Spring Break Dubai Style

Well, we now have officially entered into the realm of having less than 40 school days left in the year. I am kind of shocked as to how quickly this year has gone, and before I know it, I will be back in Minnesota. Hopefully by July when I arrive there will be no more snow!

We had our Spring break the first week of April, and I opted for having a Stay-cation. I really wanted to do some travelling, but decided to try to save a little money by sticking around. That kind of backfired because Dubai has a lot to do! I did some fun tourist type things that I wouldn't have time to do on a normal weekend. It was nice because there were a few of us here to hang out with.

We started off the break going on my first deep sea fishing extravaganza! It wasn't as deep sea as I would have liked it to be, but everyone caught a big barracuda and a few people caught some yellow spotted jack fish. We had an awesome barbeque later that day with our fresh catch. The barracuda isn't as good to eat, but the jack fish were delicious!

What's a little deep sea fishing without champagne? Katie and Peter having a glass. 

Katie's barracuda 

A few days later we decided to have our next animal encounter and headed to SkiDubai (indoor winter park at Mall of Emirates) to meet the penguins. This was fun and the penguins are such cute animals. Their feathers are very slick with the oil that  keeps them water proof and their wings are super hard, and basically are solid bone. They seemed playful, but a lot of them were molting, and so we didn't get to see and play with as many as usual, which was disappointing.

My coworker Deb (also my Math mentor) got married to her now husband Jason over the break. Deb has taught in Mexico, Japan, and the UAE, but is from Canada. Jason is from England, and met Deb shortly after moving to Dubai four years ago. Their wedding was truly an international affair with more than 50 people coming from all over the world. They had a beautiful ceremony and seaside blessing/reception on the Palm complete with ceremonial camels, of which I took my first camel ride that evening! 

Camel riding on the Palm! I felt like a rock star, especially in my high heels! 

Deb and Jason getting into their 'Groupon' limo after the ceremony!

Liwa Camping

This weekend we did a short one night camping excursion out to Liwa, UAE. It is down at the very border of UAE and it is desert for miles and miles. The dunes are huge and we packed up the Jeep and headed out for a night under the stars.

The Liwa dunes are a camper oasis as well as the fun driving and dune bashing. We saw plenty of dune buggies zipping around. What is crazy about the dunes is that they are huge but are surrounding salt flats. You can see from the satellite photo below what I mean. 

If you go directly south from point A about an inch, you'll see a large round salt flat. We camped about on this one. The white border line you see is the Saudi Arabian border.

The scenery was amazing, we saw a bunch of wild camels and met a few bedouin herders. It was nice to just camp and get out of the city and enjoy the beautiful weather. I couldn't get over how huge the dunes were, some of them were over 500 feet tall. Enjoy some of the pics.

Beautiful red sand dunes, going as far as you can see. 

Sunset in Liwa Dunes

Peter looks so small.

Climbing  up to the top of our dune. You can see the giant round salt flat below (where one of our cars was parked).

Shalene and the Liwa dunes

Starting to see the stars

Katie and Shalene getting a ride from a friendly bedouin camel herder. 

Shalene and the dune 

Peter at sunset

I'm gonna go to Greece, only got 20 Euro in my pocket....

Hey ya'll! 

Well, I am officially back from Greece, and have been for some time, however, only now have I unpacked my suitcase! The week was exhausting, but very enjoyable. It doesn't hurt that the trip was completely paid for and I managed to only spend about 140 Euro on gifts and souvenirs! The trip around Greece was mainly on the Peloponnese. This Greece was much different than I pictured.... the white washed cliffside houses with blue roofs. We all know that Greece. Annnnnd, because I didn't see that, I have resigned myself to the fact that I will just have to go back and visit the Greek Isles (sans children).

