Bountiful Holidays

As I sit here in my old room at my parents house in Texas at 5 in the morning (wide awake since it feels like 3 in the afternoon in Dubai), I've decided it's high time I broke the blog silence and wrote at least a little something here! This December will mark my one-year "anniversary" of living in Dubai--can you believe it!?!? It still blows my mind a little bit! It has been such a great year of gaining friends and family and all kinds of amazing experiences that have changed me forever. I can't believe the blessing this time has been!!! In honor of this (and since I've spent the last hour pondering this while trying to go back to sleep since no self-respecting 25-year old gives up on sleep at 4:30am), I'm going to use this blog to share with you some more of the differences I see between Dubai and the US, specifically related to holidays. It's kinda weird this time because when I did a comparison like this last year, everything in the UAE was such a novelty to me--this year it's a bit different since, especially at Christmastime, things in the US seem much more novel!

The first sight that brought a huge smile to my face (other than seeing my family waiting eagerly for me at the airport) was the huge Christmas tree right outside the "Welcome to Houston" airport doors. Dubai, as a Muslim country, does not celebrate Christmas. There are still Christmas trees and various decor items (including nativity scenes!) at most of the big supermarkets, but it's not the same as here where all the malls and almost every store and business establishment is decorated and playing Christmas music.

The next big smile was brought by Christmas lights decorating so many houses!!! I'd forgotten I'd even missed those! In Dubai, there are two cultures that I can think of right now who display lights on their homes--Indians and Arabs. The Indians (especially Hindus) celebrated Diwali, or the Festival of Lights, around mid-October and I don't remember how long it lasted, but it seemed like maybe a month or so! At any rate, the big supermarkets had a lot of Diwali foods and decorations out at that time also, and you would see mulit-colored lights displayed in windows or on apartment balcony/porches. It was fun to see! The Arabs, on the other hand, will deck out their houses in hundreds of strands of white lights for weddings. This is really a fun sight to see as it will just be one random house in a neighborhood that is glowing from all the lights draped all over their house and swooping from their rooftop to the villa wall (not really sure how they sleep)! These lights stay up for about a week and add to the festivity of the whole event (I don't know if that's the real reason they're up or not, but they're definitely beautiful and fun!).

One of the cool things about living in a different country is that you get to celebrate (or at least experience) their holidays--one of the cool things about living in Dubai is that you get to celebrate (or at least experience) the holidays of a LOT of cultures!!! I've already mentioned Diwali, which obviously isn't a UAE-observed holiday*, but it is on the list of interesting experiences. Two of the big UAE holidays that have happened this fall are Eid (a Muslim holiday) and National Day (a UAE holiday). Eid was at the beginning of November this year (Muslims follow the lunar calendar so the date changes some each year). This holiday commemorates Abraham offering his son Ishmael as a sacrifice to God out of obedience to Him (yes, this differs from the Biblical account in one major detail). This was still a very fun holiday for us as many of the labor workers had off that day and we had a barbecue and various other fun things going on that day (sorta like a Labor Day party in the States). National Day (or UAE Day), on December 2, was also quite festive, not so much for us, but it's always fun to see how other people celebrate! This year was even more fun since it marked 40 years of the UAE being a nation! Villas were draped with ginormous UAE flags; cars were decked out with pictures of the sheiks and smaller flags; the fire department on the main road had a huge flag-banner hung up for 2 weeks; large buildings had flag-lights displayed at nighttime; red, green, black and white could be seen EVERYWHERE!!! People started putting up decorations a week or so ahead of time and a few houses still had their flags up when I left a couple days ago! During the days surrounding UAE Day the residential streets were littered with confetti and streamers. Congrats, UAE!!!

Okay, well, that's all the comparisons I think I'll make right now. I'm sure there are other holidays that I'm missing including here (3 doesn't seem like very many), but it's now 6am and I can hear my mom stirring about the house, so I guess I'll get started on my day here (plus then I'll be able to make "up at the crack of noon" jokes on my sisters when they get up in an hour--and before you feel bad for them, just know that I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually gotten up before them in the past 10 years).

Merry Christmas!!!


*I guess I would be remiss in my account if I didn't mention my favorite holiday--Thanksgiving. This is another non-UAE-observed holiday, which was kinda weird for us Americans. The kids that I work with all go to American schools which were closed that day, so they didn't have to skip school, but for all non-Americans, it was just a normal workday! Turkeys were available in some stores as were cranberries and cranberry sauce and some other traditional Thanksgiving foods, but there were no big signs or decorations up for this holiday.

Bountiful Re-Beginnings!

Alrighty, I'm back in Dubai now. I've been back for about 3 weeks now, which has been enough time to get unpacked, settled, and curious about why jet lag seems to just now be hitting! It's been a very busy and fun three weeks--car shopping, grocery shopping, getting personal touches put up in the apartment (that will be an on-going project, I'm sure), and getting re-familiarized with life in a foreign country. It's been a much smoother transition this time--which isn't really much of a surprise--and I definitely feel like I've gone from living with family in the States to living with another branch of my family in Dubai! I'm excited to report that grocery shopping has been no big deal, although I could tell that the "Americans" have been gone for a while when I went to our little neighborhood grocery stor. I'm pretty sure they stock items a few at a time and then re-stock more based on demand (i.e. They stock six cans of Dr. Pepper and if they're all gone by the end of the week--or the same day, if Katy happens to stop in that day--then they stock 12, etc.). Well, there was no Dr. Pepper and only a very limited range of the juices we typically get...hmm, oh well.

