After a two month vacation of sun and surf, my life of leisure came to a crashing end this week as I started my new job. Despite no longer being able to sleep in, my first week of work went well. The administrative department of NYUAD takes up 2 floors of a brand new building…
Category: Picture
Turkey Day – Middle East Style!
Thanksgiving – what a great American holiday! A day dedicated to mountains of delicious, home-cooked food, football games and most importantly, family and friends. A day of thanks. This year, Megan and I found ourselves over 7,000 miles away from family, the NFL and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. However, this didn’t stop us from…
Celebrating Eid!
Pronounced “eed” (like “lead” and “feed”), Eid refers to a Muslim holiday. Eid Al-Adha, which we celebrated the week of November 14th, marked the Feast of the Sacrifice following the Hajj, or the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide. This differs from Eid Al-Fitr, which comes at the end of Ramadan….
On the Road Again!
So as Megan mentioned in a previous post, we finally took the plunge to rent a car after being in Abu Dhabi for over a month without wheels. Having to rely on taxis 24-7 gets old…fast! And it’s strange, but having a car really is helping us feel more “normal” and not so much like…
Back in the Saddle
So with a little luck and some wonderful references by some great former colleagues, I was offered (and accepted) a job in the finance department of the Abu Dhabi campus of New York University! I start on November 28th. It is an incredible opportunity. Classes started for the first time in September with about 150…
The Apartment Revisited
Slowly but surely we have been able to add some odds-n-ends to the apartment to make it feel more and more like a home. Probably my favorite upgrade is adding 16 small picture frames along one of the living room walls. I can’t describe how nice it is so see so many friendly faces every…
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Megan and I finally had a chance to take the tour of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (the man whose dream it was to turn a desert into a world class city), the Grand Mosque is the 8th largest mosque in the world. Sheikh Zayed wanted to…
The Sounds of F1
F1 weekend wasn’t just about racing – there were lots of concerts and performances to take in. Trying to really throw ourselves into the experience (and, in part, thanks to Meg’s cool boss), we took a stab at seeing 4 performances in 4 nights. Thursday – To help fuel excitement for F1 weekend, Abu Dhabi…
The Race!
Over the weekend, Megan and I took in some Formula 1 racing at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. It was our first time watching live F1 racing and we were not disappointed! The action is fast and overall racing facility is impressive. Last year, Abu Dhabi built the track on Yas Island so…