In Other News:

Totally random, but since it's already October and it still feels like July, I'm afraid that time will pass by so quickly I won't realize when the year is actually over!

So some news, totally unrelated to living in Abu Dhabi:

I booked my flight to Tokyo yesterday!  My sister and I are going to visit our momma for Christmas!  It'll be 4 years to the day since we've seen her last, so it should be fun!  I tried to find the cheapest tickets possible, while also entertaining the possibility to not buying a return flight to the Dhabs, but instead going somewhere else for the remainder of my 2 week vacation.  

Well, I've come to believe that Tokyo must be the most expensive place to fly into or out of!  I was able to get a ticket from just under $1200 (that's just under 5000dhs) return.  Unfortunately, since Sister and I are arriving from different countries, I will be arrive in Tokyo at 7:30am on 21 December and Lesa will be there at 3:45pm!!!  Boo!!!  (I was wondering about booking an airport hotel room for a few hours!)

So, once I arrive back in Abu Dhabi, I will have a little over a week to do something fun for New Years ... Possibilities now include: Istanbul (not Constantinople, haha!), Cairo, Mumbai ... or maybe someplace like Bali?  Who knows!  All I know is that once I get back to the Middle East, flights get a little cheaper to these destinations.  

Then again ... maybe New Years in the UAE could be fun!