Author: Staton23

Another week has come and gone here in Al Ain, and it all begins again tomorrow. Tomorrow will also mark one full week of us being in the new apartment. While the Hotel Rotana did have it’s perks, I do enjoy having more space. Most of the little apartment problems have been fixed. The only concern we still have is there is no thermostat for the A/C in the living room, meaning – there is NO AC IN THE LIVING ROOM. So it’s a bit hot. There are also no lightbulbs in the ceiling outlets in the living room, meaning – there is no light in the living room. The ceiling is 15ft high so I’m not going out and buying a ladder. I think I’ve told 4 or 5 different people who apparently work here about the problems. Each one of this people say they will, insha’Allah, be back tomorrow to fix it. Insha’Allah means “God Willing”. They use it all the time to here to basically say that if God is willing, they will do something. It’s a nice way to get out of doing stuff. Just blame Allah if you don’t show up. Whatever. They haven’t fixed my stuff yet. I sort of fixed our other problems. I climbed up and into the ceiling to adjust the hot water so we could stop taking luke warm showers. I also, with the help of my good friend Darrell, but blinds up over the windows.

We got cable TV installed, which is REALLY NICE when you don’t have much else going on for you right now. They installed it last Sunday, but it took a full day for the DVR box to download the channels (They told me, insha’Allah, it would be done in a few hours after they hooked it up, Mmhhmm.). Well I get up the next morning, Logan is crying is eyes out and suddenly the cable kicks in. And to my wonder… a baseball playoff game was on. The Dodgers were playing in LA so the game was still going on when I got up. So I got to watch a little baseball live. I also get to watch the first round of NFL games each Sunday. And there are a good amount of American channels to keep me and Logan entertained. So yay for cable.

Internet – still not so good. They called the other day to confirmed where we live, but I haven’t heard from them since. Insha’Allah, tomorrow! Not. The USB internet port thing isn’t so bad. We just had to move into the hot living room to get a better connection. So while its still slow, its now much faster than the dial-up like speeds we had been experiencing.

My teaching job at House of the Arts is still fun. We had our first performance with the Youth Choir at Bawadi Mall last week. It went really well. You couldn’t really the hear the kids, because it’s a mall, but those who were close seemed to enjoy the show. And all the parents seemed to like what I did with their kids, and that was very good. I am now teaching 3 drama classes every Wednesday. I have 4 to 7 year olds, 8 to 11 year olds, and 12 to 16 year olds. Every class has a variety of expat kids from all over the world, so the accents are fun to hear.

I really am enjoying myself here in the UAE. My health seems to have gotten better. Don’t really seem to have bad allergies in the new apartment. I have been getting nose bleeds, which a got when touring in 1997 from the dry air, so we may be a humidifier. Supposed to be good for babies too. I have also lost 11 lbs since moving here. No fancy diet or exercise routine, I’ve just not been eating as much. I’d like to lose about 20 more though! So maybe I should run.
Funny story – So I went to the grocery store this morning to pick up a few things. The place is called Lulus. It’s a western style grocery store, kind of like a mini superwalmart. We do most of our shopping there. Anyway, today, as I walk in they have the music blasting all over the entire store. And do you know what’s playing? Eminem. Yeah. That’s the type of genre you want your kids to listen to why you’re picking up some diapers. They were playing his radio edit versions, but even most of those were still pretty raunchy. Just not something you’d expect to hear when you’re shopping for groceries.

I had a skydiving binge last night. Binge – meaning a spent hours on the web looking at stuff and places about skydiving. There is ONE place in the UAE to skydive and its about 2 hours north of where I live. It is also CLOSED for remodeling at the moment and who knows when it will reopen. I really really really want to get my A license. Did I mention I really want it? Maybe I can do it this summer or next. There are a couple local places in NC that do the course, and its cheaper than the Chicago area place. Of course, everything is cheaper than Chicago!

In other random news –

My one and only fantasy football team is 4-1 this year. Doing much better after playing in too many leagues last year.

The Yankees are moving nicely through the playoffs. Jeter is the man.

As seen on my Twitter page – Alanna got her UAE driver’s license. We went for a test drive today to help her out. I was not harmed.

Since I have limited internet access, I can’t download my TV shows this month – so no Smallville, Heroes and Flash Forward until, insha’Allah, next month.

