New Year's Day and Hanging in the Neighborhood

Day 12 - Tuesday, January 1st

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:

Andrea's Apartment Building

Building Next to Andrea's Building - The Mug Cafe

Street View

Street View

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?

Cell Phone tower (on left side of picture)

New Year's Eve and "A Million of My Closest Friends"

Day 11 - Monday, December 31st

New Year’s Eve – We are spending the last day of 2012 with our beautiful daughter in the United Arab Emirates, one of the richest countries in the world.

While I was waiting for Andrea to get dressed, I started reflecting on our visit here. Several years ago during the Persian Gulf War, my oldest nephew was on a ship in the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf).  I felt great trepidation and a sense of uneasiness the entire time he was in the region.  I know that was because of the war and the unknown.  Never in a million years did I think that one day I would be here and that my child would be teaching the local children. While I know this country had nothing to do with that unrest, I just think it is so ironic that she would be here.  I know there is a reason she is here and I know that Our God is watching over her.

Today we are going to Dubai to celebrate the New Year and to see the fireworks from the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.  It is hazy and cloudy; the sun is trying to streak through the clouds.   The traffic is a little heavier – everyone going to the city for New Year’s.

Usually on New Year’s, we stay at home and watch the “Peach” drop in Atlanta and the “Crystal Ball” drop in NYC but not this year.  Andrea was determined we were going to celebrate in style; after all, how often are you in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for New Year’s.  For those of you who know my husband, you know he absolutely HATES crowds BUT of course, he’ll do anything for his baby girl! J

Once in Dubai, we made a couple more stops before heading to the area where the fireworks will be displayed.

Burj Khalifa

• World’s tallest building
• 124 stories
• Tom Cruise filmed movie – Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Deira Clock Tower – oldest monument in a round about

Even Flat Stanley wanted to get in the pictures - he was visiting from the US - the daughter of one of Andrea's friends was doing a project for school.

Dubai World Trade Center

• Built in 1978 – at the time it was built, it was the tallest building in Dubai
• 39 story office tower
• Building is featured on the 100 dirham
• Globe on post in front features different countries

 We parked at Dubai Mall – it’s the easiest place to park and it’s free.  When you drive into the mall, there is a plaquard showing how many available parking spaces on each deck.  Also, above each parking space is a light glowing red or green showing whether there are available spaces or not on that row; so it’s easy to just look down a row and see if a space is available – no need to drive up and down every row.  Also, there were Car Wash attendants throughout the parking deck – you can get your car washed for about 15 Dirhams while you shop.

We had dinner at Rainforest Café in Dubai Mall – Brownie Volcano for dessert! – Hey, it’s New Year’s Eve and we were celebrating.  After all, we had grilled chicken and grilled vegetables – doesn’t that balance out the calories?

Samy, our waiter, was excellent and very personable.  He asked if we were visiting and Andrea told him she lived in Al Ain. When he brought the check, he gave it to Andrea  for payment and she gave it to Randy.  Samy said, “You resident. You pay for guests.” We all just laughed. She explained as long as Dad was around, he got the check. LOL He really thought that was funny.

After dinner, we made our way out of the mall to find the ideal spot –  Andrea, Randy, myself and “one million of our closest new friends” – to watch fireworks from the Burj Khalif and surrounding buildings.  There were people everywhere. I think "calm chaos" is an oximoron but honestly, that's the way it looked - People on every inch of sidewalk, retaining walls, streets, median, landscaping, every inch of real estate was covered. If you are a people watcher, this was the place for you!!!

While we were waiting, people would ask us to take their pictures with their friends and family. Here is picture of 3 of my "new friends" – they are from Bahrain.  They had asked me to take their picture.  Then I got in their picture.

We waited 4 hours to see a 10 minute show – very pretty but not the prettiest we’ve seen.  The most spectacular displays Randy and I have ever seen were on a dinner cruise in Canada and in the Rose Garden in Bangkok, Thailand.

