Back To School.....kind of

Well we are back in Mumbai and have already had a pretty interesting couple of weeks. First of all our flight from Syracuse to Newark was delayed so we missed our initial flight back here. Luckily, we were able to get on a flight the next day so we ended up spending a night in lovely Newark. We were supposed to take the non-stop from Newark to Mumbai but instead got a different flight through London.

We left for the airport the next night and found out that our flight was again delayed for a couple hours which wasn't a big deal except for the fact that we had to make a connection in London which now went from 2 hours to 20 minutes. So we FINALLY leave Newark and arrive in London where we had 20 minutes to run across the airport, take a 10 minute bus over to the other terminal, go through security, and get on the flight. We arrived at the gate as the doors were closing to hear that we could still get on the flight but there was no way that our luggage was going to make the connection.

That was good enough for us since we had already wasted a day and a half of travel time. So we get to Mumbai and as expected our bags are not there. Surprisingly, the staff at the airport were very efficient and helpful and we filled out some forms and the bags were delivered the next day. And all of our stuff was still in them too! We were pleasantly surprised and lucky that it went so smoothly.

It's definitely a very different feeling being back for the second year. It was nice to be able to go run errands on our first day back and know where everything is and how to get around. The apartment was all clean and ready to go. The pug was happy and healthy and it's been a smooth transition back into things.

We had our first days of training and are all ready to get back into things. The first day of school was supposed to be yesterday but unfortunately public swine flu mass hysteria outweighed the logical decisions of the government and forced all schools to close for a week. I've been pissed off about swine flu "pandemic" ever since it began so I won't waste more time complaining about how horribly it's been handled and how illogical and over-reactive people are. What's done is done and we are now closed for a week. So instead of class, we will be creating online lessons and sending them out to students next week to work on independently at home. So this week is basically just time sitting around at school planning how we are going to present this in a way that is simple and meaningful. So far so good, the school has done a great job preparing for this so it looks like everything will go smoothly on Monday when "class" begins.

It's good to be back and we are excited for the year which makes it frustrating to have this delay. Even so, it gives everyone a little more time to get settled which could turn out to be a good thing. The festivals are starting up again and Ganesh immersion will be happening in the next couple weeks so we will try and get some good coverage of that. We are planning to go over to someone's house and actually see the whole thing from a local's point of view. Should be interesting.

But for now we sit in Limbo waiting for things to get started. More news to come as the year starts to pick up. Thanks for a great summer! We are so glad we got to see so many people! Take care and enjoy your year!


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K&E

Long Time No Blog

Well its officially been 1 month since our last post which means we must be busy or something. :-) The past month has been going by very quickly with all the end of year activities at school: final performances, assemblies, meetings, taxes, travel plans, grades, exams, projects, and on and on. So yeah, we've been a bit busy.

For the most part, it's all been typical end of school business yet there have been a couple noteworthy happenings in the past few weeks. First of all, Elizabeth got a last minute opportunity to go to Hong Kong with a group of drama students. With all the worry about swine flu they thought it would be a good idea to have an extra chaperone just in case, so Elizabeth got to spend 4 days just hanging out in Hong Kong. Not a bad deal. While she was gone, Suri and I took care of the house and spent alot of time sleeping in and getting school work done.

As for school, final exams started this week and continue through Tuesday. We are finishing up some projects and gearing up for the last 5 days. I'm going in to school tomorrow to do one last review session for our test on Monday and then its time to grade and write comments one last time. I've also signed on for a number of new committees and projects for next year including being the math department chair so there is some planning that needs to take place before we leave to put us in a good place to start up again in August.

And the most important new occurance is that we are officially the proud owners of tickets to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa!! I'm much more excited about this that Elizabeth but still, we are up for a big vacation next summer. The tentative plan is to go to Cape Town for 5 days, then to Durban for 6 days, Nelspruit for 5 days, then Johannasburg for 4 days. We will go to 3 group games and 1 round of 16 game. We are also planning to do a 3 day safari while in Nelspruit. I am really really really excited and ready to start booking tickets as soon as the airlines let us.

Other than that it is just time to pack and cram in as much work as we can in the next 7 days. We leave one week from Monday and will hopefully have some time to relax in our busy summer schedule. We will be going between Seattle and Boise for the first month then its off to Syracuse for Elizabeth's classes. We are excited to be home and already have our Target and Costco lists prepared :-) Hopefully we wil be able to see lots of people and look forward to a well deserved break. Hope all is well back home and we will see you soon!!

