Abu Dhabi - The Experience Never Ends

          It has been a very long time since my last entry about Abu Dhabi.  Life between now and my last entry has been a whirlwind of changes, losses and new developments.  We went home late December to attend my brother Geoff''s wedding which was a lot of fun.  We were back from the wedding in Abu Dhabi for less than a day early January when we got the news that my dad had passed away unexpectedly.  So we immediately turned back to Michigan to make the arrangements and say goodbye.  I have to say I have been through a lot in my life, but this has to be one of the hardest situations I have ever had to experience.  But I will say it has only strengthened my desire to to live life to the fullest, cherish every day and never stop taking risks.

          Many things have happened in Abu Dhabi since my last entry, one major milestone is that my place of employment: Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi (CCAD) is has finally opened its doors and started seeing patients.  In addition to moving to a new country, meeting people from all over the world, I have to add that working for and helping to open CCAD has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life.  The advancements we have been able to make in such a short period of time with such a small team has been impressive to say the least.  I have been able to accomplish more at CCAD with business intelligence and analytics than I have anywhere else.  I also included two pictures of the hospital, one where I had to go to work in a sandstorm and one on a normal day.  If you have watched the mission impossible filmed in Dubai, the sandstorm in that movie was not an exaggeration, I'm sure this picture will prove that.  

           Over the last year Sarah and I have really taken advantage of all Abu Dhabi has to offer.  One of the cool things we were able to check out was a wake boarding competition that they had at the Al Forsan International Sports Resort.  The competition was set in an automated wake boarding pool pulling all the contestants on a cable around the park.  You can actually rent time on this park during regular hours (which I have yet to do).  After the competition there was a small party afterwards which we hung around for.           

 I have been enjoying the vast selection of Cuban cigars in the UAE as well on occasion.  There are many great Cigar lounges in Abu Dhabi (St Regis, The Rosewood and Emirtates Palace).  I also went to a cigar rolling presentation where someone from Cuba was flown in to hand make the cigar you would try.  Me and my friend Leo from work went together to watch and enjoy a cigar one night.  I learned that the tobacco inside a cigar is rolled up and that the leaves used on the inside are the ones left in full sun on the tobacco plant where the outside cover of the cigar is left more in the shade.  My friend Leo (U.S. citizen, originally from Guatemala) spoke in Spanish to the nice woman rolling our cigars as she did not speak any English.  After knowing I can buy Cuban cigars in the UAE, I didn't think it could get any better.  But apparently it can and that means having a professional cigar roller from Cuba make your cigar right in front of you.  There's nothing like adding an educational experience to a classy joint with a nice Cuban cigar.

           Before I sound too unhealthy, I have also taken up golf and the sport of squash while I've been here.  The Westin resort in Abu Dhabi has a PGA course and a halogen night course you can golf.  I have a group of friends I head out with usually in the middle of the week to run the course.  For me it is quite difficult as I am still quite a novice at golf, I usually bring about five extra range balls off the assumption that I will probably lose them all.  I am much more serious about squash however and have improved vastly over the last year.  I have become so serious that I actually have a coach I train with once a week apart from my two game nights in my league.  If you have never tried it before, it looks like racket ball, but it is far from it.  Squash is one of the most cardio intense sports there is, the professionals tell me "you don't play squash to get fit, you get fit to play squash".  Also in the world of sports, Sarah's company (Mubadala) sponsored a health walk where she got to meet Kareem Abdul Jabar, and just recently when I was out with my friends we ran into another retired NBA player Jawann Oldham who played for many teams including the Bulls and the Lakers (he played for a total of 8 teams).  He is in town as a coach for the Olympic team (he is also a 1980 Olympic gold medalist) and is also the director of the basketball academy of Dubai.       

         Another highlight I would have to say for me was running my first 10K, I never opted to do it in the states because I am stingy and never wanted to pay money to run.  So I got my chance when my hospital offered to pay for the first two hundred employees who signed up.  I find that practicing for a 10K is actually harder than running the official race.  The actual 10K is way easier: you have people cheering for you, handing you water at various intervals (that you can pour all over yourself and drink) and you have all these runners around you to compete with and set pace.  I have not been in a running competition since my high school track days and I forgot how great that runners high feels after a good long run. 

         Sarah's work gave us free tickets to the Formula one races as well as an after party show with Pharrell Williams performing.  The race was a lot of fun, we had actually been on the track many times to ride bikes during the week nights when they allow you to, so it was actually cool to see them race on the track.  You can also pay a decent sum of money to race your own car on the track (However, many people do not realize you completely destroy your tires on the track and have to replace them after).  Pharrell Williams was ok, he was complaining about a sore throat or his stake smoke bothering him, but we got to see "Happy" live, so there you go.  

Formula One Track

           Early this year Sarah and I booked a stay at the Atlantis resort in Dubai which in on the Palm Island.  We scheduled time there to do the dolphin activity mainly but also found that the water park was a lot of fun.  The dolphins were great to swim with and let pull you around, it was a great experience for anyone who has never done it before.  There was a slide in the water park (if you can call it that) where you have to step into a capsule standing straight up, the door closes on you, and a trap door drops from beneath and you free fall for a second or two before doing a cork screw upside down and out.  It is truly terrifying the first time you do it, but I had to do it a few more times after my first.  According to Sarah I screamed all the way down the tube on my first run.  I have to say it was hilarious when I finally convinced Sarah to go and seeing her reaction.  

