There's no place like home!

After finally getting back to Carmen after an awesome adventure in Abu Dhabi it was back to the grind! And man did I get back to the grind! I worked for 60 days straight and 32 of those days were offshore!! It was a very good but tiring experience!

So after working 60 days straight and finally getting my visa stuff worked out, vacation finally arrived, and I could not wait to get back to NC! It was so stressful right before I left Mexico because I had not gotten my passport back from the immigration department and of course I had a lot of work stuff . . . however, I survived like always and got my passport back in time. Sometimes it is so easy to forget to trust God that everything will work out how it should, though not always how you want it.

I flew into Raleigh like normal and got to spend some quality time with Lizzie and the ever so changing Jake!! The first day I just hung out with Jake and gave him a lot of kisses to make up for time!! The next night was a very fun night!! I bought some pretty good seats for the Taylor Swift concert and took Lizzie and Becca for a little sister time. Lizzie and I even got to be up close to Scott McCreery!!  We had a blast and the concert ended up being pretty good/entertaining!! I am sooo thankful for the time I got to spend with my sisters and wish I could hang out with them more. That night ended up being one of the highlights of the trip being able to be with them!

The next day I spent some more quality time with Jake and Lizzie. Jake has grown sooo much since the last time I saw him, he was only 3 weeks old !! I can't believe that I did not get to see him until 6 months later :(. However, I was very thankful for every minute I had with him!! Besides hanging out with Jake, I got to go to 2 NC State football games!! I was not expecting wins for either but somehow we won both. We dominated the national ranked Clemson and then somehow came back from a 28 pt deficit against Maryland . . . maybe I was a good luck charm of something!!

Once the Clemson football game I went home for a couple of days and then headed down to Wilmington for my favorite holiday Thanksgiving. This year it was kind of different because Lizzie and Dan and my grandma were not there. My Papa also had to undergo heart surgery that week. Thankfully everything worked out fine and he is now doing get!! The first full day I was in charge of making dinner so I decided to bring a little Mexico back home to NC!! I cooked Arrachera (marinated flank steak), grilled onion and nopale cactus, queso fundido, roasted salsa picante, frijoles charros (mexican version of baked beans), and guacamole!! I think it turned out really well, and I think everyone liked it!!

Thanksgiving finally came around and it was great like always. We were a smaller group and not as much food as usually but the quality was still there!! We had one of the biggest turkeys I have ever seen and the pork shoulder was AMAZING!! I the deserts we had was a plus too!! Our family just spent the whole day outside, playing cornhole and of course eating.

 

Since this post is getting pretty long and I have so much more to tell about my great 2 weeks at home, I think I will just to start a new one. Lookout for the continuation is just a little bit!!

... to be continued

Oh just hanging out in Abu Dhabi!

A continuation of my trip to Abu Dhabi in the summer of 2011 . . .

Throughout my time in Abu Dhabi my class and I went out for dinner or did other entertaining things on the weekends since we pretty much lived in a compound and ate in a cafeteria throughout the week. We also had a couple of class dinners that we unbelievable. I think our class liked food a lot!! Many of the restaurants here are top notch and have high quality food. The 2 class dinners we had were buffets that were heaven. As a starter I would always get a plate of sushi that was soooo good (and dearly missed since I do not always trust the sushi in Mexico). After the sushi, I would then get a plate of main course and a plate of desert . . . by far the best buffets I have ever had in the world!! Thankfully I did not gain any weight but that was mainly due to playing basketball with a couple of instructors twice a week for 2 hrs at a time!

The pictures below are from the 2 class dinners . . . as you can see we are always serious and professional!!

Another place that we ended up going to a lot (of course a place to eat) was a restaurant in the Intercontinental Hotel called Belguin Cafe. It was the first place I went with a group of people and it was also the last! I even had my birthday dinner there!! The service was great (one because we became friends with all the waitresses) but I kept going back for the french fries and homemade mayo!! I know it does not sound that sophisticated or appetizing but it was soooo good. Again the picture below shows us being veeerrry serious!

Besides eating we did do other things while we were in Abu Dhabi. One of the things Abu Dhabi is known for is its formula one race track in Yaz Island. Yaz Island is a man made island that has the race track, hotels, Ferrari world, and IKEA! Well when there are no races going on they use part of the track for go-karting. A group of us decided why no give it a whirl. Well, the whirl was awesome. These karts can go up to 35 mph which is not that fast put when you are in an open environment racing around these sharp turns it feels sooo much faster. It took a couple of laps for me to get my groove but I ended up getting 4th, beating all the guys in my class but 1!! Not such a bad night of racing if you don't ask me!!

Another non-food activity that I did was play golf one weekend. I looked online at a couple of courses and ended up finding a really good deal at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club which is home to one of the PGA events. I ended up paying for the green fees and getting the rented clubs free! It was a very beautiful though hot day, and I actually played really well which it made it even better!! The course was really interesting since most of the "rough" was actually desert!! You definitely do not see that very much in North Carolina!!

 

I know I will not be able to do these kind of things forever, but I am very thankful for all the experiences, good and bad. God is good all the time!