Visit to Al Ain

We have found our time on the weekends here to be, well, under-utilized. Without sports and other activities clogging the schedule and no projects to do in the flat where we are renting, we tend to bounce around the flat for much of the weekend. To alleviate some of the boredom, we decided spur of the moment last weekend that we would visit the city of Al Ain at the eastern edge of Abu Dhabi emirate bordering Oman.

So after church on Friday (yes, Friday) morning, we packed up and headed out to the desert for one night. As we do frequently, we based much of our activities on the recommendations from TripAdvisor.com. Our first stop was the Al Ain Zoo which is highly touted in the country. It is one of the few places that we have been affected by the country's conservative dress code. For the girls over 12 they were requested to have their knees and shoulders covered. Katrina was young enough to get in even though she was wearing shorts.

It was close to 100 degrees that day but we got there later in the afternoon so we were able to avoid the worst part of the day. I won't rave about the zoo because it was just an average place to visit. There were a few exhibits that we enjoyed a little more than others. We always like watching the small monkeys running around the enclosures and got to see a pair of white tigers up close. The exhibit that caught our attention most was the one with the African non-predatory animals (giraffes, zebras, etc). The background was the mountains that make up the border with Oman which made it quite memorable. Allison developed a fever as we trudged along so we ended the visit just a bit early to get her some rest.

Off we went to the hotel we booked for the night. The Grand Mercure hotel is perched at the top of Jebel Hafeet, the highest point in Abu Dhabi. The accommodations were reasonable but the view from the room was amazing. We faced out over the Al Ain and could see miles of sand dunes of different colors. Off to the one side we could see one of the palaces belonging to one of the ruling Sheikhs (at a higher elevation, of course). In the morning the girls spent some time playing in the hotel's water park and after we checked out, we went to the overlook at the end of the road just shy of the peak. I could have spent hours there looking at the formations but the kids wanted to move on to the next thing. Well, they wanted to leave that one at least.

The Sheikh's palace

There is a single road leading to the top of the mountain. A few magazines have called the road one of the best driving roads in the world and I can certainly see why. The girls were a little nervous going up and down, mostly due to the sharp turns and sharp drop offs, but we made it just fine.

The road to Jebel Hafeet

Our next stop was at Green Mubazarrah at the base of the mountain. There wasn't much to see and the warm springs were not very enticing due to the heat (107 that day). It was nice to see the greenery around all of the sand. Our last stop was at the Al Ain Oasis which was across the city. I imagine it was more of a place to see in the past but now it is just a bunch of palm trees, albeit a large bunch in the middle of the city.

View from within the Al Ain oasis

As we were walking back to our car, we encountered our only uncomfortable situation so far in the country. We were walking by a mosque and one of the locals tried to talk to us. He spoke no English and I speak no Arabic (I believe that is what he was speaking) so our conversation got nowhere.  He seemed agitated based on the hand motions he was making and there were not many people nearby so we quickly moved on to our car.

We took a different route back to Abu Dhabi and we are glad we did. It took a bit longer but it was filled with large dunes and scattered with roaming camels and a few camel farms. We never get tired of seeing camels and made multiple stops to take photos. Our last photo op was to see a group of camels that were starting to venture out on to the highway. After a minute, the farmer drove up on his very modern ATV and herded the animals back through the gate to the farm.

Pardon me!

Overall it was a nice place to visit and there are a few things we didn't get to see so we will go back at some point. The one thing we would change for the next visit is to do a bit more research and planning for which activities to do.

Note: I have discovered one of the limitations of using free blogging software. The images on this post are not particularly well arranged, but after fighting with the editor for a while, this is where I left it.

Grocery Shopping

Yes, I am writing a blog about grocery shopping. It may sound dull (and it may very well be by the time I finish), but as it turns out this is a good sample of the service-oriented society. Many places in this country offer assistance for almost any aspect of your daily life. Most of the restaurants offer delivery to wherever you are. This even extends to fast food establishments.

So back to groceries. At home in the US, we went to the store once every 2-3 weeks and did a monster load to restock the cupboards. With the smaller refrigerator we have here we need to replace that big trip with more frequent but smaller trips. The shelf life for perishable foods seems shorter as well. Our theory, at least for the local breads and such is that there aren't as many preservatives.

