Eid

My plans for Eid were to go to Atlantis with Hetty, Lucia, and Karen (Lucia's daughter), but that changed because Atlantis was fully booked and Lucia's daughter wasn't going to arrive until the 19th instead of the 14th like originally planned. 

Since Lucia's daughter hadn't arrived I still had a place to stay so I headed to Dubai on Thursday evening.  I went to Mirdif first to visit with Cindy and Craig (they had just arrived on Wednesday).  It was great to see Cindy and we spent the evening catching up while Craig borrowed  my car to get some errands done.  After visiting with Cindy I went on to Lucia's.

I picked Lucia up at Burjuman (a mall near her apartment) and then went back to her place.  It was late so we did some quick catching up and then got ready for bed. 

We went to church Friday morning and it was great to be back at Redeemer!  Worship was fantastic, as usual, and it was wonderful to see my friends.  I went out to lunch and spent the day with Cindy and Craig.  A few restaurants in the food court were open for take out, so we got Subway and headed to the parking garage to eat!  After lunch we went back to Mohammed's for the day.  Mohammed was going to take the boys to get a haircut while Cindy and I took Aysha to get henna.  We went to a little salon in Mirdif and got turned away because it was so packed.  We opened the door and almost tripped over the people sitting on the floor.  Since we got turned away, we tried to find another salon but we didn't know of anywhere else to go.  So after driving around for a bit we ended up going back to Mohammed's.

Mohammed came back with the boys and noticed that Aysha didn't have henna (getting henna is very very important for Eid) and he was upset.  We tried to explain that the salon turned us away because they were so busy.  He didn't like that and ended up taking Aysha and Angelina (one of their nannies) back so she could get her required henna.  We weren't sure how that was going to happen, but that wasn't our problem. 

I hung around with Cindy and Craig because they needed to use my car to get stuff out of their storage place and take it back to Mohammed's.  While we were waiting Mohammed returned and told us that he dropped Aysha and Angelina off at the salon and he was taking the boys out for Iftar.  He told us that Aysha was going to call Cindy when she was finished and we were to pick her up.  He told us that, not asked.  Emirati lifestyle for you.  I had not seen that side of Mohammed before and it was a bit weird. 

Craig and Cindy got the necessary stuff from the storage and then we ended up picking up Aysha and Angelina at 8:30pm.  They left to get henna around 3:30 or 4:00.  They waited quite a long time, but like I said henna is extremely important for Eid.  After Aysha got back I left.  I was very tired since I hadn't slept well; I was up all night coughing.

Saturday was spent hanging out with Lucia and Hetty.  We just stayed at home and caught up and did some reading.  It was a nice relaxing day.

I went out with Kristie on Sunday.  It was great spending time with her.  I really missed our Friday's together.  She is leaving on the 24th for the Philippines and when she comes back she'll be married!  We went out to lunch, now that Ramadan was over we could actually eat at the mall, and she tried to find a pair of shoes.  After I dropped Kristie off I left for Al Ain.

I got home around 9:30 and did some light reading before turning in for the night.

Monday was spent cleaning and reorganizing the apartment.  I moved the bed so the AC wasn't blowing directly on me and I had to change the living room around since there is currently only one working outlet.  I had to move my desk and dining table.  I don't like the arrangement, but until the outlet in the living room gets fixed I have to have the desk near the working outlet.  I also moved my bookcase into the "hallway".  I pretty much spent the entire day cleaning and rearranging.


So, now I'm caught up!!  It's Tuesday and I'm here at Cafe Nero catching up with the world; doing some emails, checking Fb, and updating my blog.  I have to do some grocery shopping while I'm here, but I have to be careful because I only left enough money in my account to last me until the end of the month and I found out we won't get paid until the end of September.  Yikes!  It's going to be a tight month and a half.

Tomorrow it's back to work and I have to follow the regular school schedule; 7:30-3:30.  At least it's a short week.  A nice way to ease into the schedule.  Next week the rest of the staff arrives.  Hopefully I'll have some more time in my classroom because it's nowhere near ready and students arrive on September 2nd.  I'll have pictures of my classroom posted when it's ready.  Hopefully I'll have Internet access at home this week since Eid is over!

115 degrees at 3:00pm.  Back to the desert!  It is going to cool down though; down to 108 by the end of the week!!