            My brother also came earlier this year on the tail end of his honeymoon.  I have to say it was quite priceless to see both of their reactions come out of the airport, I am not sure I had the exact look on my face when I first arrived in the UAE, they seemed a bit shell shocked to be in the middle east.  But after a day or so and us taking them around they realized this place was not only safe, but actually a lot of fun.  Who would have imagined we would all meet in Abu Dhabi together one day.  We took him and his wife Jillian around Abu Dhabi, to the local zoo, stayed at Qasr Al Sarab (also stopped at a car museum on the way) resort again and then went back to the Atlantis in Dubai to Skydive over the Palm and enjoy the water park.  I was happy I also got a chance to show my brother the new hospital too and have him meet some of my local friends and friends from other parts the world.
                I was rather surprised how much I wasn't terrified to go skydiving in Dubai.  Me, my

brother and Sarah all planned to drop out of the plane and when the time came I was ready.  I was the first to drop out with my guide.  Initially it is cold and very loud as you free fall through the air, the view was breathtaking.  Slowly the air gets warmer and just at that point the shoot is pulled and it becomes completely silent.  You just coast for a while before lifting your legs up and landing on your butt in the grass.  Thankfully we hired photographers for the event, Geoff had a fear there was no air up at the high altitude where we were skydiving so he was making a hover vacuum face in a bunch of his photos...priceless.  Although I think I would have rather had his pictures as clearly I didn't realize that I was doing double bull horns in half of my pictures (what a tool).  Sarah clearly is the most photogenic when (and had the best photographer) it comes to skydiving as she had the best pictures (as if I had any doubt),  Geoff and Jillian really enjoyed the water park as I assumed they would, I forgot to mention before that the Atlantis has a sort of lazy river on steroids.  It takes you up and down on conveyor belts and coasts you up to slides and back in the river again, you can literally ride the river through tunnels and transparent shark tank slides for hours without having to get off your tube.
                 I also was able to take them to Dubai mall in front of the 2km tall Burj Khalifa where they have a fountain that rivals (build by the same team) the one in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  My brother missed out on that during my bachelor party so this made up for it (plus they played Michael Jackson -  Thriller).  I was so happy my brother came to visit, I think there were so many strange ideas going through the family about where we were and to have him come see our lives here meant a lot to me.  I'm also happy that he can go home and tell others about it and set the story straight about this place. 

             Before my brother arrived I also had planned the surprise for Sarah's 30th.  I had to call in a slight favor from one of my long term relationships I had with a customer service representative with
the Westin.  (If you are not aware I am very very picky about customer service in restaurants and hotels and will speak out if I sense anything I think falls outside the lines of quality and customer care.  But do not let that fool you, I am nothing but pleasant in my exchanges with the leaders I speak with.  I write up full constructive reports and stories about my experiences and in many cases are thanked repeatedly for my contribution.  They tell me how nice it was to offer my experience in such a constructive way and how my feedback can be used to make valuable improvements.  This behavior has earned me countless free dinners and night stays at many of my favorite vacation spots in the world.  Why is this relevant now do you ask?)  I needed Sarah's 30th to start with a bang, so I booked a room right in front of the Palm Island in Dubai the weekend Michael Buble was in town. I asked my friend at Westin corporate if he could give me an upgrade.  He said he would see what he could do, not sure what but it would be something.  When we arrived to check in we were greeted by the front desk manager and personally escorted to our room.  Much to my surprise we appeared in front of two double doors, when she opened them I was blown away.  The room was a two story penthouse with four balconies, a spiral staircase going to the master bedroom, a Jacuzzi, a steam room and a full size kitchen.  I had to act like it was all planned but I was just as surprised as Sarah was.  Needless to say Michael Buble was great, but I think Sarah enjoyed the room just as much.

Gazelle by our pool

In the desert after our Camel ride

              Our last note able experience was my surprise for Sarah one weekend when I drove her out to a different desert resort out in the Emirate of Sharja for the weekend.  Unlike the other resort we went to this one was meant to be much isolated.  With the Bedouin theme in mind, each hotel room is shaped like a tent and isolated from all other rooms, you get your own personal pool and breakfast served to your room in the morning.  The entire area is a preserve so as you enter there are animals (mostly gazelle and oryx) just casually walking all over the property.  When we were swimming in our pool we usually had two to three gazelle grazing a few feet away.  The booking also included two activities for the day.  We chose a sunset camel ride in the desert and the 5 am falcon hunting session.  The camel ride was ok, I'm not sure if I mentioned but I don't really like camels, but for some reason Sarah does so I take one for the team and hop on.  The falcon hunting session was way more fun for me, the explained how to train a wild falcon (I actually got to hold a falcon once at a work event as well) and how to feed them a just the right times to get them from flying off when you release them.  They also showed us this trained desert eagle (Owl) which also knew how to hunt to some degree.  After the activity we went back to sleep for a while before ordering our breakfast in bed, I was happy to order my favorite breakfast of all time: eggs benedict.  That was probably my favorite desert resort of the two we have stayed at mostly because of the wild life aspect, that was amazing.

Our Bedouin Tent Room

             Also how could I possibly forget, our newest member of the family, Maxim (Max) turned one this year.  Sarah baked him a tuna cake with a candle (I think he was hypnotized by the flame in the picture, as he can be seen contemplating his last year on earth).  I have not been the biggest fan of cats in my past, but I'll admit, I love that cat.         

              It has been a crazy past twelve months, but I have to say that we are still very much enjoying it here.  Our fascination and curiosity for the culture here and the many cultures that come to work here is still the same.  These two video's I posted below I think sum up two things.  The first gives the reason many people become expats to begin with.  It describes the journey an expat takes over time and what can happen if you are open.  The second video gives a good idea of what we see every day (this is how the locals dress and how they look on a normal day) but also the exposure to all the other cultures that are here too.  This is truly a unique place, no other place in the world like it.