Day Trippin' to Dubai!!

What a BLAST we had a couple of weekends ago when we finally got to venture out and see the most amazing city in the immediate vicinity.  Dubai is only a quick (though less than scenic) 90 minute jaunt from quiet and relaxed little Al Ain.  Jeremy threw together a fantastic day trip for all of us to enjoy the best Dubai has to offer in about 8 hours time (plus...I didn't have to plan AT ALL - which is always fantastic)!

We started off at the local rugby club on the outskirts of the city, hoping to grab some appetizers and a pint or two while enjoying the U.S. vs. Australia game.  Our first clue that this may not be exactly what we were hoping for should have been the insanely indirect route those coming to the club from the Al Ain direction are forced to follow just to arrive in the parking lot.  It was SO confusing!  Most people who live here in the UAE will tell you, "That's just how things are here..."  But this was beyond absurd!  The twists and turns and bypasses required in order to reach the club were appalling!  How this place stays in business, I will never know!

When we finally got inside, the atmosphere was nothing like what we were hoping for.  One of our favorite destinations at home in Al Ain is our local rugby club.  Filled with friendly expats and the epitome of the laid-back social club, the Palm Sports Resort is always a happy place for our family to visit.  Not so for the Dubai rugby club.  We were sorely disappointed with the lack of kindness shown by the wait staff and patrons alike.  We should have known when nobody commented on Dalila's cuteness immediately upon arrival that we weren't in a welcome place (sad way to judge a facility...but entirely accurate too!  The quicker people notice our little blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty, the faster and better the service always is!). Needless to say, we cut the visit to Dubai rugby club short (and, oddly enough, exiting the facility was an absolute breeze!  Shouldn't the opposite be true?  Easy to get to but difficult to leave?  One more for the many strikes against this club).

After we left, we decided to just move our plans forward a couple hours and head to our main destination, the Dubai Mall, early.  One of the most amazing sights I have seen thus far on our over-seas voyage was the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, looming over the other sky-scrapers peppering the Dubai skyline on the approach into town.  The building is truly incredible, standing literally twice as tall as the next tallest neighbor - which would be tall in any other city, but not next to Burj Khalifa.  Watching the building "grow" to its full height as we slowly approached the city was amazing.

Conveniently located right next to the tallest building in the world is the largest mall in the world - and the sight of the next leg of our day trip.  The Dubai Mall is beautiful!!  It boasts a huge aquarium and zoo, dozens of beautiful fountains and atriums, and a gold souk with the most incredible (and wearable) works of art imaginable.  The sharks at the aquarium were terrifying, but Dalila LOVED them!  She growled each time one swam over her head in the massive underwater walkway.  Show her a guy dressed up in a shark costume serving fish in the food court, though, and she screams in terror....go figure.

After a wonderful visit to the aquarium and zoo, we were ready to see another world's largest - this time, the fountain show outside the Burj Khalifa.  The enormous dancing fountains set to a lively Arabian tune with the Burj Khalifa providing the most stunning backdrop is an indescribable show.  We waited outside for thirty minutes in a prime location to watch the fountains....only to leave early when Dalila was terrified of the fountain show.....again.....go figure!  To this day, she screams when she sees even a split second of the video Jeremy managed to shoot of the water show.  Poor girl!

And to top off the night....Mexican food!!  This may not seem too exciting to people who haven't been in the UAE for an extended period of time.....but good Mexican food is nearly impossible to find here!  And it is one of our favorites.  A perfect way to end a fantastic, though not completely according-to-plan, day!  Thanks to my wonderful Jeremy for the amazing day-cation!!!

Burj Khalifa on the approach into Dubai.............

Fountain in Dubai Mall..............

The gold souk................

The Aquarium........

 These eels made me think of Ursula's garden in "The Little Mermaid"

An indoor boutique street in Dubai Mall....featuring a CAT store (?!).......

A pretty tree in a sweet store...where photography is strictly prohibited ;)  .......

Burj Khalifa and the fountain show............

Five minutes after loading up in the car to head home, snuggling her sparkly purple penguin from the aquarium.............

Al Ain - Our New Home

I’m a terrible blogger.  The amount of information hopping around in my brain is overwhelming!  …And it’s only been a few weeks since my last post. Thus, I’ll have to try and focus on one thing at a time in order to update everyone in a fairly coherent fashion. 

Let’s begin with the apartment…a story in and of itself….

