Hob-Nobbing with the U.S. Ambassador

When Jake and I first moved here, we envisioned being warmly welcomed by our government who would be glad to see more American ex-pats be a part of their community.  Well, not so much.  Jake's only trips to the embassy involved the lost passport (yes, the one I misplaced but we're moving on from that...).  His report was that the embassy was a lot like a stateside DMV with massive amounts of security.  He did get invited to an embassy 4th of July event his first summer here but that was really our only two interactions with our official government (we know lots of lovely embassy families at the school but nothing official).

Well, that changed this week when I was fortunate enough to be invited to two ambassador events in one week.  The new ambassador, Michael Corbin (has been in the UAE about six months) invited a group of ladies from the American Women's Network for coffee one morning at his residence (which is right across the street from our school).  We were greeted by him at the door, spent a half hour or so chatting and milling about and then had a more formal question and answer time with him.  He was very impressive - managed to come across as being very open and honest while, of course, being very diplomatic.  The residence was fine with lovely regional art exhibited all around.  I loved eating pastries off the official china with the gold U.S.A. crest.  I was a bit surprised to find only skim milk served with the coffee - he must be trying to stay healthy!  The yard of the residence was just lovely - much, much larger than the typical Abu Dhabi yard with a lovely shaded patio and sparkling pool large enough for lap swimming (many pools here are quite small).

Later that week, Jake and I joined the Ambassador, a lot of the diplomatic community as well as the American diplomatic and business community at a big event at the Emirates Palace to celebrate President's Day.  It was not exactly an "intimate" affair with hundreds in attendance but a fun event with good food, a military band and several people we knew.   They called it the U.S. "National Day" celebration but I'm guessing that since our big National Day falls on July 4th during the summer when the vast majority of people are gone, that they have decided celebrating President's Day in February when you can have a lovely outdoor reception is a good replacement.  Unfortunately, I took no pictures (and embassy and diplomatic families will probably chuckle about this post - they get invited to *way* too many of these events from what I understand).

Our impressive USA Ambassador to the UAE answering
questions from a small contingent of women

My official invitation for the President's Day celebration.
Love the official crest on top - but my invitation was taken
when we arrived so I'm glad I took a photo before!