We are going to host a board game night this coming week. I love board games. Food them is Mexican.

Ok, enough news.

Here are some more pics!

Update – No new pics. Took me 10 minutes to try and upload one and it failed. I’ll try to post them on Facebook.

Hello folks.  Long time no talk… again.  I’ve just been lazy about blogging. 

Tonight is our last night in the Hotel Rotana.  We FINALLY got our keys for the apartment – the nice one – with 2 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths.  We moved some stuff over today from the old apartment and the hotel, and we’ll finish moving the rest tomorrow by 5pm when we have to check out.  We also have a maid coming over tomorrow morning to clean the place.  It needs a full cleaning.  Its not digusting, but its very dusty the the floors are a little grimy from all the construction.  I’m not complaining though – it is 1000% better than the old apartment.  We won’t have internet regularly for about a month though.  We’re buying a little thing that you plug in and can get wifi or something, but we can only use it a few times a week.  So I’ll be around, just not as much.

Its been a very productive few weeks for my “job” at House of the Arts.  I have been working with the youth choir for an upcoming production at one of the big malls.  They will be performing tomorrow night!  We won’t be doing much, but a few of the things we’re doing are pretty neat.  And…  I’ll be teaching 2 drama classes every Wednesday.  The group that was coming from Dubai every week didn’t want to do it anymore, so they asked me to do it.  I got thrown in the two classes today on short notice.  The first class is a small group of 4 to 7 year olds.  The second is a larger group of 8 to 12 year olds.  I basically just did some intro work with them today, some icebreakers and mime stuff.  It was pretty fun.  I’ll be putting together some more lesson plans and hopefully doing some drama performances with the older group around Christmas and the spring.  The House has also hooked me up with a adult drama group here in Al Ain.  I’ll be going to one of their meetings sometimes soon and see what I can do with them.  I don’t want to do TOO much, because my whole reason for coming here was to be able to spend more time with Alanna and Logan.  But I do want to have something to do once a week or so!

I’ll be doing another border run this weekend.  Logan and I once again have to get new visas.  Our friend Brock is going to take us again though so it won’t be much of a hassle.  Hopefully we’ll get our residence visas soon so we won’t have to make another run.

Anyone watching TV over there?  We’ve been downloading episodes from the web.  We’re watching Heroes, which has been ok so far.  I of course am still watching Smallville.  And we’ve both been watching new show Flash Foward.  It seems pretty cool so far.  Oh, our cable TV will be hooked up by Monday I hope.  And with the package I’m getting, I’ll be able to watch some NFL games on Sundays and most of the MLB playoffs!  That is REALLY GOOD NEWS.

I’ll post some pics of the new place soon.  The living room is so huge.  I could put a slip -n- slide in there!

Last week is come and gone and I’m already well into babysitting this week.  Logan takes 1 step forward and 2 steps back every day.  Not literally.  He won’t walk for another 5 months probably.  Oh, he turned 4 months old a few days ago.  There’s another 4 month old baby here in the hotel.  Logan is twice as big as that baby.  He is a monster.  He’s such a cutie though!

I was pretty much sick every day last week.  Not sick sick, just allergy sick.  We finally decided to go the hospital to get checked out.  (They don’t have family practices here, so everyone goes to the hospital)  The hospital experience was, in a word,  nightmare.  Some background  – I am deathly afraid of hospitals.  I always have been.  It started when I was little and only got worse as I got older.  Even if I’m just going to visit someone there I get a little freaked out.  I also think I have that whole “I’m a man and I don’t need to go to the doctor/hospital” thing going on too.  It got much worse at the end of college.  I had kidney stones for the first time, and not knowing what they were, I went to the emergency room and stayed over night for observations.  The next morning they wheeled me down on the bed to get x-rays.  They left me in a hallway outside the x-ray room for 20 minutes.  Beside me in the hall was an old woman on a bed who was screaming in pain and saying she couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to die.  I had to listen to that for 20 minutes.  Still haven’t gotten over it. 

