Christmas Letter 2009

Steve writes our Christmas letter every year, but I thought I would include it in my blog this year so that everyone can see it. Happy Holidays everyone!!


Season’s Greetings friends and family,
So, we’re pretty sure most of you know by now that our family embarked on a new adventure this year. For those that don’t, in June we moved to the city of Abu Dhabi in the country of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). To say it’s been an interesting year would be a monumental understatement.
So quickly about us - Angie, after spending the first 6 months of the year as a single mom while I was over here working, has gone back to school and is working toward her master’s degree in Nursing Education. Ashli started kindergarten and, as expected, has become an international class clown. And Caitlin is a big first grader who is very proud of the fact that she’s already reading at a 2nd grade level. I’m still chugging along in my job playing with lots of big, expensive, computer gear. It’s hard to capture everything that has happened but let me tell you about a few of our experiences and observations.
The first thing lots of folks ask about when we mention we moved out here is the weather. Just so we can get this little discussion out of the way – it’s freakin’ hot. Summer time is pretty ridiculous. The days are pretty much in the 110-125 degree range every day. Night time doesn’t drop in temp very much either. Did I mention we’re right next to the Arabian Gulf (they frown on you if you use the term “Persian Gulf” here)? That means that despite what you may think you know about deserts, it’s humid as well which kinda makes it like walking through a sandy swamp for a good part of the year. Luckily there are many pools and places with great AC. Unfortunately, given that it’s a Muslim country, it is relatively unacceptable to strip naked in public pools or in most places with the aforementioned AC. Therefore, you (meaning I) often go from being soaking wet with perspiration to shivering as I kick the icicles off the bottom of my jeans. Ang claims to love it. “It’s not so bad” she says. She, in my opinion, is a liar – at least in this regard. Anyway it’s bearable, if only just. With the pool in our back yard and the AC turned on high most days you can get by without feeling like a fried egg.
So having established that it’s hot here (I did mention that, right?), it’s also been a great learning opportunity not only for the girls, but Ang and I as well. We have learned that there is yet another country where people drive crazier than Americans. I’ve been to more than 18 countries in my travels so far and UAE ranks in the top 5 for insane drivers. We’ve learned that calling a New Zealand-er a Kiwi is not an insult. We had long deliberations on this before actually asking a Kiwi if it was offensive – I let Angie ask. We’ve learned that the surprising financial news out of Dubai lately shouldn’t have been. I’ve seen my share of over the top places, but Dubai takes the cake on that. However, looking up at the Burj Dubai (tallest building in the world) is still stunning. And we’ve learned that pretty much anywhere in the world, it costs virtually nothing to sit down on a hillside, or a sand dune, and watch a beautiful sunset.
However, one of the coolest things about our adventures over here so far is the diversity of people that we meet and see. I won’t claim that they are all nice or happy or welcoming, but that shouldn’t be expected. Nobody lives in a fairy tale. However, this is one of the main reasons we wanted to come here with the girls. We wanted them to see and meet and interact with other peoples. We’ve certainly seen our money’s worth on that front. Angie went to a group meeting consisting of expatriate women that all live here in Abu Dhabi. In that meeting alone she socialized with women representing 73 different nationalities. Ang and the girls had a play-date over the summer and people from 5 of the 7 continents attended. And, not to be outdone in the interacting with people from foreign countries department, I have personally flipped off at least 15 different nationalities for cutting me off, swerving into my lane, riding my bumper at 70 mph, and just driving like a jerk… hey, I’m all about diplomacy, but sometimes you just have to let folks know you’re displeased with them.
While one of the primary reasons we came here was to meet new people another was to see new places. Since we arrived here in June we have visited four countries. The first was UAE of course, then Oman – which you can read about on Angie’s blog – then a quick stop-over in Qatar, and finally we spent a week in Greece. When I took this gig, I knew it was going to entail a good bit of work. However, I didn’t count on not having time to take vacation for nearly a year. So with well over 200 hours of vacation on the books and wanting to take advantage of our proximity to so many cool places, we decided to take a trip to Athens, Greece. Greece was a lot of things. It was amazing when you look at the ruins and try envisioning the history and the culture that have come from this country. It was beautiful when we took an island cruise and saw the tiny hamlets on Hydra, Poros, and Aegina. It was a little annoying trying to find our way around the city on the public transport system that didn’t cater to English speakers. But what was priceless – and I’m sure my dad will appreciate this (think Rock City) – was asking the girls what their favorite part of the trip had been and being told that it was the hot chocolate I bought for them on the day cruise, or the bouncers we found at a local kids area or the metric butt-ton of stray cats inhabiting the little town on Hydra (ok, the hot chocolate thing made me kinda happy). Regardless, it was kind of a “bucket list” trip that we will always remember.
So our year in a nutshell - So far Abu Dhabi has been:
- Educational – We learned all about dolphins when we did a dolphin interaction at one of the resorts in Dubai. We learned they have numerous sharp teeth used for grabbing and holding and that they are good kissers. We also learned just how much fun it can be to get your leased vehicle buried to the axle in sand at the bottom of a dune and subsequently how much fun it is yanking it out (we’re not telling the lease company about that little adventure).
- Hilarious – Watching a 6’3” Pakistani run from a French Bulldog standing just over 1’ tall because they aren’t used to domestic dogs and are apparently terrified of them. I realize this may seem mean but knowing the dog and how non-vicious he is and combining that with the disparity in size… still makes me giggle.
- Spectacular – Going to my first F1 race here in Abu Dhabi and following that up with my first Aerosmith concert. F1 was way cooler than I expected and with intra-band drama aside and a combined age of well over 200 years old Aerosmith still knows how to rock! Ask me some time about Steven Tyler’s jacket he wore out on stage.
- Sad – Seeing another country building itself on the virtual indentured servitude/slavery of the Indian and Pakistani people and the contempt with which those people are treated will be one of the many things I hope the girls can remember and pull from later in life. Hopefully it will stand in their minds as a way not to treat people.
We’ve got another year at least here and we look forward to more adventures in and lessons about the world around us. Tune in next year to see what trouble we can get ourselves into and out of. Also, one thing we quickly discovered is that keeping up with friends and family makes this whole deal a lot easier and more enjoyable. So please feel free to catch up with us on Facebook and give Angie’s blog a look every once in a while to see what’s happening with us.
Have a happy holiday and a great new year!
Steve, Angie, Caitlin and Ashli

