Six to a room.

I thought it would be a romantic touch to B’s birthday celebration to take the train overnight to Vienna, where we were to meet up with good friends who live there. Therefore we flew into Geneva, Switzerland the afternoon before and immediately went to the train station, which is a grueling 100 meter walk from the airport, to purchase tickets. We tried to purchase these tickets on line a few days before but couldn’t navigate around the complicated website. The nice gentleman at the ticket counter was very good at his job and knew exactly what lines we should travel on and what stations to make the proper transfers that allowed two people enjoying the second half of their lives enough time to wheel three large suitcases to the next platform. We were told that we were the only two in our sleeping berths, which I assumed meant we were paying for a two berth sleeping quarter.

Surprise! We had mistakenly booked a six person berth complete with four new friends. Each sleeping berth was smaller than a coffin and too short for my legs. As it turns out, we couldn’t have asked for nicer bunkmates. These four young people were all attending a hospitality and hotel management college in Switzerland. One was from Viet Nam, one from Taiwan and two from India.

Bed and Breakfast - Literally

The cramped quarters didn’t allow us a very good night’s sleep but the adventure of talking to these kids from all over the world, was worth it.

Asleep at the Wheel

I’m taking B away for her birthday to Vienna, Austria to meet up with friends and just relax before starting my new job on July 1^st. Out flight left Lisbon at 9 AM, not too early in the morning, but apparently too early for the airport security to be on the ball. When passing through the security checkpoint, we placed out carry on luggage on the conveyor belt to be X-rayed but noticed that there was no human monitoring the display screen. Therefore, when we picked our belongings up on the other side, no one had inspected our handbags. In addition, the half conscious officer on the receiving end didn’t ask about any liquids we might have been carrying, nor did he ask to see the plastic bag we had placed these items into.

Nine years ago we had our pets transported into Portugal, which was a long and complicated process of coordinating paperworks between the two countries, getting health certificates and proper vaccination records translated into Portuguese and arranging the flights. The final checkpoint was to have all these documents checked by the veterinarian at the Lisbon airport in order to have our animals legally enter the country. It turns out our precious pets arrived on January 3^rd to the airport, and the veterinarian on duty hadn’t returned from his Christmas vacation. When the commercial baggage employee, whose job it was to get the crated animals to the on site veterinary office discovered that the all powerful decider of our animal’s eligibility to enter the country wasn’t present, he merely waved us on to our automobile, animals and all. We could have imported rabid skunks and gotten away with it.

Some things never change.

Nature burps as I decide to go.

No, I’m not talking about my body’s physiological response to my last McDonald’s meal. The “burp” I’m talking about is what that pesky volcano in Iceland is starting to do once again. You know, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which was named by the official volcano naming geologist’s cat when she walked across his keyboard.

I was starting to wonder if there was a chance that I would not be able to fly to Dubai for the critical exam I’m taking on June 5^th. Although 3 weeks away, I can not afford to let Mother Nature’s indigestion delay me of employment another 4 months. Coincidentally, my future employer called me and thought it would be a good idea if I could come early, just to make sure I’m there for the exam. I guess they really want me there as they said they would take care of my accommodations over there so the “go” I’m talking about is what I’m going to do in 2 days. There is a bit of a concern as my two leg journey takes me through London, England, where the potential kink in the hose might occur.

The paralysis of international flight witnessed a few weeks ago because of the first eruption was completely unnecessary, an overreaction, an inability for anyone in charge to take responsibility and a financial disaster. A good friend of mine, whose father is a retired international airline pilot told me that back in 1980, when Mount St. Helens erupted in the northwestern corner of the USA, airline travel was hardly affected. Only when one airliner flew directly into the ash cloud did the pilot experience a temporary loss of power, and that only happened once, not that that was insignificant. The point is no flight was affected that chose not to fly directly into the ash cloud.

