Picnic in the Park

Last week my husband and I were invited to a real Middle Eastern barbeque in the park with some of his coworkers. 

Middle Eastern people are about the most hospitable I’ve ever met.  I only use the term “Middle Eastern” because this group, while all living in Abu Dhabi are from many different countries in the Middle East – Syria, Morocco, Egypt, etc.  They are basically expats as are we.  They went to great lengths to make sure Hubby and I were comfortable and certainly well fed!  Most of them were quite a bit younger than we are – I couldn’t help but notice many similarities between them and young people at home.  They laughed, joked, smiled, played just like kids back home.  I had to ask myself, “Why wouldn’t they?”  I guess it’s easy to come someplace new with pre-conceived notions and have them flipped upside down and backwards.

 

One of the funny things that happened was one of them asked how long we had been married, and I didn’t quite understand the question, and thought she asked, “How long have you been in Abu Dhabi” and I answered “two months” – they laughed because we didn’t look your typical newlyweds… when I realized what I had said, we all had a good laugh about that.

A typical picnic/barbeque at a park in the UAE consists of setting out rugs and cushions and everybody sits on the ground.  They were kind enough to offer us folding camp chairs!  The barbeque is meat on a stick – Shish Taouk, which is really yummy marinated chicken, ground spiced lamb on a stick, and tender, succulent beef on stick.   Plenty of Arabic bread which is the size of a large tortilla, but more like a thin pita bread.  I basically made wraps with the meat and hummus, baba ghanoosh (made from eggplant), labneh (tastes kind of like garlic, sour cream and greek yogurt all mixed together) and a variety of pickles.  I also tasted stuffed grape leaves for the first time, that were stuffed with spiced rice.  Lots of nuts and sunflower seeds and ketchup-flavored potato chips (which surprised me - they're good!) were passed around to snack on.  Also the most delicious and I mean DELICIOUS Moroccan cookies… I’m desperate now to find a Moroccan bakery so I can get some more.  For dessert we had a couple of delicious cakes, a Zebra cake and a cinnamon layer cake.  My mouth is watering right now as I type.

Another custom at picnics is “smoking shisha”.  This is basically smoking fruit flavored tobacco from a hookah pipe.  Our friends were eager for hubby and I to try this.  We had to repeatedly turn them down… I explained that it is against our religion to smoke and we got in a very interesting conversation about why Mormons don’t drink or smoke with several young women.  One of the young women told us, “This is a very good thing.  It is the same as our religion.  Although many people ignore this as you can see, however we are taught against putting any unclean things in our bodies.”  I felt really good to be able to talk to her a little about my beliefs regarding health and it was nice to hear how she felt about it as well.  After that they were very supportive and told the rest of the group, “No, stop asking them!  They are trying to honor their religion by not doing it.” 

 

It was such a nice afternoon and I have to admit, it shattered a lot of stereotypes that I have held about Muslim people.  To be honest, I've had little to no interaction with Muslims until I moved to Abu Dhabi.  I know that we are all children of our Heavenly Father and that he loves us equally.  These are my brothers and sisters.  The news constantly reminds us of the people in the world that are doing bad things, but in the day to day world I believe that most of the people that we come in contact with are trying to do the right thing and be a good person.  Those are certainly the people with whom I shared a lovely picnic with last week.

Gettin' my crafty on...

Finding arts and crafts supplies, materials and finding other people who like to do it is a challenge here in Abu Dhabi.  Quilting fabric is also challenging to find.  I'm starting to make little discoveries however and I thought I'd share what I find when I find it.  Here is a link to some classes from a blog that I saw posted on Facebook:

Creative spots in Abu Dhabi from Abu Dhabi Confidential

A small craft shop I discovered in Abu Dhabi is Craft Corner.  It is located next to the Marriott Hotel, which is next to the WTC Mall.  Craft Corner is on the first floor, in the Lulu Refreshments Building.  It is tiny, but they have a fair supply of scrapbooking papers and I think pretty reasonably priced.  Also some scrapbooking embellishments.  They have some acrylic paints as well.  The woman behind the counter was extremely kind and helpful and I will definitely go back there.

Thanks to my intrepid husband, we tracked down two quilt shops and a scrapbook shop in Dubai (Jumeirah Beach area).  They are all very close to each other.  The first stop was Classic Quilts, located in the smallish shopping mall, Jumeirah Plaza.  I have to remind myself that this is not the US and to be grateful that I found anything!  A lot of their fabric seems so expensive to me.  They did have some beautiful Indonesian batiks that run about 20 dh/meter(approximately $5.45) which I think is a good price, just not a huge selection.  I stocked up on sewing machine needles, got some batting (that was really expensive - gasp) and several fabrics.  They sell Bernina machines and accessories.