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K&E

New ASB Video

In the last month or so we had film editor Tony Pappa at our school filming for our new promotional video. He came up with a really fantastic collection of images and interviews that really capture the city and the school. Enjoy!!

ASB Video

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K&E

No Longer in De-Nile

First, I'm going to give you a second to re-read the title of this post. Second, I'm going to apologize for writing the title of this post. I couldn't resist making a joke about the Nile and I am deeply, deeply sorry. I searched long and wide through the banks of my memory but I've been all tied up with work and couldn't dig up anything better. I even asked my mummy but she was no help. My pa piously pondered but his ideas were all dried up too. Man, this post really sphinx. Sorry, I'll just bury it. Oh siriously...I'll wrap it up, I'm getting horace from laughing so hard. I guess this is what happens when you try to post at tomb-fifteen in the morning. The ideas just kept un kamen....it's like a curse or something.

Sorry, it starts with a title then before you know it your'e in a vicious pun spiral. I couldn't help it. :-)

Well we are back from our spring break in Egypt and long over due for an update so hold on to your galabeyas because this is a long one (and I swear it will get better so please don't leave yet). The past few weeks have pretty much been filled with classes, planning, and preparations for spring break. There was a major conference for the Near East Schools Association (NESA) being held in Cairo this year so we decided this would be a great opportunity to go to a great conference and have an excuse to go to Egypt which isn't too bad either.

Our school is also doing some work around standards and assessment and I had the opportunity to go to a special NESA pre-conference dealing with math standards that began two days before the actual conference. So I left for Cairo on Wednesday to attend that two day session then Elizabeth and all the other folks from ASB arrived on Friday afternoon for the full conference.

The nice thing about conferences is that they are held at super fancy hotels. The bad part is that you have to deal with the ridiculous nature of a super fancy hotel. I checked into the Conrad Hilton in Cairo on Wednesday and immediately remembered why I hate Hiltons so much. They provided wireless internet in the lobbies and rooms which was great except that it cost 50$ A DAY!!! Oh, and you can only have it on one computer. Oh, and its a different charge if you want to connect to the wired internet cable in your room. Oh, and they have a completely different wireless connection in each of the conference rooms where we were having our sessions for which you have to pay a different connection fee.

So basically, the Hilton was hosting a giant international conference including presentations that required multimedia and internet connections but gave nobody free internet access. Brilliant. Especially when presenters had to change the entire content and structure of their talks because the hotel wouldn't give them internet access.

Anyway, we paid their stupid fees so we could get to our email and access our flight and travel info. Other than that (and the overpriced unfulfilling "gourmet" dinners that tasted like crap) the hotel was very nice. They had a very lovely pool that closed at sunset and even had rooms with beds in them. Good thing the school gives us professional development stipends to pay for the 200$ a night bill.

Stepping down from my soapbox though, it was a very lovely time. The conference was very successful and I think we both came away with lots of great ideas. The sessions lasted until Tuesday and in that time we had 5 free evenings and 2 free afternoons to explore Cairo. My first night there I walked around with Jane (the other pre-conference teacher coming from ASB) and explored the area around the Nile and our hotel. The hotel is located right on the Nile so we were able to take a nice evening stroll around town and managed to cover a good deal of ground.

When the rest of the ASB crew showed up, we started our adventures by heading down town to the Khan el Khalili market. This was a bustling tourist market full of all sorts of wonderful stuff for sale. We spent a good few hours walking around, bartering and making some good steals on a couple items. On our way out we stopped at a little place to eat. The owner of the "restaurant" was in the street like every other salesman trying to sell people into eating at his place.

We accepted his offer as it was pretty much the only place to eat in the market and had a seat. The menu was full of mostly traditional middle eastern items: falafels, shawarma, kebabs, etc. They also had a margarita pizza that sounded pretty good so I ordered that while everyone else got falafels and shawarma (which comes on a fluffy hamburger bun in Egypt...weird). After about 5 minutes they brought out some plates of vegetables, hummus, and pitas which we think were the "salads" that came with everyone's meal. We then waited and waited and after about 10 minutes, realized that nobody was actually in the kitchen making any food. The staff was all out in the street trying to "sell" their restaurant to other tourists.

