Sheik Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding

For those of you who wanted to guess the products in the last post, it was milk and starch.

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity of joining several moms from ASD to go to the Sheik Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, as well as tour the old souks down by the creek.   For more info, please visit: http://www.cultures.ae/.   It was absolutely enlightening and fascinating.  An Emirate named Nasif, who had a great sense of humor, talked to us about the ways and customs of the Muslim culture and some Arabic history.  We learned the history behind why they wear what they wear, their beliefs, and explanations debunking modern myths about the culture.  Lastly, we enjoyed traditional Arabic breakfast and coffee.  After the breakfast and presentation, we split up in small groups and walked around to enjoy the original souks down on the creek of Dubai.  We ventured through the textile souk, and then took abras (small boats) over to the gold and spice souks.  Although we were all very hot and exhausted from the walking, we loved every minute.    Enjoy some of the photos I took.

This is the lovely spread we encountered when we first stepped foot (literally – you always remove your shoes before entering an Arabic household) in the center.

 

Breakfast including some kind of lamb/pepper saute, little pancakes called qatayef, vermicelli noodles with saffron and egg, chick peas, and little donuts rolled in sesame seeds called luqmat.  The best part is the date syrup you can pour over some or all of it.

Serving delicious Arabic coffee in tiny cups to keep the coffee hot. We learned that women never serve…it’s always the youngest son, or youngest brother or nephew.

Showing one of the moms what it is like to wear an abaya.

My breakfast.

Manal, a local Emirate and I.

I love this photo! These men were so excited that I took their photo. On the way to the souks

Heading into the textile souk.

Me in front on the textile souks. Lots of beautiful fabrics, pashminas, dresses, silks, and abayas.

Trying on some tunics and pashminas.

More shi sha pipes and lanterns!

A coloful photo of some of the fun fabrics.

 

Some photos of the local abras, and various cargo boats. Some looked really old!

 

 

 

Spice Souk

 

Amazing selections

 

Thought this was a funny shop. You can purchase a plastic orange tree, some cooking pots or some tinsel!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entering the gold souk

Lots beautiful and lots tacky!

One of the local gold shops….you can haggle the prices, but it’s still the price of gold, which isn’t much of a bargain these days!

Upon our exit, I got a photo of the entrance of one of the mosques during one of the five daily prayer times. You leave your shoes at the door.

Tomorrow we are taking the kids down to the beach now that the weather is not as humid and there is a breeze in the air!  Until next time, “Masalaam.”

 

 

 

Any idea what this is?

We had a nice weekend as we hired our very first babysitter.  Her name is Amanda and she is a freshman at ASD, big sister of Bianca in Molly’s class.   We loved her and the girls loved her, so we hope we can use her again soon.  We went to a friends’ housewarming party and enjoyed ourselves very much.  They grilled all kinds of meat and bacon wrapped jalapenos!  Other than that it was a fairly relaxing weekend. Molly and I even ventured to Pottery Barn to pick up some things for the house at the largest mall in the world – The Dubai Mall.  If you can figure out where to park, then you can bypass a lot to get to the stores you want to go to. So for fun, see you can guess the following products we have in our house:

Can you guess the product?

Guess this product – Wes uses it more than I do.

I also snapped this photo of a van driving along side of me because I loved the fancy curtains on the inside.

Not sure what kind of van this was, but the curtains made me chuckle.

Last Thursday, there was a half day at school.  I picked up my three girls and a friend’s other 2 and we met her for lunch down in Internet/Media Center where she works as a VP of Online Marketing.  We enjoyed our time and I especially loved my meal!!!  You can get better than Narin’s Bombay Brasserie dishes just about anywhere!  I am a little obsessed with how delicious the food is here.  Although my intentions were to get in shape and exercise frequently, with all this good food, it might all backfire!  And the best part is all of the calories and fat grams are measured in kg, so because I can’t mentally convert that quick, I just decide not to!  HA.

I love the ‘fast food’ here! Yummy paneer with naan bread.

Girls with a friend in Media City, where one of my friends works.

When Molly and I were at The Dubai Mall, we happened upon this “HotDog on a Stick” exactly like that one that was in Cielo Vista mall in El Paso during my childhood.  I can’t believe it’s in Dubai, so I had to take a photo for my parents and siblings.  (Couldn’t find the Orange Julius!?) This morning I walked along the beach for exercise.  It’s amazing how difficult it is and what great exercise!  It wasn’t so hot when I started off, but the last 15 minutes was pretty hot. Beautiful view and I enjoyed being outdoors.  I’m also very excited because I met a man with 2 camels for rides anytime – 50 dirham per person.  So, I can’t wait to take the kids!

I can’t believe they have a HOT DOG ON A STICK here!

Camels on the beach!

While on my walk…

Until next time, I think I’ll see if I can find an Indian cookbook.  Ahhh, heck, never mind, I’ll just keep visiting various restaurants!

