 'work' and also had to drive home. Oh well, still fun!!!!

THEN, I've been busy training for.... da da dum, my 1st marathon in 10 years! Yes, I am now getting out of retirement to run the Dubai marathon on Jan 24, 2014!! Last year when my friends came all the way from Chicago to run the marathon and I JUST got back from my vacay at home and was TOTALLY out of shape, I was inspired to do it and..... just decided now is the time. I don't have as many outside distractions as I would back home AND my group, Dubai Creek Striders, is TOTALLY awesome and practically everyone runs this thing, so I have ample people to run with and they have a whole training program so I just follow along. It's been motivating and more importantly, FUN! I've been on track with the training and have been feeling pretty good. Well, physically. Ugh.... have had somewhat of a slump with my "healthy" eating :-( Ugh, these things take up so much willpower!  I was REALLY good for awhile, got out of it, back in, and now just have to focus. As expected, weight is directly correlated with performance, and I was hoping to be a little bit lighter' at this point of time, but what to do? My current marathon regime is (and this is for my reference if I get crazy and decide to do another one): Sundays I do tempo run on the treadmill for an hour (increase either speed or incline every 5 minutes) then strength training. Mondays I do swimming (which is great! With my Masters Swim Club). Tuesdays I do interval training (speed workouts). Wednesday I will do a long steady run, around an hour and 10-15 minutes (soon to increase to an hour and a 1/2) then strength training. Thursdays... depending on if I'm working or not, will do spinning classes and/or swin. Fridays do my looong run with the group, now between 15 and 20 miles (that too may increase) then do hot bikram yoga. And Saturdays, again, depending if I am working or not, will usually get a stair climb (carried that over from my Kilimanjaro trip!) and/or swimming. Phew! I know, I  know, it seems there isn't much "rest," but Monday is kinda  rest day with the swim, and it's well paced. Hehehe :-) Oddly, am kinda enjoying all this training, but it's almost like another full time job!!! Here are a few pics from a 1/2 marathon I ran Dec 6th:

Hmm.... what else? Ahhh.. the holiday season. Well, Thanksgiving kinda came and went. If anything, made me realize how few Americans I know! It was awesome though because one of our American doctors came in on Wed and had a full on Turkey with all the special sides (stuffing, mash potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy) and it was soooooooooooo sweet and nice! The best part was that no one knew about anything! They thought that the mash potatoes was hummus (ha!) and didn't know which sauces to put where, and a lot of them had never tried turkey, which was almost shocking, but I guess in many places this isn't a common food (Arab world, Philippino world). Anyway, I'm calling this season my 1st winter season in Dubai because the 1st year I came I was in a bit of a cloud and it came and went, last year I went home for majority of it, and this year I'm purposely NOT traveling and just want to enjoy it!!! LOTS of things going on! The weather is TOTALLY perfect, pleasant and in 80's during the day and a 'cooler' upper 70's in the night. It really is awesome, especially with NO humidity! Fortunately, most of my close friends are staying around here for the holidays, so am doing Xmas brunch a few days before Xmas, Xmas dinner, and already have New Years plans, so it will be busy! I'm looking forward to it, and again, am feeling more and more settled in Dubai :-)

Lastly, phew, this is a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong blog, just have to comment on how quickly this year has gone by. When I look back, especially that this time last year I was HOME in Chicago, it really feels like ages ago, but also yesterday. I know people always say this and I always think, "yea yea," but really, the time just flies by here! I don't know if it's these loooonger work weeks of 48+ hours (usually 50) and I had kinda a crazy year with travel and now this all-consuming training schedule, but I can't believe 2014 is around the corner!!!

Here's to the last of 2013!! :-)