After another 5 minutes we finally see the owner walk into the restaurant with some bags from across the street. At this point, they start bustling around the kitchen and immediately bring out our meals. I had thought it funny that their menu was all traditional Egyptian food except for the pizza and proceeded to realize that was because they didn't actually make pizzas here. They had outsourced my meal to a restaurant across the street. I had paid him to go order a pizza at a different restaurant (probably for a much lower price) then bring it back in a take out bag and put it on a plate. Excellent.

We all enjoyed our meals though and only paid about 10$ for all seven of us. That's one thing that was very nice about Egypt. Eating out at the little local restaurants was very inexpensive. We probably spent about 10 times more on taxis as we did on food for the whole trip.

The next day on Saturday we decided to venture out to the pyramids after the sessions were through. There was a tour company set up in the lobby to organize a trip for 15 of us to go at 4pm. One fact we later noticed was that most things that are important and interesting to see close around 5. So we hopped on our bus and drove about 40 minutes across the river to Giza to visit the pyramids.

I think many people like myself thought the pyramids were out in the middle of the desert somewhere but in fact they are right on the edge of Giza. They have houses and shops built right up to the edge of them. Our bus arrived and our tour guide said we needed to choose an activity to do: either take a camel ride or go inside the pyramid. We've already done the camel thing before and were not too thrilled by it so we decided to buy a ticket to go inside the pyramid. Our tour guide then gave us 15 minutes of free time to see the pyramid and do our activity. What!?! 15 minutes...are you serious!!! I know...tell me about it. So we quickly snapped some photos on our way up to the pyramid then a group of us went down inside.

We crouched down and worked our way down a ramp through a tunnel about 4 ft high until we reached a couple open caverns, one of which had an large stone coffin. Everything was of course empty and dark and musty and smelly and claustrophobic but it was pretty cool to be inside the pyramids. We made our way back out and were told that it was time to leave so we walked very very very slowly back to the bus to try to get the most out of our 5 minutes by the greatest architectural achievements in the history of mankind.

We then hopped back on the bus and drove about 100 yards to the Sphinx which sits directly in front of the center pyramid. We got about twice as much time there, which was still only 30 minutes then drove to a papyrus shop so the tour company could get some commission. We spent longer in the shop than at the pyramids, but whatever...I'm not bitter. The papyrus was really cool though and they showed us the process for making it and let us walk around and buy some paintings.

Now those that don't remember your middle school ancient civilizations unit on Egypt, the pyramids were built as tombs to house the bodies of pharaohs and first began construction during the Old Kingdom over 4600 years ago. It started when early builders began building a single step or mastaba on top of the grave to signify it as higher status than others. This later evolved into laying multiple steps on each other to create the first step pyramids which were later redesigned and smoothed out to get the shapes we see today. The Pyramids at Giza include three major pyramids: Pyramid of Menkaure, Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Khufu or "The Great Pyramid".

As the story goes, after Khufu built the great pyramid, his son Khafre tried to out do his father by building a bigger and better pyramid. If you compare the two Khafre's looks slightly taller but in fact this is only because he built it with a steeper angle and built it on a hill. Nice try Khafre. Although he may not have beat out his dad, many believe that Khafre was the one who also built the Sphinx though that is still debated.

The next night we decided that we wanted a second look at the pyramids to make up for being so rushed so a group of us got a taxi and went to the evening light show. Now any good tourist light show at a historic monument must have a few key items:

1. A narrator who is over the top and speaks with a 12th century English accent (in this case the Sphinx apparently)
2. A rainbow of lights and lasers
3. A scripted storyline written in the 1950's
4. Carefully selected background music and sound effects to create drama, drama, drama

Luckily, the pyramid light show had all of these which made it very entertaining. Though the cheese factor was very high, it felt good to have a chance to just sit and take in the experience for a while since we were so rushed the first time. The show was only 45 minutes long so we headed back toward the hotel to relax and make the most out of our overpriced internet before going to bed.

The rest of our time in Cairo was spent doing conference activities including some evening galas although we did get to go to the Cairo museum for a bit which was definitely worth the trip. They had some really great displays of statues, treasures, heiroglyphs, and mummies (both human and animal) I didn't know this but they apparently mummified all sorts of stuff to keep in the tomb for the after life including family pets and offerings of livestock. They would mummify a leg of lamb or a family's pet monkey. They even mummified local creatures that represented gods, especially crocodiles. There was a great display of a mummified crocodile that was at least 10 feet or more. I will say this again later but it is incredible how well everything is preserved.