Wow… I rent on a rant there.  Anyway… the hospital.  We get  there and go to the front desk.  We tell them my symptoms and the girl there says we should go see the allergist.  We go up the 2nd floor, check in there, and then wait about 15 minutes.  Not a bad wait time, kind of like in the States.  We go back to a small office room with a doctor and he asks what my symptoms are – sneezing, coughing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, etc.  He looks confused and ask if I have skin problems, because he is a dermatologist and doesn’t deal with my type of allergies.  Well, he tells us to go back to the desk and ask for a general doctor.And of course, the regular doctor can’t see me today.  They tell us to make an appointment, which the earliest was the next afternoon at 5:30.  Being the stubborn man that I am, of course I didn’t go back  the next day.  Fortunately, one of Alanna’s teacher friends had a husband who is a doctor.  He actually stopped by my room, listened to my breathing, ran some tests and told me there was nothing serious to worry about.  So that made me feel better.  The beginning of this week has actually been better.  I’ve had no serious attacks, just lots of coughing.  I can’t wait to get out of the hotel!  We heard we’re getting our keys this week.  I won’t hold my breath.

I watched the season premieres of Smallville, Heroes and watched 2 movies at the cinema in the last week!  I downloaded the TV shows.  Smallville was pretty good, much better than how last season ended.  Heroes was… heroes.  I still think they have too many characters.  Its just confusing following that many plot lines every week.  Zachory Quinto is the man though.   I also saw Inglorious Basterds at the movies.  Very good movie.  I’ve never really enjoyed Tarantino movies.  They’re normally too violent for no reason whatever.  Inglorious Basterds did have some very graphic violence, but it fit in with the movie so it wasn’t too bad.  I hate Brad Pitt.  Its not fair to be THAT good looking and THAT talented.  He was hilarious in the picture.  Saturday night was date night.  We dropped the little man off with a babysitter and again went to the movies.  We saw a romantic comedy – The Ugly Truth.  It was pretty good as well.  It had a good bit of comedy and less sappy stuff so that made me like it more.  It was just nice to have some adult time with my wife.  It was nice just to hold her hand and be on a normal date for a change. 

Did I mention I can’t watch American Football here?  I can sort of find it sometimes on the web, but its small, blurry, skips and is on way too late at night.  Boo.

I also had my first rehearsal with the kids from House of the Arts.  We’re doing a short musical program in October.  I worked with them, throwing in a little drama and some dancing.  It was really fun.  I can’t wait to do more stuff with them this week.

OK, Logan is crying and Alanna is giving me… the look.  Take care, all!  Pics next time!

Forgive me Blog, for I have not posted lately.

This week, under Muslim law, started with my birthday and ended today with the last day of Ramadan.  My 34th birthday was nothing to shake a stick at.  I think as you get older, at least in my case, birthdays are just a reminder

 that you’re one year older.  Nothing really to celebrate in the revelation.  My amazing wife orchestrated a party for me Friday the 10th though.  I had a great time with a lot of new friends.  Sunday, my actual b-day, I don’t think we really did anything, which was fine with me.

The rest of the week was mostly routine, aside from a few bumps in road, both figuratively and literally.  Alanna started her first week of school.  The kids won’t show up until next Wednesday, but she was there with the other teachers.  Basically she’s been sitting in a small pink room doing nothing all week.  Oh well, she gets paid well for it!  Her absence left me in the hotel (still in the hotel, yeah, more on that later) being a stay at home Dad for Logan.  Logan has been pretty good though, so no complaints there.  He is your typical baby – happy, sad, crying, pooping, peeing, screaming, you know, the normal stuff.  It was his father who as been abnormal.  I have allergies, and I’ve had them since my college days.  Until now, they’ve been mostly seasonal or triggered by dust, etc.  Since I’ve been here in the UAE though, they’ve gotten worse.  I wake up almost every morning with watery, itchy eyes, then  proceed to sneeze violently for an hour.  Many of the reactions also bring on shortness of  breath, my chest tightening up, wheezing and coughing.  Don’t freak out though.  I feel ok.  Its not like I need to be rushed to the hospital.  We’ve tried different medications over here, the last round of OTC pills seem to help if I take them every 12 hours.  If I forget, then they wear off and here comes the sneezing frenzy.   This only happens in my hotel room though.  We’ve narrowed it down to maybe the detergent they use of the bed sheets and towels, or maybe something in the A/C unit blowing down on me.  I can’t think of anything else that would trigger it.  So right now its just really an annoying part of my day that I hate dealing with.  Hopefully once we get out of the hotel, the problem will be solved.

