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!