Our next stop, I'm guessing approximately 3-4 km away from Classic Quilts in the Town Centre Shopping Mall was Craftland on the first floor upstairs (note:  Ground floor=first floor, first floor=second floor and so on in the UAE).  Very cute store with mostly sewing/needlework supplies.  They also sell Brother machines and accessories - good to know as that's the kind of machine I have.  Lots more fat quarter bundles, jelly rolls, charm packs, etc at this store.  They also have a good selection of ribbon embroidery kits and supplies.

A wonderfully unexpected surprise was Paper Lane, a good-sized scrapbooking store which was right around the corner from Craftland.  After years of scrapbooking and card-making, I've kind of hung up my scrapbooking hat and switched to digital, but I had to have a look at the lovely papers and could have gone crazy, but I controlled myself.

I hope to find more places to "get my crafty on" as I get to know Abu Dhabi better.

Happy Wife, Happy Life

That's what my husband likes to say, "Happy Wife, Happy Life".

Today we celebrate our 30-something wedding anniversary.  There have certainly been times when we have struggled and no doubt annoyed each other.  I know when we work hard at making the other person happy and comfortable and think less of ourselves and our own wants, we get along wonderfully.  Funny how that works?

I have been learning a lot this semester about covenant marriages.  That is the kind of marriage that I have.  Bruce C. Hafen said this about covenant marriages:

"Three summers ago, I watched a new bride and groom, Tracy and Tom, emerge from a sacred temple.  They laughed and held hands as family and friends gathered to take pictures.  I saw happiness and promise in their faces as they greeted their reception guests, who celebrated publicly the creation of a new family.  I wondered that night how long it would be until these two faced the opposition that tests every marriage.  Only then would they discover whether their marriage was based on a contract or a covenant.

Another bride sighed blissfully on her wedding day, "Mom, I'm at the end of all my troubles!"  "Yes," replied her mother, "but at which end?"  When troubles come, the parties to a contractual marriage seek happiness by walking away.  They marry to obtain benefits and will stay only as long as they're receiving what they bargained for.  But when troubles come to a covenant marriage, the husband and wife work them through.  They marry to give and to grow, bound by covenants to each other, to the community, and to God.  Contract companions each give 50%.  Covenant companions each give 100%.

Marriage is by nature a covenant, not just a private contract one may cancel at will.  Jesus taught about contractual attitudes when he described the "hireling", who performs his conditional promise of care only when he receives something in return.  When the hireling "seeth the wolf coming", he "leaveth the sheep and fleeth... because he... careth not for the sheep."  By contrast, the Savior said, "I am the good shepherd, ... and I lay down my life for the sheep."  Many people today marry as hirelings.  And when the wolf comes, they flee.  This idea is wrong.  It curses the earth, turning parent's hearts away from their children and from each other."

This class is really causing me to think a lot more about my marriage.  I know that I am blessed to have a better-than-many marriage, but there are things I can do with greater love and effort to help us have an extraordinary marriage.

Happy Anniversary Sweetie.  I love you.

 

 

Three Random and Happy Things

1.  I went exploring with a new friend this afternoon and stumbled upon Papa Murphy’s at the WTC Mall, woo hoo!  A little bit of home in the middle of Abu Dhabi and I don’t have to cook tonight!

 

 

2.  We also found a tiny craft shop called Craft Corner today, that is next to the WTC Mall.  And here I thought Abu Dhabi was pretty bleak as far as craft supplies, but this little store had some cute scrapbooking paper, embellishments and a small selection of acrylic paint.  I found a nice jar of copper colored paint which I was missing and needed.  Score!  I have a little more time on my hands here than I did back home and my creative juices are flowing – it’s just hard to find projects and the materials to do the projects.  I’m excited because somebody gave me a beautiful plant stand that they didn’t want and I’m going to zhuzh-it-up with some paint.  I feel really good when I get to be creative.  I think this video explains really well why we as women feel so good about being creative.



