We were
definitely sleepy heads today – recovering from last night. We slept late
and rested, getting ready for tomorrow.
The New
Year always brings us to a time of looking back and looking forward - Time to
look back on the good times and the time to look forward to the future.
I think I
was awake before Randy and Andrea this morning so I just laid in bed thinking about how
blessed we were to be able to experience all that we had and to have had so much fun. I know the one thing that you can never lose or can never be taken
from you is the memories you create with your family. We would never
think about going to a fireworks display with an estimated one million people
(Did I mention Randy HATES crowds?) but we realized it was an opportunity we
probably wouldn’t experience again so we did it! We would never have
thought about coming to the Middle East during the Christmas Holidays. BUT we
have loved every minute of every day that we have been here. Please,
please don’t miss those opportunities to make memories with your family and
your friends!
We have been so busy we have not had an opportunity to walk around Andrea’s neighborhood. Below are pictures from the rooftop terrace and around the neighborhood:
We have been so busy we have not had an opportunity to walk around Andrea’s neighborhood. Below are pictures from the rooftop terrace and around the neighborhood:
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| Andrea's Apartment Building |
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| Building Next to Andrea's Building - The Mug Cafe |
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| Street View |
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| Street View |
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| Street View |
We had
dinner with Andrea’s friend, Charlotte from Alabama at the Mug Café, a cute
little café connected to her apartment complex. No traffic and no mobs of
people today!
Interesting
and Quirky Tid-Bits
- Cell Phone Numbers are attached to almost everything; just like our social security number is in the US; For example – Every time Andrea uses her bank card, she receives a text message; when her paycheck is deposited, she receives a text message. On National Day (like our Independence Day), she received a text message from His Highness, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (the Vice President of the UAE).
- Alcohol Permits – You have to have an Alcohol Permit to buy alcohol. You must be non-Muslim and have a valid residency visa. The permit allows you to spend a certain amount of your monthly salary on alcohol – the amount is based on salary, age, job title and size of your family.
- Knowing that you must have an alcohol permit and alcohol consummation was limited, I thought it funny to see these “saloon” signs everywhere. Well, they are not “saloons”. It is actually a salon – like a Hair Salon – they just spell it “saloon”.
- We saw cell phone towers that looked like palm trees – they did not want the unsightly cell phone towers so they disguise them to look like palm trees. How clever is that?
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| Cell Phone tower (on left side of picture) |
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