Now, I'm not too sure how I'm going to top that riveting opener <eye roll>, but let's see if I can come up with something.... Hmm...car shopping, perhaps.... There is a website here called Dubizzle (it's like the Craigslist or Southeast Texas Classifieds websites back in the US) where people can post items for sale, or even ads requesting certain items, and it's where most people I know here look for cars (and appliances and big furniture, etc.). Well, being true to the stereotype of my gender, and having no previous experience in car shopping, I was not at all looking forward to buying a car...my main questions (in order of importance) were: "Does it have A/C?", "Does it have a working sound system?", and "Does it make weird sounds?"..."Oh, and it IS automatic right?"...and "How much does it cost again?" (I am fairly certain that my dad has now rolled his eyes 4.5 times while reading this). All that to say, I wasn't feeling very qualified to wade through the hundreds of cars within my price range on Dubizzle, especially since there aren't always the most truthful descriptions listed (i.e. One car was described as having "no history of accidents, very few scratches or flaws" and the pictures showed huge scrapes and dents on the bumper...with the front bumper looking like a few good speed bumps might give it a whole new feeling of independence...yeesh!), then pick a few hopefuls, contact the owners (who may or may not be easy to communicate with), set up a meeting (hopefully in an easy-to-locate/easy-to-access area), test drive, pray they're being truthful about the history of the car, and continue from there! Well, God blessed this whole situation! We had a friend/acquaintance who was selling a few cars and had one come in that was just PERFECT for me...a 2001 Daihatsu YRV with a working A/C, within my price range, and with very few weird sounds (all were explainable and no big deal)...the tape deck is broken, so I'm out of luck with an iPod/tape adapter...but the radio works, so I get to choose between an English station I don't like, two Arabic stations I can't understand, and a classical station which is in the lead for favorite at the moment.... :) I also made a great discovery a few days ago...the owner's manual (separate English and Arabic editions)!!! I found out all sorts of fun things...like how to get the back seat to lay down flat (the Japanese engineer things a little differently than Americans)!

I know from the picture, the car looks blue, but one of the big selling points for Evan was that it looked purple when we went to see it at night. I think it's earned a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde-type name...Blueberry (by day)-Purple-People-Eater (by night).... Anyways, this little BPPE (Beepy) is super fun to drive and I can tell we're going to have quite the fun little adventures together! Our first road-trip was this past weekend (a 2-hour drive to Al Ain and back), and she did great! Unfortunately, she's living up to her name a little better than I'd hoped. The speedometers in almost all cars in this area are fitted with a beeper that goes off when you hit 120 km/h (that's the maximum speed limit for the most part)--very similar to the dinger that goes off when you've got about 5 miles left before you run out of gas (I've panicked in traffic more than once and started looking around wildly for a petrol station thanks to that particular little idiosyncrasy before realizing I was just being notified of my speed). Anyways, most of the cars I've ridden in here only beep about 10 times (maximum) and then they just give up and leave you to travel at your chosen speed in peace...not so with Beepy!!! The durn car beeps CONSTANTLY if you're going over 120 km/h!!! My typical fix for this issue is obvious...turn up the radio! BUT...classical music just don't cover many annoying sounds like that (by now, I'm sure my mom has rolled her eyes 2.75 times...at least!...and only 1 was because of the grammatical error). Anyways, it should come as a great comfort to you all that I will be traveling the speed limit (or slightly under) at all times now...thanks to Beepy and her annoying glitch...er...extensive attention to cautious driving.... :) (I suppose this is all very good evidence that my parents are really great prayer warriors!)

In other exciting news, I now have my resident's visa (no more monthly trips to Oman...yay!!!) and my UAE driver's license!!! I feel so official now!!! :) I might be persuaded to devote a blog entry to that "little" process if enough people are interested...although in all fairness I was hugely blessed to have an "employer" (Kevin) who very graciously shielded me from most of the rigors and frustrations of the process.

I guess that's enough random tid-bits for now. I'm not sure if it's at all obvious, but I'm thrilled to be back--from the people to the food and sights and sounds (and even a few of the smells)--I've missed life in this busy city and am thoroughly looking forward to the experiences to be shared, memories to be made, and life-change that will occur in the next nine months!

Bountiful Hiking

Hello there. Sorry I've been absent for a week or so now. I've been out having more adventures to tell you about. As you'll recall, the last post was about my intense longing for some storms...some storms with moisture, but alas, there are few to be had. However! Jerri K and I were able to experience the next best thing earlier this week. We took a two-and-a-half day mini-cation to Al Ain, the "oasis" of the UAE, to visit some "relatives" of mine. Jeff and Treva are my dad's cousin's wife's uncle and aunt (so calling them relatives might be a stretch, but they're the closest relations I have on this side of the world, so I'm sticking with it!). I'd been pretty sick for the whole week before we went to visit, so Treva did a great job of cooking some "mom food" and mothering me a lot! We had several little adventures while we were there, including hiking, visiting an old souk, driving around, and going to a BEAUTIFUL garden...twice!
First a bit of background. Al Ain is the fourth largest city in the UAE and is located in the Abu Dhabi emirate*. Dubai is the largest city in the UAE, so in comparison, Al Ain has less of a "big city" feel and is much, much greener. Al Ain is the home of Jebel Hafeet, the tallest mountain peak in the UAE (1,249 meters, 4,068 feet), where we spent the night after my first full day in the UAE (in other words, it's a memory I only recall in small patches thanks to jet lag!). During this visit to Al Ain, we did not actually go up on the mountain, but instead explored a wadi (dried up creek bed) at the base of Jebel Hafeet. It was particularly interesting because Treva knows plants really well and Jeff knows rocks really well, so we had our own personal tour guides! Both Jerri K and I being the "country girls" that we are (and me being a "biologist" of sorts ;), we were thrilled to get to finally see nature up close, to walk around somewhere that wasn't a mall--somewhere where you had to watch your footing because the rocks were loose, not because you might run into another person;

 

(Jeff leap-frogged with us a bit...I think he got tired of our slow pace)

somewhere where you looked up and admired God's creation, not window displays;

(we found calcite veins in the rocks all over the place...and found lots of calcite crystals as souvenirs!)

somewhere where the bits of green stood out against the dusty rocks, not blending in with the other flashy colors;

(Sodom's apple, Calotropis procera)

somewhere where a closer look revealed little treasures (gems, minerals, fossils, flower buds, bird nests), not an exorbitant price tag;

(another calcite vein, and Treva and Jerri K taking a break; and no human painted this rock on the right)

(Sand dollar and some other shellfish fossil...I think)

(bird nest in a rock crevice)

somewhere where you could feel small and insignificant, but know that it had nothing to do with your culture or the number of dirhams in your wallet.

(same rock in both pictures)

(peek-a-boo!)