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Steve may think that I’m a liar, but I really have enjoyed the weather here. That is until we had our first real rain. For those of you who have never lived in one, rain and the desert do not go well together. We had lived here for 6 months without rain and I hadn’t missed it at all, but Steve and the girls talked about it all the time and were delighted when we got caught in a downpour in Greece (I wasn’t so thrilled).
A week after we got back to Abu Dhabi, we signed up for a kayaking expedition. We took off from the large island of Abu Dhabi and headed toward some of the smaller uninhabited islands under some very dark looking clouds. We felt the first few drops when we were stopped at a small beach. The whole group was excited about the rain (it was a very gentle rain at this point). It continued to rain lightly off and on the rest of the day.
The next day, it was a little bit more aggressive. It wasn’t a steady rain, but now I was seeing large puddles everywhere. People started to panic. Drivers who can probably count on one hand how many times they have driven in rain were out in force (kind of like Floridians driving in the snow). It was total chaos. I was so happy that I had picked this day to drive to Dubai (45 minute drive normally) to finish my Christmas shopping…..NOT. It took me double the time to get home (1 ½ hours).
Because it only rains 1 to 2 times each year, the roads are not built with any drainage. This means that all the rain collects in large puddles on the streets. The more it rains, the bigger the puddles until some of the roads are completely under water. This is what started to happen on day 2 of the rain (when I was trying to get home). At this point, I think most of the inhabitants of the UAE were done with the rain, but alas….it was not done with us.
The next morning, I woke up early to go for a run. It drizzled on me the entire time, but other than dodging large puddles, it wasn’t too bad. I came back to the house and was checking my email while I was cooling off and started to hear a noise that I couldn’t identify. It took me a full 5 minutes to realize that it was rain hitting the roof. It was coming down in sheets. I was thrilled that I had come back from my run in time, but then as it continued, I realized I was going to have to take the kids to school in it.
I pick up 2 extra kids every day on our way to school. I was able to get my girls in the car and buckled under cover of the garage, but not the other two. I was looking like a drowned rat before we even got to school. It seemed to start to rain even harder when we pulled into the parking lot of school. Trying to get 4 kids under 7 out of a car with their backpacks and lunch boxes in a timely manner is not possible. Now I wasn’t the only drowned rat around. We ran for the door and in the process found a puddle that went half way up my calves….NICE. I was very done with the rain at that point.
I had to run some errands that day so I went to the grocery store and to pay some bills. Luckily all these things were in a mall with a garage so that I didn’t have to go out in the weather. I did however have to negotiate many large lakes (no longer merely puddles) in the road. At one point I went through a puddle and I could feel the water on the door of my SUV (not good). I quickly got off that road!
I went back home and changed ALL my clothes (everything was wet at that point) and decided to check FB while I did some laundry. Many of my friends here in Abu Dhabi were posting about all the leaks in their house due to the rain. Just like the roads here, the houses are not made very water-proof. I very happily posted back that I was one of the lucky ones without a leak. Not 5 minutes later while I was watching our pool overflow, I heard a noise coming from the front door. Water was literally pouring in from under the door into our foyer….so much for no leaks. I grabbed some towels and stuffed them under the door and hoped that the rain would stop soon. Steve had called me and asked me to check the balcony off our bedroom (one of his co-workers has the same house and water was flooding into the house from the balcony). While our balcony was fine, our roof was not. As I walked down the hall towards our room I discovered water freely flowing from the ceiling in the hallway. I grabbed a bucket and some more towels and cleaned up the best I could. I then spent about 30 minutes trying to call the maintenance company about the leak, but discovered that everyone else was doing the same thing (I got a busy signal every time I called). I finally got through and they promised to send someone soon. I’m still waiting 4 days later. Thank goodness it stopped raining.
Even though I make light of the rain here, it was pretty serious. I just read an article in the newspaper that claims 4 people died and over 75 were injured due to the rain. Whole roads and bridges were shut down for days and we are still trying to dry out. The picture above is of a construction site behind our neighborhood 3 sunny and hot days after the rain stopped. I wish I had thought to take a picture earlier to show you how crazy it really was. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t rain here again any time soon!

