The last year has been spent preparing for a trip across the world from WA state to the UAE for DH's job. Now the five of us are figuring it out in Abu Dhabi and trying to chronicle our adventures.......
We've been here a couple weeks now and I figured it was time to take a trip to Dubai.
After a quick stop at Starbucks at the Shangri-La Souk in Abu Dhabi. We enjoyed $6 blueberries from the nearby Abela Deli and the kids had some square donuts from Starbucks:
So much easier to cut and divide in a square.
As we drove down the worst highway in the world, we left Abu Dhabi and headed to Dubai. You can tell when you leave the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and hit the Emirate of Dubai. The tree line stops. There trees lining either side of the highway for miles and miles in Abu Dhabi and then, nothing.
The city of everything that is gigantic and shopping is bigger/better/crazier than you've ever seen.
The drive is almost 1.5 hours. Here's what we saw as entering - or at least the best I could do at 140 km/h.
Clearly, the city is gigantic.
Where oh where to go first?
There are some serious malls in Dubai. In fact, some guy made a rap about them:
We decided to hit up the Mall of the Emirates. This used to be the biggest mall in Dubai until the Dubai Mall was built. This is a massive fountain that we saw there:
At the mall of the Emirates there is an indoor snow park. Seriously. We didn't try it out, that will have to be for another day. You can rent everything you need to go though. They even do ski lessons and snowboard lessons and have a separate sledding area. My kids never had a chance to ski in WA State, so why learn in the Middle East???
We also went to a neat store called Home Center and managed to buy a new rug (our only take-home purchase of the day).
Teal/Purple Sofa?
Interesting furniture items. There is so much gaudy furniture and home decor around these parts that it's ridiculous.
Otherwise, we walked around and admired the sites:
Lots of Shoes!
Teal/Silver Fancy Shoes
Fancy Gold Shoes
Neat Architecture
Beautiful Rings
Shisha Pipes
After spending a long time there (without seeing half of it), we decided to head to Dubai Mall.
On our way, we admired some major Dubai architecture:
This looks much cooler from the side, but that wasn't the angle we were coming up on. This building is on lots of Dubai paraphernalia. It is called the Burj Al-Arab and it's the world's most luxurious hotel. Here's some information about it: Check out the: Burj Al-Arab
Here is a much cooler picture I found online:
Burj Al-Arab
We saw a few other neat buildings along the way:
We also saw the tallest building the world, called the Burj Khalifa, which used to be called the Burj Dubai. Here's some information about it: Check out the Burj Khalifa
After driving about 10 or so more minutes, we arrived at the Dubai Mall. It was GIGANTIC. The biggest mall I've ever seen in mylife. We didn't see even half of it. There are 1000 stores in it. Yes, one thousand. How crazy is that??? There were masses of people too. So, along with the basic clothing stores and book stores and jewelry stores and gift stores - we saw:
An Aquarium so big that there was a life-size car in it. Really.
Mechanical Bull-Riding - because why not?
Adorable kid clothes and I bought NONE (really). Notice the matching sibling outfits? Saw this EVERYWHERE in person. Lots of sisters matched and lots of brothers matched (all ages)
How cool is this? It was a humongous water feature with metal, diving men sculptures.
A full-size ice skating rink
A little something for when those Abayas come off......
Brian and the boys checking out the mall - look how tan Alexander's legs are getting!
This place was amazing! It cost us about $150 USD to get in for the five of us. We each get a security band so the family who comes together, leaves together. Each child gets a "check" for 50 "kidzos" - these are like money. When you enter Kidzania, there are several different kinds of places where you can try out a job and get paid. You can learn about banking, newspaper, radio, construction, painting, beauty school, education, grocery stores, coke bottling, flying airplanes, and on and on and on.
Cameron was ready for some construction work
Bella, Cam and some other kids learned about how to build a brick wall. Each activity took 10-15 minutes so some of the lines could get pretty long.
You could work on computers and learn car design and sales.
You could learn to paint.
There was a place to get your pretend driver's license and there was a separate toddler car race track and a big kid race track.
Cam is cheesing it (and covering up his picture) of his Driver's License
Getting Buckled in
The kid was born to drive. He was whipping around corners and weaving between people. Time to hide those car keys!!
They even had a pretend gas station.
Sometimes kids would volunteer to "work" at the gas station and you could stop to fill-up.
At some places (like beauty school) - you could pay to have someone do you up with make-up/nail polish or you could be the one applying.