(Obviously, I'm a fan of this place...not that I dislike malls tremendously, this was just a VERY welcome break from city life!) We probably hiked for an hour and a half to two hours, stopping frequently to admire plants and rocks and take plenty of pictures. We hiked along the wadi (I have no idea how far) down to it's "origin" at a dry waterfall (pictured below...pretty neato)!

Once we were finished hiking, we stopped off at a falaj (part of an irrigation system; I think that's what it was) to soak our feet for a bit. The water was coming straight from its source in the earth and was surprisingly warm. (The green stuff in the picture is algae growing along the falaj walls.)

*The United Arab Emirates is composed of seven emirates (political territories): Abu Dhabi (the capital and largest emirate),  Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, and Umm al-Quwain. 

Bountiful Sandstorms

One of the things that I've missed the most since I have been here (you know...other than the obvious things like friends and family and sonic) is thunderstorms...and rain in general I suppose...but I really miss thunderstorms. We've had one week of rain since I got here (the kind of rain that actually forms a few puddles that last more than five minutes), including one or two "torrential downpours" (the kind of downpour that we would actually call a pretty good rain back home), and then a few other random spurts of "sprinkles" (the kind of sprinkles that leave just enough proof in the dust caked on car windows to keep people from thinking you've been smoking "too much shisha*" and are telling crazy stories...I'm not kidding...about 15 minutes passed from the first few tiny drops until all signs of moisture had completely evaporated!!!) Also, the closest thing we have to thunder over here is the occasional round of fireworks that someone sets off near one of the big buildings in town (hmm...that was a very southern country-girl way to word that...too tired to "citify" it, though...), or when the dump trucks rumble past our house. :( 

So that's the rain/thunderstorm situation. For any of you who have lived anywhere in east Texas (which is where I've been for the past five and a half years), you know how much rain falls there...we get a good storm about every week or two (on average)...sometimes a whole week of storms!!!...and I dearly love storms. We are not, however, completely without storms on this side of the world. In east Texas, there is an abundance of moisture (therefore, we have rainstorms); in Dubai...there is an abundance of sand...so we have sandstorms! Since I have been here, there have been several standstorms...a few of them lasting a couple of days. Usually they bring in cooler weather with them, although one of them blew in on some very hot winds (that was dismal!). 

The closest thing I can relate a sandstorm to (at least with what I have experienced in the states), is probably a pretty thick fog. However, instead of your hair curling as soon as you step into the drenched air...you feel like you've been standing too close to the fire for a few months in the winter (that is, the air sucks the moisture right out of you! or at least that's what it feels like). Just like a thick fog, though, sandstorms create an atmosphere of solitude...landmarks are blocked out, even neighbors houses down the road are barely perceivable. (Please note: the pictures really don't do it justice.)

View of the front gate from inside the villa wall...sandy sky on the top, clear sky on the bottom.

View from our "apartment"...sandy sky on the top, clear sky on the bottom.

The wind is usually very gusty during sandstorms (which I do like), but it blows the sand EVERYWHERE (go figure...)! During my first ever sandstorm (before the sand had really taken over the sky), I had the windows open to let in the lovely wind and glorious cool air, but I kept noticing that dust was building up on things a lot faster than usual. When I went outside a while later I realized we couldn't see any of our usual skyscraper landmarks!!! Holy cow! During our second lengthy sandstorm, I really should have known better, but the cool air was just a little too tempting, so after a few hours of having the window open, our kitchen countertop yielded a pile of sand comparable to the pile on the floor! Sheesh! The most amazing sandstorm, in my opinion, was the one that blew in SUPER fast (in February I think), and we were sitting outside and got to see it coming! It looked like a couple of the skyscrapers near us were on fire with smoke billowing out the top (it was just sand blowing off their roofs!)...about the time the wind hit us (blowing things off the outside tables where we were eating), we realized what was going on...kinda. I thought it was a rain storm and got REALLY excited. Only after things had died down a bit and we drove home did I realize that there was no hint of moisture anywhere. Then when we got home and I found little piles of sand on our porch and blown in under the door did reality fully sink in. Fortunately, we haven't had any other storms blow in with quite that much vehemence!

View of our front porch...post-sandstorm on the top, freshly swept on the bottom.

 

View of back steps...post-sandstorm on the left, freshly swept on the right.

So there you have it...the storms of the desert...not as near and dear to my heart as the Texas storms I grew up with...but still quite impressive in their own right! :)

*Shisha--refers to fruit-flavored tobacco smoked in a hookah and very common here in the UAE. Please note that this is a joking reference...I have not, nor do I intend to ever try shisha. 

Bountiful Baking

Well, today was my roommate, Jerri K's, 25th birthday. To help her celebrate, I decided to make a home-made (from scratch) red velvet cake with buttercream icing (a Gifford family birthday tradition). It is this endeavor which provided the inspiration for today's blog....

I have determined that it is very, very difficult to appreciate cooking in one's native country until one attempts to cook in a non-native country! That being said, I would also like to make the disclaimer that I do realize how very fortunate I am to be in a country that hosts so many different cultures--I am sure it is EXPONENTIALLY easier to find American staples here than it would be in many places, so please do not consider any of this a complaint...just a comparison of what I've been accustomed to with what I'm growing accustomed to!

I'm sure that I have already mentioned that grocery shopping here is always an adventure because you never know what you will find (if I haven't mentioned it, my apologies...grocery shopping here is always an adventure because you never know what you will find...there, now you know*.)! Also, you never know what kinds of products you will find at the different stores...even stores in the same chain may not (and probably don't) carry all the same things. It is always somewhat of a gamble trying to find specific things that may or may not be "uncommon" items. Root beer is an excellent example of this! Jerri K once went to 3 or 4 different grocery stores looking for it, and we ended up finding at a small corner grocery store--she hopped out of the car at the red light to run into the store and get some (then walked down the street half a block to where we were rendezvousing with some friends). Anyways, I digress....

The point is that I was a bit concerned about finding all the ingredients for the cake...flour, sugar, baking soda, milk, eggs, salt...these are all easy to come by (although the sugar granules are HUGE!)...cocoa powder wasn't a problem (yay!), vanilla I had found at another grocery store a few weeks ago, stick butter we had (although the "sticks" are shaped differently than they are in America...more like blocks) which was good, because I couldn't find it today (probably wasn't looking in the right place, the organization in this store [Carrefour...one of the three grocery stores we frequent...and my least favorite by far!] makes very little sense to me), vinegar** and Crisco I had borrowed from Brooke (no idea where she got those from!), and I finally gave up on buttermilk and opted to make my own substitute (milk plus lemon juice or white vinegar). 

