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First, let me tell you that Abu Dhabi is a great place of contrast for expat life. While it's a lot of fun, and you can easily find your niche, there are a lot of things that will give you a headache to no end. All the expats here are making lots of money, yet there's still extreme poverty and out-of-control rents. You have air conditioning, but it breaks every four months. There is a great experience of being with people from 190+ countries.. but there are 190+ different driving habits on the road. And on and on.

There are a lot, nay, a TON of things that make life here a little difficult to be away from home (wherever the heck that is), but I'm still having a blast here pretty much every single day. And that's what this page is about. Enjoy some pictures about life here in the 'Dhabi. I'm not done yet, either: there's still much more to explore!

Temperatures in Abu Dhabi range from 18°C (65°F) to 50°C (122°F). You can drive or taxi to your house to watch Showtime Arabia or split to a hotel bar or restaurant with friends; do some shopping or catch a movie.

For the first days in Abu Dhabi, feel free to follow these links:
First Days - and -
Daily Dhabi

Built form in Abu Dhabi is really interesting and follows some strange patterns. While much of it is poorly engineered from the past, there are elements that are pleasant surprises: a corner here, a tree-covered square there; a beautiful residence or hotel, a nice view. Also we are working very hard to improve the urban environment (obviously).

Here are just a few pictures from around town. I realize I should really get more of these soon. Click on any of them to zoooooom in:

I've also been asked to shoot some pictures of my apartment. I'll be moving July 2009 to a 2/2 on Hamdan Road near Muroor (yes I have a garage spot) so I can be closer to friends and a more urban kinda area.

You know you live in Abu Dhabi when you have a maintenance issue and it takes forever to fix. Well I might have had a single seven-day stretch without some maintenance nightmare or another, so I guess I got the worst of it. Leases here are one year and you pay for the whole year up front (oh yeah, btw a newer, 1/1 with maintenance issues way out in Muroor area, in June 2009, goes for 160,000 Dhs a year, or $3,600 a month).

I realized also when I got my rental car stuck in sand in a parking lot that -a- I was paying the same amount for a rental as it would cost to buy a nice car and -b- I needed a 4x4 if I was going to be doing work in the Western Region. So I bought a Jeep. Yes a Jeep. And named it Gabbi partially after my wonderful grandma, and partially after the word Al Gharbia which means The Western Region. Also I was pleasantly surprised to find it has a 20gig hard drive so you can load a TON of music and pictures and videos with a USB stick. Awe-some. But this is a sign of what happens when you live in a car-oriented culture.

There are some of the hand-woven, silk, Iranian carpets that I've become addicted to. I'm sorry, I just am, they're sooo cheap. It's actaully cheaper to make them hand-made in Iran than machine.

Below are pictures from our Beach Trip in July '08. All you do is grab a boat and driver with some friends over by Marina Mall and shoot out to some islands. In this case, I think we ended up at Sheikh Mohamed's island, but whatever, it's not like he was there - it was too hot to sit without shade (this was July in 2008).

Just off the corniche and northern coast of Abu Dhabi Island is Lulu Island (Lulu means Pearl). It could be a beautiful urban park, beaches all around, two freshwater lakes and some lovely sand dunes. However, it will unfortunately be turned into an island with a row of towers, including the highest tower in Abu Dhabi right at the center. But, man, wouldn't it be great for everyone if you could take the subway and shoot out to a nice nature reserve; a quiet escape from the city?

Anyway, then we split to get changed, get dinner, and go to The Embassy - a nightclub inside the Emirate's Palace.

If you're planning to visit Abu Dhabi, the best time are the four months of perfect, flawless weather from the end of October to the end of February (October and March are nice, too). The BEST time of course, is December 3, my birthday, for that is also the birthday of the United Arab Emirates, and while I'm sure the festivities are about me, they are really elaborate.

The Corniche Road is impossible to move in; red, white, black and green flags are everwyhere, childern are hanging precariously outside windows of cars driving slowly through the procession, revving engines and honking horns as though their basketball team just won the championships.

Eric and I went to the Officer's Club for some daytime festivities. It was great, except one of the camels in the procession got that wild-horse look in its eyes: anyway, it was like something I saw on 'When Animals Attack III'. This was followed by walking to the corniche for the wold's largest firework's display (to be followed next year by the world's largest fireworks display, and so on). It was a blast to see everyone out and about and smiling and waving to each other and generally getting along. Then we all went to the top of the Oryx for shisha and beers.

The next set is from one of Vicky's parties and then a night out to the roof of Crowne Plaza. At Vicky's BBQ we found the smiley function on the camera ('detects smiles') and tried to test it out. Then there are pictures of my traveling Kanye West (version 3.0) glasses. Who looks the most like Kanye West?

