Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!!

The Formula 1 Race arrived this weekend. Months of preparation finally paid off. An entire racetrack was built on a neighboring island. A billboard on the corniche counted the days. Where will you be on November 1st? The malls contained special exhibits. Race cars with virtual simulators were set up for all to experience. It's been quite a "ride". :) Here you see an Emirati father giving his son driving lessons at one of the displays. Yes, well, as they say, A picture is worth a thousand words.

By the way, good friends of ours attended the opening night of the 3 day event Beyonce performed. 30,000 people were said to have attended. Not a single bathroom was open. Don't know if that lasted the whole night..but apparently at least for awhile there were no bathrooms available. Just a few glitches. :) He did say the show was incredible.

Today we may walk to the beach and see what it is happening there. The screens are set up so you can watch the races while sitting under the palm trees. Might be fun.

The View

Everyday, except for some Fridays, approximately 3,000 workers travel two and from the construction sites outside our apt. building. The buses line up on the street down below our living room window and at the end of the day the men run from the side of the building to catch their transportation back to the labor camps where they live. Most men carry a tin bucket that is packed with their lunch for the day, provided by their employer, who also provides their living quarters in the camp. You can just see the bucket in the 3rd picture I posted. Usually this mass movement of people happens 4 times a day. Morning and evening shifts arriving and leaving. We try to avoid trips to the car around those times. When we first moved here, being novices at the whole thing, we nearly got run over a couple of times. It's also difficult to park when the 20 buses that park outside, line up on the street. :) In this picture you only see a few as they also park around the side of the building. The two construction sights have been in process the whole time we have lived here. One is right oustide our bedroom window. The other, the skyscraper, which will one day be a huge a mall, hotel and apartments and whatever..is on the other side of our building.

When my brother in law, Don, was here, I would catch him standing at the window watching the laborers come and go. We have gotten used to the sight, but at first it was pretty fascinating.

Mike and Robert are on their first Boy Scout campout right now. It will be peaceful and beautiful An undeveloped beach only an hour from here. Can't wait to hear about it. :)

When You Live in Abu Dhabi

It occurred to me that my posts gradually are slowing down. My friend, Susan, mentioned to me that she checked the blog and realized things must be "normal" because I am not posting as much. She's right. There are still funny things that catch my attention, but not as many. Like the fact that the city is going to implement the use of parking meters next month. ..yep. Parking meters. Where are they going to start? Right outside our building. So not only will we be charged now to park but we will get more fines for parking in illegal spots. Which, as you saw in previous posts, is basically all that is available. Don't ask what we will do. We have no idea.

Next week we will be a part of the Formula 1 Racing..It's coming to town. In honor of the special event, traffic on the Corniche(main road along the water) has been shut down. The beach..which only opened a year ago..has been totally redone, and some new major light posts have been installed on one of our main thoroughfares. It's all supposed to be finished by next weekend. Who knows. Maybe it will be done. I think the Hildebrands will hibernate all weekend. :)

Sallie and Robert are taking speech with our friend Katie. Next week is the impromptu speech. Katie gave the kids about 20 topics that they will choose from(pull out of a hat sort of thing). One of them is you know you have lived in Abu Dhabi when... The kids were laughing in the car as they threw out ideas. When: you see a Lamborghini and don't notice it..ho hum. but you do get excited when you find a parking place! when: you get surprised that someone understands your directions the first time, or: you find yourself repeating yourself several times to someone who speaks perfect English. When; you pull out the sweatshirts because the temp. dipped into the 80s(this does not apply to Sallie cuz she wears hers ALL the time now. :)...even at 115 degrees.) Anyway, I hope Sallie or Robert draws that one..but we'll see. The kids are having fun with the class. There are about 11 other homeschoolers in it. Last week we had our Fall kick off for the homeschool group here. About 60 people met at the bowling alley. And that wasn't everyone. It's really growing.

That's all for now.

Hope you are all enjoying your fall weather.

We'll let you know when we have some. :)