Regardless of the political correctness of the past and future decisions concerning air travel due to this unpronounceable climatic event, I can not afford to sit around and see what happens. I’m off to England Thursday during this little window of opportunity and, once there, then changing my ticket for the Dubai leg for the very next flight. If I get stuck in England at all, I have decided I’m going to have to take the train as far east as possible, perhaps Instanbul, and then fly to Dubai from there.

I have almost 2,500 flash cards inputed into the Anki program I mentioned a few blog posts ago, so all I need are my books and the mini laptop and I could study my way across Europe while sitting on the train. That sound like a once in a lifetime experience. I’ll keep you posted.

This postcard quality photo was taken out our car window 10 minutes north of our house on a Sunday drive.

The weather here in Portugal has been just magnificent. I’m sure that mentioning in my last post how we are ready to move away has everything to do with the sudden beautiful weather. It’s like the country is begging us to stay and knows we’re going to live in a gilded desert. I keep checking the temperature in Abu Dhabi during the day which is starting to top out at about 41 degrees (105 Fahrenheit for you in the states) and it’s just the beginning of May. Every year I forget how green and lush Portugal is in the spring. And this year is especially spectacular. We just finished the wettest winter since records were started – somewhere in the 1880′s.

I purposely did not plant my vegetable garden this year on the brash assumption that I would pass that exam in February and be out of here by now, unable to reap the fruits of my labor. However, the artichokes I planted last year came back to life and the plants are now 6 feet tall and spewing out artichokes like a clown car. The asparagus plants also came back and are finally producing spears thick enough to eat. Again, nature is reminding me what a great place this is and taunting me to stay.

This wildflower caught our eye on our nature hike last weekend.

We will be coming back eventually. We’re keeping out house here. Good friends will be staying in it and maintaining the property while we will be moving from air conditioned apartment to air conditioned car to air conditioned office. I just downloaded an article informing me how to grow 60 kinds of vegetables in indoor containers. Hmmmm.

Goodbye to our little house in Portugal.

B and I have been talking a lot lately of how we are ready to get out of Portugal. It´s been a great ten years and this country is exactly what we needed at the time.  We needed to de-stress, rid ourselves of the American materialistic mentality, get closer to the land, and basically get our priorities straight.  How we accidentally ended up here is a story for another time, but knowing what I do know now, about all the other European countries we could have settled in, I would still choose Portugal as the initial landing point for our life out of the USA.  Starting over financially  in your 40′s was tough enough, but Portugal welcomed us with open arms and showed us that money wasn’t everything, that we could live in a different culture, and that there was a lot more to life than the narrow minded perspectives we came over with. We have never been happier with so little.  Living in a country where the locals are very friendly, the air and food are clean, crime is low and the family unit is still intact reminds us of what we grew up experiencing in the states but, sadly, no longer exists.

We're leaving this view out our front door for the UAE.

But we are ready to leave. We feel we are well grounded enough to tackle the big city once again. We have our priorities straight, know what really matters in life and won’t make the same mistakes again. The economic crisis has affected Portugal and in a way, is forcing our hand to make the move to Abu Dhabi, in the UAE.  It’s going to be a big culture shock – almost two extremes on opposite ends of lifestyle choices.

My initial impression from visiting the area several weeks ago, which will most likely be proved to be completley inaccurate once I settle in there, is of an artificial environment created out of the barren desert with a lot of money. The feeling being in Dubai and Abu Dhabi can be hypnotic. Everything you could ever want to purchase is there, employment is practically 100%, streets are clean, beautiful architecture and not a stone out of place; an environment that could easily suck us back in to our destructive habits.  But I know that’s not all there is to the UAE. There are future friends and aquaintences from many different nationalities to be made. There is the the culture and history of the local Emerati to learn. Getting close to the land in the UAE means trekking into the desert, primarily via four wheel drive vehicles. This I am really looking forward to.

So the economic necessity of filling an empty retirement bucket in a land seemingly hostile and artificial might make it look like we are selling out.  But if we take the lessons we learned from Portugal and focus on the future relationships we will be developing, I’m sure we will find the beauty that really does exist underneath all the glitter in the UAE.