It's All Greek to Us

One of the pros on us moving overseas was that we could travel to different places that were out of reach living in the states. We had traveled locally within the UAE and Oman, but hadn’t had the time due to the move and Steve’s work, but on Thanksgiving Day we left the Middle East and traveled to Athens, Greece for a week.
In junior high I did a report on the Parthenon for a geography class and I was fascinated by its history and lore. I promised myself that one day I would go to visit it myself and that was one of the deciding factors in us going to Greece.
We left in the wee hours of Thanksgiving Day and traded our turkey dinner in for almost decent airplane food. We had a brief stop-over in Doha, Qatar and made it to our destination around lunch time (although to us it was mid afternoon and we had all been up since 3am). We rented a condo for the week and the owner picked us up in her tiny little car. Imagine fitting 5 people, 3 suitcases and 4 carry-ons in the equivalent of a Ford Escort. We managed to fit everyone and everything in and rode to the port of Athens, Piraeus which is about 1 hour from the airport.
My first impressions of Athens were not very favorable. It was very dirty with trash and graffiti every where. It made me sad that a birth place of so many things and ideas was not well taken care of. It seemed like the residents took no pride in their surroundings. The locals’ attitudes made up for it. They were all very friendly and helpful. And thankfully they all spoke at least a smattering of English which was very useful since the further away from the tourist areas you went, the less English you saw on signs.
We found out to our delight that we had a view of the Acropolis from the balcony of our condo when we got there and I think I took no less than 25 pictures of it wishing I had a larger zoom lens. It was spectacular at night when it was lit up. It’s something that I will keep in my mind forever. We did find out that the free internet that we were promised in the ad for the condo was not to be. This put a little wrench in some of our plans (like figuring out the metro system and me doing my homework), but we were able to figure it out eventually.
We spent that afternoon and evening wandering around the port town where we were staying. We went to a local grocery store and got some supplies for the week. I think I actually saw a tear or two in Steve’s eyes when he saw the beer down the aisle from the bacon (we picked up both). We explored the port and found out about day cruises and ate McDonalds much to the girls delight, in yet another country (it is everywhere!).
The next day we set off to figure out the public transport system and didn’t do so well initially. We were very proud of ourselves when we found the train station almost immediately. We bought our tickets and thought we were on our way. At the first stop, they made an announcement in Greek and absolutely everyone got off. I looked out the window and one of the transport workers motioned us to follow. We were all herded into buses and took a long (about 30 minutes) ride having no idea where we were going and hoping that we would be able to get back to the condo eventually. The bus finally stopped and we were again herded into a train station. I was able to determine from the map that we were now 3 stops down the line from where we were previously. Eventually a kind soul let us know that they were doing construction on the line and that’s why we had to get off and ride a bus for awhile. We did eventually find our destination Lycabettus Hill after only about 3 ½ hours of buses, trains and cabs. We rode the expensive and underwhelming tram up to the top where we were treated to stunning views of the city and surrounding areas including the Acropolis and the islands. We spent about an hour up there seeing the sights and I took several pictures (things never change). We then decided to walk down the hill and try to get back to the condo. It was mid-afternoon and we were expecting that it would take a long time to get back. But, we greatly improved our time and made it back in an hour and 15 minutes!
The next day we had booked a day cruise to 3 of the nearest islands. Since we were close to the port Steve decided that we should walk. We had walked to the pier the first day after all and it wasn’t too bad (about 1 mile). He didn’t take into consideration that it was 6am and the gate we needed to get to was the furthest one from us. Once we got to the port, a suggestion was made to get a cab to our gate since we were at gate 8 and needed to be at gate 1. That suggestion was denied and we continued to walk. 2 miles later with 3 cranky females, Steve made it to the correct gate. Needless to say, we took a cab home that night!
After the rough start, the rest of the day was amazing. We visited Hydra, Poros, and Aegina which are all beautiful. Hydra, our first stop is free of cars (except for the trash truck, and 2 other service vehicles). All other transport is done through donkeys much to the girls pleasure. The girls also enjoyed the hundreds of stray cats on the island. Between the donkeys and the cats they were happy campers. One of Steve’s favorite parts of the day was lunch (pork and beer again) which we had on board the boat in between islands. We made a very quick stop to the island of Poros which had a very nice little port with shops and cafes. Our final stop was the island of Aegina where we actually took a tour bus to the top of the island to the Temple of Aphaia (read up on this temple if you can….it has a great story) which is one of the best preserved temples in Greece. We were at one of the highest points of the island and the sun was setting (another picture that will stay in my head forever). We went back on the boat and were treated to some entertainment, some of which was entertaining (the traditional Greek dancers) and some not so much (the comedian). All in all a pretty fabulous day!
Because we had such a long day the day before, we decided to take it easy the next day (it was also Sunday and not much going on). We went to a nearby mall with intentions of finding an internet café (so I could do my homework) and to take the girls to a movie. We found the first thing pretty easily, but were not able to find an appropriate (they didn’t want to go to New Moon with me!) movie in English. But, we did find a huge park behind the mall with about 10 gigantic moon bounces in it. The girls were in heaven and spent about 2 hours jumping to their heart’s content.
The next day was the highlight of our trip in my opinion. I finally saw the Acropolis and all its amazing temples and theatres. Just walking up the hill and seeing the ruins of buildings that are thousands of years old was astonishing. I can’t say that the girls had the same reactions as us on the whole experience however. They were more interested in climbing the ancient stones than looking at them. Caitlin did appreciate that they were old buildings and liked hearing the legends, but I think she was expecting to actually see Zeus and Athena there. The only downer on the day was the lack of time we had to spend on the archaic hill. We got there late in the day and were unaware on the early closing times for that day in particular (another instance where internet would have been nice).
The rest of the trip we spent enjoying ourselves by wandering through Greece to see what we could find. On the last day there, we found something that Steve in particular has been looking for. We were in the National Gardens (large park in the center of Athens) and started to hear thunder. We started towards an exit, but were not quick enough to get under cover before we were in a full-on deluge. It took us 30 minutes of walking through the pouring rain before we found any cover and by then we were drenched. It was the first time we had seen rain in 6 months, but I think Steve was the only one that was happy about it (it was freakin cold!!!)
On the airplane ride home I asked everyone what their 3 favorite parts (in order) of the trip were and I got these answers:
Ashli:
1 The cats
2 The bouncers
3 The hot chocolate that Daddy bought us on the boat
Caitlin:
1 The temples
2 The bouncers
3 The hot chocolate that Daddy bought us on the boat
Steve:
1 The Acropolis
2 The day cruise to the islands
3 Pizza Hut (pork laden pizza with beer!)
Me
1 The Acropolis
2 The day cruise to the islands
3 Going on our first family trip together in a very long time

The Pros and Cons of Abu Dhabi

OK! I hear you all loud and clear! I'm sorry that it has been so long since I posted anything. I have a bit of writer's block lately (it might have something to do with the fact that I have 2-3 papers to write a week for school). Here's a little morsel for you all to chew on until I get a better inspiration.
Last week I was feeling homesick and sorry for myself and was wondering what the heck I was doing over here, when out of the blue, I had a fantastic day that turned my frown into a smile (I know..but you got to love a little corn every once in a while!). So, I decided that I needed to be a little more positive and made up this list. The first list are the things that I am really missing while I'm over here (cons) and the second list are things that I love about living here (pros).

Things I miss:

My family

My friends

My pets

Diet Dr Pepper

Fiber One Bars

Parking spaces (there will be a blog about this in the future!)

TV

Work

Getting everything I need at one store

Robitussin cough medicine (it’s illegal here)

A sand-free environment

Going camping

Decent produce

My garbage disposal

Things I like:

Eating dinner with my hubby most every night

Pedicures every 2 weeks

Having a pool

My feet never get cold here!!!!!

Not working (yes…it can be on both lists!)