We had a great time, and the kids were wonderful for the most part. We arrived in Athens and found out that a Government Police escort had been hired to follow us the entire trip. After some phone calls to the Greek American and Canadian Embassies, as well as back to the Administration at ASD, we found out that no one knew anything about police escorts being hired. This means that some parent of a child personally hired Police escorts to remain with us throughout the entire week. Soooo, we have no idea who the particular child was that was being kept tabs on, but it became a running joke amongst the adults. Most of the kids were fairly oblivious to the fact that we had escorts, which was good to keep it that way.

Oh, Hey there Mr. Police Man....

We departed Athens the day after arrival to make our way to the Peloponnese.

In short here are the places we visited and some highlights:

• Corinth: where the amazing canal was cut to separate the Peloponnese from the main land, and where Paul preached and taught the ancient Corinthians. 

Corinth Canal

Agamemnon's tomb at Mycenae

• Mycenae: where an ancient civilization was, the tomb of the famous King Agamemnon is, and the best tasting fresh orange juice ever. This site also has something to do with the Battle of Troy and that famous horse... not too sure what though?

• Nafplion was a little seaside town and very cute. It has a giant fortress built by the Crusaders. 

• Epidaurus: where a natural amphitheater still resides. It could seat up to 60,000 people and has such amazing natural acoustics that have never been replicated to this day. 

"Give me your best thug-life face." - My chaperone group of great kids!

The left half of the Theater of Epidaurus. Acoustics are so good, I could hear those people talking clearly.

• Olympia: the site of the Olympic Games and the famous Temple of Zeus. We ran on the track and enjoyed the amazing feeling that so many of our athletic competitions were born there.  

Archway leading into the original Olympic stadium

Me being a ninja on the ancient olympic track.

• Delphi: where the famous Oracle resided and received her clairvoyant powers from getting stoned off of sulphuric gases coming through a fissure in the earth! (Don't do drugs, kids!) Ask her a question about your future and she would answer you in riddles and vague answers so that everything was open to interpretation and she would never be wrong. I didn't find out who my husband would be or if I would ever have my own reality TV series. Shoot. 

Delphi: An almond tree in bloom with the Treasury of Athens and the Delphi valley below

Me at Delphi

• The Acropolis and the Parthenon: Amazing. I never thought I would make it to see this place. Just an awesome experience and the view of Athens surrounding the Acropolis was something in itself. 

Me and the Parthenon

• The Temple of Poseidon: on a bluff overlooking the stunning Aegean Sea. We were able to just relax here while the kids sketched in their journals. There is something about looking out at never ending teal blue water that never gets old. 

Aegean Sea from Temple of Poseidon

• The Plaka: a famous walking only shopping district of Athens right below the Acropolis. Lots on little shops and a fabulous Gyro and gelato stand. All the Greek shopkeepers were so thrilled to have business in their winter season. 
• Running on the "modern"Olympic track, built in 1896 and birthplace of the Olympics as we know them today.

Zoom. I'm so fast. Not.

Standing on the medal podium after we raced. Thomas, me, Ahne, Sohpie, and Bernie. My colleagues are athletic. I got last place :(

• Tree planting in the hills outside of Athens. This area is recovering from wildfires, and for the past six years ASD has worked with a local company to come and plant tree saplings. We raised enough money for each child to plant two trees (about 250 trees total). The kids were awesome at this and really enjoyed working hard. The hillside we planted in was clay-like soil, and full of marble stone, and so the planting was rigorous work. 

We made it home safely and were greeted at the airport by the parents waiting anxiously. It was overall an amazing experience, and so awesome for the kids to see the places they had studied for the last month. I was so impressed by how much they knew of ancient Greece and Greek mythology. Check out some of the links and pictures! 

Greece! Opa!

This Thursday, the 21st of February, I am leaving for Greece with 120 6th grade students in tow! No, it is not a nightmare, but a tradition common in International Schools called Week without Walls. We take students to various parts of the world on week long trips that encompass parts of the curriculum being studied at their grade level. Our sixth grade goes to Greece every year as they study Greek mythology in their Language Arts classes and Ancient Greece in their World History classes. The seventh and eighth grade have about 6 trips per grade and are going all over from South Africa, to Nepal, to Tanzania, Cambodia and the Philippines, China and Thailand to name a few. I will definitely be letting you know what sights we see in Greece (we see a LOT) and be sure to try to share some of my better photos. OPA! 