Bella applies make-up on a "client"
At the race track you could make money being a gas attendant or pay to drive the car. When all is said and done you can take your "Kidzos" to the store and buy stuff. It was mostly lots of money for very little items (like Chuck E Cheese). The place was JAM-PACKED towards the end and their were lots of children there with their nannies but plenty of families there too. It is not uncommon to drop your child off for the day and then spend it shopping at the mall. The lines for each activity were pretty long, but the kids enjoyed what they could. They also had a parent area where you could eat, drink and relax (no kids allowed inside). Also - at all of the job sites no parents were allowed in with their child for the activity. I was there and could see it and take pictures, but only kids could do the activity. I wish there were a fraction of the people there because it was a really neat place and the kids definitely enjoyed it.
One of the places the kids enjoyed was the radio station where you could learn to DJ. Each kid got a script and was able to do a piece "on air". They all got 3-4 turns so nothing was rushed through. In fact, nothing in the UAE is rushed through at all.....
DJ Alexander
DJ Bella
They even had a little toddler area. Cameron was king of the ball pit and bouncy room!
In his element!
Wish I had a room like this in the house. He was flipping off the beds and bouncing off the floor. 100% boy!
The place as a whole was really cool but really LOUD. There was a Security group and a Fire Department group and an Ambulance activity and more. There was a fire engine and an ambulance that made (very loud) loops around the area and the Security group marched in formation doing a cadence. It was stimulation overload!
Eventually, I decided that I was done. Cameron was exhausted and I was wiped out from all the activity.
By the time we finished, we had to walk 10 miles back through the mall to our car. Did I mention how GIGANTIC the place was. We walked so much and walked so quickly that my legs were sore and chafed! Lovely. We made it to our car in the GIGANTIC parking garage (thank god Brian was with us, because I would've had a panic attack and probably not found the car - so. many. people.)
Goodbye Dubai.....
We headed home around 7:00 and Cameron conked out 5 minutes into the car ride. We stopped at a McDonald's off the side of the freeway (they had egg rolls on the menu) and we got home around 8:45. We'll have to plan another day to go just for the GIGANTIC Sega indoor theme park. A different day for the indoor aquarium. A different day for the skiing/snowboarding. A different day to check out other places in Dubai.
You just can't do it in a day! Heck, you can't even see ONE mall in ONE day there!!!
By the end of the week, the kids didn't even want me walking them to the bus or being there to pick them up. Heck, by Day 2 they were wondering why I was walking with them. Glad to see their flame of independence is shining brightly.
They made new friends each day and Bella was excited to tell me about them. Not only would they share names, but also the nationalities. It's kinda funny considering they never did that before. Bella never said, "I made friends with Maria and she's Mexican." Alexander never said, "I made friends with Jacob and he's American.". But, here in Abu Dhabi, there is something different/new/exciting to come home and tell me about their new friends from other parts of the world.
I'm also finding that I'm having a heck of time getting names straight so I just don't say them. Sigh....
I've met a few people in the compound with unique (to me) names. I couldn't even try to remember them here or come close to the proper spelling of them. I've had them say their names more than once and it doesn't seem to stick either. I think I'll ask for them to write down their names and the names of their children and then I can write down the number of their villa and hope to get it all straight. I'm sure if someone from the States said, "Hi, my name is Jennifer." and you responded with "Hi, Lisa it's nice to meet you.". They would look at you like you were crazy and wonder if you had a hearing problem. I swear that's how off the names are probably sounding when I repeat them. It's just that they are so different and sometimes they have sounds that aren't part of my English language. I apologize but I don't want to say a name way wrong. Sigh. I'll get it, eventually.
The kids are learning new Arabic words every day. Bella and her friend Ella (yes, Bella & Ella and they are 3 days apart in age) practice Arabic on the bus ride home. She used to practice Spanish and would tell me that when she says Hello, how are you (in Spanish) that I would respond with I am fine, how are you (in English). Way harder in Arabic. In fact, I can't even say some of the words. They use a sound from the back of their throat that we don't do and it's hard to master (let alone attempt properly). Sigh....I'll get it, eventually.
Alexander had a swim party at school with the other 5th grade classes and had a blast.
He also learned that the 6th graders do an Archeological trip to Turkey. He's a little excited (although hesitant to show too much excitement about anything here). I'm a little excited and would love to chaperone. Brian said that a lot of parents want to go and there is some kind of lottery. As a typical sibling, Bella started counting what grades she would be here for (3rd - 4th - 5th) and looked dejected when she realized that she would miss the Turkey trip.
They do a trip to Malaysia in 8th grade. I wonder if we'll be here then??
It's still very hot out and hard to walk around much. Alexander tried kicking the soccer ball in the front yard yesterday (it's a tiny strip of area between the carports and not idea). I warned him that he would hit a car and he countered with (not if I kick it up straight in the air - accompanied with a look of "duh"). The balls OBVIOUSLY comes down from the air (hello - gravity, duh) and almost hits a car every time. I sent him to the tiny patch of dried grass that is our backyard and Brian told him not to kick it over the walls. Two seconds later....he kicked it over the side wall.