We went to the Abela store not far from our flat to get a load for the upcoming week. It is very much like the British stores (Spinney's, Waitrose) here with their selection of foods, meaning that we don't recognize many of the brands. There are enough familiar American names around to keep us happy, though. We even saw packages of Phillips Crab meat (a Baltimore brand). The label indicated that it came from Indonesia, though!

If you have read this far, you are probably wondering where this is all going. At the checkout line at the store, we pull our cart up and before we could start placing items on the counter for the cashier, one of the workers took over and emptied our cart for us. He then walked around and started bagging. That's service I have not experienced at home. On top of that, he pushed the cart to our car and loaded the groceries into the back seat.

This is just one example of how there are people all over the place here to help us through any task that requires effort. There are some people who are quite happy with this level of service, but we are much more of a do-it-yourself family so we are still getting used to this.

Spring Break

We are in the middle of the school's spring break which lasts for 2 whole weeks. Initially, that sounds great but in reality the kids have got pretty bored already. The thing to do here is to take off for a vacation or a trip home to visit family over the break. We were busy getting settled here at the time we would have had to make travel plans so we missed out on an exciting spring break trip this year. We wanted to take the kids to Atlantis in Dubai over the break but we changed our mind after looking up the prices online. The normal rates are something like tripled during the break. It's not worth $3000/night! When break is over, we will get to hear from friends who have been in: the US, Oman, Paris, Sweden, Egypt and various other places.

Diana, Allison and Katrina got to take a mini-break of their own. The church we attend here planned a retreat for the past weekend in Al Ain. The retreat was for 12-14 year olds and Diana went as one of the chaperones. They were gone from Thursday morning to Saturday afternoon. Al Ain is on the far eastern end of the emirate of Abu Dhabi and borders Oman. It features the only mountain in the emirate, Jebel Hafeet which the girls got to run around after dinner the one evening. Megan and I got to spend the weekend together. Our activities featured time on the beach, splashing in the sea water and lots of time in the pool.

We are looking forward to our next break which is at the end of the school year (at the end of June). We are trying to work in a few days in London on the way home.

School and Activities

After two full months in Abu Dhabi, the excitement of exploring a new culture has started to give way to the routine of life again. Our days are starting to resemble a normal schedule and some of the new activities are filling in our free time nicely. We still have plenty of family time and most of it is quality time. There are five of us in the flat and we can all test each other's patience once in a while. Well, maybe a little more frequently than that.

Weekdays start by driving Katrina and Megan to school by 0730. They like to get there early so they can spend a little time with friends. Their school day starts at 0745 with "the anthem." I was only there for it once, but it surely was not the American anthem, so it must be the Emirati version. You can see the video with lyrics on YouTube:

We occasionally get to hear Musical Megan singing it as she tries to memorize the words. Katrina gets to do some singing herself as she has a choir class. They are singing the anthem from the 2010 World Cup. It is called "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" and we hear her singing around the house, too. I didn't know World Cups had their own songs, either.

We are not terribly impressed with the school the girls are attending. It is a for-profit, private American school and for the amount of money we pay I would expect a level of education close to what I would assume McDonough or Gerstell would provide. Based on our small insight to the happenings at the school, it seems more like the average American public school. Overall, the girls are happy there and Diana is adjusting to the swap of having Ally at home and the others away during the day.

While Ally enjoyed being in high school, she has embraced her homeschool work here. She gets up early and does her work and then is free for the day when she and Diana get to spend some time together. As part of her homeschool "curriculum", she is taking tennis lessons once a week and she and Diana signed up for a once a week cooking class at the culinary institute in Dubai.

Katrina gets horse lessons once a week and has joined the Thistle Football Club U14 girls team for the remainder of the spring season which lasts another month or so. We have been looking for a convenient gymnastics program for Megan but have not signed her up yet.

The girls have been making almost daily visits to the pool and Diana and Ally have been using the community gym to get some exercise and I have been looking to purchase a kayak. Ally would also like to get a stand up paddleboard (aka. SUP) since she enjoyed it the first time she tried it a few summers ago. We live on an island so water sports are pretty convenient.

