Weekend in Dubai!

The second weekend of my course everyone in the class decided to go to Dubai since many had never been before. Oh course I went as well though I had been before, because who wouldn't want to go to Dubai. It is such a different and interesting city. The first day we a couple of us walked around the "old city" which is located in the middle of the city in the midst of towering modern office buildings. The "old city" had a market place and other cultural places to visit. Gustavo and I had a fun time trying on different traditional garb. We both ended up paying some head scarves, and I bought these really awesome handmade shoes . . . I was sooo surprised that they actually had my size!!

After a very fun time walking around the "old city" the whole group went to on a desert safari!! I had wanted to do this since the first time I went to Abu Dhabi for school but never got a chance to until now!! You ride in this pimped out Toyota SUVs and go dune bashing/4wheeling. Then you have time to take pictures of being completely surrounded by the desert . . . just you and sand and the beautiful sunset!!

Group shot . . . we were almost all jumping at the same time!!

Two middle easterners talking it out?! Nope just a normal conversation for an American and Mexican

I'm the king of the world!

Finally got to ride my camel too!!

After a very full and fun first day, we went more for a relaxing day the next day! We went to one of the beaches for a couple of hours. It actually was not warm enough to really go swimming. Go figure that would ever be the case in UAE when temperatures can exceed 120 F. After that we went to one of the huge malls which was great for me becasue my camera just happened to die during the trip :(. After almost 5 years of having it and traveled to 10+ countries it was sad to see it go. Thankfully it did happen in a place that cameras are readily available for purchase!! I ended up not being camera-less that long so I did not miss any of my adventures in traveling!!

Picture of the fountains at the mall with my new camera . . . not bad I say so myself!!

After another very fun weekend in Dubai, it was unfortunately time to go back to work! Good times with great people . . . God is good!!

One inch away from winning!!

So during my weekend in Abu Dhabi, one night we went to Marina Mall to eat dinner. During that day there happened to be a festival for one of the stops for the Volvo Ocean Race (a sailing race around the world). We missed seeing the sailboats leave the port by a couple of hours but there were still booths open so we decided to go for a little bit and see what it was all about.

One of the booths happened to be a golf booth. The next weekend happened to be the HSBC Championships (golf tournament at the Abu Dhabi ) where all the big names in golf were going to be there. The point of the booth was to chip the ball into the hole on an island floating in the water. You had two chances and if you holed it then you would win a week vacation to an island resort in China (another stop in the Ocean Race)!!

My first chance was actually not bad at all . . . I was a couple feet right of the hole. I was so nervous because there were a lot of people watching, and I was using a club that I am not used to. Plus the helper at the booth asked if I new how to use the club which kindof irked me a little bit (gender profiling anyone)!! I then asked him what degree club it was and he had know idea, hahaha!!

The second try I was less nervous and now understood the wind and the roll on the island. When I hit the shot it felt sooooo good and everyone was silent! The ball hit about 2 yards in front and left of the hole and then it started to roll directly towards the hole. Many people started to encourage the ball into the hole but it ended up 1 to 2 inches on the left side of the hole!! How sweet it would have been to hole that shot!! So much for the vacation to China!! To be honest I probably would not had time to go anyway, however it would have been a nice present to someone!!

 My beautiful golf swing!!

Watching my shot miss by an inch!! Look at that follow thru!!

I do work!

So many times my blog is of my travels and the fun things I do but I really do study and work when I am at a course, hahaha!! To prove it hear are a couple of pictures of me working on the fiber optic tool!!

Working with the Colombians, Carlos and Edwin, on the CT head!

Kind of funny that the 2 Mexicans were the ones stuck working inside the small reel for a couple of hours!! Thankfully the reel that I have to work in is a lot bigger and I can actually fit into it!

Instructor Cabe assessing our work!

Oh, and I have to say I look pretty good in orange don't I ;) Who would have thought I would ever be in an orange jumpsuit!

Oh just hanging out in Abu Dhabi . . . part 3

So I have finally gotten used to traveling from the airport to the training center in Abu Dhabi!! I finally know I was not cheated by the taxi driver because I knew actually where I was going and could tell him what exits to take!! It is about time I figured all that out, I mean it is just my third time going through this process!! 

This time around my trip to Abu Dhabi was for 4 weeks. I thought that it might have been a little repetitive and boring but it actually was the most fun I had of the all 3 trips. This was mainly due to the fact that there were other people in the class that wanted to do/see things and did not mind planning things for the group . . . I finally did not have to be the mother of the group, hahahaha!! In all there was 8 of us in the class . . . myself, an American that works in Saudi Arabia, an American that works in the US, two Colombians, a Mexican that works in Abu Dhabi, a guy from Bahrain who works in Saudi, and my friend Gustavo who I worked with in Reynosa.

Every weekend we would go on an adventure . . . first weekend Abu Dhabi, second weekend Dubai, and lastly in the last weekend some of us went to Oman! Besides the weekends a group of us would go to a new restaurant and had some REALLY good food!! It was nice being around others that appreciate good food and good company!!

For the Abu Dhabi weekend we went to the mosque which I had already been too but it was nice to go again. When I was there I learned how to wrap the head scarf correctly!! It was also interesting people watching. There were people from all over the world, some tourists like me and some using the mosque the way it should be used.

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Stylin in the head scraf again!!

Having some fun playing with our camera settings on a beautiful day and beautiful place.

 

The group outside the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque 

We also went to Ferrari World which I had already done before as well but again it was great. It helped that there was a lot less people then the first time I went on my birthday so we were able to ride the fastest roller coaster in the world a lot of times without ever really waiting in line!

