Joshua Bell in Abu Dhabi

Had a great day up in Abu Dhabi with a group of friends.  We got dressed up and went out for French food at Le Beaujolias in the Mecure hotel.  I would recommend this place to anyone.  The food was fantastic, the decor adorable and the desert came on big plates...my chocolate mouse came in a cereal bowl and was tres manifique. 

Just look at the sizes of these deserts!

Then we went off to the Emirates Palace which is amazing and I have mention in a previous post.

This was taken during the day on a previous visit..we went at night this time and
it was lit up beautifully.

We bought tickets to see Joshua Bell and the Czech Philharmonic this winter and I've been looking forward to it for a while. 

The show was fantastic and we got to stroll around the grounds during intermission.

A great day and I've got one week of classes to go before a two week break and my trip to Prague.

TESOL Arabia weekend

Had a great weekend in Dubai with friends from work.  We went up for the TESOL conference and job fair but also for the socializing, eating and shopping. 

The first night we ate at the hotel restuarant....excellent food and we got a great discount because one of our group got locked in a malfunctioning bathroom. 

Sharon, Liz, me and Stacy

The next day I attended a few speakers at the conference.  It was pretty much a waste of time as the prsesenters were unprofessionable and hopelessly outdated in their topics.  I heard the same thing from other attendees all day.  Apparently this is normal for this TESOL Arabia because of the pressure put upon teachers to present regardless of whether they have time or interest.   I did get a good grammar book at the book fair so it wasn't a complete waste of time and we ate at the revolving restaurant at the top of the hotel while enjoying the views of Dubai.

Another reason I attended was to see how the job fair works for next year when I'm looking for a job.  It's very bizzare.  The institutions that are hiring put up their job postings and applicants hand their 'paper' resumes to a collection desk.  Then applicants wait to see if institutes want to interview them and what time their interviews are.  There is no communication between the institue and applicant while this is being done so you just have to wait and be available the whole weekend.   I'm not looking forward to doing it next year but I guess it will be a learning experience.

On our last night, we went to a sheesha bar on the Dubai Creek and relaxed outdoors with the lights of the city twinkling accross the water. 

Rick, me, Jackie, Stacy, Tanya (Sharon is taking the photo)

Here is me with the sheesha pipes...you can smoke all kinds of flavored tobacco like apple, mint, strawberry and peach.

Dubai Literary Festival

Went up to Dubai last weekend with Patreshia and met Rick for a day at the Dubai Literary Festival.  It was being held at the Intercontinental Hotel right on the marina...beautiful boardwalk lined with restaurants and, I can't believe I'm going to say this, it was a little chilly with a breeze off the ocean. 

My first author of the day was Alan Dean Foster who is an extremely talented and prolific writer of sci-fi.  He also writes novelizations of sci-fi movies like Star Wars, Star Trek, Aliens and many more.  It was wonderful getting to listen to his views on good vs bad sci-fi.  I was impressed enough to download a couple more kindle versions of his books this week.

Then, Rick and I went to listen to Dan Rather talk about his new book.  He was just stopping by  Dubai on his way to Afganistan to do another story..at the age of 81.  Crazy!!!  His book was mostly about how CBS booted him out over his coverage of the Bush campaign.  He demonstrates how huge corporations are buying up news outlets and forcing them to censor themselves for the 'good of the corporation'.  Nothing new in my opinion but I guess it was interesting to hear it right from the horse's mouth. 

 



Rick and I enjoyed a nice lunch outside at M&S and chatted about the fate of the world...didn't solve much but the company was nice.

Jebel Shams

I have been  a bit lazy about exploring the countryside in the last few months so I thought I would fix that by going off on a weekend excursion with Al Ain Weekenders this past weekend.   My friend Patreshia and I loaded up the jeep and joined the convoy over the border and into Oman bright and early Friday morning. 

The first day was relaxing and fun.  Our first stop was to see some bronze age tombs.  While we were up on the hill exploring them, the Friday Sermon was being broadcast out into the valley so it was quite surreal.