I told him that he would now have to go to the neighbor's house and ask for his ball back. He refused. I reminded him that he did it all the time at our old house and he explained that he knew our neighbors back there so it was different. I tried to explain that this was a GREAT way to finally meet our neighbors (even though we've been here a month I haven't even SEEN the people on either side). This weather really keeps people indoors!
So, I went next door with two (suddenly very shy) kids in tow. The woman was very nice and they have 4 kids (13, 11, 8 and 5) and her husband is a doctor (I feel a little safer now) and they used to be in Michigan and before that NY. I didn't meet the husband, only the wife. She had a thick accent, maybe East Indian??? I'm not good with the nationality differences. The kids were nice and Bella ended up heading in to play with the 5 year old girl. I stayed and chatted with the mom for a bit.
Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rings and it's Bella and a crew of kids. Turns out there is another 8 year old girl who lives across the street (and her 11 year old sister). They have lived in Abu Dhabi for at least 15 years (the parents). Met the mom - very nice. Bella ended up staying over for a movie night with the kids fora couple hours. Then, they came by and got Alexander and headed to the compound hang-out (kid play area that is indoors above the pool area). They were there until 10:30 having fun. When they got back, I asked Alexander if he had fun and if it felt like back home - hanging out with all the kids in the neighborhood. He said, it's not the same - he knows them all better back home. At least it was a good start.
Alexander also got signed up for Little League. Yes, baseball in the Middle East - outside. They play in Dubai once a week. Practices start tomorrow morning at their school.
The kids are trying out for a soccer team next week and Bella is trying out for a swim team at school.
The had to wake up at 6:00 a.m. in order to catch the bus. They both managed to bounce out of bed, eat breakfast, grab their pre-packed lunch (from the night before) out of the fridge and be ready to go with time to spare! I'm sure this won't last long, but I'll enjoy it while it does!
Since it was the first day, Brian and Cameron and I all walked the kids to the bus stop area. It was in front of a villa a few doors down. There are several other Embassy kids who attend ACS and ride the bus. Bella and Alexander each had a friend there and a few other kids who they had met before. Both of the kids happen to have PE today so they needed to wear their PE uniform to school:
Isabella - Ready for 3rd Grade
Alexander - Ready for 5th Grade
They got onto the bus without looking back and were off!
Cameron and I quickly worked on a new routine. I took some time to eat breakfast and catch up on computer stuff for a bit before heading out the door for the gym in our compound. Cameron played around on my Ipad while I did 3 miles on the treadmill. I spent 10 minutes trying to find something to watch on the TV there and after flipping through 500 (no exaggeration) multi-ethnic channels, I settled on a Korean Music Channel. I didn't understand much but enjoyed the videos and the music until a friend and her son popped in to chat with.
After my workout it was back to the villa to clean and do laundry. Cameron was such a big help. He likes squirting the cleaner and helping to empty the wash into the dryer. Then, I decided to bake some cookies for the kids - but didn't have all my ingredients so off we went.
First stop....gas station! I sat and relaxed while I got full-service. It cost me 95 dirhams to fill up the whole tank ($25.65) and that was from bone dry empty.
Then we headed off to try a new grocery store I found on my GPS. It turned out to be a tiny, yucky place that was a little 7-11 and a little flea markety with someone smoking INSIDE the store. No Thank You.
Instead, we headed to the Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society (which is like a mini-mall place with a grocery store area). I found my Crisco shortening and a few other items and back home we went.
Cameron helped me bake some yummy Banana Cookies (one of our favorite recipes). I've been making this recipe for years (but I omit the nuts). They are more like a muffin texture than your typical cookie texture. They don't look pretty but they are yummy and addictive! The kids LOVE them. Try it out here: Banana Cookie Recipe
The last batch came out of the oven just as it was time to meet the bus from school.
The kids had a FANTASTIC day. Isabella explained that she is already friends with most of the girls in her class and Alexander said he made a new friend. Bella was bubbling over with excitement about all the new things she learned and Alexander just wanted to get onto the computer to play his game. They both had a touch of homework to do later, but were excited to show me that they learned how to write their names in Arabic:
Arabic is read Right to Left
Then, Alexander set to work on his homework....a self assessment. I always enjoy reading these since Alexander tends to very confident in his abilities......(I'm waiting for it to bite him in the butt one of these days)
I love that a favorite book that was read to him was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and that he has no desire to improve - probably because you can't improve perfection (seriously - the kid has an overabundance of confidence!)
Annoyed about writing? I wonder what that means?
Love his Catholic School influence with who he wants to meet.
After the kids did homework and showered, it was off to bed! Hopefully they wake up bright and early tomorrow too!