Meeting incredible people from all over the world

Seeing my girls learn so much about different cultures

Being able to go back to school

Beautiful scenery

Getting tons of stamps in my passport

Great restaurants

New friends

Weekly date nights

Border Run Nightmare

I had to wait a little to write this particular post. One, I had to cool down a little and two, I didn’t have a whole lot of time with school and a bunch of other stuff going on here. But, now that I find it a little bit humorous, I thought I’d share a little story with you:
When you enter UAE, you get a 30 day visitor stamp in your passport. This stamp can get extended once for another 30 days, but after that, you either have to be official (have your residency visa) or you have to leave the country. Well, since Steve’s PRO (person responsible for getting the visa paperwork done) seems to be completely and utterly incompetent (I have found others who have received their visas in less than a week), we had to do a border run when our 60 days were up. We made plans to drive to Oman and do a “quick” border run.
Theoretically, we should be able to drive to Oman (about 1 ½ hours from here) go through the border and then turn around and go back into the UAE. This being done, we could have a fresh stamp in our passport that could then be extended to give us another 60 days.
Sounds simple right???
Well, it wouldn’t be a very interesting post if it were now, would it??
The girls were in summer camp at the time and instead of taking them out of their fun activities, we decided to wait until it was over (2pm) and leave after. I had also read somewhere that the prime time to go through the border is between 3 and 5 pm. Steve was also very busy at work and could use the time in the morning to get things done.
We had heard horror stories about things that could go wrong during a border crossing. It seems that the custom officials on both sides like to make up new rules and regulations as they see fit on a day to day basis. We had taken everyone’s input and prepared ourselves with as much documentation as we possibly could. And Steve had already done this once before (when he was here earlier this year). I had borrowed a portable DVD player from a friend and packed a small cooler full of snacks just in case (Thank Goodness!)
I picked the girls up and then we went and picked up Steve from work and we were on our way. The trip to Al Ain (oasis, border town in UAE) was uneventful and at sometimes beautiful. Once you get out of Abu Dhabi there are some wonderful sand dunes and scenery.
We stopped in Al Ain for a potty break and proceeded to the border station that someone had recently recommended as being pretty “hassle-free.” We got there and the official immediately rerouted us to another border station about a mile away. Why we were rerouted, we do not know. I guess it was the rule of the day (we knew several people who had crossed here the week before). I could feel Steve’s pressure go up a notch at this point in our journey (he was already in a bad mood because we had to do this in the first place). We turned around and went to this other border station.
When we got there, there was a long line (no waiting at the first place of course). When we got to the front of the line we were directed to park and go into the custom’s building. We were expecting this and dutifully parked and went to the building. Inside we had to fill out some forms and then they processed our paperwork. We were there for about 20 minutes. They gave us a “map” and sent us on our way.
At this point, I was feeling pretty good. I had heard horror stories of sitting in customs for hours before they would let you out of the country, but we were done in less than half an hour. We were in Oman, so all we had to do is get our official Omani stamp in our passport and then turn around right???
At about this time, I looked down at the “map” which they had given us. It looked like a confusing complex of circles and arrows with some Arabic, a few English words, and an occasional number. We weren’t sure if we had to walk or drive to the border station. We assumed that it was close by. Finally, through some charade-like communication with one of the officials, we learned that we actually had to get back in the car and drive to the station. We all piled back in the car and started off. Steve drove while I tried to interpret the “map.”
Traffic circles are commonplace here (at pretty much every intersection), so I was able to figure out that part of the map, and I assumed that the arrows were the direction that we had to go in. There were 5 circles on the map, so we thought, we’ll go through 5 intersections in the appropriate direction (according to the arrows) and we’ll get to the station.
We had gone through a few circles and I realized that one, I had lost track of what circle we were on (trying to navigate and pass out snacks and drinks while changing the DVD do not mix), and two, the circles were getting further apart. I assumed that Steve had been counting also, but he had lost track as well.
We realized we didn’t know where we were going, so we decided to backtrack and start over again. If you’ve ever been with Steve when he is lost, you’ll believe me when I tell you I could see the steam coming out of his ears at this point. Right about then, the fuel light went off in the truck. (The steam started coming out of his nose as well). I had seen a shell station and navigated us back to it, the only problem is that they only took cash and we had no Omani rials. So, we had to find an ATM. This took quite awhile driving around (and remember we don’t have much gas), but we finally found one. We crossed our fingers that this bank would actually give us money (a lot of banks won’t work with foreign Debit cards) and took about 10 minutes trying to figure out how much we would actually need (I had forgotten my calculator that day). Thankfully, the ATM cooperated with us and gave us the cash so that we could go back to the gas station ( I won’t even mention where the steam was coming from at this point).
We went back to the gas station and filled the tank and backtracked in the direction we hoped we had come from. Eventually we did find the border station and turned around and started counting circles. The girls were settled down with a movie at this point, so it was easier to keep track of where we were going. As I was looking at the “map” I saw something that said 35km. I also saw something that said 20km. I mentioned this to Steve and it dawned on us that our trip into Oman was going to be a lot longer than we expected.
We wound up driving 60 kilometers (about 36 miles) into the middle of Oman before we reached the Omani border station that we needed. Thankfully, I had bought a very nice map of the area the day before or we might still be wondering around Oman. It was still very disconcerting to keep going further and further into Oman (which is a desert that has the population of about 2). There was nothing around but a couple of stray camels and some occasional cars. The border station was smack dab in the middle of nowhere, but we did eventually find it.
I complain about the ride, but it actually was quite beautiful in a barren sort of way with cool rock formations and mountains in the background. And when we got out of the car at the station, it was quite nice temperature-wise. I actually got chill bumps when a breeze hit me and thought wow it’s nice and cool here (a look at the car thermometer told me it was 90F, but when you are used to 120F, it’s cooler!).
We spent about 45 minutes at the station waiting our turn and then waited for them to process our paperwork. The highlight of the whole Omani border station experience had to be the women’s room. The building itself looked fairly new and was very clean until you went to the women’s room. I have been to many disgusting restrooms in my time, but this one took the cake (of course both of the girls had to go pee). Caitlin was actually gagging and I wanted to. I don’t think that it had ever been cleaned (I’m talking dried feces on the walls). I quickly gathered the girls up and took them out to the car where I had luckily kept the port-a-pot and the girls relieved themselves there instead. I just sucked it up.
We turned around and drove the 60km back to the UAE and parked at their border station. There really is no parking and we just parked on the side of the busy road and went inside. Steve waited in line while I sat in the chairs and tried to occupy the girls who were bored and now tired because it was after their bedtime. Steve and I had our obligatory retinal scan and then he had to get back into line.
One thing that I have come to learn about the people here in this region of the world (and especially the Emirati men) is that they have a huge sense of entitlement (I’m sure there will be a post about this in the future). So, they tend to just butt in line and cut you off like you are invisible. This happened to Steve a couple times while he was waiting in line. (The steam was coming out of my ears at this time). He finally gets to the front and hands our passports to the attendant and Ashli comes up to me with a desperate look in her eye and tells me she has to poop. Talk about bad timing! I did a quick scan of the room and saw no facilities (and I was a little nervous about going into another border station restroom at this point) so I used hand signals to let Steve know where we were going and told him we would be right back.
I took the girls out to the car (that I mentioned previously was parked on a very busy road) and set up the port-a-pot once again. Not only did Ashli have to go number two, but so did Cate. They both took huge stinky ones in the back of the truck while massive semi-trucks were flying past us. Ahhh….the life I lead!
We finally finished inside and then we had to go through 4 more stations (while in the car thankfully) before we were allowed to go back into the UAE. Each station wanted some document or other and spent about 5-10 minutes of our time and then we were finally on our merry way again.
I was starving at this point (I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was 9pm) and really had to pee, but I didn’t want to have to stop any more. I just wanted to get home. The girls fell asleep in the 1 ½ hours that it took us to get back to our house (nine hours after we had left it) and we put them clothes and all in their beds as soon as we got there (and then sprinted to the nearest bathroom).
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” I don’t know who originally said this, but this quote certainly holds true in this case. It was a long and very frustrating day for all of us, but we lived and I can now laugh about it a little. I learned a few things in the process. One, don’t ever take the port-a-pot out of your car when you have kids. Two, buy a portable DVD player and three, always pack more snacks than you think you might need (the girls ate everything!!!!). And in conclusion, if I don’t get my residency visa before the next 60 days are up, there better be a plane ticket in my hand to Cyprus or heads will roll!!!!

