Souk Madinet

Yesterday was Colleen's last day in Dubai so we planned a fun afternoon outing to the Souk Madinet. This is an area of shops and restaurants set along a canal in between two very nice hotel properties. The shops vary from traditional clothing and decoration to modern toys and accessories. The restaurants are plentiful and offer a variety of cuisines (Lebanese, Persian, Italian...).

We took a tour of the canal on one of the Abra's, spent some time browsing the shops and then had a wonderful Persian dinner. Definitely a fun afternoon out!

Turkey coma...

Our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday was great! The food was all wonderful (or at least everybody said it was) and we really enjoyed having family and friends here to celebrate with.

Angela quickly picked up on Darren's building skills and had him trapped in the playroom for a while.


The feast (half of it anyways)


Yummy!!



This week I'm off to find a Christmas tree and decorations for the house! Based on my last trip to the mall, this should not be difficult. We were always surprised by how much Christmas decor there was in China and it seems that the UAE is no different!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends & family from Dubai. We are celebrating today (Friday) since Rich had to work all day yesterday. Colleen is here visiting and we have a few IBM friends coming by this afternoon to join us for dinner.

I've never actually cooked a complete Thanksgiving dinner so this should be fun. The turkey is in the oven cooking and all my sides are prepared. Check back for another update soon to see how it all turned out!

Butterball turkey - complete with Arabic label!

 

My audience while baking an apple pie yesterday

 

Smells yummy mom

 

At least if the turkey doesn't come out, we'll all enjoy some apple pie!

 

To the Top

Nana is here visiting this week so we took her out on a special tour this morning. We went 'to the top'...the viewing platform on the 124th floor of the Burj Khalfia (the tallest building in the world). Angela and I did this tour when we were here in April and its definitely something that all visitors to Dubai must see.

Also worth noting is the walkway that runs just behind the Burj tower. There is an amazing view of the tower behind a pool of water with fountains. Unfortunately the fountains were not turned on when we were there today but its still a fun area to check out.

A trip to the mall, but not to shop!

In Dubai, you often hear people say that they spent a weekend morning or afternoon at one of the various malls. Most of the malls here are very nice and offer lots of really great shopping options. However, the malls aren't only for shopping. The entertainment at most of these places is endless.

Yesterday afternoon we had planned on taking a trip to the beach (we still haven't had a beach day since being here) but then decided that it was still a little too hot outside. So instead we ventured out to the Dubai Mall. This is the biggest (and nicest in my opinion) mall in Dubai and is right next door to the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world).

We now always leave the stroller at home and Angela is happy to ride through the mall in a cuddle cart. All of the malls have these little cars - and Angela loves riding around the mall in them. They also offer 'double' cars for two kids and have some that have tv screens built into the steering wheel. My favorite part is the shopping back on the back that is great for storing the diaper bag and all of our purchases.

Our first stop at the mall yesterday was the aquarium tunnel. They've built a large tank that is visible from three levels of the mall shopping area and includes a tunnel that snakes through the tank. As soon as we approached the aquarium Angela started pointing and yelling 'fishy fishy'. She loves seeing fish!



After the aquarium we walked over to the Waterfall which is a massive indoor waterfall with an interesting display of divers. We then made our way to the train ride and Angela and Bonnie took a short ride around one section of the mall. Angela was thrilled to climb into the train car but then grew really antsy when the train didn't start moving fast enough (the conductor was taking a long break). When the train finally started moving she seemed shocked, and then had the biggest smile on her face.







The final stop at the mall was for dinner. We opted for Rainforest Cafe so that Angela would be entertained. The food was nothing special but the look on Angelas face when the gorillas nearby started moving and making noises was priceless. She is working on perfecting her monkey noise and was more than happy to imitate the gorillas that were dancing by our table!





We left the mall having made only one purchase - a stuffed monkey that makes noises and dances. Now Rich is just waiting until Angela is big enough for ski's so that he can take her to the indoor ski slope at the Mall of the Emirates!

Angela's first haircut

It was finally time. Angela has been refusing to keep her hair pulled back out of her face so this morning we ventured out for her first hair cut.

Things started out ok, she was very happy when we arrived at her favorite play center.



The trouble began when we put her in the baby chair and buckled her in. Not even Barney playing on the tv or snacks could calm her down.





Fortunately the hair dresser was fast and efficient and managed to trim everything in about 7 minutes. Its not perfect but is about as good as you can get with a child that is screaming bloody murder.




She looks so old now!

Fall back

We did not 'fall back' here in Dubai so we are now 9 hours ahead of NY instead of 8. Morning time in the US still seems the best for reaching us - you can usually catch Ang just as she is waking up from her nap. Unfortunately Skype is no longer reliable here. It's banned by the government (for video calls, chat works just fine) and although they don't have it blocked the service providers are now filtering the calls resulting in very poor quality on video and voice. We have had some luck with video calls on Google Talk but I know not everybody uses that service. I'm on the lookout for how best do video calls and will let everyone know when we find something that works!

28 weeks

I am 28 weeks pregnant now - and feeling a bit overwhelmed that baby # 2 is only 12 weeks away. I had a routine appointment with my doctor this afternoon and everything looks great. The baby continues to grow nicely (as does my belly) and we're both healthy. I return in about four weeks for an ultrasound and another visit with the doctor. Hopefully we will have confirmation of the gender then - although the technician was fairly certain it is a girl at my 20 week scan, she wasn't 100% sure because of the babies position.

**Photo note**
I'm already in pajama's but thought a 28 week belly photo would be a nice addition to this blog. So not the best of photo's but it will have to do for now.

the end of the expo

Although we are no longer in Shanghai, we're still following the news about the city. For those that visited us in the past year you no doubt remember Haibao plastered all around the city and the 2010 World Expo signs everywhere. A few of you even visited the Expo. Well, last weekend marked the end of the Expo and I have to say I'm not sad we are missing it. From the sounds of it, Shanghai has grown more and more busy in recent weeks. Visitors to the Expo topped out at over 1 million in one day - and I'm sure many of those people also visited Yu Yuan, the Bund, the Pearl Tower and the fake markets. Which means all those places that are normally very crowded were probably at least twice as crowded. Considering many of the Expo visitors were Chinese, this means lots of crowded lines, pushing, shoving and smells (none of which I like).

I'm not sure I ever blogged about our trips to the Expo so I've gone back through my photos now. Sorry no Ang pics here, she never made it to the Expo.

This is Haibao. He was the mascot for the Expo and you could find him everywhere in Shanghai.


These are photo's of a few of the pavilions. The lines to get into some of these were always so long. We made it into the South African pavilion (because there was no line). The first photo that doesn't have a country name is the Theme pavilion. This was a series of movies and exhibits about certain themes. I cannot recall the theme that we saw but it was really odd.






Dining at the expo...one evening we were at the Expo with Deb and Ali and searched for a place to eat. We found something that claimed to be a Western Cafe. The food was horrible and the service was interesting. We teased Rich to have his photo taken with the cow because he ordered the beef - and I was pretty sure that beef would come back to haunt him the following day (it did not). Deb and Ali both ordered the 'safer' pasta dish. The waitress came by with two plates of pasta, gave one to Deb, and then walked away and gave the other dish to another table. We had to wait about 15 minutes to get another plate of pasta and were reminded once again about the lack of dining service in China!

the proper technique for eating green beans

1. Select a green bean from your plate




2. Peel the bean apart (remind mom no olive oil next time, these things are slippery!)




3. Pick out each little bean





4. Enjoy!