Jan 2008

Feb 2, 2008

This post has already gotten away from me. I started it on the Jan 29 and am just now sitting back down with it. We'll see if I can get it up and running tonite.
January seemed like a very long month for some reason.

Here are some highlights of our month:

The country got some rain, lots of rain! 4 solid days of it with lingering sprinkles closing out the month. I heard on the radio at one point that it was record breaking rainfall for January but now I can't seem to find written proof of that.


By day's end I had much more water than this on the balcony.


Schools closed for two days in some areas of town.Obviously the city has not been designed with drainage in mind (it typically isn't an issue).
A lot of people flooded out their vehicles, had water damage in their homes and sadly I hear there were a few deaths.



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On a lighter note, the Dubai Shopping Festival started this month!!
Most of the action is down by the Creek and we just don't get down there very often. The stores on this side of town are full of sales but nothing 'crazy'. The malls are all hosting their own car give-aways. Typically for every 300aed you spend you get your name thrown into a basket and at the end of February multiple names will be drawn and cars will be handed out. We have our fingers crossed for a Mini!

Here is some of the entertainment going on at Festival City:

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Map of the City:
we live in the Marina which is just to the left of the middle palm island
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We took an afternoon and checked out Global Village which is part of the developing Dubailand. It is difficult to describe... you are probably better off looking at the link. It is located about 40 minutes inland from us, doesn't open until 4pm (unknowingly we arrived at 3pm). It is very large 'global' shopping destination that represents around 20 countries between the Middle East and Asia. In the day light the place leaves a lot to be desired, it is cheaply put together, run down and dingy. But once the sun sets and all the up lighting is turned on the place is quite intriguing. Included in the park is also a very large 'Carny' section (don't worry Mom, we didn't ride a thing!!). There are more pictures on my photo page.
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George Bush came to visit one day. They basically shut down the city (<-- if you view the link the sidebar to the right has numerous related headlines). The city closed down the major highway and main arteries of town so Bush could travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai without incident. To make it easier on the public Dubai declared a holiday and closed down schools and most businesses until 5pm or so. It was a nice unexpected day off for most. From our balcony I could see the highway he was due to travel on. Although not completely void of motorist (they are a bit stubborn) it was remarkably quite.
I kept an eye out for the motorcade but never saw it. I did see these very official looking helicopters fly over head. I'm still unsure of how he entered the city. I saw these 'birds' but heard one say he flew in on Airforce One, someone else had pictures of the motorcade... whatever, long story short; he visited and many people got a 'Bush-day' (we don't get much snow in these parts)________________________
We had another nice dinner with some of the company folks at a place called Irish Village. Excellent atmosphere and food was pretty decent, the beer was great and the company was fabulous as always!!
Here are the boys:
And the whole group:
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I finally started taking some art classes with a friend of mine, Laura. She is one of the other wives in the group (second from the right in the back row). My first class is stained glass!!!
Here is my wonderful instructor, Tinko:
And here is the start of my first project, it's the kids:

He made us design our own project to make sure we would be excited and interested and really learn the whole process start to finish. I'm so excited about it!! He's a really good teacher and I'm learning a lot! I go 2-3 times a week and really look forward to it every time. I have more pictures from last week but they are still on the camera, I'll post those soon.
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We finished the month off with a nasty sand storm that included gusting winds up to 90mph I hear. It was nasty! Mark and I went out for breakfast Friday morning in the thick of it... crazy windy and gritty! We both received some free microderm abrasion :)

I'll try to post some of my personal pics when I take them off the camera.
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Boy that's a lot to cover! I'm sure I've left some things out. I guess that serves me right for waiting so long to post, I'll try to do better.

You guys have a good week and I'll catch you later!!
xooxxox

P.S. For those of you who have heard the story of the Pop-tarts living in the p*rk section of the grocery store... I finally snagged a picture of them:

Look at all those products mingling with the forbidden p*rk!!