Dubai Mall Mania

I’ve been a lot of places and seen a lot of things, but I went somewhere that took the cake this weekend. The girls and I went to Dubai for the day (Steve was on his death bed at home…Swine Flu anyone???). Dubai is a crazy place in of itself (there will definitely be more Dubai-themed posts to come), but the Mall of Dubai was insane. We walked around and ogled for about 5 hours and still did not see probably half of the place.
Where to start? I was in the biggest mall in the world and I didn’t buy a thing because I was so thunderstruck. As soon as I walked in, I looked up and literally became dizzy with the sheer size of the place. I picked up a brochure with a map and I kid you not it was about ¼ inch thick. You had to fold it out like a street map to figure out where you were going.
I have a really good sense of direction and I got lost in this mall! Just to name of few amenities…….. an olympic-sized ice skating rink, a huge aquarium (in which 33,000 animals reside), 12,000 stores, and a 22 screen movie theatre. My feet hurt just thinking about it!
Many people call Dubai the Las Vegas of the Middle East and I can now see why. Each section of the mall had a different theme and many of them (especially the gold souk) have décor very reminiscent of some of the larger casinos in Vegas.
People had warned me about this mall (and Dubai in general), but there’s really no way to prepare oneself for the decadence of this place. I walked around with my mouth hanging open most of the day and I took over 200 pictures (ok…maybe that’s not such a big deal for me). The girls were astounded as well. There are two huge 4 story tall water fountains in one area of the mall. I had to drag them away from it and the playland (I’ll write another post about the Emirates and their mall playlands at a later date).
To top it all off, the mall is in the shadow of the tallest building in the world. You walk outside one of the two food courts and there is a beautiful Burg (tallest building in the world) observation area. Adjacent to this area is a large man-made lake that has a fountain show to rival the Bellagio in Vegas.
Wow is all I can say in conclusion. The girls and I were exhausted, but had a fantastic time. We can’t wait to go back to find what we missed the first time. AND…we still have yet to go to the Mall of the Emirates (think indoor ski slope).

www.thedubaimall.com

Dust, dust, and more dust.

Prior to moving here, when I thought of about a sand/dust storm, I pictured something entirely different. (Picture a scene out the movies where a wall of sand or dirt is coming towards you at an impossibly high rate of speed and you are running away from it.) That is really not what it’s like at all and I can’t decide if I’m disappointed or relieved. When these storms come it’s more like a heavy fog (only it’s not moisture in the air, its sand and dirt). Usually there is a strong breeze here, but on days when there is a storm it is very still. It looks cloudy and foggy, but if you look closely, it’s not clouds at all. It’s not a pleasant experience to be outside on these days. Within seconds of coming outside, you feel like you’ve been eating out of the sandbox again (come on…you all know you’ve done it in the past!) and every available surface is covered in dust. I actually got mad at the pool guys for doing such a lousy job of cleaning the pool until someone explained the whole thing to me (they come and clean and the bottom is covered in sand in minutes). Also with my lack of experience in this area, I assumed that they were a quick phenomenon, but they actually last several days (again…not pleasant).
The two pictures that I have included are taken from the same place (our roof). The first is on a normal day here in Abu Dhabi and the second is during a dust storm.

