Back in the Saddle

Well I am back in DXB from a long awaited summer holiday in the USA. And while I fight the unforgivable homesickness that comes with a return to the states, I have decided to focus my thoughts elsewhere.

Johnson Arabia Dubai Creek Striders Half Marathon 2010 race date is Friday 10th December.

Who is with me? I start training next week, and after 2 hours of soccer practice last night in 95 degree heat and 70% humidity left me heaving on the field, as well as a lifetime of stage freight when it comes to running competitively, I have my work cut out for me....

Any takers?

Dubai Friends

Here is the a good portion of my Dubai crew. Lot's of different countries represented below. We were celebrating Basile's (guy in dead middle) birthday and the theme was blue & white.

What did you do this 4th of July?

I spent my 4th of July weekend, read the 2nd, at the US Consulate Party where I ate tons of yummy BBQ treats and sat by the pool. Yesterday I wore my USA pin to work with pride! Thankfully the time difference makes it so that I don't have think of what my fellow American friends are doing RIGHT AT THAT VERY MOMENT. Missing the 4th is a toughy!

Look ma, its over-easy!

Today it is 106 degrees in Dubai, but with the humidity, the real temp is 120. The Dubai stifling summer heat is sufficiently suppressing everything in its wake at this point. However, there are some tips that can help you go from absolutely miserable to only uncomfortable. Here are my tips for the week.

 

1. Walk don’t run!

You may think it is best to just high tail it from one place to another in order to lesson the amount of time you spend in the sun. Let me tell you, if you even do a brisk walk in this heat you start sweating uncontrollably and not be able to stop FOR THE REST OF THE DAY. Instead, try walking very smoothly without a lot of movement. Make sure you prepare yourself by getting out your keys or other necessary items before leaving the AC. That way you can lesson the amount of movements you have to make in the sun. Whatever you do, don’t start to speed up or wipe away any perspiration, which WILL happen, just continue with fluid continuous movements towards your destination.

2. Know your color wheel.
If you do sweat how bad will it show on your clothing? Read---light pink = disaster for work on the summer. Black? It may be hot, but at least other people won’t know that your back looks like someone took a super-soaker to it! White? Only if you are wearing a nude tank underneath. Must I go on?

3. Will it explode?
Did you know that after a certain heat point pretty much ANYTHING will explode? Water bottles will burst, perfume bottles crack in half, toothpaste shoot out like Old Faithful, IPODs crack on the sides…anything is possible. Do yourself a favor and take EVERYTHING out of your car before May.


Tata for now.

Where are you watching the USA/Algeria game tonight?

The sheer number of tents/bars/stadiums that have been built for the World Cup in Dubai is staggering! Tonight I will go to the Barasti Stadium--a giant soccer ball dome built on the beach in the marina.
 This mammoth tent reaches more than five storeys high. And with a capacity of 1,200 people, it’ll be plenty big enough to show the England game on the main screen and the US game on a small corner screen. That is what happens then the English expats outnumber you by 10X. The English pining for the US to lose, and of course the number of Arabs pulling for their only team in the Cup to win, means it should be a very interesting match.

(Got threw that entire post without ever saying futbol--whew!)

¡Ay, caramba!

Last year I was lucky enough to have two must-go-to weddings to attend in the states during the summer which ate up about 4 weeks of the monstracity we call June/July/August here. For months the "5 word weather of the day" on the radio includes adjectives that never stray far from: sandy, hazy, overcast, sweltering, record-setting (is that two?), humid, baking, blazing, blistering, boiling, broiling, burning...you catch my drift.

With little vaca in the horizon this summer, I am obsessed with checking the weeks weather. I don't know why...its hasn't been less than 100 in a month and won't be so until well past September. This week however, at night we get into the 80s! Hoorah!

Mon

109°F

86°F

Tue

109°F
87°F

Wed
109°F
87°F

Thu

107°F

84°F

Emirates Palace

Last weekend, for a belated mother's day gift, I took mom to Emirates Palace for some R&R. Our time kinda went like this: beach, pool, book, eat, nap, back in pool, eat, get lost in hotel, ride golf cart from one side to the other, eat, pool, sleep. Just perfect!

Oh yes mom, and that "penny pressing machine" we saw in the lobby, actually distributes gold bars, silly us!

Big, big hair.

Dubai is a dreamland for any girl that likes big hair and major up-dos. For what the US lacks in glamour and getting all gussied up (the entire country lives by comfortable casual i swear), Dubai definately makes up for.

