We Heart Dubai

Family Picture at the Burj Al Arab

Irish Area in Dubai... a Row of Irish Pubs.

Travis and I enjoying a drink just before a Tennis Match.

Gabby and Stuart at Safa Park

(near Toby and Deb's House) 

You can see the Tower Khalifa in the back.

"The Caterpillar"

Stuart and Gabby on a Rollercoaster. This was Gabby's first time riding one and she LOVED it. I got a bit teary-eyed watching how much fun she was having...

Gabby and Stuart at Umm Seikem Beach

with the Burj Al Arab in the back.

The Tebo Family getting ready to take an abra across the canal to the Gold Souks.

Oh man... where to start? Well as the title says, we are really having a great time. This place reminds us Las Vegas but an Arabic version. The whole city should be called Arabian Nights or something cheesy thing like that.  There's so much to do here with kids and I can now see why China is considered a hardship post. Things are really easy here. The public restrooms are clean (even have toilet paper) and for the most part people obey the driving rules. There are a ton of parks and beaches and fun restaurants to try. Travis and I are lovin' the middle eastern food too- shwarma, falafel, humus, pita bread, all that yummy stuff. Last night we went to a Lebanese bakery and picked up some cheese bread- SO GOOD! We went back there today. 

Toby and Deb's house is awesome. It's HUGE! They live near everything, including a pool and park. It's on a busy road but you can walk to different places, including that bakery I just mentioned. So far, our mornings consists of waking up around 7:30, getting the kids breakfast, and going out with Gabby and Stuart. Toby and Deb are working and she gets back around noon, so we've been getting lots of nephew/cousin time with the kids in the morning. For the first couple of days, we went to the pool, which the kids love. Travis has been teaching Stu how to swim and Gabby has been practicing her kicks, blowing bubbles, and holding her breath and putting her head in the water. This morning, we went to the park. It was awesome! There were literally over ten playgrounds and beautiful flowers, a waterfall, and places to walk around and have a picnic. There is also a mini amusement park area, so I think we'll go back again tomorrow. There was also an area just for ladies in children. They have things like that here, which is interesting... Another thing that's different... During the day, you can hear a man's voice on a loudspeaker praying. As you probaby know, this is a muslim country and they pray five times a day. There was even a prayer room in the airport. Just kind of different. We'll be talking or doing whatever and you'll randomly hear the guy praying...

 Yesterday was really busy! Toby and Deb took the day off. All of us hopped in the car and took an abra (boat) across to the old part of Dubai to visit the Souks (markets). They're known for their gold, but I'm not a big gold person so I didn't get anything. I took lots of pictures and we all enjoyed walking around and looking at all the stuff. Around 2-ish, we headed off for some adult fun at the Atlantis Resort. It's located at the tip of "The Palm" (man-made islands) and it's seriously amazing. We had two-for-one tickets to the water park and became little kids in a candy store... going up and down all the slides. It was so much fun. Travis said I haven't laughed like that in awhile... so apparently that was much needed! The first slide we went on was called, "The Leap of Faith." It's famous for being one of the stops on the TV show  "The Amazing Race." It was pretty freaky. The drop was insane and a total adrenaline rush- lots of high fives and hugs after it was over. I think we were all quite proud of ourselves for doing it. I'm a bit annoyed because I didn't put my butt up enough on one of the water slides and scrapped it a bit and got a hole in my $100 bathing suit. That sucked. I also slammed my foot into the side of one of the slides because the pressure turn me around suddenly. I bled a little and bruised it, so that was kind of a bummer. Pretty smooth on my part.

So far, we still love this place. The weather right now is perfect. I haven't seen a cloud in the sky since we've been here.

First Impressions of Dubai

Gabby, Travis, and Stuart at the pool in the Tebo's villa area

Gabby getting "pretty nails" at Kidzania

So far, we're loving Dubai! The weather is awesome. Right now, we have the doors open and there's a nice breeze. Beautiful palm trees everywhere and flowers... love it.

Our plane ride sucked. There were no movies and lots of smelly Chinese men. I swear I smelled a cigarette... We left at 9:30 pm Beijing time and it took about 9 hours to arrive in Dubai. Toby picked us up and it was 3:30 am Dubai time, so 7:30 am our time. We all slept a little on the plane but we were so happy to be at the Dubai Tebo's house! After we got in, Gabby and I slept while Toby drove Travis around the city on about two hours of sleep. Needless to say, they're both sleeping with the kids right now.

I can't explain this place... It is so western but so different at the same time. It's strange. They have every American food chain and lots of Western stores but we're in the middle east... Clearly it's a foreign country that I should feel unsafe in but I don't at all... So far, it doesn't seem that different. Okay, okay, so the people look different. I seriously can't stop staring at the Arabic women... they are dressed in robes (sorry, don't know the proper words, I'm such a jerk American) and some are dressed in robes where you can only see their eyes. Apparently, the women have to cover up in public because they don't want to tempt other men. I have to say, their eyes are gorgeous. The men wear long white robes and look like what you see on TV. Lots of good people watching! I was surprised to see many of the women shop for expensive shoes and clothes to wear underneath their robes, especially since no one ever really sees them. Toby and Deb said there are a lot of really rich people here, so I guess they can afford it. After seeing the mall and their prices- I can believe it.

