It is getting hot and I can’t sleep!

Summer has officially arrived in the UAE. It has been over 100 degrees every day for at least two weeks now, and that temperature lasts well past sundown. I have been doing some “beat the heat” activities. A few weekends ago I visited a new water park in Abu Dhabi.

Yas Waterworld has a special night for ladies only on Thursdays. I haven’t been to any “ladies nights” here and found the experience interesting. It was wonderful to not have to deal with teenage boys pushing through the line or lurking men. It was quite freeing actually, and I had a good time. They have some pretty creative slides there, and one that I am not brave enough to try (the floor drops out from under you and shoots you up vertically). It was a fun night. I followed that evening up with a catamaran ride in the Gulf just off the coast of Abu Dhabi the following night. Another relaxing way to beat the heat. Unfortunately, the water in the Gulf is now about 85 degrees, so not as refreshing as one would like!

With the rise in temps comes the added need for air conditioning. For the past week or so the A/C in my bedroom as been making a lot of strange noises. Sometimes it doesn’t even get cool. In fact, I haven’t slept through the night in 5 days, the dang thing keeps waking me up. Last night, I called maintenance and they came to look at it. The leader of the maintenance team told me, very sternly and quite rudely, that I had to keep the A/C at 21-22C. I told him that was way too cold for me and that I keep the others at 24-25C and none of them have any problems. But he would have nothing of it. He simply kept saying 21-22 over and over again. They cleaned the filters and then left. Of course the noises that have been keeping me up were not happening when the maintenance team was there. They said there was nothing wrong, except I just had it at the wrong temperature. UGH! That was a frustrating experience. I’ve got the bed in the spare room ready in case I have to leave my bed…and that statement just proves that even with my bad A/C I’m still better off than many, many people in the world.

In order to better explain my life here, since it probably appears that I don’t have to do any “normal” things, I wanted to tell you about this A/C issue. And along that vein, another short story.

Today, while cooking lamb kofta and sweet potato fries, the power went out. 111 degrees outside and no A/C and food all over the kitchen. After nearly two hours without power I went to the Rugby Club where I could work out and have dinner. The power finally came back on just before 8pm, nearly four hours after it had gone off. I finally got all my food cooked and thought I should share these little pieces of life with you.

 

Birds & Summer

Last year, when I was preparing to move to the UAE, I came across a blog that I found very helpful. Martin Fullard is the author of the blog, he has some great insights into the culture of the UAE and I’ve learned a lot from his posts.

Last May he posted about the tell-tale sign that summer has arrived in the UAE.  (Please) Read his post: 42. Birds.

As the heat has turned up (it has been over 100 degrees every day for weeks now), I’ve noticed that change in the birds that he addresses. In fact, last Tuesday a bird flew straight into my windshield! It was frightening, but not surprising, I’ve been ducking from birds flying at my car for weeks now. Not sure why I duck, I am in the car and they are outside, I just can’t help myself!

Graduation Time

There has been a ton of drama with the grade 12 girls at our school surrounding the graduation ceremony. There are two cohorts of girls, the Academic strand and the Science strand. Basically, the Science strand students have high marks in their Math and Science classes, and are tracked toward careers in those areas. They are also led to believe that they are better and more capable students (though this is a topic for a different post). Anyway, the two groups of girls often disagree about things related to school, and they really disagreed about graduation.

The disagreement was so strong that the Academic students planned their own outside-of-school graduation ceremony. I did not attend that party, but I did attend the ceremony for the Science students today at school. Let me tell you, it was an experience.

In order to get the ambience of the ceremony I’ll need to paint you a picture (since photographs weren’t really allowed). The gym was transformed into what can only be described as a white, gold and red wedding motif. Complete with colored strobe lights, bubble and fog machines. The tables and chairs were covered with nice white linens and the runway-like stage was draped in red Arabian-style carpets.

The students were in their best formal wear. From mile-high platform heels to airbrushed make-up. I saw a few wedding dresses among the mixture of other very formal gowns. The girls walked (precariously in their new heels) out of the back and down the “runway” straight into their seats. After the girls did their promenade we heard the National Anthem and then a Qur’an verse sung by a graduate. There was a performance by some elementary school girls (singing and dancing). And videos of the girls as babies and during the last few weeks of classes. The students also read letters to their teachers and to their mothers (no men allowed, so they girls could show off their fancy clothes).

While the singing, dancing and other activities were going on, the maids were passing out all types of food to the teachers and some of the guests. Traditional Emirati foods, chocolates, tea and coffee. It was truly an experience.

Surfing in the desert

As you may already know, the UAE has a goal of breaking all the records they can. The world’s tallest building? Check. The world’s longest air-conditioned sky bridge? Check. The world’s most expensive cell phone? Check. So, it should come as no surprise that the UAE is also home to the Middle East’s “first whitewater rafting, kayaking and surfing facility.” This is known as Wadi Adventure and it is a pretty cool place.

I spend a lot of time at Wadi Adventure as part of my fitness regime, they have two large lakes that we swim in (training and competition). Back in October when I did my first competition here (swimming and running) my teammate and I came in 2nd. As part of our prize we got a free group surf or kayak lesson. It is now May and I finally decided to use it.

My lesson was booked for today at 10am. After swimming and running for an hour (2K each), I headed over to my surfing lesson. In my group lesson were two young boys (maybe nine or ten years old) who had already taken a lesson or two and me. We started off just riding some waves (laying on the board), then while the boys kept practicing I got out of the water to learn how to stand up.