So, by the time I had all the ingredients together, the most difficult part was over...I could turn my music on in the kitchen and bake my merry little heart out...it was GLORIOUS!...until I actually went to bake the cakes...two 9-inch cake pans will not both fit into our oven...sigh. I ended up baking one in our oven and the other in Brooke's oven (yes, I do realize that I could have baked them one at a time, but I wasn't really prepared to devote that kind of time to this project...even though that's about what ended up happening!). Our oven also does not come with a temperature regulator...so it's really a bit of trial and error to bake anything in it. The cake in Brooke's oven (temperature regulated) turned out picture perfect...the cake in our oven...well...it tasted good, but was rather tough and dark on the bottom (like cake jerky!). However, this is not a sad story...the four-layer cake very quickly became a three-layer cake with artistic cake crumbles placed on the sides to decorate the icing! The extra icing was combined with some more red food coloring and used to decorate the top of the cake!

I'm happy to report that the cake was a success (Alex was kind enough to find some candles for us in the "gift drawer")--it was happily complemented by some Blue Bell ice cream (Jerri K is a HUGE fan and Carrefour had several flavors to choose from...including two of her favorites: Strawberry and Mint Chocolate Chip!)--and the birthday was a good one!

*So, for any of you reading these blogs, you will likely have noticed that I'm rather easily side-tracked and extremely fond of including all my asides in the narrative, however, I decided this particular side-track was just a bit too long to include above (but was, of course, certain I would forget it if I did not include it here...so here it is!)...a few examples of the "randomness" one can find at the local grocery (and by "randomness", I, of course, mean "strange things to find in America, normal things to find not in America")....

Found these a month or so ago..."Lamb Franks"...I have not yet worked up the courage to try these...don't know if I ever will...I'm just now deciding that I like lamb shawarmas and lamb kebabs...lamb franks is a bit of a stretch, I think....

Today's discovery..."Coffee Whitener"...right next to all the coffee creamers. I'm a tad curious if this actually does anything to the flavor or truly just changes the shade of the coffee. On my list of things to try someday....

**Semi-funny story: Brooke found the apple cider vinegar for me in her pantry, no problem. She then proceeded to offer me the other types of vinegar she had on hand...malt vinegar and fig vinegar. When I went back later to see if she had some white vinegar (so I could make the buttermilk), she didn't have any...! The moral of the story? You know you live in a foreign country when you can find FIG vinegar in the pantry, but not white vinegar!!!

Bountiful Surprises (2nd edition)

My apologies for not staying more consistent with these blogs. Thank you all so much for your positive feedback. Once again, I've been very busy the past few weeks...which means I now have plenty more to blog about (still struggling a bit to find sufficient time...I apologize in advance if this is not tremendously coherent). 

Alright...to properly explain my latest excuse for busy-ness, I must transport you back in time to last Thursday evening (March 3rd). Brooke had asked us (Jerri K and I) if we would accompany her to the airport to pick up a person as a favor for a friend. She sounded a bit reluctant to do it, and explained that it would just be really nice to not have to do it alone. I thought this a little strange since the person she was picking up was a female and Brooke was going to be taking her daughters with her (and she doesn't usually have much problem chatting with people she doesn't really know), but flexibility is key here (and we were getting dinner out of the deal... :) ...yeah, I'm still in college student mode!). Anyways, as we were driving to the airport, the girl called Brooke to let us know that her plane had landed and she would be sitting in the lobby waiting for us. Brooke told the girl that she was going to send two young ladies in to collect her and gave her Jerri K's description so she would know who to look for. When we got to the airport, Jerri K and I hopped out of the car and went in to look for this girl...only then realizing that we had no idea who to look for...good grief. 

I wish now that I would have had my camera with me to take a picture of what we found in that lobby.... We had looked through one mostly empty seating area and moved on to the next when I saw (from the side) a young lady sitting towards the front staring at the lobby doors. From her body language, I thought she could very well be our fare...then as we walked a little closer I realized that she looked very similar to our good friend Filicia from Beaumont...she actually looked a LOT like Filicia...enough to actually be Filicia...what were the odds?!?!? Sure enough, about that time, she turned and saw us and had just enough time to smile and stomp her foot that we had "snuck up" on her before Jerri K was squeezing her tight and repeatedly touching her face to be sure she was really there!!! A few tears were shed...a few more threatened...and after about 5 minutes of hugging and pinching and face-touching, we determined that we did indeed have a huge blessing standing in front of us...one we would enjoy for an entire week! :)

When we finally escorted her out to the car, Brooke was absolutely beaming and when I turned to the little girls (Bella and Alex) in the back seat to explain who this "new girl" was, they were both mirroring their mother's face...they'd been in on it, too!!! (At least for a few hours!!!). I found out later that day that Leslie and the boys (and I'm sure John, too) had known about it for several days as well!!! We live with a bunch of REALLY good secret-keepers!!! I couldn't believe it! (I'm definitely going to be the weak link around here next Christmas...I can tell already!)

Anyways, we had a wonderful week with Ms. Filicia...she was such a huge encouragement to us both (and we did lots of "touristy" things with her...so those will be some of the blog subjects later this week, hopefully).

Here's a picture of Jerri K and Filicia with one of our new friends in Dubai...this was taken at Safa Park (one of the greenest places I've seen in Dubai) and shows a lovely portion of the Dubai skyline (that's the Burj Khalifa on the far left...the tallest building in the world!...and we went up to the 124th floor!!!...but more about that later....)

P.S. I told you I'd keep you updated on interesting drinks/foods I've tried...I've discovered some relatively inexpensive juices that I've been experimenting with. So far...Strawberry is good, Mango is good, (strawberry and mango mixed is good), Orange Carrot juice is good (as in, the fruit orange, not the color), Guava juice is not so good (unless it's mixed with the orange carrot and some lemonade...then it's not too bad...just adds some texture to the drink!). Also, the Fruit punch I tried was pretty good...but Mango and Strawberry (and of course, Red Orange) are my favorites. :)

Bountiful Festivities

Wowee! Friday was such a great day filled with so many fun times!!! After going to church in the morning, we headed out to the beach for some fun times with a group of men that several of our teammates have been working with in the camps. (You can see some of the crowd in the reflection of these pretty awesome sunglasses I found in one of the old souks* a couple of weeks ago!)