Metric Mania

Sorry that it has been awhile. It’s not that I haven’t had inspiration….there’s plenty of that here, but time has gotten away from me lately.
I have lived overseas before, so this topic comes as somewhat of a surprise to me. I was prepared to have a car that registers in Kilometers per hour and speed signs that do the same, but I don’t remember the metric system invading my life as much as it has this time around.
I remember cooking quite a bit in Japan, but this time my kitchen has become a foreign land in itself. First, my oven is in Celsius. This is fine if I am cooking something that has directions in the metric system. Some of the things I have bought (chicken nuggets, frozen pizzas) have the correct Celsius temperature to prepare them in. However, the wide majority of the foods I have purchased here have Fahrenheit temperatures (as well as any recipe I have ever followed in my life). Now why do you suppose in a country that is totally converted to the metric system, would they sell items without converting them? All items sold in the grocery stores have Arabic directions applied to them before they are sold…why not add Celsius temps as well???? I guess the good side to this is that I can now convert C to F and vice versa like a champ! And I didn’t even mention that my washer is in Celsius also. That’s a whole other story!
Another side of the metric system in the kitchen is measuring ingredients to add to things. For example, I was making some rice the other day and the instructions told me to add 425ml of hot water. 425ml?????? It’s a good thing that I am a nurse and I am familiar with milliliters, but do I have a measuring cup which measures in them? NOT! (Well, I do now) I also invested in a calculator to keep in one of my kitchen drawers.
Even buying the food at the grocery store becomes a complicated affair. Everything is sold per kilogram. As if it weren’t already complicated enough (I have to calculate in my head the conversion from Dirham to Dollars), but then I also have to figure out how much I want. For example: If I want to buy some ground beef, and the sign says AED 32 per Kilo, what exactly does that mean? Well, 32 Dirham (AED 32) is about $9. Then you have to convert from Kilograms to pounds (at least I do to figure out how much I want). Each Kilo is 2.2 pounds, so it turns out that a pound of ground beef is about $4. Whew! Did anyone follow that? Steve wonders why it takes me so long to go shopping around here! I now keep a little calculator in my purse.
I’ll summarize by saying that it has definitely been a learning process or a relearning process (I vaguely remember studying this in school at some point). Man…I wish I had paid more attention in math!

The Heat

Before I start on this subject, I just want to make one announcement: This is a conveyance of facts only and it’s not in any way a complaint!!!!
So, now that I have that out of the way…..I thought I would tell you what the weather is like in Abu Dhabi. In a word….hot. Most of the days that I have been here it has been in the hundreds. The humidity is relatively high all the time as well. Who knew the dessert would be wet (the air that is)??
It’s amazing how quickly that I have become accustomed to the weather here. The other day I went outside in the morning (I like to go and sit by the pool early in the morning) and I thought, “Wow, it’s really nice out here”….it was 96.
The highest I have seen the thermometer go up to so far is 118 and I was duly impressed by that. I had never seen a thermometer go that high before. On the other hand, I haven’t seen a temperature below 90 yet.
Steve had been preparing me for months for the heat. For some background….Steve hates any temperature above 70. Within 5 minutes of him walking outside, he starts sweating profusely. It’s almost as if he’s trying to evaporate himself! After all his talk, I was expecting to be miserable out here. To a certain point it is no fun. The other day when I went about town to take pictures, I was soaking wet by the time I was done (2+ hours in 110 heat and 80% humidity) But, I can honestly say it is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Although I have noticed I can sweat in areas that I have never sweated before (who knew that your upper lip had sweat glands).
Caitlin (taking after her Dad) does not enjoy being out in the heat. Her whole body turns bright red with more than 5 minutes of exposure. As she is the drama queen of the group, she feels like she has to complain non-stop about the heat and the fact that the car is too hot when we get back into it (as if we didn’t already know this information). Needless to say, we have not made any long trips to any outdoors venues yet. I don’t think that Steve and Caitlin would survive.
Luckily, we have the pool which we use constantly. We were worried initially that the water would be too hot, but oddly enough 90 degree water is oddly refreshing when it is 112!
It has not rained here since we got here almost 5 weeks ago. That is very strange for me. I have never lived somewhere where it does not rain (usually it’s the exact opposite). Steve and I got a little excited when we looked up the weather and there was a 10% chance of rain for a day last week. Prior to that there had been 0% on every forecast we had seen. Alas…no rain, but I did see a few clouds (another rarity here).
So, to sum it up…..it’s hot and always sunny. Not too bad in my book, although certain people in the same household would beg to differ. I hear that it is quite pleasant in the winter here (70s). I’ll probably freeze my butt off! Until then….maybe I’ll try frying an egg on my patio.
I didn’t hear one complaint in that post did you????

Water, water everywhere????

So, I now have been living in a desert for one month today. I know…I can’t believe that it has been a month either. Time flies when you’re having fun! In the last month, I have made many observations of different things, but there’s one in particular that fascinates me.
I have not seen a drop of rain since we arrived (a great improvement in my opinion to the weather I was subjected to in Maryland before I left). True this is a city that is surrounded by water (it is an island) and I knew that before I came, but what I was not prepared for is all the water everywhere!
You cannot go more than a block without encountering some kind of water feature or water fountain. Also in order to grow any kind of vegetation there must be a sprinkler system in place (which seem to go off non-stop). The streets are lined with beautiful trees and vegetation that must be watered several times a day. I myself have not only a pool full of water, but a small water feature by my front door and a sprinkler system that goes off 3 times a day to water all the plants and grass in my yard. I didn’t even mention drinking/bathing water!
Abu Dhabi is a fairly large city (about 1.2 million). How the heck do they get so much water????? There must be some mack-Daddy desalination plant around here that I am not aware of!
I took some time to just drive around the city the other day to just observe and take pictures (I could do this in peace since the girls were in camp). I was awed by the water fountains and the beautiful parks and I can’t wait until it’s actually cool enough to enjoy them all. Until then, I’ll just jump in the water!

To the Hospital We Go!

Well, we haven't had internet for about 3 weeks so I'm behind. I actually wrote this post a week ago. Ashli is doing much better now. I removed her stitches on Monday and she is happily enjoying the pool again. She is probably going to have a small, "character mark," as Steve calls it, but she's so darn cute...who's going to notice????

