Two Weeks With Our Daughter: Off to the Zoo and Other Places

Day 3 - Sunday, December 23rd

I’m still on US time – I’m awake at 6:00am; up at 7:00am. Got my coffee and my Coke; curled up on the sofa with my Kindle for a little “Me Time”.

I shower at 9:00am; am ready to go by 10:00am, just waiting on my little sleeping beauty to wake up so we can hit the road. We have a light breakfast of fresh fruit and biscuits.

Here’s a cute conversation between Andrea and myself. I’m your typical tourist ready to go and do! LOL

C – “What are we doing today?”

A – “Does it matter?”

C – “I didn’t fly 7,000 miles to sit here.”

A – “Don’t lie – you flew 7,000 miles to see me.” (She’s so cute)

C – “Yes, you’re right but I can see you when we are out so let's go!"

Today we are heading to the Al Ain Zoo. The weather was perfect. This is our first experience with local people not following the “get in line and wait your turn” mentality. A lady with 3 small children wanted to break in front of us when we were buying our tickets but ticket taker told her we were first. She even tried to hand him money and he still told her she had to wait until after us. She seemed a little shocked and taken back that he would not let her in front of us. She stood right there until we got our tickets and then she just barged right in front of the people behind us.

There were a lot of different exhibits - nocturnal house, bird house, reptile, apes, big cats, giraffes, rhinos, and more. Also, plenty of green public spaces for picnics, playgrounds, a cafeteria and a train tour of the wildlife area, giraffe feeding, camel riding, bird show and petting zoo. We felt like kids and the cost was only 15 dirhams (about $4 US). And best of all, the weather was perfect – low 70’s.

Sculpture - I thought this was neat!

There was a mosque at the zoo and this was the first time we heard the Call to Prayer. I’ll write more about this later.

Afterwards we went to Abela (Andrea’s favorite grocery store and it’s near her apartment). We picked up a few things that we needed for Christmas dinner. Look at the produce.

After a short nap, we met Andrea’s friend, Mrs. Jones for dinner at Chili’s. Mrs. Jones has been in Al Ain for 3 years now. She is actually how Andrea learned about the teaching opportunities in the UAE. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with her – it was interesting hearing about her experiences.

Today's History Lesson:

Dress & Etiquette

Most Emirate males prefer to wear a kandura, an ankle-length white tunic woven from wool or cotton
Most Emirati women wear an abaya, a black over-garment covering most parts of the body. Some women also wear a sheyla to cover their faces.
I did notice that even though the women were covered in their abayas, they loved their shoes, their purses and their make-up. Over the top and expensive!!!!!!!!!!
UAE encourages above-shoulder-below-knees dressing style for its expatriate population, especially in malls, but apart from some highly public places, western style dressing is tolerated in almost all places, especially in the emirates of Abu-Dhabi and Dubai, where the expat number is extremely high.
Andrea does not have to wear an abaya to teach but she does have to be covered from shoulders to wrists to ankles. Typically she wears a long skirt or dress and cardigan.

Homes

The homes are beautiful and huge

All with ornate concrete walls around them – 10 – 15 feet high

Arches over gates mirror arches over front doorway

Some “compounds” have 2 or 3 homes in them with a smaller home in back for servants

Children live with parents after they marry; usually up until they have 2 or 3 children and then they build a home within the walls of their parent’s home

They can borrow up to 2 million dirhams to build a home without interest and take as long as necessary to pay it off.