Not a bad way to turn 26

Hey-o people! So, my life has been fairly consumed by work and I honestly haven't had all that much time to think about anything else. So don't worry. I know I have been neglecting this 'blog' or 'kind of pathetic rambling that you might enjoy' or whatever you would like to call it. Here is an update:

I turned 26. Boom! Not all that excited about it, but alas, we cannot get younger. I did have a pretty fantastic birthday though! I was able to pick up my car from the Honda dealership, and the guys there all knew it was my birthday and had the car wrapped in a bow and had a cupcake for me. I was shocked. But then I learned that they wrap every car in a bow, and that earlier in the day someone in the dealership had a birthday, but that they saved a cupcake for me- aka it was left over! But I digress, it was still a wonderful gesture! Not to mention I am leasing the car for a song. Feeling good about that whole business.

For my birthday we went to my first Dubai Brunch. Brunch here is not your typical 'Mother's Day/Easter' feast. It actually is more gluttonous than that and should honestly just be called "Drunch" because it generally a feast of epic proportions fueled by a lot of alcohol. The general rules of etiquette surrounding brunch is you have to be dressed to impress, and you have to have two drinks and some sort of food plate in front of you always. I don't think I am going to eat the rest of the week. Everything was beyond delicious. There was a Haufbrauhaus attached to our restaurant, and with Oktoberfest going on, the home brew was delicious and the German polka band was rowdy. They did call me up and sang happy birthday to me in front of the pub, which was rather entertaining. Brunch is a must do if you visit Dubai.



The other really amazing thing we did this past weekend was take a trip to Abu Dhabi to see the Grand Mosque. It is UNREAL! The link shows more amazing pictures than what I have below. This was really fun because the Mosque is super beautiful (the place is completely made of all different kinds of marble), and you have to be covered. We knew this before going, so we didn't bring any of our own things because they provide Abayas (black) for the women and Dish-dashes for the men (white) which is the Emirati dress. So we got to dress up. The Mosque was huge and immaculately clean (no shoes allowed ever). Just overall a cool little couple hour round trip from Dubai.

 The security guard on the right was coming to yell at me here for taking a picture without being covered. We ran away so he couldn't take my camera away.

Myself, Matt and Alyssa in our garb at the Grand Mosque

Entry way- everything you see is cut marble... even the flower designs on the walls. You can see the guy behind me isn't covered. There are certain areas that we could go in and that he couldn't because of the dress code. 

We decided to go to Madinat for dinner. It is on the Gulf right by the Burj Al Arab. Unreal that I live in this place. The only way to do fine dining like this is with coupons (usually 2 for 1) from a website. We pulled up in our little car behind a row of Lamborghini's, Bentley's, and Ferrari's. Sweet. 

So just had to snap a pic of this white Bentley. The license plate is way cooler than the car..
That low of a number is definitely a member of the Royal family, and it is totally illegal to photograph them. Hehe! The good thing was that I was not driving while taking this.