To the Hospital We Go!
If you haven’t heard yet, we had to make our first trip to the ER here in Abu Dhabi. I know…it didn’t take long!
In the wee hours of July 5th (3:30 am to be exact), I was awaking by a horrible screaming sound. That sound was coming from Ashli and I rushed into her room to find her and her bed covered in blood. It took me awhile to determine where the blood was coming from (her mouth) and then a lot longer for me to get her calmed down enough to tell me what happened. She claims she was having a dream about a dragon that was trying to “fire her.” (No she hasn’t recently watched anything with scary dragons in it…we don’t even have cable yet).
As I took a closer look at her lip, I discovered that she had completely bitten through it and I knew that she would need stitches. The problem that I had was two-fold. First, I was in a foreign country and had no idea where to take her or where they accepted our new insurance. Second, we still had no internet access, so I couldn’t look these things up. Since it was now about 4am on a Sunday (Sunday is Monday here) I didn’t want to wake up anyone with a phone call. I had stopped most of the bleeding and she was falling back to sleep. I let her go back to sleep after I bandaged it up as best as I could.
As soon as we could, we started making phone calls and found out what hospital to go to. We went to a small hospital about 20 minutes from our house and we had to wait maybe 10 minutes before they took us back to the triage area. The triage nurse took one look at her and told us she would need sutures. They then moved us to a curtained booth very similar to areas that you would see in a US ER.
The ER doc came in almost immediately and took a quick look and decided to page the surgeon on call. We waited about 20 minutes for him. He was very nice for a surgeon, but there was definitely a language barrier with him. I did however immediately understand the term “general anesthesia” when it came out of his mouth. That’s when the butterflies started in my stomach. Here we were in a foreign country and they were talking about putting my baby under!
Now, if we were back in Maryland, I don’t think that I would have been as nervous. First, I would have probably known the anesthesiologist and the surgeon would have understood all my questions. Because I’m a nurse, I know all the bad things that can go wrong under general and of course all those things started to run rampant through my head. I couldn’t even call any of my close friends to get moral support (Tina…I desperately wanted to talk to you about this!!!) because it was in the middle of the night back home.
I swallowed my fears and played a game of constructing paper jewelry out of paper bed linings with Ashli while Steve paced and we waiting for the insurance to pre-approve the surgery (which took 2 hours!)
Instead of doing this as an outpatient thing, they actually admitted Ashli to a room in a Peds unit (which thankfully had a TV!) and we waited there until there was an OR available. She was an amazing trooper the entire time. They stuck her with several needles and messed with her very sore mouth many times and not once did she cry. She gave everyone who walked into her room one of her famous Ashli smiles and had everyone in the hospital wrapped around her pinky finger in no time at all!
We walked her down to the OR finally around 1pm. They wouldn’t let us go back at all and I spoke to the anesthesiologist (who thankfully knew a lot more English). She looked so tiny in the big stretcher that it broke my heart. As soon as she couldn’t see me, I started crying and struggled not to break into the “Ugly Cry,” with so many people watching me.
We had to wait for her back in her room for what seemed like an eternity (it actually was only 90 minutes). When she came back to her room, she acted like she’d had a little too much tequila (picture the little boy that the father videotaped after having some surgery and posted it on UTube and times that by 10). Her main concerns were A) she was dizzy and B) she didn’t have any panties on. We had a lengthy conversation on why I had panties on and she didn’t! They also gave her pain medicine rectally which did not go over well with her at all. Lucky me…they sent her home with the same meds!
It took her about 2 hours to really come out of it. The surgeon came in and told us that she had only one external suture on the outside of her lip, but wound up with several internal sutures. Her lip was about 10 times its normal size and looked terrible, but she didn’t complain of any pain. I think they must have REALLY good drugs in the OR.
We left the hospital at 5pm (9 hours after we got there). In retrospect, it could have been much worse. The staff at the hospital was very nice and treated Ashli like a little princess. Thankfully, we had just gotten our new insurance cards the day before. The way things work here, they would have wanted cash up front for her surgery if we didn’t have proof of insurance (I don’t even want to think about how much that would have been). Ashli was a model patient. She didn’t cry once and was very patient (it helped that Alanna the Elephant was with us the entire time!). We also have great friends here that helped us out with Caitlin so that she didn’t have to go through the long day with us.
I really wanted to see how things worked here in the hospitals, but not in this way! They certainly do things differently here and the language barrier was a problem at some points, but it was a great learning experience.
She is doing much better now. Today (3 days post-op) was the first day that she was able to eat something other than yogurt/jello without wincing in pain. Her biggest complaint now is that she can’t swim in the pool (which we opened the day before she did this) for a week( I did break down and let her get in a tube for a little while).
I don’t think we are going to talk, watch, play or otherwise engage in any activities that involve dragons for a VERY long time!

A Land Far, Far Away!

OK...so enough about Ashli. Cate has definitely been doing her share of exploring and pondering too. Let's look through her eyes for a little bit!

Looking through the eyes of your children can definitely be enlightening. If only we could see things the way that they do. If only I could see through Caitlin’s rose-colored glasses the world would be so much nicer!
Caitlin believes that we are in a land of Royalty (and to a certain degree, we are). There are palaces and mansions all over the place, but the buildings that she has become most fond of are the mosques. There are hundreds of mosques all over the city and you can see them building more. Construction is rampant here and I’ve even seen cardboard cutouts in the shape of a mosque at big building sites so that the workers don’t have to go far to pray the 5 required times a day. You can hear the Call to Pray from any location here.
Caitlin’s favorite by far is the Grand Mosque which even I admit is spectacular. It is a huge ornate white building which is lit up each night with blue lights. She has become convinced that it is the castle in which Aladdin and Jasmine live and wants to go visit them and have some tea. It does bear a striking resemblance to Jasmine’s childhood home in the Disney movie.
To a degree a lot of the buildings here are something out of a fantasy. It seems all the builders have a little competition going on. Each one is trying to outdo the other with their amazing creations. They are building a large structure to be the headquarters for a local builder very near our house that is shaped like a very large glass Frisbee. Caitlin loves it and calls it the crystal ball and knows that we are getting close to home when she sees it. Maybe she can make a wish into it and have Aladdin invite her to tea?

