Dubai: Now this is one way to start the New Year’s

Being over on this side of the world allows you to go on some pretty awesome vacations. Me and my team and some other colleagues from another city took a 12 day vacation in Dubai. I never thought I would said that I’ve been to Dubai! It was full of a lot of adventures.

We started off our vacation with celebrating CH’s birthday, the 30th! We went shopping at some of our favorite stores and got to buy him some new clothes for his birthday. And yes, he did buy stuff from Forever 21 and H&M. I mean who can resist? We ate dinner at Outback Steakhouse. We all loaded up on beef burgers and steaks! We were so excited to have cow beef for the first time in a LONG time! While at dinner we got to watch a water show just like in Vegas at the Bellagio hotel. And we got to see the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalif all lit up. It sparkled every once in a while like the Eiffel Tower!

 The Burj Khalifa - tallest building in the world!              

CH with his bleans (black jeans) from Gap! Happy birthday!

The team on CH's birthday at Outback Steakhouse!

The boys and their purchases from Forever 21!!!

Finally New Year’s Eve. We had a great plan to go eat at Chili’s then go to the beach to watch fireworks where we heard had some of the best shows. Unfortunately the plan didn’t work out like we had hoped. While we were in Dubai, our Indian SIM cards didn’t work and only a few of us actually bought them. So we said to meet at Chili’s on Jumeria Road, but little did we know that there were 2 Chili’s within 30 minutes of each other. So our team got split up. We had dinner and then headed down to the beach. CH, Claire, Gordo, Caleb, and I were together for the fireworks show. We got to the beach at 11:30, just in time for the incredible show. Apparently the people in Dubai have so much money that they fly in firework experts just for New Years. Ridiculous, but I didn’t mind too much! We got to watch about 5 different fireworks shows all next one of Dubai’s self-proclaimed 7-star hotel, Burj Al Arab. It was an incredible New Years!

Claire and I getting ready for a fun night out!

On Jumeria beach ready for the fireworks!

Caleb, Gordo, Claire, Me and CH on New Year's Eve

An incredible show!

While in Dubai, we got to do a ton of fun thing! We got to go to the beach several times, play sand volleyball, shop, shop, and shop. But there were 4 things about Dubai that just made the trip completely unforgettable: slip-n-slide soccer, dune bashing, global village, and ski Dubai.

While playing sand-volleyball one day, we discovered that you could play slip-n-slide soccer on the beach. What they had done was put some padding down on the pavement, put blow-up walls on the sides and soccer goals on each end, then covered the entire surface with soap and water. It was such a fun experience. I don’t think one person was able to stay on their feet the entire time. For the first 30 minutes we just messed around and slid everywhere, but then started to play soccer. We had to shuffle our feet in hopes of getting near the ball. It was definitely a blast. There were some injuries, but nothing too serious to keep the game from continuing!

Slip and slide soccer at it's finest!

Later that day, we went dune bashing! This was an incredible experience. Our car held me, Heather, Ballgame, Caleb, and Scott. They took us out to the desert and drove us up and down the dunes! Unfortunately, our driver wasn’t the best and we kept getting stuck in the sand. We got a new driver for a little bit and he was driving incredible fast, I felt like we were on a roller coaster because we were going all over the inside of the car and I felt like we were about to flip over! Now, that’s my kind of ride!!! WOOHOO!! We reached the camp where they fed us food, let us ride camels and gave us a show! A few of us went to the top of some dunes and I put on some music and we had a little dance party!

 Picture on the dunes before the adventure begins: Scott, Me, Heather, Ballgame, and Caleb

 Bucklin' Up!

 The Hyderabad girls that went bashing!

 The team!

Heather and I on a camel ride!

We had a girls night out and we decided to go to Global Village, which is a bigger and better version of Epcott in Disney World. It has a ton of countries and in each country, they had a market where you could by good from each country. It was incredible. We only had time to spend 2 hours there, but I definitely could have stayed there all day! I went to Africa and bought a bracelet, but also wanted to buy some rings, but they wouldn’t bargain with me like I wanted them to. They also had food from some of the countries and dancers doing their cultural dance! It was so fun!

Dubai also has an indoor snow ski area called Ski Dubai. You might have seen it on Amazing Race! I LOVE THAT SHOW! Christina and I decided to go splurge and take 2 hours to go snow skiing in the desert! It's pretty cool because they give you everything that you need! Problem is: everyone looks alike! Haha. But it was worth it! We had so much fun! We skied til my fingers and toes were numb then took a break in the lodge that was on the "mountain" then went back to the "slopes!" 

 Christina and I before our first run down the "mountain" in our matching outfits.

Ski Dubai!

Dubai was fun and full of lots of memories with my India team. Love getting to spend time with my team, especially these girls! 

An Indian Christmas

A holiday with the most beautifulest girl in the world - Kaylyn Joy. She came to India to visit for 2 wonderful weeks. We got to spend time together with my team and with some of my Indian friends. She got to see and live my life in India for a little bit. One thing that was really cool was she brought a Polaroid camera. So we got to capture some incredible moments.