After about five minutes of practicing on land we headed back to the water where I practiced some more. Then when I didn’t feel ready at all (would I ever?), I started trying to catch a wave and stand up. I actually stood up on my very first try! But then, I crashed and burned a few times. I got a few really good rides in and a couple pretty good crashes. But, I really did surf after only about thirty minutes of lessons, so that is pretty good I think!

The father of the two boys was taking photographs and took a few of me. Enjoy!

Looking to catch a wave!

Riding the wave!

And crashing!

Sandance

This week I have been feeling considerably sorry for myself, but it is difficult to feel bad for very long when weekends like this past one are at the end of nearly every week.

Thursday after work I picked up my friend Rachel and we took off for Tips n’ Toes to get our nails done. We had to pamper ourselves before the big weekend! Friday morning, after a particularly grueling session at the gym, I packed my bag and headed to Dubai. Final destination: Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai. 

Lobby of the hotel

After checking into the hotel, I took a little tour of the “guests only” areas, then went to the Lost Chamber of Atlantis. I am glad the Lost Chamber is included in the price of the hotel, because I wouldn’t have wanted to pay extra for it. It was nice, but I’ve seen much better aquariums (the parts you can see for free are worth the visit).

I eventually got into my room. It was a nice room, nothing super fancy (the bed was very comfy) with excellent views. From my room I could see into the large aquarium. Pretty cool, and very cool at night.

View of the aquarium from my room.

After checking out the hotel, I met up with Rachel and her husband Dave. We enjoyed a few cocktails and snacks at the pool-side bar and then headed over to Sandance.

With Rachel on our way to Sandance.

Sandance is just what it sounds like, a concert on the beach. Last night’s lineup included Florence and the Machine and Keane. Not really knowing any of the performers allowed me to go in without expectations. I thought it was a good show. They venue is pretty good as well, though I think they need to include food in more locations. You could buy drinks throughout the venue (including my wine, which came with a bag of ice and a hat!), but food was only being sold in one location. It was a good night with good friends!

Wine in a bag.

The Sandance Stage.

This morning I met up with Rachel and Dave (after enjoying some delicious waffles in my room) to check out the Aquaventure water park at the hotel. The slides were pretty good, though they don’t have very many. Since we got there early we were able to try out all the slides we wanted to without having to wait in line. After a couple of hours at the park it was time to go home. In all honesty, I don’t think that the cost of a room at the Atlantis is worth it if you  just need a hotel room. They are nice rooms, but I’ve stayed in equally nice rooms for much less. The real draw for me, was the easy access to my room when I was ready to leave Sandance. Would I stay there again? Maybe, but there would need to be a specific reason for it.

Another great weekend in the books and I have my first Dubai Wine Club event next weekend to look forward to!

Weather Changes

I was going to start this post with “rain, rain, go away” but it appears that the rain is over! It has been an interesting few weeks, weather wise. I has rained almost every day for the past week and a half. It isn’t Oregon rain, but it is enough rain to cause some serious flooding here in the desert. Not just flooding, but way too many car accidents.

It could be that the inordinate amount of rain is from “over seeding.” This is something new to me, this seeding isn’t in the ground, but in the clouds. The government has been practicing cloud seeding for a while now (and specifically since April 21–see link) and it is possible they went a little overboard (my opinion).

However, last weekend I braved the rain and headed for Dubai. I had tickets to the ballet, after all. I met my friend Krista for a night out. We saw Don Quixote, which is an interesting story to put into ballet format. It was performed very well by the Sofia Ballet Company (Bulgaria). I enjoyed it because there was more dancing than “story” and I prefer the dancing.

I was glad to see the weather change for a little bit, but the effect it had on my students was worse than a snow day in Oregon. They were so excited about the rain, they ran out of the classrooms and into the courtyard to “play”. It was insanity.

The End.

Sorry for the delay, it has been a busy week here! Let’s pick up where I left off…

The end of spring vacation was fast approaching us as we boarded our flight from Amman back to Dubai, and we had a bit of journey ahead of us. As soon as we collected my car at the airport we were on our way to Abu Dhabi. We arrived very early the following morning and crashed in our hotel. Later that morning, we enjoyed a nice breakfast at Starbucks in Al Wahda Mall, then rushed to Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

My Mom and I walking through the mosque courtyard.

Inside the mosque.

After our tour of the mosque we checked out some of the other sites in Abu Dhabi and lunched in the Central Market. We attempted to visit the Heritage Village, but by the time we got there it was closed. Instead, we walked along the corniche and witnessed “dragging the gut” (as my Mom would say) Abu Dhabi style. Fancy cars and some not so fancy, cruising up and down the very congested street and jet skis in the water all around, doing the same thing. In fact, I saw three different Ferrari jet skis, but I don’t recall seeing any Ferrari cars.

After the sunset cruise on the corniche, we headed to Emirates Palace hotel. After my mouth-watering description of my delicious dessert last month, my Mom was anxious to try it herself. So, we had a little late afternoon dessert before heading back to Al Ain.

Checking out the Abu Dhabi Skyline from Emirates Palace.

Emirates Palace at night.

Dessert, before…

and after.

The remainder of the trip included a bit of sightseeing in Al Ain, including the famous camel market and one last evening in Dubai at the Irish Village. Having my parents here was wonderful. It was great to show them where I live and also to share with them my love of Jordan. Hopefully, I will be able to host a few more people before I leave here.