I’m back from Dubai. Well, I’ve actually been back for a few weeks. As it turns out, I’m much better at throwing together a post when my bags are packed and MAX is quickly approaching my neighborhood station than I am at putting one together when nothing at all is going on.

I blame Andy. We have entirely too much fun together and since our return we’ve been skipping hand-in-hand like schoolgirls all over Portland enjoying happy hours, dinners out and long walks around the city with Chaos. If you want a better excuse, one that doesn’t just involve microbrews and patio seating, I’d point to the fact that we also made the rounds around the Northwest to visit friends and family and then took a quick trip to Texas for our nieces high school graduations. There. See? I’m not completely slacking off.

Proof that I haven’t been in Portland the whole time I’ve been back. This kind of ridiculousness, with this ridiculous truck and our dog’s ridiculous face looking out the back of it, doesn’t really happen at our home in downtown Portland. And you thought my first picture would be from Dubai… silly you!

So while I totally failed at my one-post-every-week goal, I do have triumphant news about Dubai. I actually saw a fair amount of the city, the culture and the sights – especially for such a short trip. For those of you wondering why this was a concern of mine you can read up on my Philippines travel fail here.

Basically, I was a little worried that since I hadn’t seen Andy in a while and he’d been working super hard in Bangladesh, we might slack off on seeing anything other than each other – which is exactly what happened in the Philippines. I went to Asia, a whole new corner of the world for me, and I saw pretty much nothing except for stuff like this.

But I’m happy to report that Dubai was fantastic and it also included a lot of firsts for me. It was my first time to the Middle East, my first time visiting a non-Christian country and my first time seeing an indoor ski resort. Add that to the fact that I also got to make out with my husband for the first time in about two months (albeit not in public) and I’d be hard pressed to find anything to complain about.

Both my guidebook and plenty of signs like this around town point out that PDA is a no-no. No kissing, no hand-holding and no making googly eyes at each other. Just kidding, there were lots of googly eyes.

We were in Dubai for a week and I bought a guidebook and everything. We sampled the food, checked out some sights and explored the city with gusto. I have other posts in the works that go into more detail about our Arabian adventures but for now I just wanted to check in and let you all know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth.

And since I’d hate to put up a post that essentially does nothing more than promise more posts, I’ll include at least a little about Dubai before I sign off.

More so than with other trips, friends and family have wanted to hear about what Dubai was like. Here are some of the common questions I’ve been fielding since my return.

Q – What language do people speak and did you have a hard time getting by?

A – Arabic and no. Dubai is such a global city that many people spoke English too and all the signs were in Arabic as well as English.

Signs are in Arabic and English. On a side note, I’m finally getting the hang of taking pictures of random stuff on the off chance I might need a visual for one of my posts. Random highway sign… check!

Q – What did people wear?

A – Again, Dubai is so global that it’s hard to know who was from where. People from all over the world were there and they were in all kinds of garb. For the most part though, many local men were wearing the traditional white thawb and women wore the abaya, sometimes accompanied by a niqāb and sometimes not.

But then again, there’s pictures like this on a random street at night where no one can be seen wearing either.

Q – Did you eat anything weird?

A – Not really. There was lots of good food and lots of stuff I hadn’t tasted before but nothing overly outrageous. Ironically, the strangest thing I’ve eaten lately was on the trip down to Southern Oregon that’s pictured above. I ate cougar that my father-in-law shot, killed and cooked up for us. Yes folks, sampling the local cuisine from somewhere half-way around the world is great but you should never underestimate what you can find in a mountain-man’s freezer. 🙂

So there’s a little teaser of information about Dubai. We really did have an amazing time. However, now that I’ve had a little time to reflect, I’d like to take back what I said earlier about not having any complaints.

My complaint is this: my jet lag was a little lonelier than usual. Going half-way around the world throws you into a crazy tailspin and usually I have Andy right alongside me laughing about the fact that we are waking up from a six hour nap at 5 PM or scurrying around town at 3 AM trying to buy sandwiches or ice-cream. But not this time… here’s a screenshot of my Facebook page to further explain my woe-is-me jet lag.

I know, right? Poor me.

Thanks to all of you for not giving up on my blog after my month-long absence. There will be more to come, very soon, I promise!