The less fun part of the routine involves sharing one car to get to school and work and an almost daily trip to the market. Appliances here are on the small side so we need to replenish the refrigerator frequently.

We are in the process of scheduling our home leave. Diana and the girls will be home for almost all of July and August and I will be visiting for a week at the end of July. We are working on the travel plans now and are trying to work in a few days somewhere in Europe on the way home at the end of June.

Grand Mosque

It's like a dream, walking up to it-more enormous than you can imagine.  The domes give it almost an unearthly look, as if it is from some futuristic movie.  I've been meaning to tour it, but we always seem to think of it too late or at a bad time, so this evening I just decided to grab my camera and walk around a bit, scope it out without the whole family.  I'm so glad I did-evening is a wonderful time to see it, all lit up.  It's perched on a hill and I didn't even go in, it was just enjoyable to circle it, admiring the archways.  I've always liked arches-I'm adding keyholes to my favorites list.  Definitely want to see it in the daytime, too. It is a very peaceful, amazing place.  

Playing on the beach(again!)

So lovely on the beach in the late afternoon

Shoe shopping here is awesome!

Just some silly pics

Being silly in a Belgian cafe

Falcon Hospital

Here we are at the falcon hospital...

About a month ago, we visited the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital.  What an interesting place! Emiratis often own falcons-it is traditional here to own them and take them out hunting.  The birds are beautifully trained and well behaved. They are even allowed to travel as passengers on airplanes with their own seat and passport. They come in frequently to the hospital for talon clippings, etc. as well as health concerns.  Our guide, Hassan, was friendly and knowledgeable, and made everyone feel comfortable by speaking at least a little of each person's native language.  We got to observe the waiting room-so dear to see them sitting patiently with their little hoods on!  Then we watched a procedure on a bird under anesthesia.   Everyone of course got the opportunity to hold a falcon-they seem a lot bigger sitting on your wrist, staring you in the eye!  A very lovely, memorable experience for everyone.

Residency

We have been quite busy the past few weeks. We just moved into our flat and had to survive almost an entire week without Internet or TV! That is the excuse reason that I have neglected updating this blog.

Immigration

We are official residents of the UAE! Well, I am at least. Diana and the girls residency visa is in process right now. The process goes like this: my company sponsors me for a residency visa and once my process is completed, I sponsor the rest of my family for their visas. It may work the same way in the US, but I obviously have never immigrated to the US so who knows. I am sure there is a whole bunch of paperwork, phone calls and visits to government agencies to get through this but my company does all of the tedious work. I simply have to sign a document every now and then.

The immigration process is complete when you obtain your Emirates ID card. To get the card, the following steps need to happen once you have a sponsor and arrive in the country:

1. The visa stamped in your passport when you land at the airport is a 30 day visitor visa. It can be extended if necessary.
2. You get scheduled for a medical "exam". This occurs in a government building where you answer two questions about your health, have blood drawn and get a chest X-ray.
3. After a few days/weeks you get your Alico insurance card
4. A couple of weeks later you get the residency visa stamped into your passport. It is good for 2 years for me.
5. Provide proof that you are living here. A letter from the power company accomplishes that.
6. Only them do your get the Emirates ID card.

Now that I have my Emirates ID, we start the same process for the family, although the kids do not need the medical exam.

As an expat, there are many things that cannot happen until you get the Emirates ID, although many organizations are satisfied with a scanned copy of the residence visa. You need it for:

• enter into a lease for a flat or villa
• obtain a driving license
• apply for a bank account
• get a post-paid mobile telephone account (prepaid just needs a passport)
• get a liquor license
• lots of other things that I cannot remember now

The Emirates ID is your government identification. Most shops, agencies (called "ministries" here) and pretty much everybody knows you by your mobile phone number.

If you are still reading this you must be seriously bored because that just wasn't very exciting to read! I guess my background shows since that looks much like how I write technical documents. Let's get back on track with stuff you may actually care about...