Speaking of that… yeah, still in the hotel.  Its nice, but its still a hotel.  We’re crowded into a small room with no real way to cook.  We have a washer/dryer at our apartment for laundry, thankfully, so we are no longer washing her clothes in the sink and bath.  Its not fun living out of a suitcase with only one room.  We keep hearing rumors our family apartments (the ones we wanted to be placed at in the first place) are close to being ready.  So hopefully we’ll be out of here in a few weeks.  Ramadan has really screwed us over  I think.  No one works during this month, so things like… I dunno… finishing apartments so 100s of people can move in don’t get finished.

I shouldn’t complain though.  Overall, I’m still loving my time here and think Al Ain was the exact place I needed to be.

Moving on…

We went to the mall with Alma Joy on Friday night.  We saw that there is a 3rd floor where they are building an

indoor ski slope.  Yeah, you heard that right.  We also saw a sign for a Papa Johns being built in the mall.  We were rather excited but that tidbit of good news.  Alma gets hit on by every guy in Al Ain.  We went into a clothing store and one of the workers there followed her around and flirted with her.  As a last ditch effort to win her affection, he shouted “God Bless America” as we left the store.  I guess thats how you pick up the mamacitas Al Ain.  Don’t think Alma took the bait though.

Oh yeah,  I rented a car.  No more taxis for us.  I’m driving this tiny little 4 cylinder thing that does from 0 to 60 in about a week.  But its better than paying for taxis and trying to explain to them in my very poor Arabic where I want them to take us.  Driving here is a little different from the States.  They have NO CONCEPT OF SAFE DRIVING WHATSOEVER.  People speed like crazy, change quickly across three lanes with no signal, you name it and they do it.  I know they do all this stuff in the States, but trust me when I tell you its a whole new ballgame here.  And worst of all are the round abouts.  Who invented these things?  They are everywhere in the UAE, at every intersection.  Its basically a big circle with three lanes and 4 ways to go.  I’ve gotten the “pattern” down on how to traverse these death traps, but its still something you must do with extreme caution.  Defensive driving is a must here.  All in all though, I’d rather drive in this then be stuck in a 2 hour traffic jam outside of Chicago!

We went to Jabel Hafeet last night, which is the tallest mountain in the country and is located right outside of Al Ain.  The drive up and down were fun.  You know the curvy roads you go up and down when you drive through the NC

 mountain area on I40?   Well these are even crazier.  You take a 15 minute drive up the mountain and the craziest, but still busy, twisted road I have ever seen.  You basically go about 50 feet and make a u-turn and go up, then do the same thing every

50 feet.  Thankfully though the road looks brand new and is well lit.  The view from the top was great.  You could see the whole city of Al Ain lit up 1000s of meters below.  We’ll have to go back in the daytime to see the view as well.  There is also a hotel at the top and magically healing hotsprings at the

bottom.  Last night we just perched at the top and ate some Hardees.  Yeah…  a Hardees picnic.

On our way back to Al Ain we got a little lost.  Alanna is notoriously bad at anything involving directional skills.  I have trouble seeing some roadsigns at night, so combine those two and well we weren’t on the the road that we needed to be.  Thankfully, its a desert at night, so you can look and see off in the distance the bright lights of Al Ain, so we were never truly lost.  Anyway, as we went down the wrong road, I spotted camels off to my left.  They weren’t moving so I had to ask Alanna if they were real.  She confirmed they were.  So I booked it to the next round about (cause there is absolutely no way to go back the other way unless you use one), turned back and stopped the car near where I saw the camels.  This was the desert.  The road was well lit, but there were no cars out here.  We were alone with the camels.  Well except for the two cars who came by twice, racing each other at speeds of over 100mph.  No exaggeration.  I made Alanna come down from the car quickly in case the loonies didn’t see us.  Ok, back to the camels.  When you think of the desert, you think of camels.  At least I do.  And so far in my time here, all I’ve seen are two camels sitting down in the back of a pickup truck.  But last night I saw a a bunch.  They looked like were on a farm.  They were a fenced in area of sand about the size of a football field.  I’m guessing there were about 25 of them.  I walked up to the fence and in a matter of 30 seconds, I had 10 camels lined up along the fence staring at me.  They just walked right up and stood in a long line, leaning their long necks over the fence.  I did my best to pet them gently, but most of them were pretty skittish.  They let me pet their noses a little, but then would pull away.  Alanna was sure I was going to get spit on or something.  Alanna joined me along with Logan after some coaxing.  She even petted one of them too.  There were some black camels too.  Don’t remember ever seeing one of those before.  We took a bunch of pictures.  It was such a neat experience – out in the middle of the desert, not some petting zoo.  We finally got back in the car and after getting a little more lost and arguing about it, we got back to the hotel safe and sound.

