Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween!

Today Savannah and I went to our playgroup. All of the kids dressed up in their costumes. We tried to take a group picture but as you can see Savannah wanted to part in the picture!

Savannah is an Ole Miss Cheerleader. The weather is still quite warm so I was looking for a costume that wasn't made of fleece! She looked very cute, although did not want to wear the hair bow or carry the pom pom around.

Halloween isn't really celebrated in Dubai so we didn't go trick-or-treating but we did go to Chris's office and she passed out candy in her costume.

Al Ain Zoo

Today we went to the Al Ain Zoo. Al Ain is a city within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Al Ain is located about 2 hours from Dubai. Located inland and near the Oman border, Al Ain also has the highest number of Emirati nationals in the country. You can see the Hajar (rock in Arabic) mountains from the zoo. This mountain range is in the eastern parts of the country and Oman. The drive to Al Ain is interesting. Although we drove the entire way on nothing smaller than a 6 lane highway you pass by desert, camel farms, date farms, various sand dunes and the mountains. The sand varies in color...mostly a light brown/sand but in some areas near Al Ain the sand is a bright red.

Evidently, crazy driving and road signage (or lack of) is not just a Dubai thing. Our trip there took us a little longer than planned. We finally stopped at a grocery store/mall and had lunch. Chris asked one of the mall's secruity guards for directions but his English wasn't great so we found a "western looking couple" to ask. They gave us great directions: "go on the road over there, go through two round-abouts turn left, go through four more round abouts or so and turn right, go straight and you will eventually see the zoo." As vague as these directions sound...it worked.

We had a great afternoon at the zoo! Savannah got to see a camel close up, the guide even offered to let us take Savannah's picture on one when it was sitting down but Savannah did not like being so close and instantly started crying-- although she liked to watch the camels from a few feet back. We saw lions, monkeys, rhinos, flamingos and giraffes. At one of the monkey exhibits they were jumping into a pond from a rope, every time one jumped in Savannah clapped for him. She also got to feed a giraffe carrot sticks (with the help of dad). Again, she liked looking at the giraffe up close...until he reached out his very long, black tongue to take the carrot. She fed him a few more times but each time made a funny face and a squeal/screech/ugh sound every time.

We successfully made it back to Dubai, although Savannah's time in the car had been maxed out for the day.

Driving in Dubai

I can admit that driving isn't one of my favorite things to do...but in Dubai it continues to be a unique experience. Road signs never seem to have the actual location you are looking for and seem cluttered with lots of information (in both Arabic and English) but never the information for my particular destination. To add to the confusion sometimes road names (if the road has an actual name), neighborhoods and metro stations are all called the same thing but are not in the same location. After 15 months, I feel pretty comfortable driving within a certain radius of our house. Anything outside of this radius, almost guarantees me that I will get lost and turned around. (It doesn't take long to end up in the desert!) Unlike in the US, you cannot just get off at the next exit and back track. Many times, if you miss your turn or exit you have to go 15-20 minutes out of your way in order to turn around. My sense of direction has never been a strong point but I got used to driving in Detroit. I always new if I could get to a mile road, I could find my way home...not the case in Dubai. Most of the roads appear to have been designed by a go-cart enthusiasts, curving and wrapping in unexplainable directions.

Forget being able to looking it up on "Mapquest"...directions are given based on landmarks. Everyone seems to know the major landmarks for example "the big flag pole, Burj Khalifa, Trade Center Round-About (which is in 8-10 lane round about that I refuse to drive in), etc...

To add to the confusion there are many, many different driving "styles" in Dubai. There are drivers who drive incredible fast, no one uses a blinker, people tend to reverse down major roadways to go back to the previous turn or exit (to avoid the extra 20 minute turn-around). I feel like you have to have constant eyes on all the other drivers. They is also a lot of impatience. If you are not half-way through the intersection when a light turns green it is almost a guarantee that someone behind will honk. One time, the driver behind us got out of his car and starting heading toward ours because he thought I should have merged into traffic already! It is a different level of "road rage" but on a semi-polite level as raising your middle finger at the wrong person will land you in jail.

Chris is much more comfortable driving, so he does almost all of the driving if we are going somewhere together. Today, Savannah's playgroup was held in a location outside of my normal radius! Armed with the original directions and extra ones that the play group mom emailed me, we headed out. Almost all of the residential communities and apartment complex's are gated and have security. The first time we turned around I tried to ask the security guard for directions but he only had directions to the golf course...not where I was going. He kindly let me turn around only to then be stopped at a road block by the police (at 9:00 am). They were checking everyone's license and registration...of course Savannah started crying at this moment. I opted to not ask the police man and headed out again. After a few guesses and a few "turn-arounds" we finally found our location and had a great swim! Luckily a friend of mine from play group was leaving at the same time and guided me out in the direction I needed to go. Too bad, it made me realize that the apartment building we went to was probably only 10 minutes away from ours!

Marathon Training

Today was my "official" first long run in my marathon training program. The Dubai Marathon is Friday, January 27th so this week was week one of sixteen in training. I am using a training program that the marathon provided which indicates the number of minutes you should run each day versus the number of miles. Hopefully, this will still leave me prepared for the 26.2 miles on race day. I have talked to a running club here and they thought it would be okay and agreed that it will be much easier to follow given that GPS devices don't work where I am doing most of my running and with the crazy roads it is much easier than trying to clock how many miles (or kilometers) I am running. Today was an 80 minute run so roughly 8 miles. It was quite warm this morning so I will look forward to long runs when it isn't 90 degrees first thing in the morning. The picture of the water and buildings I took on my run this morning. I ran on the west crescent of Palm Jumeriah. This was taken on top of a little bridge overlooking the Gulf and into the city. It was beautiful! Chris and Savannah joined me on my run earlier in the week. While I ran they hung out and watched the boats (or yachts) or by!

Savannah is 14 Months Old

Today Savannah turned 14 months old! She is walking everywhere and is now started to "power-walk" or run if she is in a hurry. She loves to play with her ball (or "ba" as she calls it), loves books and her new friend, Duckie...which is helping her sleep a little better! She also still loves the ipad, computer and phones. She recognizes the sound Skype makes

when someone is calling and goes running for the computer. She also immediately starts waving into the computer or ipad. She can turn the music on with the ipad and somehow figured out how to change the songs. She only stops on ones she wants to dance to! She has figured out how to climb up on the couch by herself so now we are trying to teach her how to get down feet first! Savannah also loves to play peek-a-boo and hide-and-seek with dad. She is loads of fun but is a path of destruction. She loves to get everything out but hasn't figured out how to put it away! At the mall she likes to walk herself (which is not the fastest way to get any shopping done) and look (i.e. touch) everything. She is also laughing...sometimes really laughing and sometimes fake laughing...either way there is nothing better than a baby laugh!

Dhow Marina Cruise

Last night we went on a sunset Dhow boat cruise through the Dubai Marina. The cruise started in the Dubai Marina (among the huge privately owned yachts) and went out into the ocean passing Jumeriah Beach Residences with views of the Palm Jumeriah. (The ocean was much rougher than we thought, but evidently Savannah doesn't get sea-sick like her Nana and Grammie as she was great!) It was very cool to see the lights of the Marina, the "ocean view" of our apartment building and the "ocean view" of our new running route. After living in Dubai for a year, it is very easy to settle into the "normal" routines and forget that we live in this amazing place...the views that this dhow cruise provided were a great reminder that we need to take advantage of our surroundings while we are here.