Once the conference ended we spent our last free afternoon on a felluca

ride on the Nile which was really nice. We had a very friendly captain from Aswan who was telling us all about how he preferred his home town over Cairo because his boss was a jerk. The weather in Cairo was stunning and being out on the Nile was very peaceful and relaxing and a good way to end our work time and start our real vacation. (Notice I'm wearing jeans and a sweatshirt in Egypt, perfect weather). After some lunch we took a cab over to the Citadel and Mohamed Ali Mosque but it was closing so we only got to walk around for about 20 minutes before they kicked everyone out. Then it was back to the hotel for dinner and packing for our cruise!

The next morning we caught a flight down to Aswan where we started our 3 night cruise up the Nile to Luxor. We were picked up at the airport and taken to the boat where we met our guide Tarek. We got all checked in and immediately took off for a tour around Aswan.

I really liked Aswan. It is a decent sized city but lies right at the mouth of Lake Nasser and has a more natural and peaceful feel to it. I wish we had more time to spend there as it seems like a great place to go for a few days to really relax. Cairo was a really cool city as well but still has that populated, trafficy, dirty, big asian city feel like Mumbai.

While in Aswan we took a trip to the High Dam which was a joint project by Egypt and Russia to provide funds and resources in return for military support during the cold war. It is build on the edge of Lake Nasser and not only provides a more controlled flow of the Nile and its annual floods, but also creates a great deal of hydroelectric power that is used in Aswan and exported elsewhere. There is a lot of interesting history behind the dam especially concerning the Nubian villages that were flooded out after its creation. Upon realizing this, the Egyptian government paid to have their entire village relocated to the other side of the dam which has created some tension and ethnic disparity. The dam has also blocked all the silt that makes the northern delta so fertile and has blocked most wildlife from entering the Nile from the south, especially crocodiles. There are currently little to no crocodiles in the Nile as they are all blocked in Lake Nasser. Nonetheless, it is an impressive project.

The most interesting thing about the dam is what happened to the Philae islands around it. When Lake Nasser was created it not only flooded entire villages but also some temples and significant ancient sites, the most famous being the Philae Temple. After it flooded they left it underwater for a number of years until they discovered that it was beginning to get damaged by wildlife and that the paint was quickly deteriorating. As a result, UNESCO declared it a world heritage site and began the 8 year project of moving the entire temple piece by piece to its current location above water. To do this they tagged and numbered each individual stone which is still visible to this day.

That evening our boat took off toward Luxor. The cruise ship was decent sized although nothing compared to the big cruise ships in the Mediterranean or Bahamas. It had 3 floors including a pool on the roof and a nice bar/club/coffee shop to hang out in. There was also a massage parlor downstairs which we unfortunately did not have time to visit. We cruised on the Jamilia and it was all very nice. I would highly recommend it.

What made everything so wonderful though was really our tour guide Tarek. He was fantastic. We signed up for this cruise package through Memphis Tours online and they took really good care of us. We were Tarek's only customers so everything we did was our own special private tour and he was such a wonderful person and talented tour guide that we felt really lucky to have him with us. Each day we would stop and visit some temples along the Nile and they were all so fabulous and breathtaking that I don't have time to tell you every detail about each one.

In general though, I think the thing that amazed me the most was how well preserved everything was. On top of that it, was really incredible how passionate and friendly everyone was in Egypt. They deeply love their country and are so proud of their rich history and, being a country that thrives mainly on tourism, is full of friendly faces welcoming you around every corner. What was so interesting is that we didn't only see this from our guide and the people we encountered day to day, but you could feel it when you looked at the temples and all that the Egyptian civilization created. They were passionate and committed and worked extremely hard. Not to mention they were a brilliant people. It's incredible how they came up with so many practical and logical ways to do things.