Shortly after our arrival in Abu Dhabi, Jeremy and I were told that we would be placed in Al Ain, “The oasis of the Abu Dhabi emirate.”  Fine by us, we just wanted to know exactly WHERE in Al Ain.  Soon, the whole lot of teachers to be shipped to this fine city were loaded into buses and brought to a hotel to wait…wait….wait…… and finally receive keys to our “new” apartments.  Some people were lucky.  They received keys to their incredible villas in a place called “The Village.”  Others were sent to new but lesser known places.  The Allens?  We were given a key to a flat in Al Falahi….  Not bad, I thought, when I first saw it.  A little prison-like with windows that looked out to the other apartment windows an arm’s reach away.  So I signed the lease.

We considered ourselves a little bit lucky…we received some furniture with our apartment.  But after several drives to Al Ain to drop off newly purchased housewares and one night in the new digs….the stark reality of the situation became clear.  We would not last in Al Falahi.  The roaches on their own may not have been a problem.  Many people live with roaches as roommates and really have no other choice.  But when combined with the horrendous sewer smell issuing from every corner of the flat, we knew something had to change. 

In we went to the housing office to see the head of housing for all ADEC employees.  He was concerned, but flooded by requests from others that had come before us.  “Must stay for 3 months, madam.  You must give the place a chance.”  Luckily, Jeremy met a property owner as we sat in the housing office who just happened to have several apartments available.  We went to see one that day and knew we would take it if my employer would allow us to move.  Once again, we spoke with the director of housing in Al Ain, this time with all the work already done by us.  Our housing director said we could move, but had to wait for my employee number to come (this was almost three weeks ago now….and I STILL have not received my employee number!!). 

Once again, we settled in to wait…..wait…..wait…..  I came home to our flat in Al Falahi on our first Thursday night in Al Ain…and promptly burst into tears.  I walked in to find my husband and daughter playing in the living room, managing to stand the vomit-inducing smell that blanketed the apartment.  The saddest part was, they didn’t notice it as much since they had been in the apartment for a while.  I couldn’t last any longer there.  I called our housing head and amazingly got through to him at 4:00 on a Thursday!! (Others may know what an incredible accomplishment this is -  Mr. Adel almost never answers his phone, and ALWAYS tries to leave at 2:00 on Thursdays – the official start of the weekend here).  When I broke down to him and explained that our daughter had gotten sick over the smell and we could not last any longer, he finally agreed to let us move.  We were ecstatic and left that night!! 

Adel – if you ever read this, THANK YOU!!!  You saved our family!!!

Following are some pictures of our beautiful new flat as we work to furnish it and make it a home:

Our lovely kitchen....and Dalila!

Pretty bare-bones now.....but we still really like our living room.

Master bedroom - the bed will come when the next paycheck does =)

My favorite room so far - Dalila's beautiful purple bedroom.  She LOVES her purple rug!

 AMAZING!!!  We have an actual closet!! VERY hard to find here =)

Dalila - helping us clean the bathroom.  I love the lack of bidet....Lila likes to treat them as drinking fountains...

Our spare bathroom - shower curtain to come soon....

 The lovely exterior of our building.  We have trees on both sides and a darling little family of desert cats somewhere off in the background!!

Surprises in Our New Home.....

Our arrival to this amazing new place has been punctuated with numerous surprises - ironically, something we expected to happen.  There's the occasional delay in paperwork, inability to log in to internet banking, and that freak TV message delivered to the hotel room that had us thinking for a second that we would have to be moving out to our new home in Al Ain before we even began orientation!  However (and fortunately), most of the surprises we've experienced so far have been quite pleasant. And I just bet that they will surprise our friends "back home" (though I'm not supposed to use that phrase anymore....instead I should say "stateside"), even more than they surprised us.

* First, and most importantly - the treatment we as expats receive from locals has been an incredibly welcome surprise.  I have felt extremely comfortable in this country so far and have yet to experience that "fish out of water" feeling (I'm realistic - I know it's coming soon!).  The reason I think our family has adjusted so well is the incredibly welcoming attitude of the inhabitants in this foreign land.  They are so accustomed to seeing people of all races, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds that their home is open to almost anyone. The only reason I have to say "almost anyone" is that it is evident that they respect people who have the foresight and decency to respect their culture.  Arriving here during the holy month of Ramadan has been both a challenge and an advantage for us.  Basically, if you are able to be respectful and polite during this time of year, you should be all set!

* It's a desert....but there are plants!!!  Yep...I'm naive.  I expected to see nothing but hills of sand shifting in the wind into unrecognizable dunes the next time I pass by.  But the landscape is a huge surprise when one arrives with such an expectation in mind.  Jeremy and I rented a car a few days back to tackle the 90 minute drive out to Al Ain - our home for the next year or two at least.  I had seen this trip once before from a bus window, so I knew what to expect.  The beauty, however, is so much more striking when in the comfort of a single-family, air-conditioned car....though the date sacks were only mildly entertaining without a close friend there ( ;) Kari...).  The whole highway between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain is lined with palm trees and other shrubs and trees I have yet to identify.  With the alternating red and white dunes in the background, the scenery is a far cry from the shifting sands I had pictured before our trip .  In short...it's simply beautiful.  ...BIG surprise!

