Today was a splendid day! It was our first full day in Al Ain, our hometown. We got up early enough to catch the free buffet breakfast in the hotel. This buffet is not as robust as the one in Abu Dhabi, but there’s still plenty of foods to choose from and once again, its free. We came back up to the room and took a nap. We are doing that a little too much, but its so nice right now.
After our nap, we decided to brave the heat and take a walk to the Mega Mart. We could see it from our hotel room the
night before and it looked like it might be about a 15 minute walk. So we put some sun screen on, made sure Logan was blocked from the sun and set out. It was hot and we started sweating pretty quickly. It wasn’t horrible though. I think the more I get used to it, and if I shed a few pounds, I’ll be just fine. Anyway, the walk was ok. We passed by a large fort, which kind of looked like a castle. It made me think it would be the perfect place for
Medieval Times to come for a month in the winter. There’s no roof, so it would have a cool outdoors feel. No worries, I’m not dying to come back to the castle yet.
The Mega Mart is two stories. First floor is a grocery store, second is kind of a Walmart. We wanted to get some foods we could have in the hotel room so we wouldn’t spend a bunch of money eating out. We got some essentials – bread, tuna, some type of chicken meat in a can(think SPAM), peanut butter, jelly and some drinks. Oh and Doritos and Kit Kats. Oh and some sort of Ramen Noodles things. We didn’t check out the upstairs, just headed back to the hotel. We had the Ramen Noodles things for a late lunch. They seemed good enough.
We headed down to the pool while they cleaned our room. Alanna let me swim for a bit while she took Logan for stroll through the hotel. Let me tell you – a dip in a pool when its over 100 degrees outside is soooooooooo good. The water
felt amazing. I made sure to slather up with sunscreen. Not taking any chances here. Its been a few years now since I had a Myrtle Beach tan. We went back to the room and laid around for awhile. We sat out on our balcony for a bit as well. We can see a nice mountain range to our right. I believe it is called Hafeet Mountain. During the bus trip the night before, we saw off in the distance what looked like to be giant Christmas lights curving up in the air for miles. Today we realized its a lighted road that leads up the mountain. We’ll be exploring that I’m sure.
As we sat on the balcony, we also noticed a family of stray dogs. They seem friendly enough, playing, barking, etc. They aren’t around much during the day (guessing they’re shading somewhere), but at dusk they come out and hang around our side of the hotel. One of the hotel guests went down and fed them tonight. They all jumped around the guy and were very friendly. I might go down to see/feed them once this week as well. I’m sure they’re used to that routine.
After the sun went down, we all headed back to the pool. I wanted Alanna to get her chance to swim as well. We were going to take turns watching Logan, but one of Alanna’s teacher friends, Debbie, was outside with a few other teachers and was more than happy to watch Logan while we swam. Logan is a very good baby. He really is no pain at all 99% of the time and was an angel for Debbie. Alanna and I got to spend some adult time playing around in the pool so that was very nice.
After we swam, we went over and sat with the group of teachers and their families. Being an expat, with other expats, gives you a genuine melting pot experience. At our table, in this one group were – Americans, Irish, French, Scottish and Welsh. It was such a neat time just listening to everyone talk. We talked about differences in culture. All of them were very nice. I do hope we are put in the same apartments when we finally are placed. I’ve never gotten that experience on a vacation before. You may go to a foreign country, but its usually just that native tongue and a few different ones from other vacationers. Here, we’ll be living with all kinds of people. It will be such a rewarding experience for me.
We finally made it back to the room and had a late dinner. I choose the canned chicken meat stuff. I broke the opener on it, so I basically had to saw my way into it with a butter knife. Alanna enjoyed my pain. I’m sure she’ll elaborate more about it on her blog!
All in all, another great day here in the middle east! Lastly, for those of you who are always wanting more pics of Logan – here is one from bath time tonight.