I’m just happy we got to see something besides a mall.

Ok, here are some more pics – mountain and camels –

Things have been a little more stressful here in the Middle East as of late.  Our housing is… not quite what we were hoping for.  It just looks like they rushed to get it completed.   Besides it being very dirty, there are electrical problems, drainage problems, mold problems, floor cracking problems, and every other problem.  All the other teachers in the building are having the same problems.  We have banded together to try and get something done about it.   I’ll update that when I know something.

We did buy our appliances and furniture.  The appliances have all been delivered.  We got the basics – fridge, washer/dryer, microwave.  No stove/oven though.  There’s just no room for it in our current kitchen.  We did get a toaster oven that has two burners on top of it though so that will do for now.  The delivery process was a hassle.  None of the guys spoke english, and our new place isn’t exactly on the map yet, so you put those two together and… well there were problems.  I mostly had to just bring the delivery trucks to the hotel, then either let them follow me over to the apartment in a taxi, or like today, actually get into the delivery truck with two guys and ride with them over.  Let me just tell you – riding in the middle of two sweaty, smelly delivery men who don’t speak a lick of english is not a pleasant experience.  But we got it all in there so all is well in that regard.  We also go Logan’s crib in today, but I didn’t want to unpack the bedding because the floors and walls are still dirty.  We’ll still in the hotel until at least Thursday (hoping it gets exended another week) so hopefully we’ll get the place cleaned at least.   Our living room couch and bed won’t be here for a few more weeks (back stock), so we’re gonna have to buy an air mattress and sleep on that for a bit.  At least Logan gets a nice crib.

In other news…

We went to a pizza place with a bunch of teachers.  For my pizza, I had a pepperoni and hotdog pizza.  Yeah, I did.  It was basically just some type of…  hotdog meat cut into circles and put on the pizza.  It was very tasty.

Not sure if any of you southern folks remember, but Hardees used to have Hotdogs when I was little.  Well, the Hardees here have hotdogs.  Not pork of course, but close enough.  They come loaded with mustard, chili and onions.  Once you add ketchup from the packets, its all good. 

We no longer have free internet in the room.  They found out and turned it off.  There is free WiFi in the lobby though so we’re using as long as we’re here.  Once we move in to the apartment, I’m not sure when I’ll be up and online again.

I bought Logan a really cool baseball lamp for his room.  I’m so excited to teach him how to throw…  in a few years. 

Oh…  I forgot to mention about my job interview.   I went to the music school and spoke with the director.  She is very excited and wants to work with me.  She wants me to direct their Christmas musicals (30 minute little shows at nice hotels).  They want to add some drama into the program.  They just sang Christmas songs last year so anything I can do to spruce it up would be great.  I may also teach classes there as well.  I will be paid, not much, but its something.  I’ll only go maybe once a week at the most, and in the afternoon so we don’t need a babysitter.  I’m gonna do some brainstorming about everything meet with the director later on.  So yay.

And finally..  I found out that my name… Rob… means Yogurt in Arabic.  Lovely, huh?

My hair grows pretty fast and was starting to look nappy, so I headed down to the hotel barbershop to see what could be done about it.  A very nice man greeted me at the door and offered me a seat in a chair.  I told him I wanted him to shave my head.  He laughed, of course.  I had discussed this Alanna, so I wasn’t going to get in trouble.  I didn’t want my head to be shaved, just really short, you know… buzz cut or something.  I explained this to him and he understood.  He put on a number 4 guard on his clippers and 5 minutes later I had a buzz cut.  I think it looks fine.  It is definitely not as hot, and much easier to manage.     Once the barber was done, he asked if I’d like shave.  Of course I said yes.  Its a very relaxing, “old school” experience when a barber shaves you.  He used the little lather brush thing ( I need to get one of those) like my Dad used to use, and then shaved me with a straight razor.  He nicked me a few

