Store Manager Goodbye's

Today the store managers from AbuDhabi and Dubai met up with me at PfChangs in Mall of Emirates for lunch. It was so great to see each of them one last time before I head home. I helped open most of their stores, trained their teams, and for a few of the store managers- even trained them almost three years ago when I was onboarding our first group of store managers in Columbus! I recapped my memories of opening up the Saudi Market with the manager from Dubai who went with me as my arabic translator and training partner. Another manager told the story of how I took her and the three other managers to Detroit, MI to train at Somerset mall and we went to the Motor City Casino because they wanted to "see the sights... in Detroit!" lol. That was a blast. We got lots of pictures, and Sherrellea gave a nice speech, then they all went around the table and told me the best memory of me working with them or their team. I was emotional because I really have met so many people, and spent so much time teaching them, and the thing that really got to me was when a few of the managers said "you are the reason I love this brand", or "you're the reason I've become such a good manager"... Those are my new best memories. Funny thing- for this picture I was like "I'll be in the back since I'm so tall" and, as the middle east goes, they were all like "no no no- you sit down in the middle, and then the senior managers sat next to me, or were at the front! It was like "all you minions to the back!" lol. In the front row- left is the training manager Michele, me, Sherrellea (vp ops), Zalfa (Ops Dubai) Shaik (Ops AbuDhabi)

Hello, Goodbye

This is my last weekend in Dubai. Only 5 days remain till I get on the flight home, for good this time. My 2 years has flown by, and I am so glad I kept this blog. Now, I'm not going to sign off yet, so this is not the good bye blog entry, but it's the winding down of this amazing experience. So first off; I got a new job! I'm now going to the Manager of Store Operations for our international division!! This is the role I have dreamed of for years. I'll be in charge of all the store education materials, store meetings, trainings, new franchise on-boardings, then overseeing the store props (plexiglass boxes, hanging decorative elements we change all the time, etc), new store opening kits, any technology updates, scheduling tools, staffing tools, and... alot of other things. But this works out great because I've worked in the US business for years and have great relationships with the US home office teams, I've worked on the ground inside the franchise world, building those relationships, and really seeing what it is like on this side of the world. Now, I get to go back and fix all the issues that we've had on the ground, while connecting them more to the US business. So all in all, I'm thrilled and can not wait to start my next new adventure. And secondly, I didn't know how this last week was going to go. I was thrilled that I got to spend last week in Istanbul seeing the team before I left. Then I came back to Dubai and was excited and got emotional as both the LBI team and the franchise team wanted to throw me going away parties. And then the store managers all wanted to go out with me to have dinner and say goodbye :-) It really showed that I've built a great team, built strong relationships, and best of all, made some great friends. The pictures above are from our Franchise team brunch we did yesterday, and the picture of Sherrellea and I is great. She is the VP of Operations for the big franchise and we've become great co-workers and friends. I'll still be working with her as I'm now Operations from Columbus, and she'll still be here for the middle east. Below are the pictures from our Limited Brands team dinner. We went to my favorite restuarant in the city "Bice Mare" which is right in front of the Dubai fountains. We then went for drinks at my hangout bar called "Neo's", super posh top floor of the Address Hotel downtown Dubai. It was the perfect evening with the team. And they got me the best going away gift; a photo-frame to keep on my desk so that I can always remember the amazing times' I've had over here. They also got me a spa gift certificate for a spa in Columbus- joking that I'll need it since I'll have to start cleaning my own house, and making my own bed again when I get back :-) Pictures of the team, me and Ashley sitting infront of the Burj Khalifa, My card and they got me Magnolia Cupcakes for dessert! And the fountains.

Downtown Cairo

Here are some pictures of the city, mostly from the car as we didn't exactly walk around and explore. There seemed to be a lot of buildings under construction, but the guide said they've been that way for years, and nothing is really legal. A developer will just start building without having any roads or utilities in place, not even sewers, and then once the building is up, they expect the government to come back and make it habitable, but the land lord gets to start renting it- and keep the building, so it's really messed up and is a huge issue in the city. Being that the government is not functioning= they aren't able to fix the buildings= there are hundreds of empty 1/2 finished buildings. Also, the city is in a desert, so sand everywhere. The highways and ring-roads have sand dunes on the sides, and then garbage piles up, and then more sand. In some parts of the highway the off-ramps had an 1-2" of sand which was just like snow- makes it very slippery as you are trying to slow down.