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????