Pictures

This is a vew of the traffic on Sheik Zayed road looking out of our hotel window. This is one of the major roads running thru the city.

A picture of some of the buildings in Dubai. There are big buildings everywhere here and many, many are still being built. More cranes are here than in all other major cities of the world combined!

Dani and Elle goofing around on the beach near the Burj Al Arab - the 7 star hotel in Dubai. You have to pay just to go inside to see it.

Dani and Elle with henna designs on their hands. They are supposed to last 7 to 10 days.

Dani, Elle and Renee suporting their henna.

Dani, Larry and Elle outside walking near souke (market) Maditant.

Outside of souke maditant - kinda looks like the river walk in San Antonio.

Some Pictures of Dubai

This is a typical "villa" (house) here. They are connected and often in a compound that share a pool or other ammenties.

This is the market that we went to that is much like Canal Street in NYC.

This is the Dubai American Academy

Thursday in Dubai

Today Larry went into the office – there are 3, one in Oud Metha, one in the Outsource Zone and one in the Dubai International Finance Center. Oh, we should explain how the city is divided up. First, there are no addresses. Mail is ONLY delivered to P.O. Boxes, on top of that you should only send mail to your company P.O. Box because personal boxes are not reliable. The city is divided up into areas or zones, each having a name. Businesses areas are grouped by what they do – for example, there are zones called Internet City, Media City, Academic City, Medical City, Sports City and so on.

Later in the day, we visited the Dubai American Academy. We liked it but it is rather large. We prefer the American School of Dubai. We have applied to both and will hope for the best that we get in to one or both of them. There are waiting lists for both already.

After the school visit we came back to the hotel and did homework. Then we went out to the Karama Shopping center, a.k.a. Canal Street in NYC. The girls are proudly sporting their new “futbol” jerseys from there. This experience was very interesting, every few steps you are asked “want copy watch? Want copy designer bag?” These are designer knock-offs. And if you want to see these you have to go into “secret” rooms in the shops. One time we went up a crickety set of stairs into a closet full of silk material scraps. The sales guy pushed a button and someone behind a book case moved the book case out of the way to expose a very small door into a secret room. Larry had to completely bend in half to fit inside. Unfortunately there were no sparkling bargains that we just had to have… maybe next trip. And if anyone comes to visit we will be sure to take you there. *big grin* Elle says she’s not going back “its creepy!”

More from Dubai

Well its our 4th day here in Dubai. Yesterday was our best day by far, however the girls did get car sick. There are speed bumps and round abouts all over the place which makes for a curvy, bumpy ride. We saw a couple of apartments and villas yesterday. Of course very different from the states, but also very cool. The villas all have walls around them with a small garden in back or in front. Makes you feel like your in a quiet hide-away from the world - sort of anyhow - the other side of the wall is your neighor and you can hear them. Picking where to live is far more important than the villa itself. Traffic here is very heavy most of the time so we need to find a location that will be good for Larry to work and the girls to go to school. One of the schools that we would like the girls to go to is going to move for back to school 2009, so we have to take that into consideration too. Its nice that Larry is moving here for a while alone, he can take the time to figure that one out before we have to make a decision.

Another challenge here is communcation. Yes, almost everyone speaks English, but first off it is British English so there are different words for things. Plus... well... hard to explain, you can just see that you are not being understood, so you stay it a different way and still get the same response. I am sure in time we will get better with our communication skills. And we all hope to learn Arabic. You don't need to learn it to live here, but it still would be awsome to learn.

It is time to get the girls up. I am letting them sleep late today. Larry went to the office to meet everyone. The girls and I stayed at the hotel to sleep and work on homework. We will meet up with Larry around noon to visit the American Academy of Dubai. This afternoon we are hoping to visit the soukes (I need to look up the correct spelling), it means local market.

Oh one more silly little thing. We will have to take pictures of the toilets here. They do have western toilets (which is a huge improvement - I was expeting to see the toilets that are holes in the ground with spots to put your feet while squating), but they still have hoses that you use to clean with. I can't imagine how you do that without getting water all over your clothes, the toilet and the ground. We'll have to practice that in our villa before trying it in a public toilet. Until then its TP all the way with this family! :) (Oh that means that you must travel around with TP in your backpack.)

2nd Day in Dubai - more pictures

Dani and Elle wants abayas to show their classmates how Emirates dress. Emirates are only about 15% of the population here. Everyone else is from all over the world, so you see all kinds of dress.

Dani and Elle in front of Ski Dubai

Dubai Day 2

Today a relocation agent took us around old Dubai, but Dani got sick in the process, so we came home early. After a long nap we decided to venture out to the Mall of the Emirates - one of the largest malls in the world - so large that it has an indoor ski facility. We took lots of pictures but probably won't post them until the morning. It is getting late here and we really need to adjust to this time. Good night from Dubai....

Our First Day in Dubai

What a day, night and new day all in one! 

We left CT for the JFK airport at 7am on Sunday morning. We flew business class – everyone had their own TV, the seat lays down flat, we received gift bags of personal

 toiletry kits, we could push a button and call seat to seat

, we had cameras that looked out the front and bottom of the

 plane – it was very cool! We landed in Dubai at 8am on 

Monday morning (that’s still Sunday night back in CT).
We went to ASD (American School of Dubai) today – it is huge, very nice, amazing, it is K-12, the pool has a shade awning. We will visit another school on Wednesday.