Into 2013

Well, it has been a while since my last entry, and since then, I made the round trip to Minnesota and back and am finally fully recovered from the jet lag of Christmas break.

We ended the 2012 year in Dubai with our Christmas party at Dubai Creek golf club, and it rained! It has rained a few times here in the last two months, which I am told never happens. The most hilarious part about this is that there are hardly any drains or drainage system for the roads or car parks. So everything floods.

I made the trip home, and it was wonderful. I was so glad to see family and some friends. It was short and sweet, and really COLD! Thank goodness Katie and Garet's new house has a heated floor in the living room. I was so excited to be doing a few token things while back in the land of ice and snow. My list was completed by (in no particular order): 1. Eating Chipotle twice. 2. Going to Target a few times. 3. Going to Christmas Point with my siblings. 4. Eating at the Blue Door Pub, Muddy Pig, Punch Pizza, and Burger Jones, and drinking Summit Winter Ale. 5. Going to Mall of America (which has lost a little splendor since the malls in Dubai are insane). 6. Spending Christmas with family and seeing Owen really get into his present opening. 7. Knowing where I was going without having to read a map or use a GPS. Over all jet lag both ways sucked, but it was a great trip home.

Yesterday we went to Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championships. It is part of the European Tour's swing through the Middle East. Next weekend they are in Doha for the Qatar Master's (I'm going) and then they will be back in Dubai at Emirates Golf Club (of which I am also going). I might be a stalker. But I got some amazing pictures of Rory and Tiger and Martin Kaymer. It is really insane how close you can get to the players. I definitely could have touched all three of them several times, but I actually want to stay out of jail.

We then went around Abu Dhabi to the Corniche, which is a nice built up and landscaped path that goes all along one of the waterfront areas, and then went to Emirates Palace. It was so pretty all lit up. Check out pics below.

Corniche in Abu Dhabi

Water fountains at Emirate Palace and Abu Dhabi skyline

Cool water features

Some interesting park rules?

The dome ceiling inside Emirate Palace

Egypt for the long weekend

So, I apologize for the delay, but it has been a busy week since returning from Egypt. Here is a little overview of our amazing trip there.

We were able to go there because the UAE was celebrating it's National holiday. Happy 41st anniversary of being a country UAE, you sure do know how to celebrate. I don't have many pictures of the celebrations, but the patriotism here for this UAE is pretty unreal. People go all out and decorate their cars, and hang thousands of Christmas lights all over their houses. Companies and buildings hang giant giant giant UAE flags and the Sheik's faces are on every billboard! It was quite the spectacle even before we left, and it apparently got even crazier as we were away.

So we headed off to Egypt and got there in wee hours and headed to the hotel to pass out and get some rest for our big day ahead. I know I have said that the world's worst drivers are in Jordan, but I would like to take that statement back and claim that the world's worst drivers are in Egypt. I honestly think that they use their horns on their cars so much that the car horn will probably have to be replaced 5 to 6 times within the lifetime of their cars. SOOOO, I'm telling you this because this incessant honking never stops and was a rude wake up call well before the alarm went off. HONK! But, then again, I was pretty excited to go going to the Pyramids that day, so getting awake wasn't really an issue.

We hired a local man to take us to his friends guide service and also just to show us around Cairo later after the Pyramids. He had an amazing old Land Rover that we piled into and were off.

We got onto horseback and rode our winding way around the back of the Pyramids that morning. It was absolutely amazing and still surreal to think about. The most incredible part of this trip was the fact that there was almost no one else around, (because of the recent protesting that was happening in Egypt, it obviously was not the first place on many tourist agendas. While we were there, only peaceful protests were taking place, but after we left, some violence and rioting had occurred). I don't need to tell you how incredible the Pyramids were or are. Here are a few pictures though.

