“There's no trouble in this world so serious that it can't be cured with a hot bath, a glass of whiskey, and the Book of Common Prayer.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Yesterday marked 5 months that I've lived in Abu Dhabi. Thinking about how I should commemorate this occasion, I began reading through old blog entries and as I read about my travels and adventures I began to realize that I have left out a big part of the story here. I recently described life in the UAE to a friend back home using the old saying “long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.” Okay, maybe “sheer terror” isn’t accurate for me; “exhilaration” would be a better fit, but otherwise you can get the picture – even life in the Middle East can’t be interesting every moment. So, while I wait for another opportunity to travel or be exposed to some new cultural phenomenon, I go about the business of living in Abu Dhabi, a town I imagine having the same amount of charm as a Miami suburb. Now that the initial culture shock is over, now that I know that I can’t get lost, now that I’ve seen the local sights and I know there are almost no restaurants worth mentioning, now what?

Well, I live.

And this is the part I’ve failed to document. A day in the life of Andrea in the middle east—

Today I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock and fumbled in the darkness to turn it off at 4:25am. I then began my morning routine which is nearly always exactly the same – dragged myself to the kitchen to make coffee, looked out my balcony window for signs of the sunrise while waiting impatiently for the coffee to finish brewing, sat with my coffee, worked-out, skyped Tony, got dressed and ready for work, fought traffic for 20 minutes (with my 4 co-workers) while listening to an Emirati radio station, sat through meetings, copied papers, learned a few new Arabic words from my students, chased 50 kids around, persuaded kids using candy, watched the clock slowly make its way to 1 pm, fought traffic (and a headache) on the way home, looked for a parking spot, changed clothes, spent 40 minutes on the elliptical, washed my hair, checked Facebook, ate and chatted with Deb about work and boys, smoked shisha, bought some new housing items, got a mani-pedi, went to one of the my favorite 4 malls, sent my clothes to Bubbles (the laundry-man), sat at the beach, read for a bit (Catching Fire-I know, finally!), turned out the lights by 9 and was asleep in seconds.

That’s it. No glitz. No life lessons. Just life. And tomorrow will be about the same.