It took us an hour and half to get to our car and out of the parking deck at the mall.  It was insane. And then another hour and half to get home.  Driving back into Al Ain, it was very foggy – we couldn’t even see the Jebel Hefeet Moutain, which is the highest point in Al Ain and it is lit up at night.

We called home to wish our family and friends “Happy New Year”.  It was 3:00am New Year’s Day in Al Ain and only 6:00pm New Year’s Eve Day in Atlanta.

All About Town...in Al Ain

Day 10 - Sunday, December 30th

Day 10 and we are having a relaxing morning and getting ready for a new day. 

School was closed for the last 3 weeks in December but we wanted to see Andrea’s school.  We drove over to the school and Andrea managed to communicate with the security guard that she was a teacher and we were her parents and that we would like to visit the school.  He let us in and we walked around the complex.

While we didn’t see the children, I’ll give you a short tour.  There is a courtyard in the middle and the classrooms and administration building are all around it.  Each classroom opens directly into the courtyard.  Andrea showed us her classroom – it looks similar to her room here in the US just not as much resource materials as she had here.  Her Arabic counterpart teacher’s classroom was next door to hers. The gym was a nice size but the interesting thing was classroom materials were all along the outer edge - this is where they have their health/fitness classes.  

The children are beautiful – dark skin, dark eyes, jet-black hair, long eyelashes, wavy hair – just gorgeous.  However, they are a tiny bit spoiled – almost all have nannies so they don’t have to do anything that they don’t want to do.  UAE is a country that caters to the children – they believe children are without sin so they are perfect and can do whatever they want.  One of the things Andrea said that her little girls love the most is “Chocolate Paste” in a straw like Pixie sticks but it’s paste – they just squirt in their mouths and eat it.  The other thing is “Pink Hair” – looks like cotton candy.  

The two pictures below are from Andrea's blog - http://fromatlantatoabudhabi.blogspot.com. 

Our next stop was in search of the Al Ain Hanging Gardens.  I had seen pictures on the internet and was really looking forward to seeing them. They are in the Guiness Book of World Record for the largest hanging gardens in the world.  After driving around for a while, we finally found where they should have been –my Biggest Disappointment – the gardens were closed for “refreshing and refurbishing”.  We later found out that they may be moved to Dubai. I guess I can make the visit the next time we are in the UAE to see Andrea.

Then we headed to the Al Ain Camel Market.  It kind of reminded me of going with my dad to the livestock market when we were growing up. The only difference – we had cows; they have camels. 

Al Ain Camel Market

• Last souk of its kind in the UAE
• Excellent opportunity to see camels up close and see and hear traders discussing the price and merits of their animals
• Some of the men told us “Oman camel no good”
• Raise for milk and later to butcher
• We ask about prices: Small Oman camel – 200 dirhams; Small Emirate camel – 500 dirhams; Large Emirate camel – 5,000 dirhams
• We saw a veterinarian attending a camel – we thought we might get to see a baby camel being born but the mother just didn’t see fit to be on our time table J

Then we headed over to Souk Al Za’afarana where there are fresh fruits and vegetables from all around the world.  Things we had never seen.  The guys there were so friendly – one guy, Abdhul Jaleel wanted his picture taken with Andrea and I so we could put it on Facebook.  Too funny!!!  

There were beautiful fruit baskets – Large -100 dirhams (approx. $27 USD); Medium – 65 (approx. $18) dirhams; Small – 35 dirhams (approx. $9.50).

And an interesting looking vegetable that looked like a cucumber with needles on it. We ask what it was and they tried to explain.  It was quite comical to hear two southern belles trying to communicate with 5 Arabic guys.  We think they said bitter gourd.

 After that little adventure, we headed home to dinner in the crock pot – roast, carrots, potatoes, biscuits.  It was a very lean cut of beef – I think it was Australian beef.