Here are some shots from the car ride back into the city:

And this is just a photo of a cool street we drove down in Abu Dhabi to find a grocery store a friend suggested to us.

In a world so different from our own where we expected a certain number of surprises, we have been so lucky to see the good mixed with the uncertain.  We know there will be days when the bad surprises outweigh the good....but are relieved that we can still find a pleasant unexpected experience mixed in with more challenging moments =)

Welcome to Abu Dhabi!!

WOW - WAY too long since I've posted anything.  So sorry for the delay.  We've been incredibly busy getting our house ready to leave, packing, flying, and settling in to our new home!  I was going to do several posts before this one, talking about Dalila's first trip to Heise, the insane amount of work we had to do to leave our home, and how terribly I'll miss everyone....but we never had time!!  Now I'm sitting in my hotel room with Dalila napping and Jeremy reading...and I finally can think enough to write about our experience thus far - so that's where I'll begin....

The Plane Ride(s):
Let me preface this story with some information from the night before.  We drove to Salt Lake to stay with some of Jeremy's family the night before our flight so we wouldn't have to rush that morning.  It was SO nice of Jeremy's family to allow us to stay with them....but beyond that, things were not so great.  I'm terrified of spiders, making me a spider-magnet somehow.  So, of course, the first spiders seen the whole year were found by me in the basement room where we stayed.  This one that I found in the bathroom was literally the size of a dime!  Then, as we tried to fall asleep, Jeremy jumped up and swatted at his back.  We turned on the light to see what had tickled him....an even bigger spider!!  By this time, Dalila wanted to join in all the fun and she refused to go to sleep.  Needless to say...we were all a bit cranky as we boarded our first flight from Salt Lake to Chicago.  Jeremy and I were so worried that Dalila would be an absolute stinker!  Luckily, she surprised us and fell asleep right after take-off!!

Next, we stopped in Chicago for 7 hours!!  Great airport to be stuck in with a kid - they have an incredible play area with airport-themed toys that Dalila loved!

Our next flight was a 12 hour one from Chicago to Amman, Jordan.  This was the one that had us really, really nervous.  Again - Dalila was a champ.  She slept for most of the time on this flight too, but also loved watching cartoons with Jeremy and I on the screens at each seat - those were great!!

Finally, our final flight took us from Jordan to Abu Dhabi.  After three hours of a screaming newborn (poor Mama!!) and Dalila sleeping through yet another flight, we were in our new city of residence.  The blast of steam filtering through the vents in the top of the plane was the first signal that we had reached an entirely new climate.  And man is it different!!!

Abu Dhabi:
Now that we're here, things have gone very smoothly.  The process of entering the country was incredibly simple and quite fast.  After a small hiccup with room assignments (we were given the same room as another teacher!!), we have begun settling in and trying to help Dalila adjust to the time zone.  She wants to sleep all day and climb on Mommy and Daddy all night.  I've met some wonderful people from all over the world and am looking forward to getting my housing assignment soon.

One surprising element that Jeremy and I are constantly remarking on is the incredible similarities to life at home.  We went shopping for some necessities at the Marina Mall (HUGE!!) and stopped at Carrefour - a store very similar to Target or Walmart back home.  Here, we were able to stock our hotel fridge with food and score a straightener to flatten my poor, overly hydrated hair.  We've also marveled at the kindness expressed by so many people we've run into, from tourists to locals.  Abu Dhabi is an incredible mixture of many, many different nationalities...so everyone is able to feel welcome.  I'm constantly surprised by the kindness offered by locals even as they fast during their holy month of Ramadan.  With this heat and an empty stomach, I'm not sure I'd be able to do the same!

Our family is doing our best to make this new world our home, and, so far, we've been quite successful.  We're excited to see what will happen next and continue to build on these friendships we've started.  We miss everyone at home, but please know that we feel incredibly safe and comfortable here.  We're home!!

Pictures:
This is a view of some of the amazing buildings near our hotel.  That misty look to the photo is actually moisture build-up on the lens of the camera!

Lila and Mommy on the beach at the Intercontinental Hotel

Here, Lila was very crabby and wanted to go to sleep - poor girl!!  When we got back to the room after our walk, she was playful and happy again.  No worries!!