We spent several hours on the beach looking for shells, crabs, and whatever other fun things we could find (several of the pictures below are of us trying to re-locate and catch a crab...but it eluded us...lucky crab!). Some of the guys went swimming, many of them learned how to throw an American football...and a few even got to experience flying a kite for the first time (SO FUN!!!!)! Our festivities included a picnic lunch of chicken biryani (yum!) and some home-made chocolate chip cookies (yum, yum! Thanks, Leslie!) It was such a great time of fellowship and fun! 

I suppose some of you may be wondering about our odd beach attire...the men from the camps come from a culture where women should have their rear ends covered by their shirts (hence, the kurtas we are wearing...the long Indian blouses), wear long pants (I was told not to wear capris, or "short pants", or they would "talk about me"...whatever that means :/ ...still, I didn't hear anyone "talking about me" with my pants rolled up like this...), and cover their heads whenever someone prays (hence, the scarves...well...mine is called a pashmina, Jerri K's is called a dupatta...her's came with her kurta and was MUCH lighter weight than mine).
After a bit of down time in the afternoon (our friend Vivek re-strung Jerri K's guitar and then serenaded us on Jonathan's guitar for a while...it was lovely), we went with Brooke and the girls to the International Food Festival at the girls' school. I know, I know...again with the food...but it was pretty fun! There were booths set up from over 20 (probably over 30) countries and they were serving foods from their respective countries. Unfortunately, I was still a bit full from the biryani at lunch and wasn't feeling particularly adventurous, so aside from sampling sweets from many of the countries and a few other things that I was already kind of familiar with, I didn't eat much. I did get pretty excited when we got to the United States and the Mexico booths...I totally recognized hot dogs and tacos!!! :) I even recognized several dishes from the Lebanon (shawarmas) and India booths (samosa: kind of like triangular egg rolls, but stuffed with potatoes and peas and various other things). Canada had an interesting treat that I sampled several times...maple syrup poured over ice (you should try it sometime...just don't get too much syrup)!
There was also a platform set up towards the center of the area where the various countries were show-casing some traditional dances of their countries! Ethiopia's dance was amazing...I don't know how in the world God could make both people who can move like that (enchanting) and people who move like me (painful). The UAE dance was a bit more my speed, but it was only men doing it...they lined up and just kinda bobbed their heads in rhythm with the music and they had these sticks that they would wave around in unison (still rhythmically)...there were one or two guys in front of the line of other dancers who would spin around periodically and looked like they were a little more into it. It was a tremendously fun time!!! The India booth had a lady there doing henna "tattoos" for free, so I got one on the palm of my hand (see below). We'll see how long it lasts; shouldn't be much more than a week or two, and then we've met a friend at church who loves to do henna designs and is desperate for more hands to practice on (her mom has designs covering more designs on her hands!) so I think Jerri K and I are going to offer our limbs as blank canvases soon! 

So now you know some of the fun things we do on our "days off" (this is the first time we've ever done this sort of thing...but hopefully it won't be the last!).

*A "souk" (also spelled souq) is a market within the city--there are several souks within Dubai, but I haven't been to many of them...in fact, I think I've only been to this one...but I still have some time left! :) Fortunately (for most people...unfortunately for me), this is one of the places where you can talk the merchants down on the prices...which means you can get good deals...I'm just really horrible at it...so I usually get whatever friend is with me to talk them down for me...sigh....

Bountiful Hydration!

Disclaimer: this is another food blog...kind-of...it's technically about beverages, so maybe that doesn't quite fit into the food category. I'll let you decide.

So, I'm hoping most of you have now located Dubai on a map, or at least have some idea of what part of the world it's found in (if not, go to Google maps right now and look up the Arabian Peninsula). You should then realize that we are located in a desert and therefore water and other means of hydration are VERY important! This fact is the inspiration of today's blog.

No, not all the labels are in Arabic, I just took the picture this way so it would look more impressive. Most things have either only English labels (with a Arabic ingredients label put on that English section) or an Arabic and an English side...at least for the product name (the ingredients may or may not have English listed).

Bottled water is very inexpensive here (which is good), and a standard piece of household furniture is the water cooler (just like a fridge and stove would be in the states). Milk is a bit more expensive than in the states, but it's good stuff (and no, it's not camel's milk either*). I've also discovered tons of different flavors of fruit juices here--the one pictured is red orange juice, but I've also tried out this fruit punch juice that has lemon and grape juice added (it's no Minute Maid juice, but it is interesting). I think there is still a pomegranate juice, mango juice, and a few other fruit juices that I have yet to try out. I'll keep you posted on any that are particularly note-worthy (I'm fairly sure that I'm just very uneducated in the juice section of American grocery stores and that most of these flavors can be found in the states).

I am very sad to report that I have yet to find a Dr. Pepper or Dr. Pepper substitute in this area (if you're a Coke/Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi fan, though, Dubai would suit you just fine! Hmm...root beer's kinda hard to come by, too...sorry Mom). Fortunately, I like the flavor of orange just as much as I like the color...and orange Fanta and Miranda (another orange-flavored soda) are very popular here. 

