Happy Halloween

Halloween is celebrated at the girls' school because it is an American curriculum school. They actually did more than we usually do in the states. The elementary started out the day with a big costume parade that the middle school also got to see. When they trick or treated to other classrooms. And then in the afternoon each class had a party. Elle's class had a pizza and movie party. The middle school had a 90 minutes party with music, dancing, games and a costume contest. It was all very nice.

Then on Friday, Halloween day, which is the weekend here, all the kids in our compound trick or treated to the houses within the compound (which is only 11 villas). Larry took Elle and a neighbor around the block but they only found one house participating. Dani went to a party at a friend's house from school. They big group of them went trick or treating in that neighborhood where most villas did participate. It all depends on where the neighbors are from. While Halloween is an American holiday many westerners will participate if they remember that it is Halloween.

Also there is one costume shop in town and many of the grocery stores sell a few costumes as well.

Here are a few pictures from our Halloween adventures.

Crazy driving

We see crazy people backing up on the freeway every day. Well yesterday Larry did it! He admits it was nuts, but.... he was on a ramp from one freeway to another and noticed that traffic was very backed up. He stopped, contemplated and decided to turn around on the freakin' ramp. Ya see making a turn and getting on a freeway where there has been an accident can set you back an hour or more here. Even when there isn't traffic or an accident making a wrong turn here can set you back over 30 minutes because of the U-turn business here. One day I am going to draw a map of how I get back and forth to the girls school. The school is less than 2 miles away yet it usually takes 45 minutes round trip to get there and back home. So I guess now we are one of the crazy drivers here!

Restaurant follies

This story pretty plays itself out every time that you go to a restaurant here. “Good evening maaam” (pronounced much like mom). We’re taken to a table. Someone comes over, tells us their American chosen name. Last night our waiter was Mikey Mouse. At least the waiter says it and laughs at himself. “Drink maan, drink baby (to the girls)?” Larry always orders an iced tea – no lemon no sugar, he repeats it and asks them to repeat it. It’s almost comical. The drinks come. They say the names of each drink to be sure it is what we ordered. “Iced tea no lemon, no sugar.” This is said as if they can’t see the tray of drinks because the iced tea has lemons on the side of the glass and there is a small tea cup of simple sryup to put into the tea. It’s hard not to laugh at this. I swear it happens almost every time. Fast forward to the middle of eating our dinner. The waiter stops by and says “Coffee/tea (always said as if it is one word)?” No thank you. We’re done eating now. Wwe wait about 10 minutes hoping that the waiter will come by. We wait another 10 mins. We’re getting antsy to go. Finally Larry has to get up and find the waiter and ask for your check. This is very customary here. You will NEVER get your check unless you ask for it. They won’t ever ask you if you are ready for our check.

Variations on dinner follies:

• Larry came straight from the office and met us for dinner. It ended up taking him over 20 mins to find a parking space. I told the waiter when we got there that we would order drinks now and wait to order our food once my husband arrived. During that 20 mins, the waiter came by 3 times and another waitress came by twice... “Are you SURE that you don’t want to order now.” “No, not now, when my husband gets here.” The place is empty mind you so it’s not like they need to get people in and out in a hurry. Then the exact opposite happens when you want your check. You almost have to go find them and tell them that you want your check because they aren’t going to come by your table.
• I ask what comes with the chicken. I was told brocoli and mashed potatos. When I get my meal the veggies are completely different but there IS one piece of brocoli. I ask the guy... I thought this came with brocoli. He says well there is the brocoli. I’m not too happy and say I would like some brocoli. When we get the check I am charged for the extra brocoli. After all I did ask for it. Sigh.
• You ask for a take way box (“to go” is called take away here). You tell the waitress exactly what you want as take away. When you get home you look in the box – just for kicks and giggles of course - it’s never what you asked for.

Rameses plays fetch

Our crazy little kitty likes to play fetch. Below is a short video of him playing. We haven't been able to catch the act of fetch just yet. He will bring the ball back over and over and over again just like a dog.

United Nations Day at DAA Elementary

Wow, wow, wow! Today is one of those days that you know you make the right choice. Today is United Nations Day at Elle's school. The kids all wore native dress or country colors for the day (rather than their stuffy uniforms). There was a one hour assembly outside. Several teachers performed an Indian stick dance, the choir sang, there was a parade of flags and more. The theme was "peace without borders." The principal spoke about peace begining with each one of us. It was a truly amazing day!

