Sunday, October 17, 2010

Du-Bizzle

Last weekend, from October 7th to the 10th we had a long weekend off from school. We took the chance to get away to Dubai for the weekend and spend the time hanging out in a super clean hotel (I LOVE hotels. They are my respite.) and eating at various American chain restaurants around the big city.

We left Thursday, right after school, and made the 2+ hour drive to the city, along a beautiful mountain road that gives you a real glimpse of the landscape.

From rocky crags to giant sand dunes, camels to goats, this road has it all! We spent Thursday at one of the malls, eating Johnny Rockets, me and a friend got a mani/pedi (where we got to watch 3 episodes of FRIENDS, amazing), and checking out the Aquarium and the super huge candy store that had Hershey's products and Jelly Belly's!

We conked out in our beautiful (and inexpensive) hotel apartment that we were sharing with friends of ours. I usually take copious amounts of pictures of hotels that I stay at, but I was just so glad to have a bathroom with a light and a "hotel," bed, that I forgot.

My bad.

Friday, we woke up leisurely, swam in the rooftop pool, sent the men out to find food (they brought back Chili's!) and got cleaned up. We headed to another mall (my favorite "shopping," mall in Dubai,) to have PF Changs with some friends of ours who were in town from Vancouver!

We loved seeing them and getting a "taste of home." Somehow, anybody from a past "home," even if it was a place where we only lived for 4 months, was so refreshing!

Thanks Tim and Joan for taking time to come see us!
Saturday was supposed to be our last day in the city, but both couples were loving being there so much that we upped our stay one more night and took off after a swim to the Mall of the Emirates. We ate at TGIFridays and overlooked the famous indoor ski slope!

We're planning on going back for another long weekend in December, and I think we'll try our hand at skiing then! There's also a super cute "lodge," with a restaurant that we'll be visiting. So cozy, you'd never know you were in the desert!

We hit up a super huge sale at Borders where tons of books were on sale for roughly 2 US dollars. I got 4 Karen Kingsbury hardback books, and 3 softcovers for less than 20 bucks. That's amazing!

We got in our cars and drove straight away to another mall, which was much calmer. When I say "mall," people, you really have to understand. American, or Western style malls, have NOTHING on these Dubai malls. They are crazy huge. Insanely fancy. With TONS to do. Movie theaters, theme parks, rides, games, indoor sky diving places, arcades that could rival probably any arcade I've ever seen, ski slopes, aquariums, indoor water parks, and children's museums. These people have the right idea: If it's too hot to be outside, find things for people to do inside!

Although, this might be equivocated to child abuse:
Yes, those are giant soccer balls on a pool of water.
And yes, there are children inside them.
And yes, a hamster must have thought up this cruel joke.
This one mall, where we ate dinner at On the Border on Saturday night, had an outdoor canal that was lit up beautifully! In a couple more months, when the temperatures dip below, you know, 100, it will be wonderful sitting out here at night!


Saturday night we stayed up late watching the (old) movie Volcano (hahahaha) and playing cards with our friends.

Sunday morning came all too soon. We got up, got ready, and packed up. But not before taking a few pictures of the skyline :

See that tall spire in the middle? That would be the tallest building in the entire world. Crazy.

The pool and exercise room.
We met up with our Vancouver friends once more for lunch, at Uno's, then tried to find a pair of lightweight khaki pants for Ian. We failed but were successful in finding a suitable pair of leather flip flops to replace his nasty pair.

Last stop? Well that was to make a grocery run and stock up on all things meat and mexican. Our bill was a little over the top, but we got enough meat to get us through almost an entire month! Plus enough enchilada and taco fixings to boot!

A great long weekend in the big city! I can't wait to go again!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds like so much fun and the shopping malls sound crazy. I have to go one day!

Alison said...

Wow!! That is a pretty amazing mall! Sounds like ya'll had such a fun, long weekend! So glad ya'll got to do that! And I love seeing sweet Tim and Joan! I know it was so great to visit with them!!

Kelley said...

My goodness! this looks like so much fun!

katie said...

What a trip! Sounds like a packed and joyous three days! You must have some amazing stamina for being pregnant and all!

Brittany said...

Looks like a super duper cool place! I love the "balls" on the water! That would be so much fun!

I cant believe you are already 15 weeks! Its going so fast! Good luck lady!

Rachel and John said...

Amazing! It sounds like the perfect weekend! If must be really nice that even though you are over seas you still can find some American things.
And with all that other clothing on, do you die in the hot weather?

Anne @ Sincerely, Britches said...

Such fun! And great pictures! :)