A Visitor from Home

Oh goody. More construction out our bedroom window. 

All I can say is I'm glad Colleen did not stay another night.  The day after my dear friend got on the plane back to Jordan, the construction barricades went up in front of our building and out came the bulldozer and the back hoe!  That night, from 12 to 5 am the pounding and banging began. And today is Day 4.  Since the building out my window was finished it has been so nice..but here we go again!!

Tea at Emirates's palace

Al Ain Palace Museum

Sallie, Sophia and Joey walking thru the Oasis in Al Ain

But Colleen's visit was fun!  We went to tea at Emirate's Palace with three other friends. She saw the gold ATM machine(put in money, out comes gold) and walked thru the exhibition of all the museums coming to Abu Dhabi. Didn't get to the Grand Mosque but she took pictures as we drove by on our way to Al Ain.  There she saw Sheikh Zayed's  palace where he received visitors in the early years as ruler of Al Ain-from 1937-1966. We also went to the Oasis, walked thru all the palm trees and then had lunch at a park near by.  



Fortunately, the rain held off.( That was frustrating. We get rain maybe twice a year and it comes when we have a guest! ugh.)   Colleen also got to go to a birthday party with Sallie and me while she was here.  My friend Huda, Egyptian but lived here all her life, has a daughter who turned 10. We had a party for her and Colleen joined us. It was so fun. Ingie is darling and she loved having all of us there to celebrate. When we came out it was raining but Mike picked us up.  I managed to slip and nearly break my back FIRST, but he showed up before I could fall a second time. Granite sidewalks are not the best for walking on in the rain.  Colleen's visit was fun. It's nice to have someone come from home and it's nice that she lives close. No jet lag. :) Our countries share some similar things..like crazy driving and circular reasoning but  they have fun differences, too.
I'm pretty sure when we drove up to the airport in Amman last summer I didn't say, "Wow. Even the airport looks like a mall."
Hope she comes back soon. Or maybe we will take Sallie and Robert to Jordan. The rest of the family is anxious to see Petra, so maybe that will be next.

A New Year

We just finished our fourth Christmas holidays in Abu Dhabi.  Hard to believe it's been that long. Ryan stayed for nearly 3 weeks, but Russell only had a couple days with us. Still we made the best of it and thoroughly enjoyed our time together. I think in the years ahead there will be a couple of stories that are repeated around the family dinner table.

On Thurs. Jan. 6, Ryan checked Russell's flight info. "Oh Mom! Russell gets in tonight at 8". "ÖK, I thought it was Friday, but I will call your dad."  ...Guess where this is going? Yep. Mike, Ryan and I drove to Dubai after work, only to discover that we arrived a day early to get our boy.  Ryan's face was priceless as we stood under the TV screens and I asked him if he happened to notice on the info the words...NEXT DAY.  Mike's face..not so priceless. So yes, we were anxious to see Russell. So anxious that we got there a day early. :)  But in order to not make the drive a total loss we drove to the hotel by Burj al Arab(sailboat hotel), ordered coffee and enjoyed watching the Burj turn colors.  On Friday, the Kenneys picked Russell up at the airport. They were in Dubai for the day. Whew. We were glad. By the way, we hadn't checked the airline either..so not only were we there on the wrong night, but we were in the wrong terminal.  Next time Mike will make sure Russell sends the info to him directly. Oops.

On Sat. we went to a coffee place by the beach.  We sat outside in the gorgeous weather and Ryan taught us a card game.  He doesn't play a lot of cards but his local friends here taught him this game. It's an Arabic game which is a lot like Spades but the trump changes. After I dealt I looked at Ryan on my left waiting for him to bid. He said it was Russell's turn, who was sitting on my right.  Apparently he learned to go counterclockwise. It really is an Arabic card game. But the best part is that after two hours of playing the score was 0 to 0.  Two hours and we didn't get anywhere....  

Robert  had fun over the holidays riding bikes with his friend, Evan, and playing his new video games with his buddies. Sallie and her friends sang in the International Carol Sing, had a Christmas party, went to the Youth For Christ Christmas conference-Desert Challenge, and hung out.

Next week we have a friend coming to see us from Jordan.   That will be fun. We will show her the sights.

Happy 2011.