FOUND: iPhone and lots of other very cool Dubai things

So I found my iphone.  I used the iCloud locator to find it when I thought I lost it and it was somewhere a mile down the road what looked like a high rise tower.  Well, that was wrong.  It was in a little pop up storage I have in my car that I have probably only opened once…and apparently put my phone in it.  YAY!  Nice to have it back.

So now, here are some photos of the first day of school, along with a really cool video of the 63 flag ceremony (well, not the entire ceremony) on the first day of school.  (63 flags being all the countries’ students represented at the school – American School of Dubai.)

Caroline & Wesley

All the girls ready for school!

Lucy and I

Today, I went to an area called Al Satwa with some moms I have met at ASD.  It is similar to walking the streets of Juarez in a way…hundreds of vendors selling all kinds of things.  There is an area we visited that is all textiles and fabrics with gobs of beautiful fabric, including Gucci, Missoni, silks, batiks, etc.  for way cheap prices.  You pick what fabric you like, and have the tailors custom make you a dress or blouse or whatever you wish. Several of the women have one piece they really love to wear all the time, like a sundress, and will have several made in various fabrics.  The tailors will custom make a blouse for around 100 dirhams, $30 give or take. There are also framing shops that will frame anything with more choices than Hobby Lobby or Michaels.  They are also able to custom make a mirror all for seriously low prices!  We had lunch and then visited a quaint Iranian coffee house and pastry shop which was right around the corner from the Jumeriah Mosque (one of the biggest in the Emirates.) It was a very interesting and fun afternoon!

Photos of some of the more authentic, regional silks.

Iranian sweet shop!

Jumeriah Mosque.  One day we will get to go and visit the inside.

 

Too much to post and too tired to report it!

WOW!  Since the last time I sat down to my computer, A LOT has happened, and I have learned a great deal.  To name a few:

1.  School started for the kids.

2.  We blew out 4 lamps, 1 griddle, and 2 clock alarms trying to use a converter.

3.  I made some friends.

4.  Wes turned 40 and we actually had a little party.

5.  I lost my iPhone (which is one of the reasons I haven’t posted photos because I can’t seem to figure out how to get photos from new, less desirable “android” smartphone onto computer.  Guess i need to bring my other camera with me a lot more.

6. We slowly are moving into our new flat.

7.  We had 6 large appliances installed, 1 stopped drain for plumber to fix, and a no-show handy man who was supposed to hang some towel rods in our bathroom where we only have 1 small in each room.

8. I found chocolate chips, baking soda, and Rold-Gold pretzels.

9. I quickly learned that CASH is the only major form of payment when I couldn’t pay 2 service providers.  Thank Allah that they were nice and I was able to pay them the next day.

10.  I also learned that getting dirhams from ATM frequently makes budgeting difficult.

11.  Molly enjoys going to the daily gourmet market downstairs all by herself to pick up milk and other sundries.  (Daddy rides the elevator with her.)

12.  There is a Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Tim Horton’s Coffee Shop and Bakery, and a Caribou Coffee all within walking distance, so not need to blow out my coffee pot nor use a converter.

13.  It is a 7 minute stroll from our door to where the beach meets the ocean.

14.  In the UAE, they write dates like this:  day/month/year.   Kind of makes more sense, doesn’t it?

15.  Again, I am impressed with their process efficiency in all areas of city municipalities, including securing a drivers’ license.

16.  Many women DO work in Dubai.  Full burka-wearing, fully covered women work in all areas, and you can see their smiles because you can see it in their eyes.

17.  Although a little bit more difficult to procure, beer, wine and liquor can be found, purchased in large quantities and then enjoyed.  Per 40th birthday party noted in #4.

18.  International private schools have their perks, like class counselors who encourage new kids to have new friends and give them fun toys to bring home.

19.  International private schools also have their downsides like super high-tech, advanced websites and online communications for parents instead of written notes and Tuesday red folders.

20.  Did I tell you our washing machine is in our kitchen and that we do not have storage in our bathrooms – zero, zilch, not even a shelf or a drawer?

Oh, and ice is a rare and treasured luxury.

Promise to get photos up soon!   You’ve got to see this view from our terrace at night!

School started!

Yay, school started here today. Girls are attending American School of Dubai (ASD) and its amazing! Tomorrow I will have time to upload some photos of the opening ceremonies. There were 63 flags representing all the countries in the world where students are from at ASD. There was Music and kids walking in with flags, and then the best part… The seniors held the hands of the first graders and walked in together. It truly made me teary eyed – it was so cool and moving. I held my breath thinking that Lucy and Caroline might be crying as they were forced to hold the hand of some big huge senior boy,but instead found the girls smiling as they pranced in with 2 beautiful senior girls 😃 It was very moving.

We’ll see how day 2 goes. Might be a different story. But one story I know will hold true again tomorrow is I will very much enjoy my solitude. 😏