A Morning Reflection

Since we have lived here I am always thinking of things that I want to remember to write about on my blog, but, with the boys and the school schedule, not to mention Mike actually being home in the evening I always seem to run out of time.

Well, I want to try and write it today! It is Tuesday morning and I have woken to a bit of excitement as Eid El Fitr officially starts today!! Ramadan is over for the year!! Why is this so great for me? I am not the one fasting as the locals are day after day from sun up until sun down in 110 degree heat (even the outside workers)...

I know I shouldn't complain but it is a HUGE relief to know we can drink and eat outside again. During Ramadan almost everything is closed during the day and does not re-open until the evening. The malls are a ghost town (which in my new found freedom I like to visit often) no food courts or restaurants are open and many stores are closed. In fact no restaurants are open in the city during the day and most hotel restaurants have different hours. The most exciting thing though is to be able to drink in the car! I have missed my morning coffee on the ride to school, diet cokes after the gym--or at any point during the day, and even though children are exempt from the Ramadan laws, they are really not supposed to eat or drink in public as well, so it has been difficult when they are thirsty to deal with making it home from wherever we are to get a drink!!

At any case, because of all these reasons I have woken up feeling a happy freedom, I can walk outside with a bottle of water!! Yeah!! Although, I have to say like many of the other adjustments I have made here I had kind of gotten used to it, but it only took a whining hungry child to remind me that I couldn't wait until Ramadan was over!!

The good news this week as well is that the government issued that the entire week be a public holiday, therefore, Jake and Jett get a nice break from school and Mike worked Sunday, but is off all week as well, he gets no option!!!

With all that said, Ramadan has been my only severe complaint. I also woke this morning and thought...as I do many mornings, how much I like it here. I think our whole family is benefitting from this experience in so many ways.

I can only explain it this way....we are more relaxed here. Everyone comes here to be an expat for not only the international experience but for the financial package, that is a given for a certain amount of lifestyle ease. I also have more help than I have ever had, my housemaid comes three times a week, she cleans, does laundry and ironing, or whatever I need (at a fraction of the cost of a US maid).

Mike is home. A simple sentence but one that makes a world of difference. We were a family so used to Mike working 9 months out of the year on weekends and holidays, with extended hours on each of these days. Here, he gets home around 6:30 or 7 (going in about 8am) and has had more time off than he has had in the last 10 years. This may not last forever, as his projects get closer to completion but that is a good two years away!! The boys get their wrestling time every day. And when Mike is home, he is home, mentally and physically. When running a park that is open 12 hours a day, seven days a week you never really feel relaxed until it is closed for the season. With all this both of us are more relaxed and I feel that our family time is of a higher quality because Mike is not exhausted from work and I am not exhausted from feeling like a single parent (and cleaning my house)!!

We enjoy being home and being with each other. With less TV options we are playing games, working on puzzles and reading together more, all things we should have been doing anyway but with the stress of our US life, we often just did not have the energy!! So, to sum it up, as Mike and I were playing tennis yesterday, a weekday at 4pm, he said, "Why would you ever want to leave here?" A good question!

Alright, I know we are in the Middle East, but it doesn't feel like it in some odd way. But, there are negatives...
-Driving, I have done well at adjusting but will never get used to cars zooming by me at 100mph, three left hand turn lanes, getting honked at constantly, cars getting right on my tail when I turn, and the overall speed of drivers!! This makes me most nervous when I am anywhere with the kids--parking lots, close to busy streets, etc.
-Groceries. There has been more available than I thought there would be for sure! But you never know when they will have a certain product. One week it is there (for instance goldfish) and then you don't see it for weeks. We are slowly learning what local brands the kids eat but I often go to three different stores to get all that we need!
-Clothes. You just pretty much have to make sure and come here with what you need!! They do have Gap and Banana Republic, but the prices are outrageous! I have been looking for a new pair of tennis shoes and every place I go never has my size, I guess everyone has smaller feet here!
-Old houses. We love our villa, but we can pretty much count of some type of maintenance issue at least once a month. We are however lucky that the maintenance men come right when we call and are pretty good at getting it fixed. Although, yesterday they came to fix a water leak, they left and told me that it had something to do with the hot water heater, I said "everything is fixed, right?" they said "yes," well I go upstairs to learn the fix was to turn the hot water heater off...interesting way of going about it!
I honestly think that is it for now, but I am sure there will be more as we go along!

Ahhh, I finally got that written! I feel much better now! the boys are up and need breakfast, so off I go...

Weekend Trip to Hatta

Over last weekend we took a trip to Hatta, a city about ½ hour past Dubai towards Oman. It actually lies right up against the Oman border. It is amazing to see how the landscape changes as you go into the desert mountains. It reminded Mike and me both of Palm Springs. There are rocky mountains among the vast plains of sand.

