a weekend in lebanon.

holidays seem to be a lot fewer and far between here in the middle east than when i was living in italy.

part of it is because the holidays aren't planned in advance most of the time.

since many holidays in muslim countries are based on the moon (islam uses a lunar calendar) the holidays aren't announced until the moon has been sighted within a certain window of time.

but, thanksgiving was a planned weekend, so lindsay, lynn and i planned to go to beirut, lebanon for that weekend.

warning- photo overload coming. a lot of the pictures look so nice, i just can't decide which ones to share!

after a late night, in the rain struggle to find our airbnb, this was what we found in the morning.

blue skies!

scattered street art.

the wiring was completely reminiscent of southeast asia.

we decided to spend our first day wandering about...with a few sights in mind, figuring we'd just let the day play out and see what happened.

the mohammad al-amin mosque, a sunni muslim mosque located in downtown beirut.

cool things to see if you look left and right!

ruins next to the mosque.

it was funny because we happened at this spot just as a very large and somewhat ominous appearing protest headed this way. we took some pictures and quickly got out of the way before we became the next americans on the nightly news.

seems every city has their own photo op just waiting for ya!

the nearby harbor.

if you look closely, you'll notice that some apartments in the building appear occupied.

and others don't even have windows and appear destroyed.

i was quite curious about it.

there's a looooooong boardwalk along the harbor.

the raouche rocks, beirut's iconic rock formations.

the second day we hired a driver to take us outside of the city to some other notable sights. he was so helpful and basically planned the whole day for us and accommodated any of our requests.

we went to the jeita grotto, but no photos are allowed, so you'll have to click the link to see it! it was cool, and worth the time to make a stop there.

we took the cable car up to our lady of lebanon.

that ride was something else.

but the views were definitely worth it.

views from the byblos citadel.

byblos is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

the clouds and storms in the distance made for some incredible photos.

we had a great meal at local lebanese restaurant, feniqia, which was just a little walk up from the harbor.

my travel buddies for the weekend, lynn and lindsay!

we ate here, twice, so we definitely recommend it!

we also had a great driver for our day trip out of beirut. you can reach salah at +961 79 101 909 via what's app and he'll happily help you plan whatever you need and give you a fair price.

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....

out and about in dubai.

here's a little smorgasbord of some of the happenings in dubai since i've arrived. 

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having traded the historic sites of milan for the modern buildings of dubai isn't all that bad.

i mean, check out the burj al arab in all it's colorful glory. 

there are also some amazing restaurants in dubai.

this is din tai fung, found at our local mall of the emirates. this world famous restaurant is known for their xiaolongbao, otherwise known as soup dumplings.

there's usually a wait to eat here, so patience is required.

but it's worth it!

noodles with a peanut sauce.

pot stickers. i had never actually seen these served all connected like this.

#asianfoodrookie

nom nom nom.

i also went and met up with some other expats in dubai at this nearby spanish restaurant.

it's quite tasty and on some of the local discount apps.

and, of course, there's the beach.

the water is clear, the temperature is usually pretty awesome, and there are plenty of public beaches to access for free.

this is kite beach.

and since i have several canadians for friends, we celebrated canadian thanksgiving in october.

i made this homemade apple pie, which was marginally successful.

the spices were all wrong.

but we ate it anyways.

oh, canada!

then kelsey and i made the short walk to "cat park."

it's pretty and right behind our apartment building.

but it is, in fact, filled with a zillion cats.

i exaggerate.

i counted the number of kitties on one 1 km lap- 64.

sixty-four.

cat park.

took this picture more recently. still lots o'cats.

but you can catch some nice sunsets in the park.

wandering through the mall one night, we saw a crowd gathering. none other than this uber famous supermodel in town for an event.

and while we don't have a pool worth using in our building, we do try and find other pools to cool off in when the temperatures are hot hot hot!

another day at the beach, and we found that they rolled the sand with dubai designs leading up to the world expo 2020.

brunch is a big thing here in dubai and i've made a point to avoid much of the brunch culture. it's expensive and generally focused on lots of alcohol, but we found this rather chill beach brunch with some pretty nice views.

and my co-workers and i found these amazing sunset views from the jumeirah beach hotel bar that overlooks the burj al arab.

have you seen those crazy milkshakes in your social media feed yet? meet the guilty makers.

unfortunately, now i've been twice and still yet to get one of those crazy milkshakes.

something tells me it might be for the best.

but, even their snacks are on point.

the school superintendent had the entire staff over for drinks.

over three separate weekends because the staff is well, huge.

and this is her view of the marina.

pays to be in charge, literally and figuratively.

for my teammate danielle's birthday, we rented a large yacht and cruised around dubai for a couple hours.

there were a lot of green faces in the beginning, when the ride was quite rough, but in the end, it turned out really nice.

meet kelsey.

and the grade 4 team.

and most of the group on the boat that day.

i've done a lot in dubai this year, but it's just a small portion of all the things that one can do!