To give you an idea of what we saw and learned, here is a link to understanding all the different parts of the temples and what they represented: Architecture of Egyptian Temples

Every temple, depending on the time period in which it was built, has similar defining

characteristics. Of the temples we saw, most were from the Ptolemaic Period and shared a similar layout. Also, there are a number of key stories and relationships between the gods and godesses who's images are drawn on the temple walls. Again, I can't explain it all here, but it was amazing how their writings and drawings were so easy to understand if you knew the stories. Everything was written with clear and purposeful symbols to communicate ideas visually so even the illiterate could read and understand the story. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Check out our pictures as we tried to capture all the detail, grandeur, passion, symbolism, and cleverness that the Egyptians had to offer. Not an easy task, but if you have some time to read the links in this post you might be able to decipher some of the patterns and details yourself.

We ended our cruise in Luxor with a trip to the Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, and the Valley of the Kings. The trip to the Valley of the Kings was interesting even though it, like everything else, felt a little more like Disney Land than an ancient wonder. There was a lot of standing in line and herds of people but once we got into the tombs it was really neat to see everthing painted and its hard not to imagine yourself as the first archeologist who stumbled onto this tomb full of treasure. They were of course all empty now as the contents were either stolen or moved to museums but it was still easy to imagine what it would have looked like in all its glory. We only had time to go in 2 tombs and ended up in Ramses IV and Ramses II. King Tut's tomb was there but we would have had to pay another 40$ to go in and we didn't feel like doing that. Maybe another time :-)

After our last meal on board the ship, we had an extra day to walk around the city and visit some markets and museums before heading to the airport. All in all we had a fabulous time and I would love to go back someday. I should mention that the next day and a half was miserable as our flight time was changed and we missed our international connection, had to buy new tickets and spend a night on the floor of the Cairo airport. Happy Easter. But I won't go into that because we left having a really wonderful time and some memories we will hold on to forever.

We took some video there as well and that is coming soon. Sorry for the long post but its hard to sum up 4000 years of history in a page. Hope I did it justice. Enjoy!

Here is a list of sites we saw if you want more info: Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, Lake Nasser High Dam, Philae Temple, Temple of Edfu, Temple of Kom-Ombo, Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, Colossi of Memnon, Valley of the Kings, Karnak Temple, and Luxor Temple

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K&E

Elizabeth's New Hobby

There are two things I have always wanted to do:

1. Learn how to use Photoshop
2. Scrapbook

Both are time consuming and often costly. Photoshop has a huge learning curve. Scrapbooking can cost excessive amounts of money because of all the books, papers, ribbons and embellishments to buy as well as all the photos to print.

So the other day at work, I was looking at a PDF document for Early Childhood standards, and some of the pages looked an awful lot like they were scrapbooked. It occurred to me there, must be a way to do it all online and hence my new hobby: Digital Scrapbooking.

I've been looking for something to do, other than watch TV and read books, since I just don' t do the same things here in India as I did in the States. I think this is the perfect thing! I've only just started, but am so excited that I get to do both the things on my list. I have found a great website called DigitalScrapbookPlace.com that has many free tutorial as well as some free page kits. So far I've learned just some basics but have had a lot of fun with what is available.

As I get more involved, I may decide to spend more money to take more intense classes or buying page kits, but for now, it's a free hobby. The other great thing about doing it digitally, is that you can spend $3 or $4 to buy "paper", "embellishments", "ribbons" and other items, and you get to use them over, and over and over again.

So here are the first few things I put together. Two pages and one "background paper" I created. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do:

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K&E

Holy HOLI!!!

It's time for another wild Indian festival and this time it's the spring festival of Holi. Of all the Indian festivals, this is one of the more well known and widely celebrated across the country. It is technically a Hindu holiday but is celebrated by all religions because its just so fun and centers around that universal idea of spring-time renewal and a time to wipe the slate clean. 

The basic story goes like this: There was a god of all the demons named Hiranyakashipu who had a son named Prahlada and a daughter named Holika. Prahlade was a firm believer in Vishnu which went against everything that his father represented so Hiranyakashipu tried to kill his son a number of different ways but was never successful. Now Holika had a special cloak that prevented her from being harmed by fire so Hiranyakashipu decided to sit Prahlade on his sister's lap and set them on fire in order to kill him. The plan didn't turn out as expected and Holika went up in flames and Prahlade survived. Because of this, every evening before Holi, families set large bonfires and celebrate the triumph of good over evil. The next day celebrated the renewal of the universe and all the positive wonderful things that flow through us, represented by a spectrum of color. 

