Swimming in December

After 2 months of waiting, the rooftop pool in our apartment building finally opened. Now if they can just finish the cafe and gym…

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…

VICTORY!

One month to the day of our move in, Etisalat installed our internet. Let’s hope it keeps working!!! So, stay tuned for hopefully more frequent updates!

Getting there…

Well, we’re getting that much closer to becoming fully settled in the desert. We spent the weekend with a haul to IKEA and Carrefour to get the major last odds and ends for our place. It’s amazing what your forget you need to start up from nothing. After the six hours in the mall, it…

Starting to Look Like a Home

So after a few deliveries and a quick run to Carrefour (European chain that is like Walmart only better food selection and higher prices), our new apartment is slowly starting to look like a home. There is still a ton more we need, but it’s coming along. Besides the huge windows and views, the best…

Room with a View

Today we finally settled on our apartment – hooray!! But it wasn’t all peaches and cream – to say this morning was stressful would be an understatement. Our schedule was jammed packed and there was no room for error. After meeting with our agent, we arrived at the landlord’s office around 8:30am. We needed to…

Apartment Shenanigans

As it turns out, securing our new apartment was more of an adventure than we anticipated. Things are just done differently here. We expected some differences, but for a country that is vying for a spot as one of the world’s financial hubs, some of these differences were kind of surprising. To begin with, there…

Our New Apartment!

After some last minute drama, we got word this morning that we have successfully secured our new, “permanent” apartment!! Right now I don’t have a lot of pictures to share, but can run through the quick highlights: – It’s a brand new building in the Al Muroor area (which I know means nothing to you,…

The Digs

Here are some videos of our temporary digs.  Sorry – I meant to post this a few days ago, but was having some technical difficulties.  It’s nice enough and has a gym, brand new supermarket, cafe and restaurant. The complex is owned by Etihad Airlines – Abu Dhabi’s airline and same one we flew to…