Here is one of my most recent wedding do's. Paul from jetset, aka miracle worker, calls this one "the classic."

And below is my do' from the Dubai World Cup! Hot diggity!

A cyclone?!

A cyclone is going to hit Dubai according to the The National Weather Bureau. There are warnings to stay away from the sea and beaches as cyclone Phet will generate high waves and gusty wines-- aka sand will pelt you in the face, no questions asked.

Also rain is expected! 6:30PM and the beaches are full, I just went for a run, and the sand is still on the ground. Cyclone Phet....where are you?

Cyclone apparel.

Mom's on her way!

I have 1 annual slip-up. Undoubtably once a year I go to the airport a day early to pick someone up. Last year it was Cristina Fotieo. I get confused and reading someone else's itinerary has come to be no easy task. This year was no exception as I went to the airport last night to pick up Mama Yoder to find out that she comes in today. Poor John rode along for the journey to see a glimpse of mom before he got on his own flight to the US--yes, we planned this--unfortunately, John's flight went out of Abu Dhabi Airport....1.5 hours away from the Dubai Airport so he had quite the trip without any satisfaction. Sorry John!

But mom is on her way this time (see below). Can't wait to see her!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day has made me very nostalgic for all things American. I remember being a little girl and riding my bike to the local cemetery on Memorial Day for the Veteran Ceremony. Living away from the U.S. has made me more patriotic than ever and thankful for the safety and security, freedoms and rights that we have in the US. Thanks to those people who protect America.

Vice President Joe Biden delivers Memorial Day remarks in the Arlington National Cemetery Amphitheater in Arlington, May 31, 2010. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)


Collectively, the generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who have served and sacrificed for us are the heart and soul, and I would say, spine of this nation. And as a nation, we pause today to remember them. They gave their lives fulfilling their oath to this nation and to us. And in so doing, they imparted a responsibility on us to recognize, to respect, to honor and to care for those who risked their lives so that we can live ours.

SATC2 The Regional Review

The reviews on SATC2 are rolling in, even though the movie is not in the UAE. 

Below is an article from UAE daily newspaper, The National. Highlighted parts are what I am going to be looking out for!

Incredible that the SATC women go as far as to wear the ever political abaya/niqab! Political statement or hollywood gimmick? 

Sex and the City 2 girls find enlightenment in a souq


Shelina Zahra Janmohamed

The latest Sex and the City film has been stirring controversy, just as Sex and the City always does. This time, the city is Abu Dhabi – the “new Middle East” according to the movie. Except that it wasn’t filmed in Abu Dhabi; it was shot on location in Morocco.


The four female characters who first came onto TV screens in 1998 in the series of the same name are sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to Abu Dhabi courtesy of an “Emirati sheikh” (with a terrible Indian accent) who wants Samantha to do some PR work for his new hotel.

She insists on taking her gal pals along with her to enjoy the opulence. This new luxurious futuristic bling-bling idea of the “new Middle East” (they keep repeating it ad nauseam) sits diametrically opposed to the film’s other stereotype of Orientalist fairy tale characters that live in mysterious souqs, whose men can suddenly turn angry and violent and whose women are hidden away under black veils and cloaks.

Samantha is known to viewers as the independent, sexually promiscuous character of the foursome. When she hears the cabin attendant announce flight-safety measures in Arabic, she asks “I wonder what she’s saying. It sounds so exotic!”

She’s telling you to put on your seat belt, Samantha. Get over it. And Carrie, the lead character who writes a newspaper column about sex and has a shoe obsession, describes their trip to the Middle East as “Aladdin with cocktails.”

Erm, Aladdin is a fairy story Carrie, it’s not how people really live. Unless, of course, your travel is sponsored by Disney, which in this film it certainly appears to be. She also wonders: “what is a souq?” And this from someone who is supposedly a freelance writer for Vogue. Throw in a few references to Scheherazade and magic carpets, and by this point Hollywood has about exhausted its list of references to the Middle East.

Miranda solemnly informs her knowledgeable compatriots that to say “yes” in the Arab world, you simply need to use the words “haanh-jee”. No sweetheart, that will get you far on the Indian subcontinent, but not in the Middle East.

It seems that the costume designers were also confused about the difference between the continents east of the US. Carrie emerges from what is supposedly Abu Dhabi airport, having borrowed a turban from an Indian snake-charmer.

Miranda describes the face veil as the “nee-kwab”, which I found rather endearing – well, at least she was trying, right? Slightly irritating is the fact that actors don’t know how to wear their headscarves and veils properly, with the sheilas tightly wrapped but revealing the hairline and the face veils dipping to show half the nose, which just looks a bit peculiar.