Today, Toby and Travis took Stuart and Gabby to Kidzmania at the Dubai mall. There's not enough time to explain how cool this place is, although I technically never went inside. Kids can pretend to be certain jobs (doctor, fireman, etc) and get paid. It's like a mini town. There's a toddler area and all I know is that the kids had a blast... Like I said, I wasn't there but Gabby came back with purple nails (she actually was patient and let them dry) and stories about how she built a wall. While they were at Kidzmania, Deb, Wesley, and I walked around the MASSIVE mall. There was a great organic store so I stocked up on some gluten free food for Gabbers. There were lots of sales, but I didn't buy anything... I really don't need anything, I suppose. First time ever.

Anyway, we're having a great time with the family. Look forward to all the fun this week!

Gabby's School Newsletter 2/1-2/5/2010

Letter of the week Pp
Last Tuesday the children had a parade. They marched into the big hall while playing different kind of instruments. The class also played parachute games, read the story “Henry’s Parade” and had popcorn for snacks. It was a perfect day for letter Pp day!

Kung Fu with Zhang Laoshi

Gabby's School Newsletter 1/25-1/29/2010

Gabby is the Star of the Week!
* Listening to your teachers
* Helping out in tidying up toys and other school materials
* Playing well and safely with your friend
* Sharing and taking turns
* Being kind to your friends

Chinese Language with Zhao Laoshi
The whole month of January the children learned all about their body. We learned parts of our bodies in Chinese and sang many songs naming parts of our bodies. We also learned Chinese characters and read many stories. We talked about how healthy foods help us grow and how to keep our bodies healthy and clean.
Chinese words we learned:
yī yào – Medicine
wēn dù jì ‐ Thermometer
zhù shè qì – Syringe
tīng zhěn qì – Stethoscope
yá yī ‐ Dentist
yī shēng – Doctor

Understanding Gluten a Little

There's a Sandra Boynton book, called "Hey, Wake Up!" which seems to be the book of the moment right now. I believe it's supposed to be read in the morning, but we read it before bed. Anyway, there's a page where four different animals are eating different things for breakfast. One of the animals only eats cereal. Gabby pointed out that the other animal can't eat it and when I asked why she said it has gluten in it. As always, I made the connection that for some people gluten makes their tummy feel icky and she agreed. I thought that was interesting... she's getting it in her own little 2 1/2 year old way...

Potty Training

I was just thinking the other day how well Gabby is doing with the whole potty training thing... until last night. It was a poop catastrophe. Travis and I were cleaning up after dinner and she peed in her play room. It was weird because she didn't seem to care which ticked me off a bit. I know you're not supposed to get angry, but at least she could be sorry about it! I tried putting her on the toilet but I was so consumed with how wet she was and how much this sucked that it was taking me awhile to get her pants down. Then she pooped. So I picked her up and we headed upstairs to the bathroom. Have you ever taken off underwear with poop in it? Pretty narly, so I gave Travis that job. He tried to be sly but the poop landed right on the ground. I put Gabby on the toilet and she got poop all over the seat. It was everywhere! Poop on the floor, in my fingernails, and I believe there was some in her hair. At least we weren't in public.

Chinese Water Park & Australia Day Brunch

Gabby getting ready to swim... My lens was a little steamy, so that's why it's fuzzy.

As always, we had a packed weekend... we did the usual, play dates, Gymnees, a dinner and game night with the Snells, and this weekend... a day at a Chinese Water Park and an Australia Day Brunch.

Not surprisingly, "Merry Tulip Water Park," was Chinese-Ghetto-Fab. It looked like it was built in the 70's but wasn't... It was sort of clean, but not. Travis found a cigarette floating around in the adult area. Weird. I loved it, though. Travis said he'll never go back. We went with about 34 adults and 39 kids. One of the rules is that everybody has to wear a swim cap, so we all looked like crazy bald people. They had an area that was perfect for Gabby's age. There were about 5 slides and a climbing area that was surrounded by warm water about 2 meters deep. I thought it was great... I laid around in the warm water and visited with people... I completely forgot it was winter outside. I have to say, our daughter is turning into a little fish. She seriously had a blast! She was climbing all over the structure and going down on all the slides... she was quite adventurous... no fear. Today she told me, "I love swimming!" I'm now looking into getting her some swim lessons.

Australia Day is this Tuesday, which is the equivalent to the American Fourth of July. One of the many Aussie families host an annual brunch and it's always a good time. People bring Aussie type dishes (I just brought good ole' American chocolate chip cookies) and dress-up in Aussie gear. (I did wear my Uggs). Although the people our awesome, I'm not a big fan of Aussie food. I've tried it all- lemmingtons, trifle, amzec cookies (AKA oatmeal cookies but not as good), and this stuff that looks like divinity (nasty) and it's just all right. Instead of "hotdogs" they roll-up sausages in bread and put ketchup on it. That's actually not bad. There's also something called fairy bread, which is buttered white bread with sprinkles.  Isn't that weird? Anyway, we had a good time but had to leave early because it was getting really crowded. Yay for Australia, though!