3.  I saved the best random and happy thing for last.

This cute couple is getting married in the San Diego Temple on September 5, 2015.  They just got engaged this past weekend.  I am getting a new daughter-in-law and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

 

We have been studying this week about eternal marriage in my Family Foundations class at BYU-Idaho.  Elder Richard G. Scott said the following:  “One of the most beautiful, comforting doctrines of the Lord—one that brings immense peace, happiness, and unbounded joy—is that principle called eternal marriage.  This doctrine means that a man and woman who love each other deeply, who have grown together through the trials, joys, sorrows, and happiness of a shared lifetime, can live beyond the veil together forever with their family who earn that blessing. That is not just an immensely satisfying dream; it is a reality. Any husband and wife who have shared the joys of marriage here on earth would want that blessing. But only those who meet the requirements established by the Lord will receive that supernal gift. I bear witness that all those things that have and will bring me the greatest happiness in life have roots in the temple ordinances. Decide now to receive the ordinances of the temple at the appropriate time. Don’t let anything overcome that resolve.”

I am so grateful for my son and future daughter-in-law that have made good choices throughout their young lives that will allow them to make covenants with the Lord that will enable their marriage to last into the eternities.

I am happy.

 

Round Round Get Around, I Get Around...

This week I got my Emirates Resident ID card (basically like a Green Card in the States), so now I can figure out how to go and apply for my driver's license.  I say "go and figure out how" because everything is a process here.  But now at least it's legal for me to try.  That being said, Abu Dhabi has some pretty insane driving.  Pretty scary actually.  I've seen right turns from the left lanes and left turns from the right lanes multiple times.

We are a one-car family right now, and Hubby drives into the city to go to work everyday.  Up until today, if we didn't drive together, I've been using one of these to get around, which is the taxi service.





Taxis are plentiful, easy to get and not very expensive, at least not in comparison to taxis in Las Vegas!  Call 600-535353 once, talk to customer service, and then you're in their system.  Everything will be computerized from that point and you can book without actually talking to anybody.  The farthest I've taken one is about 20 miles away and it's about $14 taxi ride (50 dirham with tip, which is just rounding up - 47 dh, round up to 50).  That would be quadruple that in Las Vegas.  I call them and they are almost always down by the curb by the time I leave the apartment and take the elevator downstairs.  So far every taxi I've ridden in has been very clean except for one... not sure what that story was.  Some of them have monitors with games, infomercials, travel info, etc on the headrest in front of the back seat.  These guys drive around all day long, so I think they are prepared for any curveball (i.e. bad driver) that gets thrown at them, so I feel relatively safe.  Most of the drivers speak broken English, and know where it is I am asking to go, but just to be safe, I always print out a copy of Google Maps to show them just in case.

Today I tried something different - I took the bus for the first time.

The bus stop is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment... we are on the edge of the island, so we are a terminus... which is great when you're leaving because the bus is pretty empty and you can pick your seat.  Typically in Abu Dhabi, women sit in the front of the bus, and men sit in the back.  They don't sit together.  However, as the bus gets more and more crowded, there are a lot of people standing, and the men get pushed towards the front and women towards the back.  The best thing about he bus is that it is only 2 dh!  about $0.55 to go all over the city!  I will confess though that today when I waited to go back home, my bus was packed like sardines, so I opted for a taxi instead.  Sorry, but I'm not that thrilled about being up close and personal like that.  At least I save a little money going one way on the bus - it wasn't bad, and the stops are all on a digital screen back and forth between English and Arabic, so it was very clear where we were during the journey.

If you would have told me 9 months ago that I'd be jumping in and out of buses and taxis in Abu Dhabi, I wouldn't have believed it.  I was doing all right in Las Vegas - I was finally starting to get used to living there after 11 years in Minnesota.  This is such a crazy huge change for us... kind of scary, kind of overwhelming.  It reminds me of a talk by President Thomas S. Monson called "Finding Joy in the Journey".  In that talk he mentions that change is inevitable, to live in and enjoy the moment, to be grateful and to follow Jesus Christ.  We are going through a big change now, and I can stress about it and wish things were the way they used to be, or I can learn about and appreciate this new place that I am in now.

Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey,

and share our love with friends and family.

One day each of us will run out of tomorrows...

Brothers and sisters, my sincere prayer is that we may adapt to the changes in our lives,

that we may realize what is most important,

that we may express our gratitude always and thus find joy in the journey.

 

Thomas S. Monson



Sugar Sugar, Honey Honey

The past couple of weeks in Family Foundations class we have been tasked with setting a health goal.  My goals were give up sugar for two weeks and walk 9 days within the two week period.  The walking I will accomplish.  However I've already blown the sugar goal.

You see, I live in Abu Dhabi.

Satan's Sweet Shoppe.