The problem is not only lazy recycling of 1940s Hollywood biopics about the Middle East; in addition, it’s easy to believe that the comments the four actors make are in fact what the women might actually think in real life.
And so the film is also an indictment of one kind of American attitude that has so little knowledge of the outside world that they make inane comments and have little self-awareness of how they are perceived in a totally different context. This does no favours to the four western women, who come across as ignorant, self-obsessed and lacking any dignity.

Muslims, Middle Eastern men and women should not be under the impression that they have been singled out for being turned into one-dimensional caricatures. Everyone comes off badly, especially the four female leads, who appear as ignorant, self-centred, luxury-obsessed, whiny women who don’t know how to enjoy relationships and family.

Ten years ago, SATC made it acceptable for women to be independent, single and interested in sex. The film leaves us with the sombre view that even the most independent of women will fall back into traditional gender roles: wanting diamond wedding rings, to be a stay-at-home mum and to take their husbands’ last names as proof of ownership.

The acceptability of the ideas of independence and self-determination that SATC pioneered are no doubt aspirations of women in the Middle East and elsewhere, but this latest film tells them that in following the western feminist path it all ends up adhering to convention anyway.

While independence and autonomy are important, maybe Middle Eastern women think there is a different way to achieve them than through the self-obsessed, fashion-focused, emotionally unstable way that this film displays. After all, who wants to end up bigoted and patronising, even if wrapped in designer outfits?

And we see this towards the end of the film, when two women dressed top to toe in black rescue the Fab Four, who find themselves in trouble in a souq after having angered a group of men. Yawn, yes, it’s another stereotype of the “angry Muslim man” beside himself with rage at women in the souq.

They are smuggled into a shop that turns out to be a front for a women’s book club, and Samantha bonds with one of the niqab-wearing women over troublesome menopausal hot flashes. The Emirati women take off their abayas and veils to reveal that they are wearing the spring collection from Louis Vuitton. Suddenly, Carrie is overwhelmed with admiration, paying homage to the power of fashion to cross continents and cultures.

I imagine that the writers meant to show that the Middle Eastern women were inspired by their counterparts to throw off their veils and liberate themselves. And this subtle negativity and pseudo-imperialism is what critics have picked up on.

But I thought the writers, purely by accident, managed to achieve the complete opposite with great hilarity, demonstrating that Middle Eastern women are feisty, have plenty of personality and that perhaps it’s western women who have something to learn from them.

Anyone who has interacted with Middle Eastern women knows that they are extremely warm and friendly people who will bring others into their fold, as they did with the film’s four heroines. And they will also know that beneath the abayas they often wear the most fabulous fashion-forward clothes.

If anything, it is the four New Yorkers who become enlightened and liberated from their previous ignorance. And it is they who go on to don the abaya and niqab in order to leave the souq. Seeing them managing their abayas with dexterity – Charlotte even manages to go shopping for presents in her new outfit – was entertaining and refreshing.

In the end, the stereotypes portrayed in the film are so epically and universally one-dimensional that everyone comes off badly, turning it from dreadful rom-com social commentary into irritatingly watchable self-parody.

Girls, take your best gal-pal if you’re going to watch it, buy a box of popcorn and use your most sarcastic witticisms to heckle the terrible script. If you do that, you’ll find that this film is so bad that you’ll almost enjoy it.

SATC 2 Arabic Fashion

It is only time (May 27th to be exact) before there will be a serious craze for Arabic fashion. The garms from SATC 2 are bound to set the trend for the 2H of 2010 and well into 2011 just like Slumdog Millionaire did for the harem pant--which let it be said, I NEVER wore.


So ladies, let me just tell you right now, start saving your pennies. Arabic fashion is all about the luxe fabric, over-the-top embellishment, and flow fit which all adds up to lots of AEDs.


Introducing the KAFTAN...a staple of any Arab girl's wardrobe. And there isn't anyone who knows how to do it better (or pricier) than Royal Rickshaw. I am so lucky to live above a store that carries these beauties, and while I have yet to invest, SATC 2 may just be the reason why my window shopping should become a closet purchase.

SATC 2 BANNED from the UAE

SATC 2 has been banned all across the UAE which is totally ironic as the movie TAKES PLACE in the UAE! Well kinda--all the shooting was done in Morocco and even the skylines aren't Abu Dhabi, but still. However, I WILL NOT BE KEPT IN A BLACK HOLE OVER HERE and plan to get my hands on a version in order to have a SATC girls cosmo night.