Then we had lunch in an oasis and explored an abandoned village.  A lot of villages were abandoned when oil was discovered and people moved to the coast….this is the same in the UAE too.

After lunch we 4X4ed along a dried riverbed up to a dam and then hiked up to some pools where we relaxed for a bit.  My jeep handled the off-road driving really well.

We spent the night in Bahla which is supposed to be the center of witchcraft in the region.  It’s odd because Islam forbids that sort of thing but they all believe in the ghosts and assorted stories anyways. 

The next morning we headed up the insane mountain road to the top of Jebel Shams.  This has got to be the most ridiculous road ever built.  One 180 hairpin turn after another at a 45 degree incline.  Then the pavement ended and we continued the same craziness on slippery gravel.  My jeep’s temperature got almost into the red but we made it.  Poor Patreshia was clinging to the door all the way up and we could smell the brakes burning on the way down.

This should have clued me in to what I was in for on the hike but I foolishly held on to the idea that this was going to be a pleasantly flat stroll along the canyon ridge as it had been described to me.  It wasn’t.

There was a lot of scrambling up and down rocks which I have no pictures of because I was too busy scrambling up and down the rocks but it was a beautiful view when you could lift up your head and take a look.

The path was a bit treacherous at points.

At the head of the canyon there is an abandoned rock village that was occupied by rebels who were hiding out from the previous government.  They grew all their food on man-made terraces.  Once the current Sultan killed his father and ended his reign 34 years ago, the people moved to the top of the mountain but they’ve been separated from the rest of the country for long enough that there is significant inbreeding evident. 

It was a good weekend but I was sure glad to see my shower and bed at the end of it.  I think that I may have inadvertently smuggled half of Oman back into the UAE on my tires and in my hair.

Rainy days

It's been  a great weekend with several hours of steady rain...I know this sounds crazy but just seeing clouds is an exciting thing around here.  Anyways, the dust is washed off everything...except my jeep which seems to be a magnet for the stuff.

Last weekend I was invited to another Murder Myster Dinner at my friends' Sharon and Serge.  This one was in 1930's Nappa Valley at a winery.  I played Tiny Bubbles (hence the polka-dotted costume) and my husband (played by Serge) was Ralph Rottengrape. I wasn't the killer but I was a bit of a black widow...I don't hold out much hope for Ralph's longevity.

They had an interesting dinner with roast duck and Morocan Tanjine.

My neighbors and I also had a bbq to take advantage of the mild weather.  It was actually cool enough that we had to put on sweaters later.

Foggy

The fact that it gets foggy here is something that never would have occured to me before arriving.  This morning, the fog was so thick that I couldn't tell the colour of the cars accross the intersections.  Amazingly, everyone was driving calmly and there were no accidents.  Apparently, there is a patch on the highway up to Dubai that gets particularly foggy and there are multiple fatal accidents there every winter. 

Camel Racing

 

The next three weeks are exam and PD weeks so I don’t have to be at college at the crack of dawn.  This finally gave me the motivation to get up before dawn for the camel races just outside of town.  They race very early so that the men can go to early morning Mosque services…also to keep the camels out of the direct heat of the day.

The race got canceled….apparently this happens rather frequently for all sorts of reasons.  We did get to see all the camels and their robot riders as they trained.

Bringing the camels out to the track.

It was actually cold.

These tiny robots have replaced the 4 and 5 year olds that were brought in from India and Pakistan in the past. 

The trainers riding the bigger camels and the smaller racers are usually tied to their mothers.

Later that day, I drove up to Dubai and went to the Global Village with my friend Patreshia.  This is a giant event held every winter with pavilions from various countries, rides, cultural shows, restaurants and shopping.  Unfortunately, many of the pavilions were filled to the rafters with plastic, made-in-china crap.  The South Korean pavilion didn’t have one Korean product in it.   The Indian one was filled with textiles which was interesting but they were all made in Pakistan..very odd.  My favorite was the Iraqi pavilion because they had gone a totally different way from other places and filled theirs with Iraqi artists’ paintings.  Most seemed between $100 to $200…very reasonable and something for every style. 