I've also discovered several other tasty beverage treats...there are the smoothies at the Phillips' favorite shawarma place--I've only tried one so far, but we go there every couple of weeks, so I'm looking forward to trying more of them (there are probably 20 different standard flavors to choose from...then there are tons more you can invent for yourself!). The smoothies are a bit more yogurt-y here than I remember them being in the states (I'm not just a huge smoothie buff, though, so take that into consideration whilst reading this!). Another place that Jerri K and I have fallen in love with is Caribou Coffee. It's a chain coffee shop, so I'm guessing there are probably some in America as well, but none that I've ever seen.
Let me tell you something about Caribou Coffee...if more people knew about this place, Starbucks would be going out of business! I realize those are probably fighting words to many of my friends...but I won't be taking anything outside with anyone until they've tried some of this stuff...it's AMAZING!!! They put real crushed up chocolate bars in their coffee...(AMAZING)...we're talking Snickers or Andes mints or your choice of milk, dark, or white chocolate...(hold on while I look in my thesaurus for synonyms of "amazing".........hmm...couldn't find just one that I liked...try these on for size....breathtaking, awesome, awe-inspiring, sensational, remarkable, spectacular, stupendous, phenomenal, extraodinary, incredible, unbelievable, mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, wondrous). So, in summary, I really like Caribou Coffee (it's cheaper than Starbucks, too!). 
One fun fact about Dubai (and probably many more of the Arab countries) is that there are essentially no alcoholic beverages served anywhere. Most of the hotels have a special license that allow them to have alcohol in the rooms, but the average person out and about dining wherever can peruse the menu to their hearts content without having to watch out for an alcohol section. I'm a fan of that, although I'm sure it's a bummer for many people.
A bummer for me is that there are no Sonics here (there are also no Chick-fil-a's...but that is a woe I'll save for another day...P.S. Mom, you can consider this my "first meal back in the States" request). My college friends will probably relate to this better than many of my Victoria friends, but I am (or rather, was) a bit of a Sonic junkie...especially with their half-price "happy hour" drinks. It's been kinda tough for Jerri K and I, but never fear...we shall survive this! ;) I did find some frozen Fanta at the movie theaters that's a pretty close substitute for an orange Sonic slush (technically it's more like an Icee, but it does the job)...so I get one of those when we go to our monthly movie.

So now you know more that you probably ever wanted to about what beverages I'm consuming over here...now that that's accomplished, I think I'll go drink some San Antonio blend coffee from home (and stay awake all night)! :)

*I've been informed that camel's milk chocolate is REALLY, REALLY good...I'll let you know my thoughts when I finally get to try some. :)




And seriously...chocolate and coffee are pretty much the two most tasty things you can consume...so chocolate IN coffee...brilliant! Way to go Caribou....

Bountiful Promises

Today's blog is a bit of a back-track in time, but I just found this picture in my archives and figured it would make for a nice story...I don't even think my family has heard all of this one!

This picture was taken from my plane window in Houston back on December 29, 2010. There was a lot of rain in Houston that day, which delayed my flight for about two hours (most of it after we had boarded the plane). Anyways, after sitting there quite bored for 45 minutes or so and having the pilot make 3 or 4 announcements that it shouldn't be too much longer, the clouds finally started to clear and ground activity started to pick up some more. I looked out my window (I had the window seat) and was greeted with this view...a gorgeous double-rainbow! What a way to start off a long-term trip overseas!
It was obvious throughout my travel over here that I was well Provided for. About 30 minutes into our on-the-ground waiting time, the guy at the end of my row (the only other person in my three-seat row) moved to the other side of the plane to sit with his buddies, so for the first 10 hour flight, I had three seats all to myself! I was sitting towards the back of the plane, which was soon designated the "child section", so there were about three or four babies (2 and younger) and several kiddos below 10 flying in the eight rows behind me with their poor parents. Fortunately, I like kids and I'm a heavy sleeper, so the uncomfortable plane seats kept me from sleeping more than the fussy babies did. I only hope and pray that if I ever fly with small children someday, the other passengers will do their best to be understanding and not make me feel any worse about the out-of-my-control situation than I already will at that point (especially since I know very well not one of those parents got even close to the amount of sleep I did)!
I was supposed to have a 5-hour layover in London (Heathrow), but since my first flight left late and it took a long time to de-plane, my wait was more like two hours! I  made it through security again just fine and had time to wash my face, brush my teeth, re-apply deoderant (etc....you know...start feeling like a real human being again), and email home letting them know I'd made it that far just fine.
My second flight was packed full! I again had the window seat, but sat next to a young lady from Poland, and had our row finished off with a good Southern man from South Carolina. The man was passing through Dubai (not even leaving the airport) on his way to another middle eastern country for a business trip. The girl from Poland was moving to Dubai for six months to work as a belly-dancer! We all talked for a little while about our lives, but then spent most of the flight watching our own movies, etc. The girl and I ended up waiting in line together to get our passports stamped, but I think we were both too nervous and tired to talk a whole lot (I'm still kicking myself for not getting her name and mobile* number). She ended up having to go back downstairs to get her work visa stamped, but since I had people waiting for me outside I couldn't stay and wait with her :(.
I got through customs just fine, wrangled my three big shipping totes onto a cart, walked down the hallway like a scared little kitten, through the doors, spotted a beaming familiar face in the crowd of people outside and had just enough time to see a brightly painted sign with my name on it being displayed by little miss Evan before I was enveloped in a huge Jerri K hug! The rest of the trip home was a bit of a blur--I do know Kevin got my trunks all out to the vehicle and loaded up for me, Evan talked a lot about Justin Bieber (her celebrity heart-throb), and Jerri K smiled a lot and kept looking at me like I might vanish into thin air :)! Then, we were driving through the city...tons of bright lights (it was a bit after midnight on December 30th--so, technically early December 31st...Dubai is 10 hours ahead of Texas), and lots of tall buildings and "spaghetti" (overpasses). Then we were home...got my trunks brought in and sat and talked with Jerri K until 3 in the morning! I unpacked just enough for the night and slept like a baby until 10 or so the next morning! It was lovely.

*Everyone calls cell phones "mobiles" (long "i" sound) over here (as in, "I need to get your mobiiile number before I leave today."). Also, text messages are called "SMS"...not sure why!

Bountiful Wittle Sisters!

Alrighty, yesterday's post was about the boys...tonight's post will be about the three other little reasons that I ABSOLUTELY love being in Dubai. They're pictured below: Evan, Bella, and Alex.

I'll probably give them each a little blog to further introduce them at a later time (sorry, I probably won't be doing that with the boys until later this year...I don't spend as much time with them as you will soon see, so I don't have as many stories to tell with them...however, they HAVE been doing a really good job of keeping me well supplied with funny quotes to share on my Facebook statusii...so you might want to check those out!).  

