Happy 39th birthday, UAE!

Office building with UAE flag in lights

More office building lights

View from our balcony of lights in street

The UAE celebrated its 39th birthday on December 2nd.  It's basically like the 4th of July but with colors and decorations that are red, green, black and white.  It's interesting how when in Europe it hits me how young the U.S. is and here, the country is even so much younger.  Of course, there is history prior to the formation of the UAE but you get what I'm talking about!  Sheikh Zayad was the ruler who really made the unification happen.  He is also quite revered here as he was a pretty impressive ruler who helped navigate from real poverty (literally no schools, hospitals or paved roads) to a place with a huge influx of money that functions with very little corruption (say compared to a Nigeria that also discovered oil).

Car decorated for National Day

Many of the decorated cars (and buildings) have photos
of the three big sheikhs (the middle one is Sheikh
Zayad - the founder)

Neighbor's house all ready for the celebration

National Day is a pretty big deal.  Many houses, schools, hotels and office high rises are decorated with lots of lights.  Most of the streets here are divided boulevards and there are lights and decorations up the middle of most of them.  A neat tradition in that people decorate their cars.  On the night of the National Day celebration people drive these decorated cars up and down the Corniche (the road along the beach/water) and stay up really late.  There are fireworks, too.  We weren't up for fighting the crowds when we were told that the fireworks could go off anytime between 7 and 11 (it ended up being almost 10), but we had a semi-decent view from one of our balconies.

The girls and I also made National Day cupcakes - decorated, of course, in green, white and red (er, or a little pinkish).  We delivered them to friends and neighbors which was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

We expect that next year will be an even bigger celebration when the country hits the ripe old age of 40. Ahem, just like me - we're the same age!