First Ideas of Dubai

Well, I've been trying for days to get my photos on the internet, but we have been having some problems. Abdallah will go out tomorrow to try to see if we can get a faster something to make the pictures upload, but he says that the internet is slow at the office as well. So who knows...
As with the internet, Dubai seems to be rushing to accommodate the huge amount of people that have come here. There is traffic on most streets and constant areas of construction. The huge bridge for the subway seems to be slowly inching it's way around the city and there are rotaries (here they are called round abouts) every 1/2 mile or so. (Which is also converted to Kilometers....um hold on (check with Abdallah...) about .3 KM)
A few things that are worth mentioning:
1. The housing is best compared to areas like New York City. A one bedroom apt is being advertized to sell around $350,000. Cars and food seems to be about the same as the states. Gas (Everyone's favorite topic!!!!) I have a picture of the prices but, again,...internet. For a gallon it is 6.25 DHS (AED-Arab Emirates Dirhams) which is equal to $1.70 per gallon for 95 octane.




2. This is for the women folk!--Remembering that many of the countries in this areas lack trees and therefore paper (Do you se where I am going with this one...) Many of the places (as with our apt in Kuwait have Bidet (the French word for the thing that squirts water, um, you know...) If not then there is a water spray that looks just like the one that is located next to your kitchen faucet. Hence when you go into a bathroom there will be a toilet, and a spray, but no paper. So....always carry tissues with you at all times, cuz you never know which bathroom will have paper and which won't!! Here are some pictures of the type of bathrooms in Dubai. It's laways interesting to see where they come up with these!







3. Onto another topic...the heat! We don't even go out until 6 or 7pm. Then the temp is about 107F. That's when everyone else goes out. Everything is open til about midnight including grocery stores! The heat feels like a blowdryer that is set on low but with high heat blowing onto every part of your body. But it's not as humid feeling as it is in New England probably because there is not even a teeny tiny cloud to even indicate water in the air. And there is a smell like that of a forest fire that had burned out a while ago but it is still lingering in the air.
Well, we have succumbed to the Dubai life and even the kids don't sleep until way past 11. (As I write Khalid is coming into the room for the third time to tell me that he heard a noise) It is now 12:20 in the morning and I have decided to try to get some sleep.
Also, It was Ziyad's birthday today. He turned 4. We will be having a small party for him on Friday (Dubai's "Saturday") Today we went out to a very authentic restaurant...Macaroni Grill!!!

Pictures take two

Here is Khalid and Sami reading the emergency paper the the stewardess just demonstrated.

Pictures of our trip here...

Okay, now that I have some time, I am hoping to send out the pictures from our trip here...
Here is Abdallah and Sami at Bradley. Notice he is working on the computer! (Still having problems with uploading, I might have to do one at a time.)

Our Flight

The van came at noon to pick us up. We arrived at the airport took the bags out and was on the way to checking when we couldn't find Khalid's guitar. As the van is pulling away Abdallah is running after it. He caught up to it at the second stop sign and was able to save the day!!! Above is a picture of the boys at Bradley Airport.

From Bradley we flew to Atlanta, ate at TGI Friday's and boarded our flight to Dubai. We left the US at 9pm US time (Wednesday) and arrived at 11am US time(Thursday). Which is 7pm Dubai time (Thursday). Khalid slept about 5 hrs, so did Abdallah, Sami slept for 8 and Ziyad slept a whopping 10 hours on the plane!!! I only slept 3, everytime someone moved or coughed I was awake. Here are some other pictures of us during the trip... Okay, I have more pictures but I can't seem to get them in the right place. Hopefully I will get them right next time...

Anyway, we arrived in Dubai and got our bags. We got through customs and made it out to our taxi service. At 8pm the weather was not bad. They had fans misting water all along the edge of the airport. Actual temperature was around 96F. Outside the airport reminded me of all those bigger cities. That wonderful smell of exhaust and body odor and of course the honking horns. We arrived about 15 minutes later at the house. The boys were so excited. They immediately found the bag with all the match box cars and started racing them all over the house. It's now 2 am. Abdallah and I are still wide awake and I can still hear all three boys makes soft noises in their room. They've had a hard time staying in bed since midnight and were told that we would not play the Wii game (Abdallah's new toy in Dubai) if they get out of bed again. I feel bad, but they won't be able to get up in the morning! Well, I will work on this (and the pictures) again tomorrow.

Bye for now!!!

Today's the day!!!

We woke up early today even though it seems like we have everything done. I actually had to wait for the kids to wake up so I can pack their blankets and stuffed pillows. Total we have 9 bags, two allowed for each passenger, we're still okay. I cleaned out the fridge and took out the trash as Abdallah finished last minute stuff on the computer. At noon the van comes to pick us up. Wish us luck!!

Getting ready

Hello all,
This is my "testing" blog. We have 9 days until we move to Dubai. I have three bags packed and have cleaned two rooms. I am becoming so overwhelmed that I forget what I should be doing and get stuck on doing something else. For example, I was going through my jewelery and got stuck on the computer and now I have spent the last 45" reading my cousin's blog and setting up my own. Okay, back to packing!