places here and there, but nothing too bad.  Next came the aftershave.  You know that scene in Home Alone where Macaulay Culkin slaps the aftershave on his face then screams really loud?  Well… I didn’t scream.  But thats what it felt like.  I’m the type of guy who uses the nice, sensitive skin aftershave.  You know… some type of cooling gel or whatnot.  Well, they are old school indeed at this barbershop, which by the way they call saloons here.  No bar at this saloon though.  Anyway, the aftershave felt like pouring alcohol on an open wound.  I did my best to be macho and pretend like I was used to this, but ohhhhh boy did it hurt.  All in all though, it was a good shave and haircut.

 

I sort of applied for a job today.  Alanna brought home some information about a school of the arts.  They teach drama classes to kids on Wednesday evenings.  I figured I’d at least see if I could offer them anything, so I sent in my cover letter and resumes.  Yes, I have 2 resumes.  Actors are weird like that.  They also offer guitar lessons at the school and I might check on that too.  Hopefully that won’t mind me being a southpaw.

Speaking of other hobbies, I’ve checked into skydiving here.  We had thought there was a skydiving place here in Al Ain, but turns out the place is actually based just north of Dubai.  So its probably about 2 hours away.  Not horribly far away if I only go now and then.  Cool thing about this place though is you jump out over the Persian Gulf.  Yeah, jumping out over water sounds awesome!   The place does have a school to get you certified so maybe that’s something I can do!  We’re gonna look into to it for my birthday.

I made use of the hotel fitness center today.  Its very nice.  I worked out for about 30 minutes, which is a good amount for lazy old me.  After the work out, I headed to the steam room.  Weird place.  Most steam rooms I’m familiar with are kind of square and have a couple rows, one over another, to sit on.  This room was small, round, and looked like an escape pod from the Enterprise.  There were 7 seats, white, sort of egg shaped, arranged in a circle against the wall.   I would have taken a picture, but that just seems weird.  Anyway, the experience was the same even if the environment looked different.

Logan does something new everyday.  I love being able to watch him grow.  Tonight at dinner he grabbed a straw (with his left hand!) and swung it around like a sword.  Ok, I may have “helped” him swing it like a sword, but he was holding it tight.  He also grabbed some lettuce from Alanna’s plate a few times.  I never thought watching a baby grab things would be the highlight of my day, but it was by far!

Here are some more pics…

 

 

 

 

I’m glad this week is behind me.  Alanna was gone for 10 hours each day Sun-Thur.  Logan was pretty much exclusively fed by her since he was born, so the bottle was something he didn’t want to take well.  Also, when Logan feeds from Alanna, most of the time he gets sleepy and goes to bed.  Not with the bottle though.  he just dirnks and stays up.  He is getting the hang of the bottle now thankfully, so next week will be much better.  Alanna will be in the SAME TOWN, and she will only be working 3 or 4 hours a day.

We found a great place for groceries and everything else this week.  Its called Carrefour.  Its basically a super walmart, but better.  They have pretty much everything we’ll need furniture wise, including refrigerators, microwaves, TVs, etc.  The only thing they’re missing are couches and beds, but we found those at another store,  not that we bought any of that.  We have no clue when we’ll be moving out of the hotel and into our apartment.   Carrefour has cheap clothes too so I’ll probably stock up there when I need something.  We also found some sliced roast beef and turkey, so I have normal sandwiches this week. 

We had heard/read that there was a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in town.  We’d been looking it when we went out, but had yet to find it.  Thursday night we made it our mission.  It was at one of two places, and we chose the wrong one first.  The taxi driver took us to the second place though and we found it!  Yay.  I was also very happy to learn that the doughnuts tasted just like the ones from back home.  We took a dozen home with us, and by this morning, they were all gone. 