We got to vacation in Kerala, which is a southern state in India. There are beaches and palm trees everywhere. My dad graciously allowed us to stay in an incredible hotel. 

We got to go to the beach 3 out of the 4 days we were there.

We got to see AND help the fishermen pull in their catch!

We ate pizza 4 days in a row! 

Drank coconut water!

We got to ride Dumbo!

We almost got to go on into a lion safari park, but only in India would the boat to get there be broken down.

We got to go on a backwater tour.

We got to get massages!

We got to do everything we wanted in room 120!

We returned Christmas Eve at 11pm after missing our connecting flight, but we entertained ourselves by mimicking adds in magazines with our red lip stick!

We got back and played Dirty Santa with the team.

We all stayed the night at the McEntyre’s house, all girls in the bedroom and the guys out in the living room. We woke up to Maddie opening presents from her grandparents. She was much more excited about the wrapping than she was about the actual gifts.

We had an incredible Christmas feast of Chicken, Ham, mashed potatoes, green bean bundles, rolls, and lots of deserts. And Kaylyn and I even made some rolls for everyone.

Afterwards we all opened our presents from the team. We each drew a name of a person on the team and were supposed to buy gifts for them. John Miller drew my name and got me 3 wooden elephants so I could use them to decorate and he also got me a picture frame of my family.

After presents we went on the roof and the guys played baseball with Maddie's toys. It was pretty funny to see how much they all got into it! We took some group pictures too!

Christmas evening Kaylyn and I got to skype into Christmas with my parents and Brett and Claire. We all got to open our stockings and presents together. It was really fun to be able to be with family over the holidays even if it was over skype.

After Christmas I got to spend a few more days with my sister before her flight back to America. 

We got pedicures and manicures for $14 each.

 This is my neighborhood:

 We went to go see movies.

 We went on a midnight bike adventure. 3 deep on one of the bikes. We went to a lake and then the police came and told us to leave because they didn't think it was "safe" for us to be there.

 Kaylyn and I getting to hang out with one of my friends here in India, Poonam. 

 It was time to take Kaylyn to the airport and I definitely didn't want to day good-bye. We both got a little teary-eyed when she left. 

This was a Christmas I’ll never forget and I’m so thankful for Kaylyn, my family, and my team who made it special for me!

Love you sister… thanks for the memories!

Mad Gab date....

One afternoon, the four of us single girls on the team each received a note from the single guys on our team that looked like this, a self-made mad gab phrase. Mad Gab has become a game that we play at random times and me and my roommate, Claire, have gotten pretty good at it! So the four of us girls had to figure out what the mad gab said. Can you decipher it for yourself?

It reads: Shall we go on a date tomorrow evening? It was pretty fun figuring it out and we all got excited that the single boys were taking us out on a date, because it means that we get to dress up!!!

So the next evening, all of us girls get ready to go out! The boys told us to be ready at 6, but of course in normal girl fashion, we are ready by 6:30. So the boys are looking nice and they open the car doors for us and we head off! They haven’t told us where we’re going, and I have no idea, since I still don’t know Hyderabad very well, but I’m excited because I know it’s gonna be nice since we’re all dressed up. So we’re driving for about 30 minutes, then we pull into Boulder Hills. It’s a country club here in Hyderabad that has a golf course, 18 holes even! I feel like I’m in America!!! 

We sit down at our table where it seems like we’re at a board meeting because each of us have so much room, it’s almost like the table could seat 15 people! But we were all able to have some fun conversations. My side of the table talked about which sport earned the most money as a whole, which sport required the most skill, which sport was the toughest, and so on. I bet the guys on my end of the table were enjoying this conversation!

Dinner was finished so we decide to go outside to take some group pictures! Here’s all of us together! Guys are Robby, CH, John (Ballgame), Caleb, and Ray. And the girls are me, Claire, Christina, and Lauren. 

Here’s a good picture of all the guys together (Caleb, Robby, John - aka Ballgame, Ray, and CH).

And here’s a good picture of all the girls together (Lauren, Me, Claire, and Christina).

We started being goofy and took pictures that represented each of us. I’ll just show you some of the best ones! This picture is one that represents Ray because he was in a band in high school and he sings all the time.

This picture apparently represents me because everyone says that all i love to do is dance, so here we’re doing a dance that’s called the “jerk” and for those of you who don’t really know what that is, it’s the running man backwards. And if you still don’t know, well sorry. Haha!

We had a lot of fun together and even played some catch phrase. In which I can’t remember whether the girls or guys won, but I’m sure it was us girls! After the date, we all headed home and got into some more comfortable clothes, just talked and enjoyed each other, and of course, ate some chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream! 

The date was so much fun! The guys did a really good job planning the date! They all looked really nice and it was fun for us girls to have an excuse to dress up nice! I can’t wait til our next singles date night!!!