Water

I wrote this post in early September but just now finally got a picture of our water tank - see below. Larry had to go on the roof to check out a problem. We were getting water all over our back patio. Turns out our water tank was leaking.

Drinking it - Most people here drink bottled water. The tap water is actually safe to drink, but its the pipes that are the problem. Some pipes are very old and plumbing here is just like everything else - built fast, no attention to detail. The water comes from the Arabian Gulf (Persian Gulf to us). Tap water is desalinated (and the salt is dumped back into the ocean which is bad for the fish but they are working other processes to help with that). We buy bottled water but also use tap water to cook with and even to drink sometimes.

Bathing in it - During this time of year the hot is cold and the cold is hot. Here "cold" water is put in a container up off of the sand to help keep it cool (the sand gets VERY hot). The hot water is held in a small water heater in each room - there is a small hot water tank in the kitchen and one in each bathroom. In our villa the cold water tank is on the roof and the hot water is in the water heater in the ceiling of each room.... so when you turn on the cold water it is coming from outside in the hot sun and the hot water comes from inside where the air conditioning is on and its shaded. Since the cold water is so hot you keep the water heaters turned off otherwise all you have it hot water. Weird huh? I assume in the winter this will be reversed. I will keep you posted on that.

The drive to school

Since I have commented on my treck back and forth to school several times so I thought I would take the time to draw a map for your enjoyment. The school is very close to our villa... yet it can take a hour round trip. Crazy huh?

A trip to Al Ras

We decided to get a GPS. Of course it wasn't easy. We needed one that would work for on-road and off-road, plus work here and in the US. I found one model that would do everything but I could find only one store in Dubai that sells it. The store is in the Al Ras/Deira section of Dubai. Meaningless to my friends in the states, but people here would cringe and say you have to drive where?? Deira is the MUCH older section of Dubai. Hey, I love old things, but would still rather not drive in that section of town. Most of the streets are single lane where people park on both sides and then even double park so you can't move at all. Parking is pretty much non-existent. Also I'm sure that I've mentioned this before, but aren't street addresses here. I knew what street this store was on, but it's a long street with hundreds of hole in the wall dirty shops. Traffic of course is crazy too.

So I'm driving down the street trying my best of read the names of the shops, maneuver between people crossing the street pushing carts and carrying bundles on their heads, taxis waiting beside parked cars, etc. It's a little stressful. I was only honked at twice. Good thing that I brought my favorite Secret Super Plus deodorant with me from the US.

I finally find the shop. Now to find a place to park. I circled around for about 20 minutes and finally found a parking garage - or so it was called. It held about 6 cars per level. The ramp to go down was so narrow I was sure I would scrape the car. But I managed. And I squeeze my big ass American Dodge Durango into a tiny spot too.

Relieved to have found parking I headed for the surface to find the shop. The stairs in the garage brought me out the back of the building where I was greeted by an old man standing in a falling down building with a spray painted sign on the wall that said "no pissing here." Honest truth! The path away from the garage was littered with trash and I had the feeling that I wasn't supposed to be there. But I forged forward pretending that I looked confident and knew exactly what I was doing and where I was going.

I found the shop pretty easily. Thank goodness that I have good navigation skills. Of course there were only men in the shop, but I found what I needed, made the purchase and got out. I saw no other women on my journey. I found the parking garage again pretty easily and maneuvered my way out and home.

I would do it again if I needed something, but....

Again I wish that I had my camera, that no pissing sign was priceless!

Aquaventure at Palm Atlantis

This past weekend we went to Atlantis to check out the water park and the Lost Chambers (aquarium). It opened in late September but it's been crazy buy ever since. We were very lucky that the crowds seem to have died down. It is expensive to get in - 285Dhs which is around $77US. The Lost Chambers aquarium was around $28. The weather was gorgeous. The water park is very nice. We didn't have to wait in lines for any rides - even Shark Attack, which is a water slide that goes thru the shark tank. There is another huge water slide that also goes thru the shark tank that we did not ride. It's one of those with no tube and it goes straight down.

The have a great lazy river that has rapids interspersed throughout. It goes all the way around the park. You even have access to the beach from the water park. The beach however was different than other beaches here. It is man made and the bottom wasn't very sandy.

We forgot our camera but here are a few photos of Atlantis that I found on the web.

Kitty playing

Ramases was playing with Dani from behind a big mask. It was cute to see him peeking thru the holes in the mask and sticking is paws out.

The Elections

I am glad that were here during a big election in the US. It has given us all greater insight into how people from other countries view the US. Most everyone here was extremely excited when it was announced that Obama had own. We were too, but it a different way. I guess I've never really thought about how much the leader of the US impacts the rest of the world.

My pottery teacher was crying when she came into class today. She told us all how she stayed up late and woke up early to follow the election. And how she woke up her son to tell him about Obama and said to him, you remember this son, it's one of the most important days in history. She is Iranian with a British husband and has lived in the UAE for about 20 years. In my little pea brain, I was thinking why the heck does she care so much about who the US leader is. She thinks Obama is going to change the world and make it a better place. Who knows, maybe he will.

That's only one of the stories, there are others, but I won't bore you, you get the point. Who runs the US is a very big deal to the rest of the world. It's made me think that I need to learn more about the rest of the world and care more about what goes on in those places.

Go Obama go! Let's hope he keeps safe and sound.

Dani is going to Turkey!

The middle school here does something called Week Without Walls. The kids get to choose from several different events including space camp in Turkey, art, film making, living in the UAE (visiting lots of cool places in the country), scuba diving, desert camping and more. Dani had a tough choice. Her first instinct was too choose Turkey. But none of her friends were interested in going so she wasn't sure what to do. Most of her friends were wanted living in the UAE or camping. Dani wants to be with her friends but she also wants to go on the international trip.
Today was sign up so she had to make a choice. I told her to sleep on it and make the choice this morning.

Dani decided on Turkey and we were #7 in line this morning at 6:15am so she got her first choice. She is very excited but also a little worried about how her friends will feel that she chose something different. She just called me from the school to tell me that Turkey is full (she was worried that no one else would choose it and the trip would be cancelled). She's so funny sometimes. Larry and I are proud of her for choosing on her own. We know that she will have a ton of fun and learn a lot. The trip includes space camp, a visit to an ancient city that they studied in social studies, community service at a local school and some site seeing.