Jumeriah

Yesterday, I decided to try again, this time armed with the coordinates. The beach was clean. The water was clear and warm.

Jumeriah Beach

Hello, 2012: Happy New Year!

Last night, Rob and I dropped Belle off for a sleepover at her friend Alanna's home, and headed to the Volvo Ocean Race Destination Village (the Abu Dhabi stopover for the race), to ring in the New Year with Coldplay.  It was a great concert...  and the first time we've been out to celebrate New Year's in a few years.   The concert started at 10pm, but the line to get into the venue was pretty long when we arrived at 8pm.  Coldplay led the countdown to 2012 and then finished their concert with Every Teardrop is a Waterfall. Then we watched the fireworks and fought the traffic to get home. I was so glad Rob was driving on the way home because it was hard to recognize where the parking lot began and the exit lanes started... No one queues up well over here - even in cars.

Last week we went to the Dubai Aquarium at the Dubai Mall.  It was incredible. You can see the aquarium's big window long before you actually get there and in their huge tank, they have everything from eels to sharks.  The main window holds the world record for the largest single sheet of acrylic in the world, but to us, the coolest part was the clear tunnel you walk through UNDER the aquarium, and the glass bottom boat ride you take OVER the aquarium.  We spent a lot of time looking at all the fish and marveling at the experience of being under sharks and rays.  We also were able to watch scuba divers cleaning the tank and feeding the fish.  Afterwards, we climbed into the glass bottom boat, and could see the tunnel with people in it, below us. We also watched the rays come up to the surface and hang out on the coral.  With our tickets, we were also able to tour the underwater zoo, and see king crabs, a Finding Nemo tank (holding all the fish from the films), water rats, and penguins.  We timed our visit just right because we saw the water rats eating corn on the cob and carrots while being pet by a zoo worker, and then watched the penguins getting fed fish.

Afterwards, we went to see the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, the Dubai Fountain, which is choreographed to music, and the waterfall in the mall.  We did do a little shopping (it is an enormous mall), and ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. The food wasn't spectacular, but the "animals" came to life periodically, and there were fun lighting effects. Plus, you could still see the aquarium from our table.  We're going to have to go back before school starts back up because the Dubai Shopping Festival starts on January 5th.

We are all planning on enjoying our last week of vacation.

Staycations and other adventures

As most people know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and happily, this appears to be recognized worldwide.  Belle and I participated in one of the several walks/runs being hosted throughout Al Ain, and even signed a poster - in memory of Rob's gram, Joanne, who went through two bouts with breast cancer.  She taught me how to crochet during her second battle, and I was able to really spend some quality time with a woman whose time ended much too soon to ever meet Belle.  Personally, I think they would have gotten along like a house on fire.  (Weird idiom)
After taking our long walk for breast cancer through the desert heat, we cooled down by taking Belle ice skating at the mall.  Yeah, life is like that...
 

In Abu Dhabi, we started school on September 11th, well, technically September 4th for me, and our first break was for the holiday, Eid Al Adha.  This is one of two Eid holidays (the first one followed Ramadan - Eid al Fitr).  This Eid recognizes the story of Abraham and Isaac, when God asks Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, and at the last moment, Abraham is able to exchange this sacrifice for a lamb caught in the bushes.  Whereas the first Eid is a celebration of completing the difficulties of Ramadan, this Eid is more about having faith in God and then being redeemed by this trust in God- but also a reminder that God may ask us to sacrifice and we need to be prepared when called upon (although rarely in Biblical texts does he require the sacrifice of our children, after all, He made that sacrifice for us).  Living in a Muslim country makes me think more about my own faith, especially as I learned more about this holiday, and the Hajj (religious pilgrimage to Mecca) which is supposed to take place prior to the Eid.  It is really interesting, and I encourage y'all to look into it if you want.  Okay, religion lesson over...

During our school holiday, we took a day trip to Dubai and did some skiing.  It was wonderful! Yeah, I know you are all wondering about us, ice skating and skiing in the desert. You can take us out of New Hampshire, but...  Ski Dubai was a lot of fun - we spent two hours on the trails - mostly sticking to one side because of our intrepid straight line skier, Belle.  It is located in the Mall of the Emirates and right inside the ski area are two ATMS that dispense gold bars - of course you have to have enough money to withdraw them, and I'm not quite sure what you'd do with one - but the idea itself is really cool.

On Friday, Mallory and I went to see Britney Spears in concert, and it was hilarious. I think her pop star days are waning. It didn't seem to bother too many people in the crowd that she only lip synched part of the time, and the rest of the time looked bored, or that she sat more than she "danced." I think it might have been her scantily clad costumes that kept the audience entranced, and the amount of skin and tight clothes that were being shown by the on-lookers was quite shocking after spending three months in a conservative country.

Now, we are back at school, in the final stretch before our big vacation in December... almost three weeks off.  Rob has all his paperwork done and is an officially licensed driver and resident of the UAE now.  It only took almost two months, and two trips to Abu Dhabi for translation services. This Friday, we are off to Dubai again for a dhow dinner cruise, and I hope some quality beach time.  The girls at school are starting to show up in sweaters and coats and I'm looking forward to the beach, but honestly, this November is the warmest one I've ever been through. 

Career Day

Well, we just said goodbye to Rich until sometime this winter.  It was a whirlwind visit this time around, and poor Rob spent the first day of his visit in the hospital with what we think was a case of food poisoning.  He was poked, prodded, tested, and medicated, and thankfully, insured.   We both are feeling much better about the quality of medical care after this visit to the Urgent Care Clinic. 

Today he felt recovered enough to take Belle and her two car pool buddies on an independent field trip to Dubai.  They had received free children's tickets to the Dolphinarium (turns out they were VIP tickets). So off they went on what Rob is referring to as a career exploration day, since the girls have decided to become dolphin trainers.