Burj Al Arab Luncheon

This is our food. :-)
This is us at our table.
This is the view of the lobby from the second floor.
This is the view above us.
This is the Jumierah Beach Hotel. We can see it from the front of the Burj Al Arab.
I tried getting more photos in but it times out again. Too tired tonight. Will try again tomorrow!
BTW- We had to put the AC on in the car today. It was hot enough that I almost told the kids to put on some shorts! Can't believe the weather is changing already!

Desert Safari cont.

More wives...

I've been trying, but it keeps timing out...So let's try again!



Okay, this is more of the Desert safari. Sami made a sand angel, Khalid got "work done". Actually we all did...still looking for that photo. And we got to see a belly dancer. Who also showed us some moves!

Abdallah's four wives continue...

Here is a video of our dunebashing adventure!

The four wives in Dubai!

Okay, next would be all the pix of when my friends came to visit. We were calling this the time that Abdallah had 4 wives. Honestly he's known them for almost as long as I have!! (except for Kim, She's been around forever!!!)Okay, so here are some photos!!!!



This is us relaxing in the living room. You might notice that it is different than our other pix. We had to move due to the fact that our landlord upped our rent. the apt is smaller, but we gained a big back yard and a gated community with a pool, basketball cage, picnic area, and lots or places to walk and ride bikes. Okay, from left to right..Kim, Dani, Me, and Sue.





This is our safari in the desert. Abdallah was sick so he could not be with us. Good thing too cuz the ride up and down the dunes was crazy!!! They dropped us off at a store so we can buy stuff and the trucks can all group together. Then we formed a line that drove us to a dinner in the desert. We stopped about half way through to watch the sunset. The pix are all mixed up and I can't tell which is which whan I'm typing, but I'm sure you guys can figure it out! Oh! The Camal guy is someone we passed as we are on our way to the dinner. Not sure if he was part of the show or just out and about on his own.
I think I did pretty good for today. Will continue tomorrow...

Sharjah continue

Again, Speech teacher with a student. She is learing how to say her name. Visual cues are used for her to pronounce the letters correctly. This school was big on speech.


And yet another speech class. I did see other classes. They had math, science, and computers as well. I think they wanted me to see how much they emphasize speech. That's fine for them, but I wanted to see more of the actual classes. So anyway, this is the kindergarten group. very cute!! We were all putting our fists on eachother saying an "oh" sound then we would bring them all up in the air saying "ah".

Sharjah School

This is a Science teacher next to her classwork. I liked the formulas mixed in with the Arabic writing.
This is a picture of a speech/ listening class. They are all standing on a sound board with no shoes on. The teacher has a microphone that is hooked to speakers underneath the board. She uses hand gestures (not Signs) to imitate what sounds to use when speaking. She says a sentence and the students repeat it.

The next three are of a world history class. I really liked this class. They all had questions and were interested about learning more about the USA. We discussed where I was from and where the American School for the Deaf was. They would use Sign Language but were encouraged to speak as well. There Signs looked so familiar, but I was unable to understand them without the use of an interpreter (staff personel). There was one Deaf staff member and one Sign Language specialist. The rest of the teachers were hearing and used les signs and more voice as the students went up in grades. Interesting!

Hi again!

Hi all! I know it's been a while and I'm really not in the mood today, but I told myself that I would get back to blogging this week. We've been very busy since I last wrote. I saw the Sharjah School for the Deaf. I will be posting pix about that. It was alot of fun and I really enjoyed it. The students and staff were very friendly, but the administration not so much. Very defensive. They were more interested in why I would visit them than working with me.
After that some of my best friends came to visit. I will be posting them as well. That was alot of fun. It also gave me a chance to do more of the touristy type of things. I can see where people would come here and enjoy the vacation. They were here for Thanksgiving. It was nice to have them here. I missed them alot.
Then December came. The kids' school again had issues with their holiday planning so we took almost the whole month off. The kids had National Day (Dec 2,3), then Eid (Dec 11-14), then school until the 24th, then off again until Jan 4th. At one point they had off from the 19th of Dec. Then they changed it about the end of November. Can you imagine if they did that in the States? Anyway, we took the month and went back to the States. Got to see lots of friends and family. I will be posting them as well.
After we got back the lovely school decided to give the kids another 2 weeks off for mid year. Now there is talk that they will not have another break until June. What a mess!! So we took a mini vacation to Egypt. It was fun and the kids really enjoyed it!
On a sad note. Our dog, Sushi had gotten very sick while we were in Egypt. When we got home she was taken to the dr and we found that there was nothing we could do for her. She would have been 10 this April. She died yesterday, January 27th. She will be missed by us all as well as her Noni and Papa, and our friends and family. She was a wonderful dog and our house will be empty without her.
Okay, I'm publishing this, getting some lunch for the kids, and doing some errands. Then I will be back to upload many photos!!