I’ve posted this picture of an African dancer because it really pointed out to me how different this place is.  I was watching the show and then noticed that amongst the hundreds of viewers, I was the only woman.  These male dancers had their shirts off so the local women couldn’t be anywhere near.

We’re taking our students to this place next week which is going to be an experience…many of them will have never been somewhere without family supervision.  I think I’ll make sure that they see this African show

 

Korean Christmas

 

The college gave us a couple weeks for the winter break and after my jam-packed Jordan/Egypt trip last winter, I decided to spend Christmas doing something relaxing and more ‘family’ oriented.  So, I joined my Korean ‘family’ for a week.  I’ve spent the last decade of Christmases on and off with my friends Kimberley and Chai and missed the last two years while off traveling so I was excited to see them.  Also, they have a cute little addition to their family who I was anxious to meet up with again.

The first night they decided to torture the poor desert dweller by going on a family outing to a Christmas village, at night, in –13 degree weather.

The lights were pretty and there were statues of Santa and his crew all over the place…whipping the kids up into a frenzy.  This is Kimberley and Kai with one of the many Santas.  We ended our night with hot chocolate and a sleepy drive back into the city.

Then it was Christmas fun for the rest of the week.  Christmas Eve dinner with friends

Kim’s spicy chilli with cheese and sour cream..yummm

Helping out Santa with a few construction jobs at 3am.

Then came Christmas morning and all the toys.

Kai with his best friend Inez….who knew mechanic fish were so interesting?

It was a great visit but I wish I had planned for a longer visit. 

The Grand Mosque

I had to go up to Abu Dhabi yesterday for an education conference so I took a little side trip to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in the city.  It's been on my mind since I arrived because it's such an impressive sight as you drive into Abu Dhabi.  It's the largest mosque in the country and the eighth largest in the world.  It's so big that 40,000 worshippers can squeeze in on the big holidays.

It has four tall minarets and 82 domes.  The minarets are really tall at 85 meters and they are in each of the four corners of the complex.

Apparently, the design is a mixture of Arab and Moorish design as the minarets are Arab and the doors and arches are Moorish.

The materials used for this were all imported and are finely crafted.  Each of the 96 columns surrounding the main courtyard is covered with white marble and inlaid with mother of pearl flower designs.

 

The entire complex is surrounded by pools.

 

 



The floor of the courtyard is also inlaid with marble.












Inside is even more amazing. You have to take off your shoes and women must cover their hair, arms and legs. I was prepared for this so I had my head scarf in my bag but you can borrow an abaya and Shayla there too. The first entry hall has huge marble flowers placed all along the walls and around the ornate windows.

As you walk into the main prayer hall (for men to pray) you're walking on the largest handmade carpet in the world and hovering above you are seven huge chandeliers from Germany that incorporate millions of Swarovski crystals.

 
Every inch of the inside is scrolled, carved or painted upon.

On one wall there are flowers with the 99 names or attributes of Allah  and on several walls there were the prayer times and names.

There are five different prayers in each day and they're all at different times (there are differences between different sects of Islam on the prayers).  The first is Fajr and it's supposed to be said at 10 or 15 minutes before sunrise.  The last is Isha and it's after sunset.  In the UAE you can hear the called to prayer from every mosque and it's actually sung by the the Imam at that mosque.  Luckily, the one by my house is a good singer but I have heard some that are a little off-tune or have a bad sound system.

Interesting things I learned about the prayer while visiting the Grand Mosque; every person must be clean and in a clean place to pray.  This means that they all wash their hands, feet, mouth, nose and hair (just wetting the ends of the hair is okay) before praying.  This is called wadhu in Arabic and if there isn't any water, you can use sand/dirt. The women's washing area was gorgeous.

Children under 7 don't pray and women can't pray when they're menstruating or just after giving birth.  Women also pray in a different area than men in this mosque but in some mosques, the women pray at the back with the children between them and the men.  Also, if you miss a prayer, you can make it up later.

A beautiful tribute to art and culture and, in a country where everyone has food, education and homes, I didn't mind the money spent on such a magnificent extravagance.