A short elevator downstairs brings me to Spinney's which is our mini/mart grocery store in our complex.  Not so mini however, that they don't have a full slate of British/Dutch/German chocolate bars, European cookies (or biscuits as they like to say here).  And that's just the pre-packaged stuff... they have freshly baked donuts and cakes, etc. in their small bakery section.  If that doesn't suit me, I can walk next door to Costa Coffee, which is the UAE version of Starbucks and there are shelves of muffins and tarts to go with the yummy hot cocoa.  Luckily I'm a little too cheap to indulge there.

Then there's the local grocery store/French super-Walmart store called Carrefour.  Carrefour has a little of everything, and since it's French... they don't just have a bakery, they have a PATISSERIE... yep, just saying the word Patisserie starts off my salivary glands.  It is surprisingly inexpensive.  You can get a whole tray of Arabic baklava for about 5 dirhams which is $1.35.  And if you want something a little more common than a French pastry, at the front of the grocery store is a Cinnabon and a Baskin Robbins.  Remember, this is just the grocery store.

Now let's move on to the malls.  And malls are everywhere in Abu Dhabi.  Malls have cheesecake kiosks.  Yes, kiosks... in addition to bakeries, and ice cream shoppes and gelato shoppes and donut stores and Belgian Waffle shoppes and the list goes on.  Candylicious is a big candy store chain here where they even make their own candy sticks and canes in all different flavors.  The candy-making lady was nice enough to pose for a picture.

All I'm saying is that Abu Dhabi is not exactly the easiest place in the world to conquer a sweet tooth.

And I really do want to conquer it.  Because I don't feel very good.  My joints ache (inflammation from sugar), if I eat too much I'm tired and it's hard to concentrate (carbo coma from sugar), and it makes me feel depressed!  So it should be easy to quit, given those reasons!  However, I still struggle.

I came across this quote today from Ezra Taft Benson:  "The condition of the physical body can affect the spirit. That’s why the Lord gave us the Word of Wisdom. He also said that we should retire to our beds early and arise early (see D&C 88:124), that we should not run faster than we have strength (see D&C 10:4), and that we should use moderation in all good things. In general, the more food we eat in its natural state and the less it is refined without additives, the healthier it will be for us. Food can affect the mind, and deficiencies in certain elements in the body can promote mental depression... Rest and physical exercise are essential, and a walk in the fresh air can refresh the spirit. Wholesome recreation is part of our religion, and a change of pace is necessary, and even its anticipation can lift the spirit."

Maybe instead of giving up sugar for two weeks, I just need to take it one day at a time... I've done it before so I know I'm capable of it.

I know Heavenly Father created me to be vibrant and healthy, and that Satan wants me droopy and sluggish feeling.  I'm not as effective in being an active participant in the work of the Lord when I don't feel my best, and I know that Satan is acutely aware of that fact.  So I will give it a go again, and again and again if I need to.  The Lord doesn't want or expect me to give up trying.

Philippians 4:13 is my go-to scripture... I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.

Lovely Women

This week in Family Foundations we're studying gender and eternal identity.  A quote that I read today left an impression on me:

“A woman not of our faith once wrote something to the effect that in her years of working with beautiful women she had seen several things they all had in common, and not one of them had anything to do with sizes and shapes. She said the loveliest women she had known had a glow of health, a warm personality, a love of learning, stability of character, and integrity. If we may add the sweet and gentle Spirit of the Lord carried by such a woman, then this describes the loveliness of women in any age or time, every element of which is emphasized in and attainable through the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “  Jeffrey R. Holland, To The Young Women, October 2005 General Conference.

As this is a new year, and I am always looking for ways to improve myself, I think that while I have most of list of characteristics as described by Elder Holland, I can take his list and examine how I can improve upon these characteristics.  I have quite a way to go to get to the glow of health part!  There are many women in my life that are truly beautiful because they possess these particular qualities in abundance.  I remember when I was younger, a woman moved into my ward.  I'm ashamed to say my first impression of her was, "She is quite a homely woman."  As I got to know this person, her kindness and personality soon made her sparkle for me.  From the time she moved into the ward to the time she moved out, she became lovely in my eyes.  Physically, nothing really changed about her.  It was me that changed.  I was the beneficiary of her generous spirit and I was able to see her with new eyes - I think I caught a glimpse of how Heavenly Father saw her.  I realized then that beauty really does come from within.  We can all be lovely, every one of us.

This reminds me of the scripture in 1 Samuel 16:7, "...for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

The Lovely Women of my family