To Bidet Or Not To Bidet

Thought I would write about stuff that the girls are fascinated with here in Abu Dhabi. I’ll start with Ashli. It doesn’t surprise me, and it shouldn’t surprise any of those who know and love Ashli, that she is totally fascinated with the bathrooms here.
All bathrooms have either a bidet or a nozzle ( I don’t know the correct term yet). The nozzle has a long hose attached to it and you can use it the same way as a bidet to squirt clean water on areas that need to be cleaned after using the toilet. Please don’t make me explain further!!!!
Because all the bathrooms have either one of these options, they rarely have toilet paper. This is a nightmare for Ashli. Even as a tiny baby, she would have a hissy-fit if her bottom was the slightest bit damp. Luckily, a friend for-warned me of this and I stocked up on mini packs of tissue that I carry with me everywhere. She still gets all flustered when she realizes that there is no paper.
We have a bidet in one of the bathrooms in our hotel suite. Ashli insists that it is a bathtub for babies and no matter how often I tell her otherwise, she stands firm. I feel sorry for her future children. LOL!!!
Now the nozzle is a great source of amusement for her. Fortunately she hasn’t figured out that her own bathroom (in our future house) has its own nozzle. (We REALLY need to figure out how to turn it off). But, she did find and experiment with the one in the second bathroom in our suite. I was in the other room when I heard running water on the floor of the bathroom. I went in and found Ashli on the toilet with a stunned look on her face and water all over the floor in front of her. I asked her what happened and she recovered quickly. “I don’t know” was all I got. I asked how all the water got on the floor and she shrugged and said, “Somebody must have touched that thing.” The “thing” was the nozzle that I had given her strict instructions not to touch.
So far she has only touched it a few more times (I’m not looking forward to her being alone in her room with one) and I’m hoping that there are no dirty babies around her while we are still in the hotel!

The Grocery Store

We aren’t officially in our house yet since our furniture is still not here (we’re hoping this weekend sometime), but there comes a time when you need to buy a few items from the store. The first day we were here we were desperate since we had no luggage. In the land of 100+ and high humidity you cannot live without deodorant and soap!!
We are living in a hotel apartment which is adjacent to a large mall. There seems to be a large mall every 20 feet or so in Abu Dhabi. I’ll post more about them later, but right now I want to talk about the grocery stores. Each mall has a “grocery,” store in it. I’m talking 2-3 story behemoths that are like Super WalMarts on steroids. After arriving without our bags, we needed to do some shopping. We walked next door and went to a LuLus (yes..actually name of a chain of stores). Their logo is, “Where the world comes to shop.” This seems very appropriate since you see someone and something from every continent every time you go into one J
All I really wanted from this first venture into the land of shopping in Abu Dhabi was a toothbrush and some soap, but it took us nearly an hour to do this. The store was so huge, I became disoriented several times. Thank goodness that Steve was with me to point me towards the exit. Otherwise, I might still be wandering around in there (and I thought I had a good sense of direction).
I was happy to see several American products (like the type of deodorant and toothpaste that I usually use), but they all seem to shrink on their way over here and their prize tags grow J I was adventurous and did try a few products that I was not familiar with and so far have been happy with one small exception. I am not a fan of the vegetable soap.
My first real experience with the grocery store on my own was yesterday (OK…I went with my friend Eileen). Eileen and her kids got here the same time we did and they are in the same boat. We decided to try a store that was rumored to be filled with Western products. Now, I’m all about trying new things, but it would be nice to use a familiar product every once in a while. There was also the rumor that this particular store has GASP……pork products.
We entered Spinneys with our 4 children (we both have 2) and immediately started finding things that we thought we weren’t going to get for a couple of years. I was very excited to find Jif peanut butter and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Spray (it’s the little things in life that make you happy J). We also found things we couldn’t identify and for the most part left them alone. This was a comfort trip after all and we needed some stuff that was familiar to us. We’ll be more adventurous another day.
The produce section is always exciting. There are all kinds of interesting fruits and vegetables from around the world. Just today I found that I could buy grapes from 5 out of the 7 continents. I need to find someone who has been here a little longer to give me a tutorial on the different items available and how to eat/use them. I was thrilled to find nice avocadoes that weren’t too expensive. Can you say Guacamole and Margaritas by the pool?
Then, we found the (dramatic pause) Pork room. Since UAE is a Muslim country, all pork products must be housed in a separate room and have non-Muslim staff operating it. There is a large sign on the door warning all Muslims to stay away. Eileen and I immediately went in and looked around. Not only did we find all the items you expect, but in the pork room you find Pop Tarts and Marshmallows (both made from pork lard).
I was able to find all the ingredients to make a cheese tortellini dish that I make all the time back home much to the delight of the girls. I wasn’t able to replicate the taste from back home exactly, but as Caitlin said, “It’s really, really close Mom!” She then went on to have 3 helpings J

Our Travails

Well, our trip was definitely exciting! Where should I start? How about the 2 hours that it took us to check in at the Delta counter or almost missing our connection in JFK? It wasn’t all bad….I enjoyed a very luxurious business class flight from JFK to Abu Dhabi. Steve let me sit by myself on the long flight and the girls were absolute angels.
Starting at BWI we waited in line at the Delta counter for about an hour and then found out that a couple of our bags were too heavy. (I knew that they were going to be) Because our flight was delayed we decided to repack some of them. That took Steve and I another 30 minutes of sweat and tears, but by God we got them all under 50 pounds! By the way….we had TEN check ins. By the time we got our boarding passes, we had been at the airport for 2 hours and still hadn’t been through security J Luckily security was a breeze . We got to our gate and found out that our flight was delayed indefinitely due to some computer glitch.
We left BWI 2 hours after we were supposed to and prayed all the way to JFK that we would make our connection (we had a 3 hour layover). We got to JFK and had to go to another terminal to get our boarding passes running the whole way. Which is not so much fun with tired 4 & 5 year olds and six carry-ons. We get to the ticket counter at 10pm (our flight was scheduled to leave at 1050). We were promptly told that we were too late. I went into meltdown mode and irritated everyone there enough that they allowed us to get our boarding passes. The only condition was that we had to run (which we did until we hit security and came to a screeching halt). Some nice people let us cut in line and went through in a record amount of time (pretty impressive with 3 laptops and 2 kids). We then proceded to run all out to the gate (which was the 2nd to the last). We made it to the gate after near cardiac death (I consider myself in decent shape, but carrying a 4 year old and 3 bags while running nearly did me in!). We got on the plane sweaty and exhausted and didn’t take off for another hour J
The girls slept a good portion of the 12 hour flight (Ashli was asleep before we left the gate) and we all enjoyed the amenities of business class including a seat that reclines completely and free booze (well Steve and I did that part). All in all it wasn’t a horrible trip(the business class seats made up for the bad parts). There were only a few meltdowns (mostly mine) and it went faster than I expected. Now…should I tell you about our lost baggage????

Here are some pictures that Steve sent to me. The first is of the road that we will live on, the second is of our garage (with our car in it), and the last pic is of our front door. I can't wait to see everything in person! Only 26 more days!