Oh, and the baking.

I forgot to list tackling the challenges of convection-oven baking as one of the things I like about Abu Dhabi. Just finished baking vegan banana peanut butter cocoa cookies. Adam's verdict: "These cookies aren't messing around."

Frances: 1, Black & Decker: 1 — hey, good cookies are a win-win situation!

The final product with camel milk, of course.

Monday Morning Likes List

I've hit a rather rough patch in my Abu Dhabi acculturation. It's mostly due to missing the people I love at home. Y'all make it tough to be away, with your smarts and your sassiness and your all-around awesomeness.

So, on my run this morning I decided to make a mental list of all the things I like about Abu Dhabi. I was pleased with the results:

• Watching Al Jazira football games in the VIP lounge with coaches and former players
• The week-long Abu Dhabi Film Festival, during which Adam and I saw both inspiring movies (for me Kings of Pastry, for Adam El Ambulante) and not-so-great ones (the very pretty but anti-climatic Alamar, the very one-sided Children of the Stones), but it was leagues better than the disappointing movie selection on our TV
• How most public bathroom stalls are like little rooms unto themselves with big thick doors so you actually have some privacy
• The shawarma place right around the corner from my apartment, where Adam and I can both eat dinner for about $5USD total
• Running on the Corniche alongside the Persian Gulf (and frequently being the fastest person down there)
• The religious, ethnic, cultural and racial diversity, e.g. in 5 minutes of walking around the Abu Dhabi Mall, you'll hear at least 3 different languages, if not more
• Feeling all scandalous when I walk out of the nearby spirits store with my thick black plastic bag full o' wine and Carlsberg
• There are more than 3 taxis in the entire city and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to take 'em (unlike San Francisco)
• It's still bordering on uncomfortably hot and humid, but soon the weather will be absolutely beautiful for about 4 months, sunshiney & warm
• Camel spottings and camel milk and (soon) camel riding, oh my!

I'm sure I'll get over this little bump in the Abu Dhabi road. Overall, I am very grateful and excited for this experience. I think I'd just like to have a steady stream of my favorite people visiting over here (hint, hint). But Adam is the best P.I.C. a girl could ask for, and between exploring Abu Dhabi together and teaching me how to be a poker shark/CIV master, he's made this new and foreign land feel a lot more like home.

My Walk To Oman

Today marks 30 days in Abu Dhabi, which means my tourist visa would have officially expired had I not walked over to Oman, a neighboring Gulf country, yesterday. (Though I was politely informed that, in fact, I really have 40 days from point of entry--you get 10 free days because, uh, I have no idea why but you do, just don't expect anyone to tell you this before you plan your border run).

Adam and I set off in the morning to Al Ain, a city that lies approximately two hours east of Abu Dhabi. Our plan was to drive to the border, at which point I'd walk alone over to Oman (Adam has no passport while his residency visa is being processed, and the rental car had no Omani insurance, so walk by myself it was), get an entry and exit stamp, and then walk right back to Abu Dhabi. Easy peazy. Afterward we'd see the sites: the national museum, the Al Ain Oasis, the zoo, etc.

Sadly, we spent most of they day in our awesome economy rental car, listening to even awesomer radio stations (I think my favorite song was the one that looped "No you didn't. Yes we did. No you didn't. Yes we did." in swaggah style, over and over again). We drove toward one border port but turned around before reaching it because our Lonely Planet noted that the Mazid entry was exclusively for Gulf residents. We drove about 45 minutes to another border port, only to be told that there was no way I'd be able to walk to Oman because it was 47 kilometers away (as I huffed my way back to the car the thought did cross my mind, "If only I'd brought my running shoes..."). The friendly border dude was kind enough to give me this map and direct me, you guessed it, right back to the Mazid border port (f*&% you, Lonely Planet!):

It took us another 45 minutes to trespass the city and get back to Mazid. On the way we stopped at a gas station where I decided the only thing that would sooth my seething frustration was junk food (and since this had now become more of a road trip than a visit to Al Ain, junk food seemed necessary): chocolate-covered hazelnuts and Lipovitan Honey, aka Japanese Red Bull, for me, and a Power Horse for Adam:

I'll spare you the gory details of the actual border crossing, but let's just say it involved camel groaning, about 12 different interactions with people in 10 different offices, and one border guard slipping his phone number into my passport should I "need anything at all." I got back to the car where Adam had begun tearing little pieces of paper into the words "Wait here," because he'd started to worry and was going to come find me, but didn't have a pen to leave me a note.

In the end, the trip was totally saved by a visit to the Al Ain Palace Museum where the late Sheikh Zayed lived for a time with his third wife, Fatima, and their five children. We found out that Sheikh Zayed fathered 30 children--19 boys and 11 girls--by six or seven wives (I, for one, was thoroughly impressed). We roamed around the grounds, saw the master bedroom, and lounged for a bit in the swanky VIP sitting area. Then we grabbed some delicious grub and drove home with the full bellies I've come to expect from a Lebanese meal.

Highlights of the crazy border-crossing day include CAMEL SPOTTING (yes, I screeched like a little kid):

And this ridiculous beverage (nuts & cream on top, fruit and sugar on the bottom):

(Camel) Milk & Cookies

Things the Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society hypermarket doesn't have: half & half.

Things it does have: CAMEL MILK!

No job means I get to plan dinner and shop for the ingredients day-of, just one of the awesome perks of funemployment in Abu Dhabi. So there I was, strolling down the milk aisle on my daily a.m. trip to the market, searching high and low for some half & half when I stumbled across the camel milk section! I abandoned my search at that point and made a beeline for the checkout counter because I couldn't wait to get home and have one of my recently baked chocolate chip cookies with camel milk. I bought a small bottle of the date flavored version (ingredients:camel milk and date syrup), and it was subtly sweet and delicious.

I also love that the brand is Camelicious, and the camel on the bottle has a pink mohawk.