We stayed at the Hatta Fort Hotel. Each room is like and individual fort. We arrived around 8pm at night so we didn’t see much on the road into town. This was a great hotel for kids as there was miniature golf, swimming, pool, tennis, etc. This was our favorite trip yet as it was truly a unique experience. The boys were up bright and early to check out the fun!!
Front of the hotel office/restaurant early in the morning.
Walkway up to the pool.
Minature Golf

Mountain views, notice all the greenery, the climate was cooler as well!
View of the hotel from a distance, notice each bunglaow tucked into the side of the mountain.
Jake...King of the mountain!!
Jake taking the photographs!! In the background is a minature of the actual Hatta Fort, built a long time ago!!
View from a drive in the mountains.

We often saw goats just cruising along side the road, they ran free, especially in Oman, like cats or dogs.
We caught a glimpse of a few donkeys too, these guys were very cute!!
The pool in the afternoon!
Followed by ping-pong...
Mountain man Jake, they LOVED this hotel and area, the could have stayed for a week or more, but we had to get back to the city...mainly to get haircuts!!

A messy, dirty but happy Jett, after we had been hiking and playing with rocks and sand!!
The road home, we go thru Dubai, this is about 30 minutes outside of Dubai, there are camels all along side of the roads, they don't look very healthy!!

Overall a great trip and even better were the carpet souks on our way back. I got a huge Iranian carpet for only $140.00, something that would have been $1000 back home in the states!!

The Grand Mosque Tour

Once again, I did not get these up in the correct order, but I'm trying!!

This is inside the mosque in the main praying area. This is the largest single piece carpet in the world!! You may wonder how muslims always seem to make perfectly straight lines across when they pray, well, the secret is that there are lines designed in the carpet to tell people where to kneel. You can't see them from this photo as they are raised lines made directly into the carpet design.

Our tour guide is standing, he is being taped for a local tv show. Yes, all women must wear an abaya, I had to leave early so I didn't get a picture of myself, it will have to wait until next time! Although UAE has a local traditional style, it is Muslims who believe a woman should only show her face and hands (the UAE's wear black). The front of the room, this gold layered wall faces mecca. Each name within the flowers are a name for Mohammed.

The largest chandalier on earth!
The outside corridor.
This is where you go to pray when the inside fills up. The landscape around the building is still under construction.

The entrance hall outside the main praying room.


Wow, this place is huge!

The Neighborhood

To give you an idea of our neighborhood, below are some photos of what I look at as I come home every day. The first shot is of Al Mashoor Foodstuff, this is at the end of our street and where my favorite delivery man Rakeem works (I now have his personal cell phone number). To the left is my dry cleaners. Both places know who I am based on my name..Jennifer, that is all I have to say when I call or walk in to pick up clothes, I guess there are no other Jennifer's around!!

Below is the closest Mosque to our home, it is right behind food stuff.
This is out my door to the right. There is a very large home for a local family, they have one of the nicest Ramadan tents I have seen. It boasts three A/C's, a door, three big screen tv's, and a servants trailer, crazy!! All of the local men show up around 7pm to eat, watch TV and read the paper together..ohh, and smoke "hubbly, bubbly" fruit flavored tobacco.
Our grass is starting to fill in!!

Al Ain Part III the final installment and funniest!

So how did Jett end up on this camel?
One of the main goals of this day trip to Al Ain was to see camels, the boys have been wondering where all of the camels are that we had told them about before we came. On our mission to find the camel souk our (not 4 wheel drive) rental got stuck in the sand. Luckily we found some locals (that spoke no English) to pull us out, they then took us to see their camels. Much to my surprize they grabbed Jett and stuck him on top of one (if you could see me at this point, you would see utter fear). Just as the camel started to walk our friends pulled Jett off (all in one piece). Jett, of course, didn't mind the ride and Jake stood back saying "there's no way you are getting me up there!!" Jett, what an adventurer...he is actually smiling...


Our heros..with no one around and a major language barrier they pulled us out of the sand, who knows what they are saying about me at this point..Mike and I guessed something like "this crazy American women!"
Ahhhhhh, the road home was nice and we stayed clear of sand and camels!!

Al Ain Part II

Our Al Ain Adventure Part I

I'm a little late on posting this day-trip to Al Ain, as we went a couple of weeks ago to check out this oasis about an hour and 1/2 from Abu Dhabi. Back in the early 1900's this was where the very simple people of the area spent their summers, as the natural landscape provided shade and pure water.
A natural well.
The old, old Abu Dhabi..before oil was discovered!


Poor Jetty was still in the splint for this trip!

How they used to live...
Photo taken by Jake!