Approaching them from afar...

Nick, Katie, Me, Peter, Veronica, Kirsty

Climbing on them!

Nick

Some other tourists on camels looking toward Giza/Cairo

My horse was great until the very end where he got a little spirited. 

After a long day we cleaned up and did a little shopping and needed some food. We had our trusty driver/guide take us to "some place clean, with a view." Cairo and Giza are very dirty and have very terrible pollution. It was pretty gross, and sad to think about when they are the host city for something as amazing as the Pyramids. We ended up at this place with authentic and fresh seafood and a roof top view.

Our dinner time view at sunset

After a jam packed day, we boarded the overnight train to Luxor. This was a fun experience and it was cheap! We brought a bottle of wine and listened to music and got to relax and sleep and when we woke up we were in Luxor. Luxor is home to the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and other amazing sites. The Valley's are where the tombs are. These tombs were amazing and in incredible condition as they are so protected from the elements. We couldn't bring in our cameras, but we were able to see the tombs of Ramesses the Second, Ramesses the Ninth and Mentuherkhepshef (son of Ramesses the Second), which were all amazing. Click to learn more about the Valley of the Kings and see some images, since I don't have any.

We went to the Temple of Hatshepsut, which was a beautiful temple for the female Pharaoh. It was another "pinch me" moment on this trip, as I was just in awe of the architecture of this ancient civilization. Truly unreal. 

We trucked around and saw various other ruins and temples and all were spectacular and full of the beautiful hieroglyphics that you learn about in your world history classes. It is really cool to think about the fact that all of those symbols are documentation of what was happening at that time, and that it was so so long ago, and we are able to decipher what it says. Just really hard to even wrap your head around. Check out the pics below.

These amazing pillars were huge and there were 128 identical ones, down to the cm!

We ended the night in Luxor with a falucca ride on the Nile river, which is a sailboat. We didn't have too much wind, but it was so peaceful and the sunset was absolutely breathtaking. We all definitely needed the time to relax as we had had such a jam packed day going from place to place. After the falucca ride we found a rooftop restaurant with views of the Nile. 

Looking straight up at our falucca sail.

Another falucca on the Nile

Rooftop Dinner in Luxor. Veronica, Katie, Kirsty, Nick, Peter, Me.

Views of the Nile and foothills from our hotel balcony.

We hung out in Luxor and did a little shopping in the Souk the next morning and then headed to the airport where we grabbed a plane to Alexandria, where we were flying out of later that evening back to Dubai. On our way to the airport in Luxor we were in our tourist van with our guide and driver. We hit a major traffic jam which was happening because the locals were protesting in light of everything that has been happening in Egypt. The cars and trucks were all in line for fuel and so we decided to go around the fueling station on a back dirt road so that we could continue on to the airport. As we were coming around the fueling station we hit a mob of protestors who did not want to let us through. Our driver and guide got out and started arguing with them and becoming very animated and almost got into a major fight with pushing and yelling. It probably was because the protestors didn't believe that the driver was actually carrying tourists and was just trying to jump the fuel line and get fuel. I guess we will never know, but as they were finally letting us through, it was very nerve racking to drive through an angry mob of people peering into your windows, and having no idea what they might do. 

Besides that little scrum, the Egyptians were overly welcoming towards tourists, as much of their industry is based upon allowing people to come to these ancient places and marvel and spend money on gifts and what not. 

We made it up to Alexandria and had a few hours to kill before catching our return flight. We went to visit the Library there which is historically probably one of the oldest library sites in the world. Not that the building is old, but the place where the building is and the gravity of the history behind the Library of Alexandria is amazing. The Library was closed, so we could only see the outside. The architects did a really amazing job and the outside of the building has inscribed letters of symbols from every language ever known. It was pretty crazy to look at. I was really bummed we couldn't go inside. 

Over all, Egypt was wonderful, and I still have not had the reality sink in that I just spent a long weekend there. We saw so much and had a trip of a lifetime.