Sturm and Conkers!

You might be wondering what Sturm and Conkers are... so was I the first time I heard these words. Here is the story...
It was officially the first day of fall 3 days ago. The leaves have just started changing and falling off the trees. My students started talking about playing a game called "Conkers" and naturally I thought this was the latest kid fad or some kind of toy. One student attempted to explain it to me, but I still didn't understand so I had to Wikapedia the rules.

Around the same time, I started noticing people caring bags of little brown nuts on the tram and metro. I wondered what they were and if people could eat them. They had clearly been collecting them from somewhere, but where? It wasn't until I went for a run in the Prater that is how I picked up on where these nuts could be found. As I ran down the running path, I was lucky enough to dodge these brown speeding bullets (nuts) as they crashed to the ground from the trees above. Americans would probably just call these strange nuts Chestnuts. But these are "special Chestnuts" but suposidly most people collect them to play a game. (ah... the connection)

The game

• A hole is drilled in a large, hard conker using a nail, gimlet, or small screwdriver. A piece of string is threaded through it about 25 cm (10 inches) long (often a shoelace is used). A large knot at one or both ends of the string secures the conker.
• The game is played between two people, each with a conker.
• They take turns striking each others conker until one breaks.
  
  hmmm... not too sure I'll be playing this game, but my 2nd graders sure are crazy about it... I think I'll stick to the Chestnut schnapps that I keep hearing about.
  Sturm is an entirely different story... I kept seeing this word posted in the restaurant and bar windows. Then a few soccer friends came to visit for a few days from Dubai, they discovered Sturm while they were out one day while I was at work.
  Sturm is basically a young wine that is only produced for one month between September and October. It is made from young grapes right after the harvest. The shelf life of Sturm is only a week or two. They don't properly cap the bottles and it goes bad rather quick. It comes in either Rot (red) or Weis (white) and is quite cloudy. This young wine has a very sweet taste similar to champagne. I guess its another reason to be out and about in the fall and is what I'll be drinking until I'm freezing cold and Gluvein (mulled spiced wine) starts to appear in the streets! So for now...bring on the Sturm!
  
  

A stop over in London

Chas and I on our way to the London Eye

I LOVE London!

Bec and I in the London Eye

Chas and I just got back from a mini vacation in the Uk. We spent two days in London and then 4 1/2 days in Edinburgh, Scotland. The main purpose of this vacation was to go to Norah and Nialls wedding. They are both teachers that I met during my year in Brussels. On our way to the wedding we passed through London to catch up with Chas' parents and brothers. We stayed at the Rembrandt Hotel near Chelsea and spent time with his parents friends. We were blessed with sunny weather and spent time walking around the city. My favorite part was wandering around Covanent Garden. I love all of the stalls selling art work and " junk." Our second night in London Chas' father took all of us on the London Eye. If you have not been to London before, the Eye is an enormous Farris Wheel that has an amazing view of some of the most famous buildings in London such as " Big Ben" and St. Paul's Cathedral. We had 11 people, 4 bottles of wine and a half an hour to admire the view. I met up with an old friend named Bec who I met when I was studying at Flinder's Uni in Australia. We hadn't seen each other in 7 years so it was a lot of fun catching up on eachothers lives. After the spin around the Eye, we headed off to a Brazilian restaurant for all you can eat grilled meat. There were 13 different kind of meat that they would bring to the table and cut off a piece for each person. It was an amazing spread of meats.
The next day Chas and I got up extremely early and caught a flight out of the dreaded Terminal 5 at Heathrow and headed for freezing cold Edinburgh. Chas and I both really enjoyed London and seeing his family. We have added it to our list of possible places to move after Dubai!

Weddings and a JEEP!

Well, it has been a while since I've written on my blog. I guess I have been a bit lazy and not as ambitious to keep up with my New Years resolution. Since I've written last Chas and I have been to Hawaii and back, literally. We flew more than half way around the world to catch up with my oldest friend Carmen and her honey Nate. They got married on the beautiful Island of Maui. It was so nice to get away from school for a week and to see both my mom and sister who also attended the wedding. Some of the highlights of the trip were: snorkeling with Sea turtles, a 6 hour fishing trip where Austin caught a 6 ft Marlin, driving the road to Hana, The beautiful wedding on an old plantation, spending time with family, seeing whales and dolphins, a crazy 21+ magic show, and laying on the beach. Traveling for 40 hours on the way to HI and 50+ on the way back was well worth the trip.
Chas and I will be flying to Scotland on June 22 to catch up with two other friends Nial and Norah who will be getting married at a cathedral in Edinburgh. Norah and I were interns at ISB together in 2004 where she met Nial (a second grade teacher). We will also get to catch up with other friends from Belgium along with Chas' cousin Brenden who is now living and teaching in Belgium. On the way to Scotland we will stop off in London for a few days to see Chas' parents and brothers.
Now comes the Jeep story. As my friend Jenny likes to say, " Steph you are impulsive" I would rather like to think of myself as spontaneous (in a good way). After having my beast of a car the Galloper (aka the slut, named after the tire cover on the back of the car) break down on the high way and then overheat a separate time on the way to work, I decided it was time to get a reliable ride. I wanted one that could take long trips as well as take on sand dunes and wadis. I decided to go for a car that I have wanted since I was 16, a jeep wrangler. This couldn't be any jeep, I had my heart set on a bright red, soft top. Much to my delight we found a 2008 Jeep Wrangler Sport at the used car dealership right by our apartment. It wasn't used at all, but since it had been a showroom car they couldn't sell it for full price. So as of today, we are the proud owners of a brand new jeep with only 37kms. So if you want a ride in a sporty little jeep convertible, come and visit us!