Just don't tell me the ending anytime soon!


Sex and the City banned

Sex and the City 2 will not be shown in UAE cinemas... Discuss this article
It's not a massive surprise, but now it has been confirmed, Sex and the City 2 will not be shown in UAE cinemas.

A senior spokesman for the National Media Council (NMC), responsible for judging films and other media in the country, made the announcement today.
"Sex and the City 2 will be banned from being shown in cinemas across the UAE when it is released for various reasons," the spokesman said.

He added: "Among them are that the film's website stated that filming was done in Abu Dhabi even though they were denied permission to do so and that they continue to attribute the locations shot in Morocco as being in Abu Dhabi, which is false, as the theme of the film does not fit with our cultural values. Also, they persisted in using Abu Dhabi's name in the movie despite the fact that no official permission was given to them to do so."

A large portion of the film is set in Abu Dhabi but was filmed in Morocco after the UAE authorities refused the film's producers permission to film in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

Eastern Europe Photos

Eastern Europe Extravaganza!

Made it back to Dubai after 10 days and 5 countires. Below is the not so straight path taken by Halley and me.

Photos to come soon!

View Eastern Europe Trip in a larger map
View Eastern Europe Trip in a larger map

Eurotrip: Bratislava

Halley's idea of a good time in Eastern Europe.

Out of dodge.

AND I'M OFF! Eastern Europe Escapade!



Dubai to Vienna with John followed by: Halley Peters & Lynze adventures

• Vienna to Bratislava


• Bratislava to Budapest


• Budapest to Croatia


• Croatia to Kiev


• Kiev to Sharjah

Wish us luck.

The waiters wore silver tails with a paisley print!

Yas Island Hotel overlooking the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 track.

Where I had dinner and drinks last night for the MENA Women in Science & Technology Workshop. It was like being in a spaceship.

Pizza Pizza!

My girlfriend Mira and I recently submitted a photo to one of our favorite websites: http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/ about a pizza sold here in the region called the "crown crust." Description is below, and yes, Pizza Hut is an award winning restaurant in Oman (read my last post about the regional weight issues!)

Oman Today: 2009 Restaurant Award winner, Pizza Hut has introduced Crown Crust Pizza; in 3 crust varieties; meatballs, cheese balls, or a combination of meatballs and cheese balls with your choice of toppings. 2 large succulent meat and cheese balls studded around the edge of the crust of a large pizza – hence the name Crown Crust! The finest Philadelphia cheese Cream from Kraft Foods has been used to prepare the cheese balls in the Crown Crust Pizza.
This takes drunk eating to a whole new level.

Big, bigger, biggest.

From one fat country to the next, I have done my time in some seriously large cultures. The Middle East is no exception, and I was floored when I first came here at the amount of fast food being put away and packed under the ever allusive abaya and kandora. This article puts it into perspective:

Privilege Pulls Qatar Toward Unhealthy Choices
Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times

Young boys watched others taking to the desert in S.U.V.'s on the outskirts of Doha. Walking is not popular in Qatar's humidity and intense heat.

It has the second highest per capita gross domestic product in the world and the third largest proven reserves of natural gas. But it also ranks high in some less enviable categories, having among the greatest prevalence of obesity, diabetes and genetic disorders in the world, according to international and local health experts.
Native Qataris, who number only about 250,000 in a nation of 1.6 million, are suffering serious health problems that relate directly to a privileged lifestyle paid for with the nation’s oil wealth, as well as a determination to hold onto social traditions, like having young people marry their cousins.

“We’re talking serious obesity,” said Dr. Justin Grantham, a specialist at Qatar’s orthopedic and sports medicine hospital involved in a healthy-living pilot program. “The long-term health consequences will be significant.”

Like other oil-rich nations, Qatar has leaped across decades of development in a short time, leaving behind the physically demanding life of the desert for air-conditioned comfort, servants and fast food.

While embracing modern conveniences, however, Qataris have also struggled to protect their cultural identity from the forces of globalization. For many here, that has included continuing the practice of marrying within families, even when it predictably produces genetic disorders, like blindness and various mental disabilities.

“It’s really hard to break traditions,” said Dr. Hatem El-Shanti, a pediatrician and clinical geneticist who runs a genetics testing center in Doha, the capital. “It’s a tradition carried from one generation to the next.”