We swam in the hotel pool and met an 11 year old girl from Russia, Sonia.Oh and one more thing, driving is chaotic, not everyone follows the laws. There 

are different rules if you are an Emirati than for everyone else.
Now it is past 9pm here, we are all jet lagged and tired. We will post more

 pictures tomorrow.
Dani, Elle, Renee and Larry

2nd Day of Cultural Training

We think it was so much fun to be taught by Lisa. We even made T.C.K. shirts. T.C.K. means “ third, culture, kid”. We also talked to 2 people over phone. The first person was an adult. The second person was a kid named Hannah. We leaned that the U.A.E. makes most of its money from oil. We also leaned that 85% of Dubai is people who are moving to it like us. Dani and Elle

Day One of Cultural Training

We are in NYC for the training. We (Dani and Elle) learned about where Dubai is and received flags for the UAE. We also got to taste some hummus. Today we will get to talk to an 8 year old girl living in Dubai. Yesterday Mom and Dad spoke with the girl’s mother who told them about daily living there. We're not sure what we will do today. We will be back in school on Friday but then leave again on Saturday night to go visit Dubai!

Hi to our friends at Braeburn!!

Dani and Elle

Cultural Training and Site Visit

Before is its final that we are moving, as a family we get to attend cultural training and visit Dubai.

In the cultural training we will learn about the culture and customs. Dani and Elle will also get to taste some local food and learn about what it's like to go to school in Dubai.

We will be flying direct from New York to Dubai on Emirates Airlines and will stay at the Fairmont in Dubai. Both look amazing. The flight is direct and will take 12 hours.

While in Dubai we want to visit the American School of Dubai, which is where we are hoping that Dani and Elle will go to school as well as see the options for housing. We will be sure to take lots of pictures!

Learning about the UAE

Communication - We found out that the UAE blocks Skype and other forms of Voip communication. Of course it doesn't mean that we don't be able to communicate with everyone, but it does mean that it will cost more.

Pets - The UAE is pet friendly, but.... dogs are not allowed in parks and should only be walked where you live. Yards are small and its HOT. We need to learn more before we decide to take our dogs. We can't image leaving them behind but we always want them to be happy. Little Cassie won't be happy if she can't play outside, hunt and chew up sticks and Seven needs to be able RUN.

Thank goodness we will have Sponge Bob!

Well thank goodness the kids will be able to watch Nickelodeon! What would our household do without Sponge Bob Square Pants?

"TV Networks Intl. has inked a deal with the UAE-based Arab Media Group (AMG) to launch Nickelodeon Arabia in 2008. The new satcaster further cements the long-term partnership between AMG and Viacom, following an earlier decision to launch joint venture MTV Arabia next month. "

Taken from http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117974136.html?categoryid=1445&cs=1 on October 16.

What's Dubai going to be like? A view from Dani and Elle....

Dani...
What do you think Dubai will be like? It will be fun and a new and exciting trip. I definetly want to go.
What will school be like? I think school will be fun. And I think it will be cool to learn a new language.
What do you think our house will be like? It will be cool.
I hope to make a lot of friends.
How long to you think that plane ride will be? 12 hours, no 12 and a half hours.
Moooommmm...that's all I can think about right now.

Elle...
What do you think Dubai will be like? I think it will be like we are moving but I am happy, but I am sad.
What will school be like? Hmm... I don't think I am going to be too happy, becuase I'm not sure that I will like it much.
What do you think our house will be like? I think it will be nice. um, good. I don't really know.
How long to you think that plane ride will be? 12 hours

So you wanna know a little about this exotic place?

Dubai (in Arabic: دبيّ, Dubayy, in English) can either refer to one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the eastern Arabian Peninsula, or that emirate's main city, sometimes called "Dubai city" to distinguish it from the emirate. The modern emirate of Dubai was created with the formation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971. However, written accounts documenting the existence of the city have existed at least 150 years prior to the formation of the UAE. Dubai shares legal, political, military and economic functions with the other emirates within a federal framework, although each emirate has jurisdiction over some functions such as civic law enforcement and provision and upkeep of local facilities. Dubai has the largest population and is the second largest emirate by area, after Abu Dhabi.[4] With Abu Dhabi, it is one of only two emirates to possess veto power over critical matters of national importance in the UAE.[5] Dubai has been ruled by the Al Maktoum dynasty since 1833. The city's current ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is also the Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE.

Revenues from petroleum and natural gas contribute less than 6% (2006)[6] of Dubai's US$ 37 billion economy (2005).[7] A majority of the emirate's revenues are from the Jebel Ali free zone authority (JAFZA)[8] and, increasingly, from tourism and other service businesses. As of 2007, 800 new residents were setting up home in Dubai every day.[9] Dubai has attracted world-wide attention through innovative real estate projects [10] and sports events. This increased attention, coinciding with its emergence as a world business hub, has also highlighted human rights issues concerning its largely foreign workforce.
(taken from Wikipedia)

The BIG news!

Larry is working on 2 year assignment in Dubai! We don't have details yet other than the girls and I are not planning on moving until after school is out. We will keep our house in CT. And we are all excited about the new adventure! We will miss all of our awesome friends in CT and in the states, but everyone is welcome to come visit us. We've created this blog to share our experience and keep up to date with everyone.