The next set is from Jumana's Valloween Party (Feb 14 Costume Party). After burgers and beer with Michelle, Aaron, and Conultant-Tim, we all went to the party and ran into Pete & Clancey and the rest of the crew:

Oh yeah! I have some neighborhood kittehs for adoption. They've all been fixed and are well fed (don't look at me! .. okay, maybe... I'm going to be the Cat Lady one day with 149 cats in my apartment). There are 'the twins', 'suspicious kitteh', 'fast kitteh', and 'always-hungry kitteh'. Which one will you take home today?

When we're not working (skip here to read about 'work'), we are doing what we can to beat the heat and enjoy ourselves. One of the greatest past times is to grab an Abu Dhabi Brunch somewhere. Always ends up a blast, no matter what strange places we end up in. The Jumeira Janes and Khalidiya Kates (read: 'The Real Housewives of Abu Dhabi/Dubai') usually give us great advice on how to stay busy..

The first pictures are from a brunch trial gone terribly wrong - we wanted brunch but showed up at a place with hungry ducks and a greco-roman theme. Promptly we went to the Oryx for shisha and beer, which means we ended up at Pete's house on empty stomachs after much beer and having Dance Party 2009.

This next set of pictures is from a brunch at the Brauhaus that went much better than the ones before. The Brauhaus ensures great quantities of German beer and real pork (yes, real pork (did I just say real pork twice? (yes, and I'll say it again (real pork)))).

Another of our favorite past times is to go to mine, Kevin's, Vicky's, Lia's, Pete's, or Brian's and have fifteen or so people over, which usually ends up tearing the place apart, but hey whatever, it's something to do in the city that never sleeps (wait, that sounds exciting, but it 'never sleeps' because everyone is working overtime.)

Finally another past time is to go down to Dubai for some time with friends, shopping, or even sitting by the pool.

And last, but not least, I have my running group, which is a great group. They're called the Abu Dhabi Island Hash House Harriers, and there's an HHH near you for sure. Just google search it. If you like running and drinking/socializing, and you're living the expat life somewhere, then this WWII-era expat group is perfect for you. We run for an hour in the heat, then socialize afterwards. Our next run can be found here. Warning the group can be quite .. crude.

So every Monday night, even in the summer, you can be sure I'll be out running through some part of town or another for an hour or two and then catching up with friends. Here are some pictures from the latest Hash Run No 1612. The first picture, is the best, of some fifteen year old locals who drove their parents car into a sand dune thinking they were going to go 'bashing' hahahaha.

Although I'd really love to say that it was all play all day, it really is a lot of work. As in, tons of overtime and more than anything, we're such a small group (right now) with such a huge task, a lot really is expected of us. I feel like I've learned so much and done so much. From being an expert on community facilities to bridge heights to power plants to roundabouts to biking to cell phone towers to the cutting edge of planning and design, it's almost overwhelming.

I can say without any hesitation that the expats that I work with are the most dedicated and sharp people I've worked with. The locals that I work with genuinely care about their community and the people it serves. The consulting teams from the region and abroad are top notch. The other agencies (yes, okay, and Dr Eyyad Khaleileh also) are the best. The management have taught me more in a year than I thought I'd learn in a lifetime. And it is a genuine statement when I say that the leadership of this country have the interests in mind for the entire community.

So since arriving at my job, I've done a thousand odd-projects related to all types of planning, but on top of that I have had the regional focus of the western region, and, as I have always done, I have fallen in love with the region. If you want to see ALL my pictures from this awesome place, just visit here.

In 2008 I worked my padookie off to get a million things done, coordinate with a bajillion agencies, make a charrette go off completely without a hitch, design and lay out schools, put out a million fires, etc. So for my birthday I went to Ethiopia! And it was AMAZING - let me know if you ever want to go, because I'm ready to go back. Here are a couple pictures, so be sure to here to see all of the picturess.

Then for a little more fun to be had, I slipped off on a Lufthansa deal to Germany for New Years Eve. I met up with my friend, Ryan, and we traveled around and caused a lot of trouble. The best part was midnight in Berlin - it was so awesome, with people outside their homes and everyone in a great mood shouting, singing, throwing fireworks; anyway, I have an image in my mind that I can't erase of it. I also got a free jacket. But I lost a pair of awesome gloves that cost me 9 euro.

In early 2009 I got a chance to visit my fambly on my mom's side. This was made really special because for about seven months we had been e-mailing each other daily, just as a listserv or something. As Tom put it, it made the difference between seeing some strangers you see once every other year, and seeing a group of people that you know and love.

Of course, I have no pictures from Colorado because I lost my camera at Jumana's Valloween party a month later before I had a chance to upload them.

The first highligh was that I got to go skiing: I thought it would be one of those things that it had been so long, that I would not like it, or would be tired of it. But I LOVED it still. I skiied for three great days.