Gustavo and I sitting up front ready to go on the fastest rollercoaster.

After some fun at Ferrari World we went to eat at one of the hotels on Yaz Island and then decided to walk to the Yaz Marina. It ended up taking almost an hour but it was a beautiful day. It was so different than the last time since the last time it was the middle of the summer and you would melt if you were outside that long! By the time we made it to the marina where there is also a really interesting looking hotel and the Yaz Island Formula-1 race track which actually goes underneath the hotel, the sun was setting. It was a nice end to a nice weekend!!

 Yaz Island Marina at sunset.

The adventurous gang eating at one of our favorite finds . . . Prego's in the Beach Rotana

New Look for a New Start

You could say that I have been working like crazy lately and my blog is taking the brunt of it!! I am sooo behind in all my storytelling that I thought I might need a little change. I needed a new look so that maybe it would kick me in the butt to get up-to-date and start being more consistent in posting!! I think the new look is much better than before!! What do you think?

I'm going where . . . again?!

On my way back to Mexico, I was waiting for my connecting flight in Houston when I checked my emails. I got one from my boss that told me I was again chosen for a course for a special fiber optics tool that we run on Coiled Tubing. And guess where that course was being held . . . if you guessed Abu Dhabi you guessed right!! I was going to go to Abu Dhabi for the 3rd time in 6 months, and I would be leaving in 2 weeks!! This time the course was going to be 4 weeks long so in all I would have been in Abu Dhabi for 13 weeks total for the year. I guess I should be calling that my home now since I had been there longer than I had the US (5 weeks) in the past year!! This news came as a shock since I was already preparing my mind for starting up work again, but no I now was going to another course! I definitely was not sad about going but I dreaded the flight a little!

Speaking of dreading the flight, I decided to see exactly how many miles I flew this year in the past year because my travel schedule was crazy this past year . . . I have been on over 35 flights!

So after looking back at my tickets, I have flown a grand total of 68,287 miles!!!


That equals:

2.75 times around the circumference of the earth

22.75 times the length of the USA

136.6 times the length the state of North Carolina

284,259 times the height of the Empire State Building

62,079,090 times the height of me!!

And most importantly, it equals to 17,071.75 Krispy Kreme Challenges which equals to 204,861 glazed donuts eaten!!

That is a lot of donuts!!

Christmas Surprise

Since I went home for Thanksgiving, I was telling everyone that they was a 0.5% chance that I would be able to make it back home for Christmas since I would have only been working for 2 weeks after I got back from Abu Dhabi and Mexico City. I said this because I really thought I would not get Christmas off even though I had not have Christmas off since I joined SLB. One of the main reasons that I thought I would not get it off because usually the older engineers get first dibs on which holiday they want off. Plus when I got back I was supposed to be scheduled to go offshore.

One week before Christmas I got the news that I would be having Christmas off! I was so excited and bought my ticket that day. At that time I thought it would be fun to make it a Christmas surprise for the family. I talked with Lizzie about it, and we planned the surprise. I would fly into Raleigh were she would pick me up and then we would go to Wilmington. We did not tell anybody else in the family!! The same day we made the plans I ended up skyping with my parents. They asked me if was going to be able to make it but I told them no because I was going offshore. I was sooo thankful that I did not have my camera that day because they would have seen me with a big grin on my face when I was saying this!

I knew it was going to be a short trip but knew that it was going to be worth it so to help optimize my time at home I bought my tickets to fly out of Merida. I got on a bus after work and rode for 5 hrs to make my 6 am flight back to the US. It ended up working great! When I into Raleigh I met up with Lizzie and Jake. I wanted so badly to get on facebook or online but kept my phone off since I knew my dad would be checking where I was with his app that keeps track of where your friends are!! I did not want to ruin the surprise over facebook!!

The next day Dan, Lizzie, Jake and I drove down to Wilmington. I ended up surprising everyone in 3 parts. The 1st part was the best one! We stopped at my grandparents place first where my mom, dad, other grandma, and uncle were. Again because my dad likes to stalk people, the surprise was almost ruined. I planned on walking through the door but when we arrived at the complex my parents were already outside waiting for us. Thankfully Dan's windows are tinted so they did not see me. I ducked my head and Dan rolled down the window. I then popped up and my Mom was like "oh my gosh" and gave a quick little scream and looked at my Dad in shock. I think my dad was too shocked to do anything!! I wish I had gotten a video when everything went down . . . it was great!

After some time at my grandparents', it was time to go to the next stop. This time it was to the beach house we were staying at. Becca did not know I was coming either and we were going to meet her there. One of the main reasons she was not brought into the loop with Lizzie was because she lives with my parents and it would have been harder to keep the secret!! When she got to the house I hide in another room while she went upstairs to her room. Right when I went up to surprise her, she said that she was happy that she finally did not have to share a bathroom!! Well, I kind of spoiled those plans! When she saw me the first thing that came out of her mouth was "What". It was great as well!

Finally the last stage of the surprise was done. It again was almost ruined because my dad "checked" us in on facebook. We quickly told him to erase it and wait until the last surprise was done. We headed to my uncle and aunt's house for dinner. I first saw my cousin Kate when I walked in the house and she just said "Wait . . . what are you doing here" and then laughed. I then went out back and surprised the rest of the family. It was really nice to feel loved and missed, but most of all it was nice to be with the WHOLE family!!

After the surprises everything went back to normal. We had great time together. There were sooooo many presents . . . though not many for me but it was ok because I was with my entire family!! At one point on Christmas morning I just sat back and thanked the Lord for my great family and the ability to come back home for this time together.