I am blessed enough to get to work with these three little ladies on a daily basis as a teacher, babysitter/nanny,  big sister/"role model", and in various other capacities as the opportunity arises. One of my primary functions with these girls is to teach them Bible classes each week after school. It is so exciting to get to watch the light bulbs come on for each of them! That's a fascinating experience as a teacher in any classroom...but when it's knowledge about the Bible it's just that much more thrilling! (It's also helping me to learn the stories a lot better for myself!) Then I get to take them out for gelato after school on Thursdays* if they've got their memory verse for the week memorized. My second major role with the girls is to watch them in the evenings when both their parents are out for meetings. This has been so much fun and provided lots of opportunities for "sisterly bonding times". On weekend nights, we'll sometimes have movie nights complete with pizza, popcorn, sodas, and a good Disney movie or we might just have a game/funny stories night. Weeknights we don't have quite as much time for just hanging out between eating dinner, packing lunches, and getting them ready for bed, but sometimes we get done early enough to all sit down and read a story together (love it!--we recently read an excerpt from The Secret Garden during which I got to practice my Yorkshire accent and Alex and Bella both decided it is very difficult to read a Yorkshire accent...I agreed whole-heartedly!). In addition to this, I occasionally pick the girls up from school and help them with their homework when their parents are busy with other things. And since my roommate, Jerri K, and I live in the maid's quarters of Evan, Bella, and Alex's family villa, we quite frequently have them popping over for whatever treat we might have on hand or a 5, 10, 30, or 60 minute conversation about life and all the exciting or bummer things that go on when you're 7, newly 9, or 12! 

I LOVE IT! 

So there's my brief summary of what I do with the girls...there will definitely be more adventures with them to share later, though. Suffice it to say that these three little chickpeas are just...well...words will never really do them justice...it's amazing to me how fast three young ladies could worm their way into my heart with their daily hugs and smiles and requests for stories about my family and sharing their funniest thing for the day...I just LOVE it!!!! 

* Thursdays are the last school day here...they're the equivalent of an American Friday...almost. Fridays here are like American Sundays (church day/everyone's off work), and Saturdays are just like Saturdays in America, except Sunday is our "Monday", so it's treated like a school night. :( 

Also, gelato is an Italian ice cream...very tasty...it's creamier and has less fat content and isn't quite as sweet as regular ice cream. They have this in America as well, so I'd encourage you to find someplace near you that has some (maybe a coffee shop or something) and check it out...it's fun and definitely worth a try! I think the two guys behind the counter at the gelato shop across the street from the girls school are starting to recognize us coming in each Thursday...so that makes it really fun, too! ;)

Bountiful Educating

(Jonathan and Jared with their new dogs Molly and Baxter)

The grandmother has spoken...her request? How are you involved with the boys' homeschooling? So here's my response (with plenty of backstory, of course). Jared and Jonathan are in 6th and 8th grades, respectively. They were accepted into an American school here, but there were no openings available, so they had to go a different route. They are using the K12 iCademy online program (I copied that shamelessly from their family's blog). Basically, all the work my mom did planning out our lessons for us is already posted online for them and laid out daily. Unfortunately for these guys, there are no semester breaks in this curriculum, so they're having to complete a whole year's worth of classes before the end of June (technically before the end of August...but who wants to work all through the summer?). This program has an office that's about 10 minutes from where we live (the boys' family's villa is a 5-10 minute walk from our house! Through the alleyway, past the mosque, around the corner and through the gate!), and they are assigned a teacher who looks over a sample of their work every month or so and is available for live web chats if they need some extra help. The boys' mom, Leslie, and I serve as their "learning coaches"... i.e. we check their work, motivate them to keep working, explain things to them (the whole time double-checking with each other to make sure we're correctly remembering different parts of speech and mathematical functions, etc.). So there's the backstory...now, on to what I do....

A "typical" day* at their house might involve any (or many) of the following: checking Jared's or Jonathan's worksheets (we finally discovered the Teacher Keys, so that task is tons easier than it used to be!), tearing out worksheets for both boys and putting them in their weekly folders (if they don't complete their daily assignments, the online schedule just moves all the lessons in that subject back a day...therefore, their ending date keeps getting moved back...we're hoping that by having the worksheets in a folder, they'll be better able to keep track of what they should be doing each day), cracking a lame joke or two to lighten some history (the bane of Jonathan's existence) or science (not really something Jared enjoys) or literature (neither particularly cares for this...me either actually) frustrations...and then encouraging them (sometimes nicely, sometimes not so much) to get back to it. 

Jared really seems to like the homeschooling...maybe he just doesn't heave great sighs in front of me, but he really likes school and is flying through it...similar to my sister Rebecca, I think. Here's a picture of us sitting at his "desk"...the Arab couch (quite comfy arrangement of different sized/shaped cushions on the floor...very brilliant!)...although usually most of his tutoring with me occurs at my "desk" (the leather couch in the middle of the living room).

Now Jonathan...he's taking me back to my middle school years...only this time I'm seeing it more from my mom's point of view (it's kinda weird)! Jonathan is less of a fan of school...he's smart, but I know he misses the social aspects of "real school". That being said, I feel like we completely connect with history...it's the worst subject ever (for all you history buffs out there, I apologize...but you probably don't enjoy dissecting flowers or memorizing the taxonomy of animals like I do, so...so there!)! I now appreciate my mom SO much more for wading through ALL that horrid history information with me (although it is a tad more fun to learn when you know you won't be tested on it...so you don't really have to learn it well)! Here's a picture of Jonathan studying up on some Renaissance art...yes, that's Michelangelo's David...and yes, that's a post-it note that Jonathan snagged from me...I told him to look for an answer to one of his worksheet questions on that page, at which point he gave me that "seriously?!?" look (I, of course, responded with a "teacher look") and when I walked back over to him...well...he'd improvised. :) (I told you he was smart!)

So, there's how I'm involved with the boys' homeschooling...hopefully this has been a suitable answer to that question (there was no answer key, so I can't really check my work very well). I'll save describing what I do with the girls for another time, but I do very much love what I'm doing here. For those of you who know me, you know I LOVE being a big sister...to anyone younger than me...whether they want a big sister or not! I don't know for sure whether any of these five kids here that I'm working with view me as that, but I definitely see them as younger siblings and am enjoying laughing with them and sympathizing with them and joking with them and loving on them and pouring into their lives academically and otherwise! 