The result is another joyous celebration full of life and energy, and in this case colored dyes and powders. People go out with squirt guns and water balloons full of colored water as well as bags of colored powder to try and color each other as much as possible. Although fun, this can be a pretty crazy and dangerous festival since: 

1. The goal is to attack as many people as possible so if you're outside, you are likely to be a target. 

2. Most of the dye comes from harsh chemicals that are often toxic and contain many dangerous ingredients

3. This is the only day of the year that marijuana is legal and is widely served in a pot-milkshake called a bhang lassi. 

Even so, it is a fun adventure and so friendly, joyous, and colorful, its hard not to jump in the fun. For the worriers out there, we did make sure that we were careful and took precautions not to get hurt which made it much more enjoyable and much less intimidating. 

We were lucky to have a day off from school today so we were able to celebrate (or avoid going outside, depending on how you look at it). We started our afternoon with a Kiara Holi party where the Stutz' brought down a bunch of water pistols, buckets, and some organic, non-toxic dyes and powders they had received through the school so we could be ensured that all the kids could participate with no worries. 

We went down to the pool and had a great time soaking each other and throwing 

around the colored powder. It was fun for everyone and the kids just hopped in the pool when they were done. We wanted to venture outside and check out the real deal so we hooked up with Dave and Martin and the 4 of us went out to brave the holi-day. It was nice to have the Kiara party right before so we were already wet and covered in colors before going out. 

We walked away from all the shops into some of the smaller backroads where there was a little more action. We made the mistake of going out unarmed so we quickly became easy targets. What was so surprising (and comforting) was how kind and gentle people were. It was very low key and nobody was really agressive or over the top. They would come up and greet us and spread some Holi love on our faces then give us a handshake or hug and wish us a happy Holi. This was very nice, especially since we were carrying cameras and obviously looked a little out of place. We did have some random drive-by attacks and various water balloons tossed our way but all in all it was surprisingly calm and people were very curteous. 

On our way back home we passed by an apartment driveway full of people celebratings so we decided to poke our heads in and see what was going on. Of course they welcomed us in and we all got some more coloring and friendly greetings. They even had some Holi sweets that they offered us and we got to hang out and talk with them for a bit. Its always fun to get out of the apartment and meet the people that live around us since we rarely get a chance to interact with people outside of our school. 

All in all it was a very entertaining day, even though we are all still a little stained from the dye. My face is still a little raw from all the scubbing. It will be fun to see who else comes to school tomorrow with a little Holi leftover on their face and hair. Our hope now is that it will all be scrubbed off before our big PTA gala this weekend. More to come on that later in the week (and hopefully some pictures of Elizabeth and her new hand tailored sari). 

Like I mentioned before, we did take our cameras out with us all wrapped in plastic but because of all the mess, it was tough to take lots of pictures so we have a collection of shots from our camera as well as from Dave and Martin. Its all up on Picassa so enjoy!

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K&E

Dunebuggies, Deserts, and Dromedaries...Oh My!

We are back from our 3 day weekend in Dubai and we had a fantastic time. First of all, THANK YOU TO KHALED for his generosity and willingness to put us up at his apartment and tour us around. We are so glad to have such great friends all over the world. So we left for Dubai on Friday right after school and arrived in the early evening. The flight is only 2 1/2 hrs and there is only a 1 1/2 hr time difference so it makes for easy travel to and from Mumbai. Our friend Khaled picked us up from the airport and was eager to show us his city. We weren't too exhausted and decided to go drive around a bit and check out some sites. We drove to the newly opened Dubai Mall (one of the largest in the world) and walked around a bit.

Now, when we say mall, don't think about your local mall. Think Mall of America in Minnesota with an ice skating rink and a giant aquarium. Oh, and five times the square footage with twice as many stores. Needless to say, being a mall-rat in Dubai means something different than any other part of the world. So we grabbed some Coldstone and went to check out the aquarium and the ice rink. We weren't expecting to see such crazy things right away so we unfortunately didn't have our cameras with us but here are some photos of the mall to get an idea of what it is like.

After a couple hours we finally hit the wall and headed back to Khaled's apartment to go to bed. The next morning we went

to brunch at the incredible Shakespeare & Co. Cafe located in the center of this peaceful hotel plaza with a wonderful view of the Burj Dubai Tower (The tallest structure in the world).

After a delicious breakfast we went to the old part of town to explore the historical side of Dubai.