Qataris live in a nation no larger than the state of Connecticut where they are a minority among the more than a million foreign workers lured here for jobs. But their problems are not unique.
Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia all share similar struggles with obesity, diabetes and genetic disorders, each suffering the side effects of an oil-financed lifestyle and a desire to hold on to traditions.

Yet, even in this neighborhood, Qatar stands out.

According to the International Association for the Study of Obesity, Qatar ranks sixth globally for prevalence of obesity and has the highest rate of obesity among boys in the Middle East and North African region. A recent article in the Qatari newspaper Al Watan said that local health experts predicted that within five years, 73 percent of Qatari women and 69 percent of the men would qualify as obese.

Obesity is considered the most important factor in the development of diabetes and is a prime contributor to many other ailments, like hypertension. The International Diabetes Federation ranks Qatar fifth globally in terms of the proportion of people aged 20 to 79 with diabetes.
The March of Dimes Foundation, a United States charity that focuses on trying to wipe out birth defects, listed Qatar as 16th globally for the incidence of birth defects per 1,000 live births. The chief cause of the problem in Qatar is consanguineous marriages, experts here said. Saudi Arabia ranked second globally.

For all of these challenges, and for all of its wealth, Qatar has primarily focused on the treatment of diseases rather than on prevention.

Everyone here points to lifestyle and tradition to explain the nation’s health crises. While it was once taboo to talk about the problems involved with marrying relatives, they are now talked about openly. There have been some discussions about premarital genetic screening, or genetic testing done at birth. But the tradition is so strong, no one has raised the prospect of curbing it.
“You can’t tackle the issue,” said Moza al-Malki, a family therapist and writer. “There are some big families, clans, they don’t marry outside the family. They won’t allow it.”

The issue of obesity seems to run into the same wall of tradition, health experts here said.
“If you don’t eat, it’s considered a shame, and if you leave someone’s home without eating it’s a shame,” said Abdulla al-Naimi, 25, who refers to himself as “chubby” but is noticeably overweight. “Half of my family has diabetes,” Mr. Naimi said. “My mother has diabetes. Three cousins younger than me have diabetes. For me, I eat too much and I don’t exercise.”
He is also married to his first cousin.

And Mr. Naimi happens to be the project director for the Healthy Lifestyle, a fledgling effort to try to shift from treatment to prevention. It is connected to the Qatar Foundation, founded by the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Mr. Naimi sees no irony in all this because in Qatari terms, his weight and his choice of a relative as a spouse are the norm, he said.
He acknowledges that changing attitudes will be a slow process, at best. “We are trying to change people’s habits, just to get them to walk,” he said, admitting that he himself never finds the time to exercise.

Walking is not popular in Qatar’s heat. Average high temperatures in June and July are a very humid 106 degrees, and Doha, like many cities in the region, is not built for pedestrians.
To make matters worse, people here said that all of their social occasions were defined by eating. Traditional meals usually include rice, clarified butter and lamb. Because people often share large community platters, there is almost no way to keep track of portion size, people here said.
“We can’t get together and not eat,” said a 22-year-old Qatari woman who is a member of the Thani royal family. She asked that her name not be used to avoid embarrassing her immediate relatives.

She said her family was typical. Of seven children, five had weight problems. One brother hit 265 pounds by the time he was 19. A younger brother, who is 10, weighs 125 pounds and is gaining weight so fast that he no longer fits in pants she gave him two months ago.
She said the typical Qatari student skipped breakfast, then ate a snack and lunch at school. When students return home they are given another lunch, generally a heavy meal of rice and lamb. Later, they snack on cake and tea. And then at night they eat dinner, often fast food that is delivered.

“I eat lunch, then I go visit a friend; I am so full, but they put a table in front of you and keep bringing food,” she said. “I cannot eat, but it’s an insult.”

Another more challenging problem, is attitude, said Nelda Nader, a dietician here. “For the majority,” she said, “it is really quite normal to be obese.”

A serious hiatus.

Ok so in all honesty, its been about a year since I've updated my blog. Eek. However, with a new camera and new phone, I am now better equipped for consistent postings (or so I hope). Also, I've taken some motivation from my bestest Bea Frankel (Elliot) blog, http://mymiscellani.blogspot.com/, to just post whatever I want, whenever its good for me. Hot dog!

To get us back in the Spirit of The Yoder, I thought I share a little photo from the Dubai paper.

The Kandora Stand Up Paddle Challenge is expected to increase awareness of water sports among young Emiratis.

I think John Ballay should take at least some of the credit for making the sport popular in Dubai.

Miss ya'll!