There are over 70 nationalities represented in the elementary school. There are kids who come to this school who can't speak a word of English. It's great to see their classmates rally around them to help them understand what the teacher is saying or how to do homework or where to find the nurses office. I know that Dani and Elle will take away great things from being here.

The economy

Today on the way home from dropping off the girls at school the radio host was talking about conspiracy theories that the US caused the economic crisis to hurt China and India. Possible, sure, I suppose, but who knows. I guess I don't care much who caused it or why, just fix it already. But that also got me thinking about the situation here. The population is growing every day. More and more people are moving to Dubai to build new buildings and start new projects. But what happens when all that is done? Some day all the building will be done. Of course since things here are not built to last it probably means they will tear down the 10 year old stuff and build new.

Housing here is extremely expensive. Many people would not be able to afford housing if their companies were not supporting them as expats. Once all the building is complete and businesses working well many of the expats (like us) will go home. If all of the support expats go home who will be left to live in the expensive housing? Who will go to the expensive water parks and buy all of the expensive clothing in the 101 largest malls in the world?

Who knows. But I for one will be looking to see what Dubai is like in 10 or 20 years down the road. It would be nice to see all these wondering things here last a long time.

Pottery class #2

I made 2 pots today. I need to remember to take my camera so I can show you what I am making. We put a few finishing touches on our pots from last week. Now they sit until completely dry for the first firing. At some point we will glaze them. Today we also learned about slab pottery. I made a bowl and a plate. Next week is coil pottery.

Oh yesterday, I attend an American Woman's Association meeting. I volunteered to donate a painting to their charity ball. I also volunteered to help go to all of the galleries in town asking for donations for the ball. I am excited to meet gallery folks... maybe I will make a connection so that I can exhibit!

Kitty capers

Well we decided to name him Ramesses. We tried a few other names on but they didn't stick. We wanted to stay with the Egyptian theme. He is a crazy little bugger. I don't think that I mentioned he was a wild cat, which we didn't necessarily know ahead of time. He's a bit crazed when it comes to food. I am sure that will change in time. He's such a cutie. He follows me around during the day. He carries around a fuzzy ball all of the time - it is very cute.

He and Osirus don't get along just yet. Hopefully in time they will.

Last night Ramesses was sleeping with Larry and me - it was our turn - Dani got the first night and Elle the 2nd. He hopped out of our bed and went to Elle's. Kinda funny. Not sure if he likes her best or knew that O was in the room with us too.

Our new kitten

Yes, we are creating a new zoo here in Dubai. We can't be without a lot of animal running around. We called Feline Friends, a great cat rescue organization here in Dubai. The process took a few days but we found the most adorable kitten. He is all white with one blue and one green eye. He is fun loving and doesn't mind being smothered by the girls. Today he is playing around my feet while I do some catching up on my computer. We haven't named him yet but we are working on it. Stay tuned...

Below are a few pictures of him. Boy he is hard to photograph being white! Hardly any of the pictures turned out. I ended up swiping the photos that the foster parents sent to us, they are much better. He is now sleeping in my lap purring away.

Pottery Class

I had my first pottery class today. I am taking it at the Dubai International Art Center. The teacher is very good. She has been doing pottery for 20 years and has won several awards. Today we made pinch pots. I am looking forward to seeing my final creation. I turned mine into a small vase and put some spiral things on the outside. I am sure that I will post pictures of it when I can. Funny enough there is a Japanese 30-something woman in the class, she takes pictures of everything. It's pretty funny.

Sports, after school activities and an art class for Mom

Bummer... Dani did not make the soccer team but neither did any of the 6th graders. The league they play in at the middle school here is U14. I'm sure that we are a little bais but we thought that Dani and her friend Natalie were better than some of the 8th graders. As it turns out mostly 8th graders and some 7th graders were chosen for the team. Dani is sad, but she will be fine.

However, that does open up her schedule for another after school activity that she wants to do - ski club. Dani will be going to Ski Dubai for the next 10 weeks! She is also taking mask making. Elle is doing the swim team and an art class on Thursdays.

I am starting a pottery class tomorrow. I can't wait. :)

Sports Update

Sports are more competitive here... well sort of anyway. It's more that there aren't the intramural/city leagues that we have in the states. The soccer team (grades 6-8) only has room for 15 girls. And the swim team in the elementary only has room for 12 kids (co-ed) per grades 3, 4 and 5.