I finally have a date for the HAAD qualifying exam for a dental license in Abu Dhabi. The official website posted the date for the next exam for June 5th, about 7 weeks away. Rumors were that they were going to postpone the next exam until SEPTEMBER! I am a happy boy today. I think I would have been standing in the median strip of large intersections with a squeegie in one hand and a bottle of windshield cleaner in the other trying to make ends meet if I had to wait until the end of summer. My improved outlook on life will also probably mean that I’ll have nicer things to say about the UAE and stop focusing on negative topics.

Illegal flambé?

…and then quickly declares “Never mind!”  Original article here.  However, it’s already outdated.

As I am currently outside looking in at the UAE, it seems that there is a constant struggle brewing between the local Emirates who make policy over there. On one hand, they need the tourism income and need to maintain the image and feel that Dubai is more European (Western) than Middle Eastern. Underneath it all, however, it is still an Arabic country and the Islamic rules, morals and laws are dearly held sacred by most who are in control. Anyone outside of the UAE paying attention can see the struggle between traditional morals and standards and the necessity to keep the economy afloat. After all, isn’t it in the master plan to make Dubai “the” world’s top tourist destination? British newspapers are already making a big deal about the couple going to jail over a kiss on the cheek. You think that’s going to help tourism? Laws are made, everyone squawks, laws are recinded. It’s actually quite amusing.

I am not a happy camper. First of all I have a dreadful cold, complete with fever and headache. Every time I fly and breathe all that recirculated air in the airplane, I catch something. Normally, I never get sick. After 30 years of getting my face within inches of my patient’s mouths and soaking my fingers in their saliva all day long, I figure that I have built up quite an immunity to every bug imaginable. However, air travel does me in every time. So I’m not in a good mood to begin with.

All of Portugal looks like this.

Adding insult to injury, I have returned to a country thick in the middle of what would be considered by most as a monsoon. For the past 4 months, southern Portugal has been deluged with almost constant rain, which is not the norm. Our rock and dirt driveway, which is on a slope is for the first time in 10 years really getting soggy. The car has been bottoming out on the frame as the tires dig a deeper and deeper trench into the road. I finally had to reinforce and rebuild the ruts with stones and gravel and for the moment it is holding. One huge deluge will wash it all away, however.

I haven’t gone back to hitting the books yet as my unplanned two month retirement extension forces me to take care of some issues on the home front, preparing for the eventual move and dipping into sparse savings accounts for day to day expenses. I’ll get back into the student mindset next week. It feels really strange waking up these days with no responsibilities and taking wife and daughter to work. Must be a guy thing, I should enjoy it while it lasts.

Cold Wet England

This obviously is not a photo taken in the UAE.  I am in transit back to Portugal to wait another two months to take the exam that I was supposed to take on this trip. I knew I was cutting it close getting all my papers and licenses authenticated and approved in time to make the cut off for taking the exam, and I really thought I had just made it in the nick in time. However, Murphy’s law as it is, was in full force the other day when I was informed that the current exam is full and I will have to wait another two months.  Most people would be quite upset by this, but having lived in Portugal for the past 10 years, and living these kinds of bureaucratic inefficiencies on a daily basis, I will have to look at this as an opportunity to study more and take a much needed vacation. One step forward, two steps back.

What's that to the west of Portugal?

While complaining about a little sandstorm here in Dubai, news from home is quite the opposite. I know we were having an unsusally heavy rainy season with almost constant rain for the past two months. Quite unusual. But word from home was that there was rumor of another typhoon hitting the Algarve. We had what is called a bouncing typhoon in December that briefly touched land in three areas of the Algarve. Friends of ours lost all their large trees, some 60 feet tall.

I took a look at the weather satellite photo today and have to agree that there is a good chance that Portugal will wash away into the ocean in the next few days and there will be new coastline property to develop in Spain soon. I hope my return next week will bring some of the sunshine here back to Portugal.