Last night I also tried some geocaching.  For those of you who are unfamiliar – geocaching is a hobby where people hide objects, a small box, even something micro with just a logbook in it.  They hide these things all over the world and attach GPS coodinates to it.  Your job is to find them and leave a note on the log that you have been there.  I just got into it before I left the states.  I found out there are over 200 of them in UAE.  Looking it up yesterday, I found out there was one in the park we went to the other day across from our hotel!  The clues on the website said to go at night because the park is all lit up and looks cool.   So last night, at 12:30, I headed over to the park.   I figured it would be empty.  I’d get in, find the cache, and get out.  I was mistaken.  To my shock, the park was filled with 1000 people.  I’m not kidding.   Adults, kids, everyone was there.  I’m so used to kids going to bed early in the states.  But here, there were hundreds of kids playing on the playgrounds, kicking soccer balls around, all having a great time – at 12:30am.  I guess when its 115 degrees during the day, it make sense to go outside at night.  Its also Ramadan, so I suppose a lot of them were breaking their fasts since it was night time.  So I made it close to the cache area, but there were just too many people around.  I didn’t want to look like some creepy guy lurking in the bushes.  So I left and decided to try another time.  On the way back to the hotel, I stopped by and played with the pack of dogs.  There are 6 of them, none over a year old I’d say.  They were very friendly though and seemed happy to play with me for a bit. 

Today was the first day of the weekend and we… did… nothing.  Which was fine with me.  Alanna has a nice little stomach bug, so she didn’t feel like going out anyway.  And I was more than happy to catch up on some sleep.  Maybe we’ll get out tomorrow!

The weekend was nice, although we didn’t do much.  We visited the Al Ain Mall.  Its just as nice as the one in Abu Dhabi, but this one has a ice skating rink!  Seeing Arabs skating around in robes is quite interesting.  They also have these things for beginning skaters to use.  They look like walkers for old people.  You just push them around as you

 skate and they help you balance.  We took a taxi to and from the mall.  There are two types of taxis here.  One’s with the green signs are unmetered and you try to broker a deal with them.  Then there are the silver ones with yellow signs.  They are metered and much nicer.  Both were close in price so we’ll try to take the nicer silver ones when possible.  If you’re curious – a taxi ride across Al Ain cost about 2 bucks.  I can handle that.

Friday night Alanna had me take a walk to a local shopping area.  It was rumored that it was an “all male” area so the wife was weary of going.  We wanted to try some of the local food so I figured I’d give it a shot after dark.  After verifying where it was with the hotel guys ( one of them is Nigerian and he’s my friend.  I don’t know his name though, but he’s nice and always talks to me) and took off on foot.  It was about a 10 minute walk and at night its very pleasant.  Only thing is,  I was on a mission, so I was walking with a purpose.  Seems like all the Arabs were taking leisurely strolls.  I kept stepping into the street to pass people.  Oh and the taxis kept honking at me.  I guess when they see a white guy like me walking  down the street, they figure I could use a lift.  I kept on going though.  This “all male” shopping area was indeed all male.  I only saw one woman the whole time, and she was a Europeon lady buying some groceries.  Other than her, there were all men.  Its a small strip mall with about 15 or 20 shops.  There were 4 or 5 male only barbershops, 3 or 4 grocery stores (think 7-11, but smaller) and about 5 food type places.  I walked up and down the shops a few times, then made my way inside one of the food shops. 

The shop was skinny but long.  Behind the first counter were three spindle type things that had giant triangular type slabs of meat on them.  They were spinning slowly and being cooked with fire.  The cooks would slice off the meat and

sell it.  They also had a type of Rotisserie grill that was spinning some good looking chicken.  Well, I know how to say two things in Arabic – “Do you speak English?”, and “Thank you.”, and I used them both in the shop.  I asked if anyone spoke english and this nice man stepped forward and said he did.  He then explained me to what my options were.  I got some of the sliced off meat, which they gave me bread wraps for.  I also got one of those whole rotisserie chickens.   I got some hummus and salad as well.  In the states, this would have all cost me over $30 easily.  Here I got it for less than $10.   I took it back to the hotel and Alanna and I both loved the food.  It was very good!

Saturday afternoon Alanna and I onced again braved the heat and ventured out of the hotel.  We went across the street into a beautiful park.  It was so well designed – lots of trees, soft grass, fountains,

 playgrounds.  We were also slightly confused by the bathrooms.  The women’s sign sort of looked like a woman with a black headpiece on and the men’s had one with a white headpiece.  Check out Alanna beside her bathroom!

We walked around the whole park and then headed back. 