Elle made the swim team. Way to go ELLE!!!

Dani has made the first 2 cuts of the soccer team. The final cut will be on Monday. They have to cut 5 girls. We hope that she makes it but if she doesn't there is a whole host of other after school activities that she can do.

The Sand

We've read that there are 7 colors of sand in the UAE. We have seen 3 of them so far - the orange sand of the huge sand dunes to the south, the black sand of the northeast coast and the white sand in Dubai. In addition the the colors the sand itself is different, just like there are many types of snow. The sand on the northeast coast is black, thick and sinky... meaning that when you stepped your foot sunk in much more than expected. The sand here in Dubai is white and more coarse - not at all good for sand castle building. The orange sand in the desert is fine and also not good for sand play.

Here is a picture of something I made with the sand that we collected from places that we've visited. On top is coral from the northeast coast, next is the orange sand, next is white sand and last is black sand.

A drive to the North East Coast

We took an AWESOME drive to the north east coast of the UAE. The plan was to go to a place one of our neighbors recommended for snorkeling. We took a wrong turn on the way which made us drive thru the mountains longer but it was one of those good wrong turns. The mountains are beautiful! Just lots of rock and sand, but so different than places we have seen before. It looked like there were numerous caves throughout the mountain range. I hope that we will have time to investigate more one day. We took a ton of pictures.

Oh back to that wrong turn thing, we did have a map with us but of course the roads are rarely marked and often the number/name in the map book is different than what is posted. Crazy really, but the whole concept of numbering and naming roads is very new here. Plus we didn't want to end up in Oman because we didn't have our passports.




The mountains seemed to go on forever but finally we reached the coast. We stopped to see the water. Unfortunately the waves were far too big to go snorkeling. So we drove further up the coast to see if the water was calmer there. No luck. But we did get to see lots of beaches. For some reason we didn't get any pictures of the beaches. We will have to remember to take some next time.

On the way back down the coast we looked for some lunch. Dubai is very liberal and has many American restaurants, however this part of the country is more conservative and has very few. The girls and Larry aren't into Arabic food. It's not my favorite either, but I would have eaten it. Anyway, we finally spy a KFC and called it our oasis in the dessert. We also stopped at an old fort. At first we weren't sure if it was something that we could go into because there weren't any non-muslim looking people inside the gates. We finally went in and it was fine. We just couldn't go into the old mosque.
Our desert oasis in the sand....

These are views from the old fort. Just look at that oasis... beautiful ay? There are mountains and rocks every where and then BAM, out pops a section of trees in the middle.







Here is a picture of some native housing in the area.

Then it was time to head home. We took a quicker way home and we came across something called the Friday Market. It's a large market for fruits and vegetables, plants and carpets. We bought some apples, a large rug and some plants. It was fun haggling over the prices and leaving feeling that we had gotten some bargains.

Also on the way home we decided to stop at a children's museum. We figured it would be some small, not so nice place as it was in the middle of the desert and the admission was only 15Dhs per adult and kids were free (that's only about $5). It turned out to be amazing. There were 3 museums in one - a farm, natural history (which we didn't even get to before it closed) and a huge musuem of animals native to the UAE. We spent most of our time in the native animal building. There were at least 4 times that we thought we were at the end of the museum only to see it went on more. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside. There was a section for each animal type - bugs, snakes, birds, big outdoor animals, fish and so on. It was really great.

Here are a few pictures of the farm animals and some of us outside enjoying the low temperature (95 or so).

Big Bus Tour

Since the girls were off for the week we decided to take in some touristy things that we have not yet had a chance to do. We went on a big bus tour which goes into some of the older parts of the city. The tour stopped at a couple of museums plus several older souks. It was very hot that day and since it was Eid the streets were crowded with people. So we decided not to stop at many of the souks. I'm the only one who would enjoy shopping where there are no prices and you have to hangle for everything. The places that we did stop were good.

Here are some pictures of the Dubai Museum which is in an old fort in the one of oldest part of the city.



These are some pictures of the people in the streets. Check out the "itunes" store in the 3rd picture. There are never any copyright infringements here, we were shocked to see it (I'm being sarcastic just in case you didn't catch that). It is hard to tell from the photos but most everyone in the streets are men. Men out number woman 4 to 1 here because of the number of laborers for building projects. Many are from India.




These 2 pictures are from the Wafi Mall. It has an Egyptian theme.