Schooling

We have been adjusting to the normal routine of life here. Katrina and Megan are attending a private school (GEMS American Academy). We seemed to have arrived at an inconvenient time of year for getting Allison into a school since they are all full. She is going to be home schooled for the spring and attend GEMS in the fall when there is an opening. 

Housing

After 40 days in the hotel, we are in our permanent housing. We have settled in Al Raha Beach which is a bit outside of the city but close to school and my work. Specifically, we are on the manmade island of Al Muneera. There are 4 apartment buildings, about 70 townhouses and villas, several shops and restaurants in a central plaza and a private beach looking out on Yas Island. In the picture, our flat is in the round tower on the right. Our view roughly overlooks the right-most bridge to the mainland.

Al Muneera, Abu Dhabi

I haven't quite figured out the postal system here yet. I believe that the post office only delivers to P.O. Boxes that you need to rent. I'm sure there is a post office somewhere where we can go to mail a letter. We don't have a P.O. box so if you want to send us something, I can give you our company box number. Package deliveries to your door are another story. For most deliveries you basically need to describe where to make the delivery. Many shops list their physical locations as something like "behind the XXX shop on XXX street". To send anything to us, I believe the following should work:

Al Raha Beach

Al Muneera building, Al Rahba 2, block B, unit 306

Abu Dhabi, UAE

There are only a handful of delivery companies that will deliver to the door. We have successfully received a FedEx package from the US, but only after they called us to get clarification of the location.

After a 6 week voyage our goods from home have arrived. Aside from a few dings on a couple of toys, everything made it intact. We shipped 18 boxes which were mostly clothes, some games and some kitchen goods. After two large deliveries from the local IKEA, one trip to get some electronics and a few appliances and our goods from home we are pretty much set for furnishings for the next year.

Now we can settle into the routine of work, school and kids activities.

Dubai Part One

We have been in Abu Dhabi long enough now that we have visited many of the attractions and places to see. The kids are actually getting bored playing on the beach at the Corniche. We figured it was time to venture away from our new home and our first road trip was to Dubai a few days ago. It was just a day trip to see some of the sights and be able to plan out a more detailed visit in the future.

Dubai is a little over an hour away from our hotel and about 45 minutes from where our flat is. There is one main highway that connects Abu Dhabi and Dubai, called "E11" (see Wikipedia for an explanation of road numbering). It is also called Sheikh Zayed Road, but many roads around here either contain "Sheikh" or "Zayed" or both so the names don't stick too well. Most road signs include the route number, but they *all* say "Dubai this way" (at least the ones point to Dubai) which is what I look for:

Even technology-oriented me doesn't rely on GPS to get me around too often anymore. The built-in Apple maps on an iPhone is almost useless as I have driven across a peninsula on a road that very much exists, despite Apple maps saying there is nothing but water there. Google maps is spot on with locations and directions so it is there when I need it.

So we piled in the car filled up the tank and started following signed toward Dubai. First stop was one of the palm islands, called the Palm Jumeriah. As you could imagine, the island is shaped like a palm tree with the Atlantis resort at the top of the tree. The trunk is lined with hotels and residences and each frond is its own gated community. We drove the length of the trunk and down the outermost leaves for a ways until we could see the Burj Al Arab hotel which is it's own little island.

Megan, Katrina and the Burj Al Arab

We also stopped at some shops next to Atlantis but could not get in to take a look around. It is definitely on our must do list for later this spring.

We set out for the Burj Khalifa and tried to get there using sign navigation. I knew the general direction to go so we got back on the main road toward downtown Dubai. It also helped that you could see the building from several kilometers away (for you metric-challenged people, that's several miles away). The Dubai Mall is right next to the Burj Khalifa so we parked in the mall parking lot (level 9!) and spent some time seeing the sights in the mall which included the Dubai Aquarium with it's 3 story tall fish tank for visitors to gaze at while shopping. We ate dinner at a Rainforest Cafe next to the aquarium and could see the fish swimming along as we ate.

At the same area as the mall and Burj Khalifa is the Dubai Fountain. It is much the same as the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas and I believe designed by the same people. We got there just before the first show of the evening at 6pm and claimed a spot at the edge of the water. We got a front row spot and watched the lighted fountains dance around in time to an Arabic tune blasting through the speakers. After the show we wondered over near the base of the Burj Khalifa and did the obligatory pictures. We stuck around long enough (15 minutes) that we got to see the next show which was set to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You".

