The last few weeks of school have been quite boring. All I've been allowed to do is teach/review for EMSA. Nothing too exciting there. The girls were bored and I was bored, but we pushed through. We played a game to help review and try to motivate them, but that only worked when I offered candy. Which of course I did!! Hey, whatever works to get them motivated instead of just sitting there. There was a point when I thought that I was teaching to about 5 girls in 3rd grade and 8 girls in 4th grade. It was just too much for them. Anyway the test is over and according to the girls "Easy, Miss!" Yeah right! That probably means they thought it was easy, but got it wrong. Although I did hear the English part was easy. That's according to the Arabic teachers who were adminstering the test. They seemed quite angry that it was easy. I tried to point out to them that English is their 2nd language so it should be easy, but they didn't like that reasoning. Oh well. I was asked to help the 3rd graders on the exam and the 4th graders told me that the teacher administering the math portion gave them some answers. No surprise there, but I wish it would stop. So two weeks off is going to be a nice break for all of us!
My parents and Amy arrived in Abu Dhabi on Friday March 23rd at around 9pm. I was a little concerned that they wouldn't make it past the baggage check area because that's where I told them I would meet them. Thing is I couldn't go down there. They had to come up like they were exciting the airport. Well, they did that! I was quite surprised and very pleased to see them. They survived the 16 hour flight, but they don't know how I do it all at once. They had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Amsterdam and they loved being able to get off the plane and stretch. After a wonderful greeting we walked out in the heat, although it wasn't all that hot! It was actually quite pleasant. A very different greeting than the one I got in August 2010! We had a nice walk to the car (a great opportunity for them to stretch their legs) and then loaded all the luggage into the little Chevy Caprice that I rented for the trip. God was good at providing that though because I thought I was going to have to rent an SUV for the 2 weeks which would have cost me a fortune. This is only going to cost 1/2 a fortune!! Just kidding! It was much cheaper and I am thankful that He provided this and all our luggage fit in! We had to do some manuervering to get the luggage in the trunk and we even had to put some in the back seat and passenger seat, but hey we got it all in. The car was quite loaded down though. I think we had 10 bags altogether, only 4 people though. Try to figure that one out. So, after we got the luggage in we navigated the crazy streets of Abu Dhabi to the InterContinental Hotel. We unloaded, with the help of a couple porters, and then checked in. Since no one had eaten in a long time we had dinner at the piano lounge at 10pm and then went to bed. Everyone was exhausted.
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| Me, Mom, and Dad in the Arabian Gulf |
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| Amy and Dad on the dhow |
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| Getting ready to start our tour Amy is on the top |
Sunday was the day for our hop on hop off tour of Abu Dhabi. We saw many sites such as the Sheikh Zayed Mosque (Amy didn't want to tour this and Mom and I lost Dad so it was pretty much just the two of us), Al Itihad Square (roundabout with an Arabic coffee pot), Saayidat Island, Heritage Village, Emirates Palace (although we couldn't get in because Dad was wearing shorts, we did see it from the outside), Marina Mall, and Abu Dhabi Mall. We had lunch at Abu Dhabi Mall and we went up the sky tower at Marina Mall. The Sky Tower was a waste. You could only go up the elevator, and once you got to the top you had to either go in the coffee shop and get something or turn right back around and head down. We headed down since we were meeting Kisha for dinner. It was another long day, but I was so glad that I didn't have to do any driving!!!
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| Mom and Dad at the Emirates Palace |
Monday was our scheduled desert safari at 3:30 in the afternoon so we had some time to go to the pool and then see Emirates Palace. After breakfast we went swimming even though it was another chilly, breezy, overcast day. So un-Abu Dhabi like:( Where was all the heat and sunshine that we have in the desert? Despite the weather the water was nice, at least if you were in the water. When you came out of the water it was cold. Mom, Amy, and I enjoyed the pool for a bit and then we showered so we could go to the Emirates Palace. Luckily the Palace isn't very far from the InterCon; you can actually see it from the hotel. So I didn't really have any trouble driving there, other than all the construction. We walked around the Emirates Palace taking in the views of the Gulf and the views inside the hotel. I almost bought some gold at the gold ATM, but I didn't. Phew! I don't have enough money for that:) After wandering around the hotel for a bit we headed back to ours to get ready for our desert safari. The desert safari began with dune bashing. I was a bit nervous about this, after my experience with Craig in Sharjah, but I had no choice. Our driver, who didn't say much of anything to us, said "no problem, go slow, everything be ok." So I got in the car and away we went! Well, it was a problem. I got sick. Fortunately I didn't throw up, but I only made it the first 15 minutes to the camel farm. The dune bashing was intense. He went up about 5 dunes and for some of them it was like the SUV was on its side. I thought we were going to tip over as we rode on top and then down a few dunes. When we got to the camel farm I really thought I was going to throw up. I mean the smell added to the fact that I was already nauseous, yuck! I survived and got back in the car with Amy, Mom, and two other ladies who were going to skip the rest of the dune bashing, and we headed straight to the camp. Even the ride to the camp was a bit nasueating. I took my first camel ride! It was nothing like I expected. There were 3 camels tied together and some guy led them around with me on one of them. It kind of reminded me of the camel rides Lexi takes at the zoo, only we were in the desert. Kind of disappointing. I was expecting a nice ride through the desert not a 2 minute jaunt around a circle. Oh well. Mom, Amy, and Dad also rode a camel. Dinner was traditional Arabic food followed by a belly dancer. She called some people up to the stage to dance and then all the women. I went up and did some silly dancing and made a complete fool of myself, but enjoyed it. Mom, Amy, and I got henna done while Dad put on a kandora and head scarf. Unfortunately we didn't get to enjoy a desert sunset or dinner under the stars due to the cloudy and hazy conditions. I must mention that it rained on our ride out to the desert!! My parents and Amy got to experience rain in Abu Dhabi!! That is almost a once in a lifetime experience right there:) All in all a good night!
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| Dad, Amy, and Mom on camels |
Tuesday was our last day in Abu Dhabi and we decided to drive to Yas Island to see what was there. Nothing much. There is Ferrari World, but that's an amusement park and we're not into that, and The Yas Marina Circuit, but that is for Formula One Racing and we're not into that either. I saw a sign for a beach, but after driving around the Island two times we determined that it was still under development. Not much there, which was disappointing. I thought that it was supposed to be some sort of wildlife sanctuary, but I couldn't find that. Maybe that's somewhere else. Oh well. We headed back to the hotel and packed our suitcases and then the car (with the help of a few porters) and drove to Al Ain. Mom got some laundry done while Dad, Amy, and I went to LuLu's for groceries. We had Al Noor for dinner because that is my all time favorite restaurant and I needed them to experience the food. Everyone loved it, even the chicken tikka zatar which is something quite different and only available at Al Noor.
So that's been our vacation so far. Tomorrow we'll do some sight seeing in Al Ain and then Thursday we're headed to Dubai. Check in later for another update.
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