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!