Erin in the Emirates: Homeward Bound

Sitting in the Amsterdam airport, wishing I was home already - 7 hours is a long time in an airport.

Remembering sunny and 70's yesterday, fitting before I head home into the cold.

Contemplating the fact that I have been in Dubai for 4 months, and it's ages and a split-second all at one time, but it feels like home, and I'm happy.

Several recent "Dubai moments":

How many blue-jumpsuited Indian laborers does it take to get Erin's car unstuck? Many, all arguing about the best way to do it - push forward, back, use a lever, use a ramp? Understanding nothing, I can do nothing but thank them profusely when they push me back onto the hard-packed sand. (How was I supposed to know they had cut off our shortcut?)

We had our school Christmas party outside at the golf club and, strangely enough, we were almost pushed inside by rain, but it stayed away and we were able to enjoy the view of the Creek and the floodlit fairways.

Working the film festival was fun, though it didn't leave me as much time to see movies as I would have liked. I managed to fit in a few, all of which I enjoyed. I happened to be working the theater when they showed Bobby, which had a red-carpet gala premiere the evening before, and right before the movie began, they rushed some of the cast in to do an introduction - including Laurence Fishburne!! (He was sporting a beard and a fedora... he looked old...). The movie was quite good - a fabulous cast, and the ending was very moving. THEN Joshua Jackson came back to do a Q&A and I got to be about 2 feet away from him (most people were not TOO impressed by this, but coming from the Dawson's Creek generation, it was fun for me!) That's what was great about the festival - directors, producers, and actors (collectively 'talent') were often on hand to introduce the movies and/or answer questions afterwords.

We were going to take the whole middle school to an amusement park on the last day of school before break - but then they told us that Wednesdays are "ladies days" at the park, so we couldn't go... only in Dubai!!

I think half the teachers at the school were at the airport at the same time last night, all waiting for early-morning flights, heading home or off on an adventure...