Old Friends, New Islands

April 10, 2022

I first met R* during my first year in college. He was an upperclassman and a brother in the fraternity which socialized frequently with my sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta. From the minute I met him, he was a kind and sweet soul who was always willing to lend a hand to others. We got to be good friends during monthly trips to Sam’s Club – he had a large truck (a rarity for students in Hawaii!) and was gracious enough to let me tag along with him so I could stock up on the necessities and avoid having to haul a case of toilet paper home on the bus and schlep it back to the dorms!

*Fresh faced kiddos at R’s graduation, circa 2012*

We’d lost touch after he graduated; he moved back to California to pursue a career in Marine Biology in San Diego, but we’d kept up the requisite birthday greetings on Facebook over the years. Imagine my surprise when, shortly after arriving in Abu Dhabi, I got a message from him out of the blue asking about my recent move. As luck would have it – he recently accepted probably the coolest job offer I’ve ever heard of as a senior aquarist at the soon to be opening SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, the first SeaWorld park to open internationally! We made fast plans to get together, meeting up for an Irish brunch this weekend.

Some things, like fine wine and the occasional stinky cheese, age beautifully. Ray’s and my friendship turned out to plucked from the same vine as a fine Sangiovese. We laughed and reminisced about Greek life shenanigans in college, and marveled at how long it had been (10 years!!) and how far (8,764 miles!!) we had come since living in Hawaii. I didn’t realize until after we’d chatted for a few hours, but there is something so valuable to having someone who’s known me at a different point in my life, involved in my life again now.

After a festive Irish brunch, we braved the heat to stroll along the Corniche and made plans to get together again soon – hopefully checking out one of the many theme parks on Yas Island. My personal top pick would be the world’s fastest roller coaster at Ferrari World, the world’s first Ferrari-branded themed park in the world (because of course).

*Sunflowers always remind me of my husband, J. They’re his favorite and quickly are becoming mine*

The remainder of the weekend was spent exploring Al Seef Mall to get some groceries, conducting a reconnaissance mission of the neighborhood pool (purely for research purposes, of course), and enjoying some beautiful flowers sent by my always-thoughtful mother! Onto the workweek -

Xoxo,

Aims

Lockpickers on Tricycle