P.S. Only 2 1/2 weeks of school to go and then summer is here!!!

I've got a golden ticket

It's 12:30AM and Chas and I just got home from Salsa dancing. We are taking a 12 week course ( we have had 3 lessons) and there are two bars that have salsa nights where we can practice. We decided to check out the Latino House for dinner and then dancing to follow. The ambiance was fabulous but the food was average with a high price, so we will probably just go for drinks next time. We are really enjoying salsa but find the practice nights to be a little intimidating. I can relate them to the movie Dirty Dancing, specifically the scene when"baby" walks into the dance club carrying a watermelon, we felt a little out of place. Tired and laughing at ourselves, we decided we would be better off practicing in our living room where we can step on each others feet and be completely off beat. So we left Latino House and jumped into a taxi heading for home. Our driver greeted us and was friendlier than most. With a smile, he asked if we had a good evening. We said " yes," but told him we were tired. Next, he asked where we were from. "The USA," I replied. "Are you from Pakistan?" I asked (most drivers are). "No, Kashmir," he replied. Then he asked if he could ask us a question. He wanted to know if the WWF was real fighting or pretend like a movie. He was disappointed to find out that it is all staged. He asked if we were dating and about our families. He wanted to know specifically how many siblings we both had. He was filled with questions but friendly so we didn't mind talking. All of a sudden our conversation changed. We began talking about Kashmir (the region that India and Pakistan have been fighting over for years) and all of the problems within that region. His cheerful smile disappeared and he began to tell us about his family and being a taxi driver in Dubai. He works the night shift from 6:00 PM- 5:00AM 7 days a week. He gets very little commission from his driving and the employer does not provide housing or flights. The worst part is the company he works for is holding his passport (which Chas has told me is illegal for them to do). He told us about his sister who is getting married next month and he is unable to attend. There is no way for him to get his passport back to be able to go. He told us his only brother and father were both killed in Kashmir do to the violence. Even if he were allowed to leave Dubai it would be very difficult and dangerous for him to re-enter Kashmir. We could hear the sadness in his voice and then he became quiet and discreetly wiped his eyes. We rode in silence for a while. I tried to change the conversation back to the WWF to lighten the mood but we were arriving back to our apartment and it didn't really seem appropriate to talk anymore. " You are lucky to have a USA passport," he said. "Yes we are," Chas replied. I guess we don't always realize/appreciate just how lucky we really are.

Turning 28, Barcelona and Dubai World Cup

Brunch at Yalumba with good friends!

We went to a Barcelona game at Camp Nou

All dressed up and read to go!

Driving...Dubai...Dangerous

This is a pictures from our local paper, Gulf News. At least six people were killed after a series of horrific accidents on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway on Tuesday morning. Police reported that around 200 cars were involved in the crash, which happened in heavy fog, with 25 cars catching fire. In the winter, heavy fog rolls through the emirates making the highways in the the UAE incredibly unsafe. Luckily I don't live far from work and can take side roads if needed. My heart goes out to the families that lost loved ones in the crash this morning. Something needs to be done about the driving problems in Dubai. Driving in the fog here is very dangerous because no one slows down. It is as if every driver believes they are more important than the car next to them and won't think twice about swerving, speeding, cutting someone off at high speeds in incredibly dangerous weather conditions. On Monday morning there were 135 accidents reported on Sheik Zaied Hwy alone due to the fact that it was foggy. There is no reason for that many accidents... if this international community would slow down and respect the lives of others driving around them the roads in Dubai would be much safer. So here is to my seatbelt, short drives, side mirrors, my overused horn and a lot of patience! My hope is someday the police will patrol the HWYs and roads instead of relying on speed cameras, and hold people accountable for their actions.

Our 2 minute trip to Oman

It is always nice to get out of Dubai

My trusty old Galloper

In the middle of no where Oman

Chas and I took a Saturday drive to a small town on the border of the UAE called Al Ain. We loved all of the trees and how much greener it is in Al Ain. We crossed over into the Omani border town of Buraimi and received an exit stamp in our passports from the UAE. We soon realized that we couldn't just turn around and get stamped back into the UAE (which was our sneaky plan). We soon learned that we were actually in "No Man's Land" in Oman. In order to re enter the UAE, we had to drive another 40K to an area called Hafeet. There wasn't much to see on our drive besides sand, big trucks, goats and jagged mountains. It looked like we were driving on the moon. We took a few pictures along the way of the emptiness between Buraimi and Hafeet. Once across the second border we had to pay the equivalent of $20 to have the Omani border police stamp our passports just to turn around and re-enter the UAE. The Omani's at the border laughed at us for our short stay. If we really wanted to see Oman, our day trip needed to probably be a camping trip so we could cover more ground. When we got back to Al Ain we stopped for a late lunch at a Filipino restaurant called the Golden Fork. It was my first time eating at a Filipino restaurant and it wasn't much to write home about but I'll certainly try another place at some point. This was my second trip to Oman and I really want to go back and spend more time. I still haven't been to Salalah or to Muscat. On our way home we were going to stop at the Zoo in Al Ain but we were way too tired. Eventually we drove by the new outlet mall so we made a quick stop just to see what shops it had. I'm looking for a dress for the horse races coming up at the end of this month and I found one possibility tonight. I'll shop a bit more this week and keep my options open. Hope you enjoy the pictures.