Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be moving to a foreign country to live, let alone a country in the Middle East. Over the 2009 Christmas and New Year’s holidays, my husband Roger and I discussed what we wanted the next part of our life to be like. He thought that before retiring, he would like to do one more airport project but only if he could find something very interesting. I half-jokingly agreed that would be fine but could he try for an exotic location? As usual, Roger came through and soon we were headed to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. This blog is a recap of our "leap-of- faith" wanderings around the Middle East and beyond. We joyfully share these expat experiences.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

DUBAI LITERARY FESTIVAL - FINDING PEACE . . . BROTHERLY LOVE . . AND LAUGHTER IN DUBAI – PART 3 - LAUGHTER Marina Lewycka

In this third and final segment of my blog about Anne O’Connell’s and my experiences at The Emirate Airlines Festival of Literature you get to meet one hysterically funny lady.

Our final session is with Marina Lewycka – say that three times with marbles in your mouth!  Marina is the author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Two Caravans and We are All Made of Glue. Anne and I prudently share the purchase of these three books with promises to share as soon as we have finished reading.  

Monday, April 11, 2011

DUBAI LITERARY FESTIVAL - FINDING PEACE . . .BROTHERLY LOVE . . . AND LAUGHTER IN DUBAI - PART 2 - BROTHERLY LOVE Tariq Ramadan

Part 2  of Finding Peace, Brotherly Love and Laughter in Dubai is about Tariq Ramadan’s presentation, “Charting a Course Between Islamic Values and Western Cultures.”  This seems like an interesting choice since both Anne and I had decided independent of each other that we want to use some of our time in the Middle East to understanding this mysterious Muslim faith.
The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature  proves to be one of the best experiences in my first year of living in Dubai.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

DUBAI LITERARY FESTIVAL - FINDING PEACE . . . BROTHERLY LOVE . . . AND LAUGHTER IN DUBAI – PART 1 PEACE Greg Mortenson


Where can you find an American mountain climber aka philanthropist whose quest for peace turns stones into schools; a Swiss-born Muslim Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford who proposes a future where Islamic values and Western culture are in harmony;  and a zany Ukrainian lady whose writings are described as “mad” and “hilarious” and whose mere entrance into the room elicits warm bubbles of laughter?

Accompanied by my aspiring author friend Anne “The Writer” O’Connell, we embark on a two-day adventure into a multicultural literary scene.  While we are both veterans of The Broward County Library Literary Feast   in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, this is our first experience at this similar event in Dubai.