The Pilgrims were thankful and so are we...

This year I celebrated my first Thanksgiving out of the country, out of New England that is. As we all know, the Pilgrims came to Plymouth, Massachusetts on the Mayflower and we celebrate the first feast that they had with the Native Americans after the long winter.

At my parents house our traditional Thanksgiving starts with a time to express what you are thankful for from the past year. After each person from the table says what they are thankful for my dad will pray and then the meal that we had been preparing for the previous 6 hours is devoured in about 13 minutes or less. We continued these traditions in Al Ain this year!

At home we typically only get a chance to be thankful for one thing (with a dinner table always full of 6 or more people you have to be quick so that your food doesn't get cold) I will take this opportunity to express my thanks in more than just one sentence:

I am thankful for...

-the 8 sentences in arabic that I have learned in the past 3 months and all the people who have repeated these sentences to me over and over again

-this past summer in Boston and the friends who made the hours on the beach fly by

-having a real Thanksgiving dinner with family, friends from New England and new friends from here

On Thanksgiving we took advantage of the holiday spirit and put up a Christmas Tree. Thank you to all my friends and family for the beautiful ornaments you all sent! It's a great reminder of each of you this Christmas!

A Hulsey family tradition, the youngest child sits on our dad's shoulders and puts the angel on the tree. This year I was the youngest child and Trey filled in for dad. (Dad and Jared, I expect to see a photo like this of the two of you this Christmas)

Just a few of the ornaments that Christine brought from all of you. So.... if you have not yet decorated your tree, "Deck the Halls" and turn up the Christmas music!

I shipped them home.

Attention All: I have shipped those kids home! Andrew is in Massachusetts, Christine and Kendra are now boarding their plane. We had a blast and I can't wait to share some of the great pictures with you.

Jo Bros

When you are living abroad you often find that you do things that are a little bit out of the ordinary. After talking with a friend on the phone this week I realized how strange my weekend plans really were. On Thursday afternoon I skipped out of work a few hours early and headed to Abu Dhabi with our Director of Human Resources, Kim and her two daughters Hanna and Sarah. We were trying our best to make it the Jonas Brothers Concert around 6. Our tickets literally said to be there "around 6:00" and the Jo Bros didn't get on stage until about 8. Now, talking with my friend from home

she said "really, you are the last person who I would ever think would be at a Jonas Brothers Concert", she's right- it's not a typical weekend for me. Then she said "I just can't really picture you jamming out at a Jo Bros concert" but, that's exactly what we did and I think she would have been proud of me... am I right Sarah?

It was a great new experience and I am so thankful to Kim and her family

for a concert experience in the UAE!

Did I mention that we stayed in a fun hotel with a great pool!

"It's Friday Night and I Feel Alright"

Last Friday was the staff celebration for the 50th Anniversary! The event was also at the Al Ain Palace Museum and Jessie planned the major pieces of the evening.

There was a formal program with singing and a children's choir "The Shephard's Flock" directed by our CEO's wife, a former opera singer and Years of Service Awards. The longest standing employee received an award for 35 years of service, that is true loyalty to a company!

We had an Arabic Fusion Band play music during dinner... they were amazing! There was a magician, clowns, stilt walkers, cotton candy and face painting for the children too.

It was a really fun night and it was so great to see co-workers, doctors and nurses out of uniforms and relaxing!

Time flies when...

Time flies when you are waiting for these guys. Literally I feel like I just moved here and the thing I have been most looking forward to, the thing that I was sure would feel ages away is almost here.

These kids are coming to visit:

Andrew, Kendra and Christine are coming to visit and will be here in the UAE for Thanksgiving. I am so excited to have them here (Edith and Ken, thank you for letting Christine leave the country for this year's Thanksgiving)!

It's a Celebration (the early release version- more to come)

This week we kick off the start of Oasis Hospital Celebrating it's 50th Anniversary! Wednesday, November 10th we hosted an event for local business owners and friends of Oasis Hospital to celebrate our 50 years of service in the community. Originally the Crown Prince of the country was scheduled to attend and at the last minute could not and instead sent his brother.

The military brought in the helicopter that Sheihk Mohammed (the Crown Prince) flew when he was in the service. I had the chance to sit in it (with permission of course!) Here are some cool pictures from the day!
The Sheihk and Mr. Printy, the President of our Hospital and a member of our Advisory Board.

Brushfire Fairytales

Life in Al Ain has been busy this past week- a good kind of busy. So there is no need to "slow down everyone you're moving too fast..." I will let those of you who can make this lyrical connection figure that one out.

At work we are preparing for the Hospital's 50th Anniversary Celebration (here is some quick history) - the Hospital opened in November of 1960. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan had experienced American medical care in Bahrain and as a result asked a western couple (who were doctors) to open a similar hospital in Al Ain. At that time, the local population was declining in numbers and Infant mortality was 50% and maternal mortality was 35%.

We are hosting the event at this very cool Palace Museum which was the home of one of his wives. Tonight we went to walk through the palace to see what the lighting will be like for the evening event and it feels like a palace should feel- sort of like Cinderella's Castle the middle eastern version, we have the chance to create a fairytale of our own! I am very excited to be a part of the planning process with Jessie. As frustrating as it is working in a place where language is a barrier and work ethics widely differ we are still managing to laugh during the work days!

I pass by this bike every morning walking into work- a guy who comes to the hospital to set up

something like a magazine stand rides this full of candy, gum, toys and magazines onto the campus. I see him pass by the windows of my apartment and then about 30 minutes later I see this bike (now empty) sitting outside. This man sits outside for about 9 hours a day and does absolutely nothing but wait for customers. I am thinking I should encourage him to start reading or learning something new. It does not seem like a very fun life.

The bag says Gulf Todays a newspaper that is distributed all over the Persian Gulf.

Again- here is a little treat for you ladies. Just a taste of some of the shopping that is here in the UAE. They have quite the style. Does anyone else think this looks like a prom dress from the Deb Shop? It's the same style but, very expensive material and real crystals!