Another highlight was getting to meet my cousin's kiddos, Draden and Sawyer. I brought them some outfits from Ethiopia! But you know how kids are, unless you convince them its a karate kid outfit, they have no desire to wear it. Draden was taught how to say, 'You're terrible Muriel'. UhmJim is so great, he was teaching them how to ski - one of the essentials of life.

I got a chance to go drinkin' with my cousin Tom and my brother, which was great because I kept up with them and we had fun drinking Purple F***ers and then got the story from Peggy about the Purple Jesus train trip.

Another highlight was getting stuck in the snow in silverton and talking about the zombies outside roaming the town (true story) and driving the million dollar highway.

Durango was nice and I would have liked to go on to Ouray, but Silverton was fun to visit.

I made my aunt Nancy get really tall with the airline stewardesses because apparently Southwest is fully boarded 40 minutes before departure. But Sawyer made up for it by screaming so loud, the other attendants gave Lee and I two free Jack Daniel's each, thinking we were just hapless travelers sitting behind a loud kiddo.

The trip was made complete by some time spent in Texas with my real idol, SatAnn, and my co-conspirator Jenny (Beelzebub).

In March, I went to Sydney and Adelaide Australia, and had just a freaking amazing time. If you haven't seen those pictures, go visit these pictures. It was probably one of the most fun and relaxing trips I'd ever taken. Here is just a highlight:

Someone (not sure who) had the great idea that so many of our friends would be crossing paths in London that Brian and I should fly out there to say hi to everyone on that weekend. Turned out to be a GREAT weekend. The first day, Brian and I took a bike tour of London which was awesome.

The second day, I went shopping in West London to the market in Notting Hill and ran into Vicky and Lia. Then we all went to North London. That evening I tried so hard to meet up with Jason Swan, et al, and got owned by the tube.

The last full day, I was on my own doing some shopping, then had the greatest day: I sat at a café and read The Economist while having a glass of wine with some ice cubes in it. Eventually, sitting outside this café, I was joined by three strangers since seating was limited. I ended up making great friends with them and had a couple friends come join us.

The next morning, Brian and I shot for the airport: Wrong Airport! Qatar Airways had us flying into Gatwick, but we were supposed to fly OUT of Heathrow - wtf?! Luckily we were able to make arrangements and LITERALLY run through the airport with them announcing our names.

The last possible weekend for camping was in the beginning of May. Daytime temperatures hovered around 46°C/115°F (nothing compared to summer heat), the evening finally cooled off to a nice 21°C/70°F. It was great. We went to see the Al Gharbia Watersports Festival and had a blast. Eric and his friends met up with us in the evening to see the fireworks (video coming) and then Ali and his cousin joined Consultant-Tim and Lia and I for camping.

The weird thing was that the water was waaay out in some kind of weird tidal thing or something. The funny thing was that Ali (doesn't drink) accidentally filled the shisha up with raspberry vodka instead of water. The coolest thing was that I got to put my carpet to use - I wanted to roll it out and use it like berbers use their hand-woven carpets. It was a great blast, and the water of the Arabian Gulf were (as usual) perfect.

Other travels include a trip to Jordan for Eid and a trip to NYC in September to see the Demo of Kristina from Duvemala at Carnegie Hall. In November, I want to go to the far east. Then, in January I will be in Florida proper withmy fambly and in March I will be in Texas proper. SEE YOU SOON.

Temperatures in Abu Dhabi range from 18°C (65°F) to 50°C (122°F). You can drive or taxi to your house to watch Showtime Arabia or split to a hotel bar or restaurant with friends; do some shopping or catch a movie.

For the first days in Abu Dhabi, feel free to follow these links: First Days - and - Daily Dhabi

Here are just a few pictures from around town. I realize I should really get more of these soon. Click on any of them to zoooooom in:

I've also been asked to shoot some pictures of my apartment. I'll be moving July 2009 to a 2/2 on Hamdan Road near Muroor (yes I have a garage spot) so I can be closer to friends and a more urban kinda area.

There are some of the hand-woven, silk, Iranian carpets that I've become addicted to. I'm sorry, I just am, they're sooo cheap. It's actaully cheaper to make them hand-made in Iran than machine.

Anyway, then we split to get changed, get dinner, and go to The Embassy - a nightclub inside the Emirate's Palace.

The Corniche Road is impossible to move in; red, white, black and green flags are everwyhere, childern are hanging precariously outside windows of cars driving slowly through the procession, revving engines and honking horns as though their basketball team just won the championships.

The next set is from Jumana's Valloween Party (Feb 14 Costume Party). After burgers and beer with Michelle, Aaron, and Conultant-Tim, we all went to the party and ran into Pete & Clancey and the rest of the crew:

For the first days in Abu Dhabi, feel free to follow these links:
First Days - and -
Daily Dhabi