national day 2018.

national day in the uae falls on december 2 and is similar to the united states' celebration of the 4th of july. 

national day is the day the seven emirates joined together to form the uae in 1971.

a couple of us got together and booked a quick overnight to abu dhabi.

we went to the mosque, as not everyone had been since we had arrived in august.

caitlin and i came during our dubai trip a couple years back, but seriously the place is so stunning who wouldn't want to go more than once?

we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. the views were clearly terrible.

and the food awful. #lies

then we headed over to the intercontinental abu dhabi for the night.

the sunset was awesome and much of the afternoon was spent watching the fighter jets dance around the sky in honor of the holiday.

and then there were some fireworks, which we could see from our hotel.

the building was all lit up like the uae flag.

the next morning we got up and went to the beach club that's also part of the intercontinental's property.

what a nice weekend! always looking forward to more relaxing poolside days!

sporting events in dubai.

one thing i'm enjoying most about dubai is the big city draw it has for sporting events.

in the few short months i've been living here, there's been major golf, tennis and rugby tournaments.

back in november, the dp world championship showed up in dubai, bringing the european tour to town along with several of the world's best golfers, including rory mcelroy and sergio garcia.

then it was time for rugby 7s.

which, mind you, i know nothing about rugby, except that everyone seemed to be going, so i agreed to go as well.

it's like a zillion miles outside of dubai it seems, but nonetheless lots of people dress up in costumes and make it a big party.

it was a fun time and i look forward to going again next year!

and just recently an atp tour stop happened to be in dubai.

i've been a big tennis fan for awhile, and watch a lot of tennis every summer while in the us.

mom and i have even been to a couple tournaments, like atlanta and wimbledon.

but i was yet to see the #goat roger federer in person and he played both an early round match we saw during the week and then made it to the final.

i also was able to see up and coming greek superstar stefanos tsitsipas in action. he cracked the top ten that week, becoming the first greek to do so.

it's awesome to live around the world and get to experience all the different events and such that happen. looking forward to hitting these events again next year and a few more as well! maybe a formula 1 or camel race? hmmmmm....