* For the past seven or eight years, my least favorite question has been "What are you going to do after ____?____?" Now my least favorite question is "What does a typical day look like for you?". I still haven't figured it out for sure! Flexibility is key! Usually, my weekdays will consist of some work with the boys and then a Bible class or two with the girls, but other than that, there are relatively few guarantees...but this spontaneity is really turning out to be a lot more fun than I ever thought it would be!

Bountiful Snackies! :)

Allow me to introduce you to the best thing since sliced bread (incidentally, it's pretty good with sliced bread, too!). 

Okay, so, if you follow me on Facebook or got an email from me within the first week or two of me being here, then you've likely already heard about this stuff...but hommos* is just that awesome (that, and I'm kinda zonked, and this topic won out because made for a relatively short blog post........hopefully you enjoy brutal honesty in your reading...if not, please move on to the next blogger's site!)

Now, I realize that we have hummus back back in the States, but Americans don't eat it like people here do...it's used as a substitute for many condiments and is the ultimate dipping sauce! I've had it on cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, and if I'd eaten any other veggies, I'd have put it on them, too (sorry Mom, but at least I am still drinking all my milk! :). It is especially good with Arabic and Lebanese bread (think really thick, soft tortillas)--torn into bite-size pieces and dipped into a bowl of hommos. I've found it also works the same way with sliced bread...the Arab bread gets moldy rather quickly, so I had to either run to the store or improvise one day...pretty fun little discovery. Also, I've had this stuff on french fries...not that I'm particularly proud of using carbs as a condiment for carbs, but it's very tasty (I've only done that once or twice)! 

I would also like to draw your attention to the label for a few more cultural pointers. You will notice the dates beneath the product label (Produced on and Use by: 18-01-11). I still have not figured out how long before hommos expires, but I'm fairly certain it's more than a day (either that or my sisters are very right about my indelicate digestive system)...it's definitely less than two weeks.... BUT, that wasn't the point I was trying to make! There is, in fact, no 18th month here...when listing the date, they place the day first, then the month, and end with the year. Looking at the expiration dates threw me off quite a bit during my first week or so here..."Why does everything expire on the first of each month!? And how in the world is this yogurt going to stay good until September!?!!!!"

You may also notice (if you have good eyesight) that the weight is listed in kilograms. Most things here are reported using the metric system only (not that that's a surprise, just not something I had really thought about until I got here). The more cooking I do, the more I wish I would have paid better attention to conversion factors between the English and metric systems back in middle school science! 

And finally, the price is in dirhams, so not only is this stuff really yummy, it's also really inexpensive!

I apologize for now having two food-based blogs in a row. I will do my best to have a non-food related post tomorrow. 

*Hommos (also spelled hummus, hommus, hummos, etc.) "is made from cooked, mashed chickpeas, blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic" (thank you Wikipedia!). No, I have no idea what tahini is.

Bountiful Surprises!

Guess what I got today!!!

My family put together an awesome care package for me! It started out just as them sending some of my favorite coffee (San Antonio Blend from H-E-B), and of course my favorite coffee creamer (Hazelnut flavored), but then morphed to include a few more goodies. Jerri K and I have yet to find a really good coffee here that we like (other than the froo-froo stuff in the coffee shops). One of the stores we looked at only had instant coffee, so we got a Lebanese blend, but haven't really masted that yet. Another store had coffee grounds, so we tried a Sumatra blend (no, not the Starbucks kind), but it's taking us a while to get the coffee to water ratio balanced enough that we're not drinking tar! I was lucky enough to find liquid hazelnut coffee creamer about a week into my stay here, but I have not found it again in any of the stores we've gone to (and believe me, I've looked). We've discovered that if you find something you really like that's not a local thing, it's best to stock up on it then or it might not be there when you go back...for a long time!

The Oreos here are not too expensive (although they're only sold in single row tubes, not the triple row packs), however, they taste kinda funky. They'll do in a pinch, but I'm planning to take full advantage of the drier weather here and ration out this pack!

Pringles here are about twice the cost they are in the States. I think we've seen them for 11 or 12 AED (Arab Emirates Dirhams...roughly equivalent to $0.33)*. We have caved in and purchased one tube of those, and they tasted wonderful! :)

Jerri K and I have looked for Wheat Thins here, but with little success. As I was unpacking my package, Brooke (our hostess) pointed them out and said, "Oh, that's nice!", so I'm guessing they really don't have them here. We have found a few other cracker-type things here, but they're either very different from what we have back home or they're very expensive.

Two of the last three items in the pack were WONDERFUL surprises...candy! The jellybeans and Andes mints are going to be great (and surprisingly, the chocolate didn't melt...guess I'll share them since I won't be licking them out of the bag)! I have not looked for jellybeans here, but probably wouldn't buy them even if I did...they're a great treat to have from Mama, though! We do have chocolate here (which is very good news), and a lot of it is the same brands and candy bar types you would find in America...at pretty similar prices, I think. I did rediscover Bounty chocolate bars here...woohoo! AND I've found a Bounty ice cream bar (pretty inexpensive)...but I try not to keep those on hand (especially since they wouldn't be on hand very long if I knew such deliciousness was reposing in my freezer)!

And my final surprise was the cocoa covered almonds! I love those things!!! Mama gets them for Daddy at Sam's Club back home and then whenever I'm home I pull them out and eat half the canister...which Daddy hates, of course! I'm pretty sure I did a little jig when I pulled those out of the package! I wouldn't know the first place to look for something like that here. Surely one of the cultures represented in this country has something similar to that...hopefully I can find some before I return. (Now that I think about it a bit more, we went to a place called Global Village the other night--it has big rides like a fair back home might, and there are "marketplaces" set up for many of the countries around here. One of the countries--Iran maybe--had some really good candied pistachios...perhaps I will check those out again and bring a few home!)

*Interesting fact about shopping: the tax is already figured in to the price here, and most things are marked in whole numbers of dirhams (so it's very easy to do the math and determine EXACTLY how much you'll be paying). The grocery stores sometimes have things marked in dirhams and fils (1 fil = 1/100 dirham, I think), but since the smallest coin typically in circulation is a 25 fil coin, the cashiers just round to the closest 25 fils--you might get too much or not enough change back!