We parked by the creek-side and wandered through old town for a while, venturing through the souks (shops) filled with rediculous amounts of gold and gems and other miscellaneous items. We had some trouble finding where we wanted to go but in the process got a great tour of the narrow roads, markets, and alley ways of old Dubai. We finally made our way to the Heritage House, a restored example of a traditional Dubai villa. Next to it was the first school ever built in Dubai, orginally holding nearly every child in the city for many years. Both buildings were simple yet elegant and the open design made it feel very comforting and relaxing. We toured through these buildings and the attached museum and displays which was a nice way to get a taste of tradition and culture in such a modern, commercial megacity.

We then took a boat across the creek to explore the Dubai Museum and some palaces and mosques on the other side. Again, we had a bit of trouble finding where we were going, but got another great walk along the water and some great pictures of both traditional and modern buildings in the area. We stopped in for some nachos at a little Mexican restaurant then headed over to the Marina and a visit to the Palm.

Now, if you're not familiar with Dubai, just picture the beach front mansions and hotels of Hollywood, Hawaii, or Florida combined with the shopping and towers of New York City smashed together with the glitz, glamour, and desert heat of the Las Vegas strip and you have a good sense of what it's like. The city is constantly under construction with billions of dollars spent on new hotels and skyscrapers. One of their most well knows achievemens is the Palm Islands and the World Islands. They reclaimed land off the coast to create new artificial islands in the shape of a palm tree and a series of islands resembling a map of the world. (See the sattelite image from google maps to really understand) The city is basically the world's shopping center and playground for the extremely wealthy.

With that in mind, we went down to the Marina which is a section of the city on the coast that is full of only hotels and privately owned skyscrapers and luxury apartments. The Palm is connected to this area and all of its branches are also privately owned luxury apartments and hotels. We went at night when everything was lit up and drove out on to the Palm to visit the brand new mega hotel Atlantis that just opened in September. It is located at the tip of the Palm and looks more like a man-made 8th wonder of the world than a hotel. For something really

crazy, check out the opening cerimony last September when they created one of the world's largest fireworks displays on the Palm. Khaled said you could hear it from miles away and anybody who is anybody was there to see it.

After the Palm, we headed back into town for some shawarma then off to the Global Village for some shopping. The Global Village is kind of like a huge county fair with rides and crafts and those types of things but instead of local arts and crafts they have buildings designated for merchants from all over the world. For example, there is an Egypt building and a China building, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, etc. etc. each with merchandise from their home country. Some of the stuff was really nice but the majority of it was plastic junk and stupid toys and things. There was a good deal of art, carpets, and handmade items however which made it a great place to get a bargain on some really cool items. We were lucky enough to be there on the last night before the merchants all packed up and went home, so we were trying to score a bargain on a nice rug although we were unsuccessful. All we came away with was some sand art and a decorative vase and light for our apartment. Even so, we ended up staying until 1:30 then headed home exhausted after a very long day.

On Sunday we slept in then went over to Emirates Mall for some breakfast and to check out the famous indoor ski slope. We had breakfast at this amazing French cafe called Paul's and ended up going there again the next day because it was so incredible. After some food we took a look at the ski slope which, although cool and inventive, left quite a bit to be desired. We didn't actually go in since it was crazy expensive and the slope is only 400m which takes about 20 seconds to go down. We walked around and took some pictures though as it is a really incredible feat of engineering.

We then headed out to meet up our guide from Arabian Adventures for a desert dinner and safari we had booked the previous day. We loaded up 6 people in a giant Chevy Tahoe and headed out to the desert where we were driven through the sand dunes to a desert camp for some dinner and entertainment. The ride was a blast as they went up and down the dunes. We got to see some great desert scenery and even a little bit of wildlife as we drove out to the camp. When we got there, they had a wonderful set up with tables and carpets, a stage, and lots of places to relax, talk, eat, drink, or smoke the hooka. We had a wonderful dinner while watching the sunset followed by a belly dancer and some star gazing. It was a really great trip and I think we were all impressed and had a fantastic time.

The next morning we went back to Paul's for breakfast then took a quick

trip to Jumeirah to catch some sites of hotels, souks, and get a glimpse of the famous Burj al Arab Hotel before heading home.

All in all it was a really busy but really fun weeekend and it makes us even more excited to do some more Middle East exploring in Cairo next month! Check out the photos and video from the weekend.

Hope all is well! Until next time...

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K&E