Saturday was also the first day of Ramadan.  For those of you who are unlightened, its a month long holy holiday for muslims where they fast from sun up to sun down.  They must also refrain from all kinds of other wordly stuff during daylight hours as well.  Non-muslims, by law, are not allowed to eat or drink outside or basically anywhere in the presence of Muslims during this period either.   You can only eat or drink in private or in special rooms in the hotels.  Pretty much all the food places are closed down anyway, so you have no choice.  Once the sun sets though, everyone starts eating like crazy.  It becomes a fesitval type atmosphere.  We had a big dinner buffet in the hotel.  The spread was excellent.  They also gave us some kind of hot perfume tea.  Was weird but good.  So this is something we’ll have to deal with for the next month.  Ramadan Kareem!

The work week is Sun-Thur here, with Fri and Sat being the weekend.  Which meant Alanna had to work today.  No idea why – but they are busing all the teachers in Al Ain back to Abu Dhabi every day this work week for orientation.  The bus ride there takes about an hour and a half, so Alanna will be gone about 10 hours every day!  So… I was alone with Logan for a looooooong time today.  He hasn’t really mastered the art of bottle feeding quite yet.  So this morning he screamed for about 3 hours straight.  And I meaned screamed.  We tried to bottle 3 or 4 times, but he was once again having nothing of it.  Maybe he’s Muslim and is trying to fast.  Anyway, after a nap and a messy diaper (I think he needed to get that out), he finally took a whole bottle and slurped it all down.  So at least I know he can do it.  It will just take some time and patience to get him to do it without screaming first.  I searched the internet and got a lot of nice tips, so that will help.

Tonight, Alanna and I went back to the mall because the main branch of the bank she will be using is located there.  Because of Ramadan, the bank was open tonight from 9 to 11, as was the rest of the mall.  Some stores, like the baby store we went in, stayed open until 2am.  Crazy.  Alanna thankfully was able to finally get a hold of her furniture alliance money.  We used a little of it to by Logan one of those vibrating rocking chair thingamabobbers.  He seems to like it so far.

We’re back in the hotel now and I’m gearing up for adventures in babysitting – day 2.  Stay tuned.

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.

Tuesday was a rough day for Roberto.  I woke up early that morning with a bad allergic reaction.  I was sneezing non-stop and my eyes were itchy and watery.  This is common for me.  It happens every now and then, so its something that I’m used to occuring from time to time.  I tried to sleep but starting getting a headache.  Alanna gave me some ibuprofen.  That seemed to help and I went back to sleep for awhile.  I woke up later to take care of Logan while Alanna went to some teacher meetings.  As I sat on the hotel bed eating an apple, my lips started to tingle.  I thought that was a little strange.  I finished off the apple and went to the bathroom to take a look at my lips.  To my suprise, my lips were severely swollen.  I had trouble talking to Logan after that, or even whistling.  I felt fine though.  No shortness of breath, etc.  I checked back an hour later – my lips were bigger and there were puffy swollen bags under my eyes.  Alanna called a few times and I lied to her.  She freaks out about stuff like this and I didn’t want

 her to worry.  So I waited for her to get back to the hotel to show her the damage.  The picture here is when Alanna got back.  It really doesn’t do me justice.  It was MUCH worse in person

Alanna came into the room and freaked out a little, then laughed. It was funny after the initial shock.  We both were a little worried though.  We took a quick nap and when we woke up, no real change.  We headed out for dinner, but made a stop by the pharmacy.  The lady there recommended a antihistimine to me.  So we bought that, had some dinner and then went back to the room.  I took the pill and went to bed.  I was still a little swollen this morning when I woke up, but by afternoon I was pretty much back to normal.

Trouble is, we have no idea what could have caused the problem.  All I had that morning to eat was an apple, and my lips were already swelling before that.  I didn’t do anything different, use any different lotion or soap.  Some lady said it could be a bug bite.  Could have been.  I went outside with Logan for a bit that morning to get some fresh air.  Maybe something bit me.   Whatever it was though, there is no permanent damage and everything is back to normal.

In other news, we checked out of hotel today and made the trip to Al Ain, our home town.  We got here in the evening, so I really didn’t get to see much.  I did however see a LOT of big sand dunes on the way though.  This really is the desert.  Al Ain is an oasis though, so it will be pretty nice.  We checked in to ANOTHER 5 Star Hotel, so we’ll being living it up for a while longer.

We’ll  hopefully get out and explore Al Ain tomorrow.  Until then…