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.

Pyramids in the Daytime

Today was a gorgeous sunny day, and we got to the site before it got too warm which was perfect. As we turned onto the road to get to the site, there were all these guys in the road, blocking up, yelling at us. Ali said it was because they wanted to be our tour-guides. He yelled out his window in Arabic at them, and they got SUPER confrontational, starting kicking the car and banging on the window. It was intense- even with Ali being Egyptian, they still treated him like he was a tourist! We eventually make it up to the site and much to my surprise, again, there was hardly anyone there! We drove right up to the gate, got our tickets, and get this- drove right onto the site! You just drive around the site on the rough run down roads, and drive form Pyramid to Pyramid- even two big tour buses were doing it! If you don't have a car, you can rent a horse, or a camel with a guide. With all the majestic grandeur of the pyramids, you don't really get to "smell" the area. There was horse and camel dung everywhere. I mean everywhere. It was disgusting. I had heard that the picture of the pyramids was always shot from one side as to hide the truth of Cairo being directly behind the other side, and it is true! The one side; blowing sandy desert, the other, a rough looking city skyline. We did end up getting a guide because Ali said he felt really bad for all these guys- they have no work. It was ok, I felt a bit rushed as he was power walking around the sites, then wanting us to get Camels' to the far smallest pyramid- a total add on "he knows a guy who has the best camels..." So we did get them, and I got a complimentary head scarf as they all thought I'd get sunburned. All was going good till we finished and the guide came up and told me "200 Pounds and I'll let you down" (egyptian pounds is the currency). I looked at Ali who told me not to pay. Then the guide stated yelling at him in Arabic and he looked away! LOL- I was like- "Ah, Ali- Can you help here??" And the guy insisted that I needed to pay, "250-300, it was worth it". Looking around, I was like; fine. I gave him the 200pounds, and then he said "no- I told you 300" then Ali did step in and so did the other guide, and finally he brought the camel down. The thing that made me so mad was that I was going to give me 200 pounds just because we did have a good tour- but now, he made it all ugly. Blah. We got back to the car, and headed across town to the new hotel we're staying at now for the work Visits. I have some great photos of the city I'll post later.

Pyramids Light Show

Wow. This was amazing. I asked the front desk if they had any trips going to see the show, and of course they did! So they set me up with their tour guide, and it was only $20 including transportation, and get this- FRONT ROW seat! AH! It was awesome! I ended up going with a young couple from Switzerland who were super nice. The show started at 7pm, and lasted an hour. During the show, they told different parts of the history of the site, the Egyptian rulers, a little about the Rosetta Stone and how it unlocked the language, all while changing colors on the pyramids, and adding cool holographs to illustrate things like the Sphinx. I love this camera I have because it was pitch black and everyone around me was complaining that they couldn't get their pictures to come out, and mine were turning out fine- just a bit blurry on some.

View and Pool

I got some good pool time in today as my "tour guide" Aly isn't able to meet me till tomorrow to see the Pyramids. Gorgeous weather, only in the low 80's, really sunny. As you can see from the pictures- no one at the pool! There aren't very many tourists here as you can imagine with all that is being said on the news, so lucky for me I guess. The hospitality is so great here because tourism is so down- they really do appreciate those who make the journey and stay at their hotel. As you can see from the pics- I am super close to the pyramids site!

Giza, Egypt

So long time no post. As I was sitting in the airport yesterday, I realized why I haven't been blogging; because this amazing journey I've been on is almost over! If I had been blogging the count down I would have realized how quickly it's all going to be over. Luckily, I have 2 trips left before I move back; Istanbul next week annnnnd: Cairo! Yep, I'm in Egypt this weekend for 2 days of sightseeing, and then 2 days of work to see our 3 new stores that opened last week. I missed the openings because our company didn't want me to travel, so I had to wait for the approval, but on the positive, they have been doing fabulous, so it will be good to see them a week after opening to see if they still look good. The direct flight was only 3.5hrs from Dubai, and luck was with me because I got a complimentary upgrade to Business class!! Quite a good surprise, and a great "last trip" on emirates, as I'll be flying Turkish Air next week to Istanbul. I had arranged for an "on arrival service" to the hotel as I was traveling alone, and was a bit nervous as everyone has been terrified of me coming here. It was great- as soon as you get off the plane- they are waiting on the tarmac with your name on a folder. They take you right to customs, get your visa for you, take you through passport control, take you through security, and customs, and then take you to the car waiting outside the door. All for only 40 euros. Such a good deal- I would highly recommend because I would never have figured out the on-arrival visa, and imagine how chaotic the baggage claim area is in the US- well there is only ONE belt in this airport and there was three different planes that arrived at the same time. It was out of control- luckily my guide elbowed his way in to get my bag. My driver was awesome- got me all the way across Cairo in 30 minutes. How'd he do it? going 140-160 Kilometers an hour and driving like Mario Andretti! It was horrifying. The highways are not well maintained, or made; have huge drops, sharp curves, and gigantic potholes. Atop all of that- there were cars just stopped on the far lanes having a smoke break, buying fruits at the roadside vendors (on the highway!!), and the accidents- my goodness- there were accidents every few miles! I was texting Daniel as the first 10 minutes I was in the car and had to stop as I started to get car sick from all the up down, over, up down, and traveling at the speed of light. But again, great that it only took 30 minutes :-) As we got off the highway, it has gotten dark, but I could see the two gigantic pyramids as the sun had just set! Then I noticed that we were not on a paved road- or at least- it wasn't paved anymore. Dirt roads, large piles of garbage on every corner, people walking everywhere, cars parked up and down and around. As my driver must have seen my horrified look on my face he said "yea, we don't have rules here for driving, parking, or really anything. There isn't garbage pick up- eventually someone starts it on fire." I was so glad once we got to the hotel. It is really nice- under renovation, so there is some old parts still. I am in the new wing which looks just as clean and nice as any hotels in Europe. The pool is super nice, clean, and has amazing views of the two pyramids. I am going to the "Light show" tonight which everyone here has said I have to go see. I don't know if it's a tourist trap, or what, but even my Co-worker Aly who is Egyptian said I need to go see it, so I'll post some pics tonight when i get home.