Our evening ended there and we attempted to find our car in the car park ("parking garage"). We got part way through the mall and I downloaded the mall app which led us through the various arms until we found our car. Again, we just followed the signs toward Abu Dhabi and completed the day trip. And we now know what we want to see more of when we go back. Diana is now comfortable with the city and managed to run off to Dubai all by herself for a day-long shopping trip this past weekend, ostensibly for furniture, but ended up with a few bags of clothes and shoes.

You don't see this in the US

Hotel Living

We are nearing the 30 day mark into our expat adventure and we are getting into a groove with daily routines and places to go. My daily routine is easy--get up early and go into work for 8+ hours then come home. Diana and the girls' routine is not quite that simple yet. They do some school work, Diana makes some phone calls, the kids play on their phones then they do a little running around the city. Sometimes it involves shopping in the local markets for dinner food (the refrigerators are ridiculously small) or playing at the Corniche or beach.

We have been living in a hotel since we got here. It's a 3 bedroom suite so there is certainly enough space for us all, but it is still a hotel. Hotels restaurants are the only places allowed to sell alcohol with meals, but we ended up in a totally dry hotel. We do occasionally venture out to try a different hotel restaurant occasionally, but they are really expensive. The meals are very gourmet and we are definitely enjoying it. Aside from the hotel restaurants, there are small, local cafes everywhere, with just about any kind of food. We went out looking to try something new a few days ago and stumbled across a vegetarian Indian restaurant that is worth going back to.

We have found housing in the area we want to live, called Al Raha Beach. It is a 3 bedroom, 200 sq. meter flat on the 3rd floor of an apartment building on the island of Al Muneera. There is a shaded pool which is essential in the hot summer and there is a private beach for the apartment complex. There is also a gym in the building to keep Diana happy. The process to lease the flat is not particularly well defined and varies by the owner. The common trait is that the lease is paid up front for the 12 months. Sometimes (as with our landlord), you can make 2 payments, but you need both checks at lease signing.

We had hoped to find a furnished flat and confirming what we found on the internet, there are only a few options for furnished flats. Our flat at least has kitchen appliances and a washer/dryer which leaves us more of our budget to buy furniture. So far we have made 5 or 6 trips to Ikea but have got most of the necessities on order and ready for delivery (and they will assemble it for free). I'm not thrilled about being surrounded by Ikea furniture for the next year. If we can't sell the furniture before we leave, we will make some college-bound kid happy with enough furniture to fill a dorm room.

While we didn't send any furniture we did send some of kitchen necessities along. Our belongings have been sailing the world on their way to get to us. We (well, just me) have been tracking the progress of the container ship with our goods. Since it has left Baltimore, it has visited Norfolk VA, Charleston SC, Freeport (Bahamas) and Haifa (Israel). It is currently transiting the Suez canal on it's way to the port of Salalah in southern Oman. It should only be another few days until it arrives in the port of Jebel Ali (between Abu Dhabi and Dubai) then it needs to clear customs and only then will it get scheduled for delivery to our flat.

Hopefully this weekend will be the last in the hotel. If things work as planned (ha!) we should sign the lease for the flat and have our Ikea furniture delivered this week. There's even an outside chance that our sea-going belongings will show up. If that's not busy enough, the girls may be starting school next week as well. More details on school and our day trip to last weekend to Dubai in the next post.

Best Zoo Ever!

So beautiful-not sure what kind of bird it is

We went to the Emirates Park Zoo last week and had an absolutely fabulous time!  Weather was perfect, kids were excited to go with our new friends, and the animals were so close!  Got to feed many by hand.  There were a few bites and scratches, but we all have updated tetanus shots, so it's all good!  Although some of the enclosures were a little small, overall the zoo felt very happy and friendly-most of the animals were quite perky.  Really great day!!

Megan could not get enough of these little guys!

We kept coming back to feed the giraffes

These monkeys would gently take popcorn from your hand