Happy Easter!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter.  Ben and I enjoyed our Easter in Dubai.  We don't have any Easter baskets, so I decided to hide some candy and little presents around the apartment.  So Ben had to hunt for his presents. We went out to the Lime Tree Cafe in Jumeirah.  The Lime Tree Cafe seems to be pretty famous here. I have read about it in all the tourism guides and multiple websites.  The food was wonderful!  They mainly have egg dishes, sandwiches, and salads.  They are especially famous for their carrot cake.  So after enjoying eggs florentine and a steak and gorgonzola sandwich, we took a piece of carrot cake home to have for dessert.

Just for fun, we colored some eggs.  We are not the most artistic people, apparently.

Then I made some varieties of egg salad with homemade mayonnaise.

Homemade mayonnaise

Plain egg salad with paprika, egg salad with sweet pickles, egg salad with yogurt and dill

For dinner I made butternut squash risotto, green bean casserole with homemade cream of mushroom soup, and Australian tenderloin.  Ben said it was the best meal we have had here!

Green bean  casserole

Easter dinner

I will post the recipes at another time, but for now it is time to go to bed.  Happy Easter everybody!

We moved!

Yay! Finally! We moved to the Sky View Tower in the Marina.  It's just a couple miles away from where we used to live, but it is so much better.  There is so much to do here- restaurants, bars, shops, and the beach!  Our apartment is also much bigger! We have a bigger TV room with a bigger TV.  The kitchen has a full fridge, 4 burner cooktop, an oven, so much more cabinet space, and a breakfast counter.  We also have a clothes washer AND dryer.  We have a balcony again, but this time we can use it and it has a great view up from the 15th floor!  We have wireless internet here so we don't have to split up time for who can use the internet (I always lost anyway since Ben was doing it for his job). So here are some nighttime pictures of our new place.  I'll post some pictures when the sun in still up on another day.

The entrance way.  There is a half-bath on the right on the way to the front door.

The living room.  Much bigger and a much better view.  I love that the kitchen opens up to it.

More closet space!

I can't even express how happy I am to have a bigger and better and more equipped kitchen!

Nice bathroom

Is is bigger or smaller that a breadbox?

Our balcony overlooks part of the marina.  We can see some pretty nice yachts from up here!

How many trashcans are there?

If that doesn't make any sense to you, here is the background story:

When I was young, my sister went away for summer camp one year.  My mom was helping me write a letter as I was too young to write.  The first part of my letter probably contained some of the typical questions: how do you like camp? do you like your bunkmates?  Maybe there was some information about what I had been up to.  Then my mom asked me what else I wanted to include in the letter.  And for some reason, I wanted to ask 'how many trashcans are there?'  It's kind of a weird question.  But i remember that my sister wrote back and had actually counted!

My sister had kept the letter and we found it years later.  We had a good laugh wondering why I cared about the number of trashcans at her summer camp.  But since then, when one of us goes on a trip we often either ask or tell about the number of trashcans.  Well,  I'm not sure how many trashcans are here, but I can tell you (and show you) they are quite pretty!  PS I looked like such a weirdo taking pictures of trashcans around the city.

It's my birthday and I can go to the beach, ride an abra, and dine in the tallest building in the world if I want to

Well this post is a bit late, but mainly because our internet is awful!  So here is how I spent my birthday abroad:

Birthday Breakfast

First Ben made a delicious breakfast of a variety of cheeses, fruits, and freshly baked bread.  We had brie, goat, feta, and cream cheese.  We also had strawberries, raspberries, grapes, and apple slices.  Since we can't get Champagne (but we did pick up raspberry vodka from the airport duty free) we ended up making breakfast screwdrivers instead of mimosas.  It was delicious!

Enjoying the weather and the view at Umm Sequim Beach

We then headed to Umm Sequim beach.  The weather was perfect!  It was sunny and just a little below 80*.  We also had a great view of Burj Al Arab.  The water was most certainly too cold to get in, but was beautiful to gaze at.

The Arabian restaurant on Dubai Creek

Arabian food

Fruit and ice cream. yum!

We then went to Dubai Creek for lunch.  We went to an Arabian restaurant and order some eggplant dip, bread, and kebabs.  It was very good.  It was nice to sit outside and watch the boats go by on the creek.

Abras on the Dubai Creek

One of many golden window displays

While buying a silk scarf, the guy somehow got Ben into this for a picture!

After that, we road on an abra, which was a crazy experience.  It was chaotic to the point of boats running into each other because they were either in a hurry or trying to be the next in line to seat customers.  We hung out at the gold souk for a while, tried on a couple things but did not buy anything yet.  We also visited a nice silk store.

We are standing close to the very bottom of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world

The Foie Gras

Next we needed to head to the apartment to freshen up and get ready for dinner.  We had reservations at the At.mosphere Lounge in Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.  We drank and ate on the 122nd floor!! They had very interesting cocktails and appetizers.  I had a balsamic strawberry martini and a honey apple with basil martini.  Odd, but tasty.  For an appetizer we decided to be adventurous and get the foie gras.  It was interesting... but I probably won't be ordering that dish again. anywhere.

The fountain from 122 floors up in the sky

Watching the fountain at ground level this time

The next amazing part of my birthday was watching the fountain outside of Burj Khalifa!  We got to watch it from the 122nd floor and then again on the ground right next to it.  It was so beautiful!

second dinner

We went to have drinks and light fare at a restaurant in a building that you can't even get to unless you have a reservation or live there.  We ordered artistic drinks and food.  But yet, we were still hungry afterward.  So what did we do?  We went to the food court at the Mall of the Emirates, which is connected to Burj Khalifa, and we got a BBQ pizza and fries.  Even funnier- our table/order number was 25! 


It was a fabulous birthday though I missed everyone back in the states!

Settling in

Well we have started getting used to our hotel and the area around it.  We know how to get to my school, to ben's work, to the metro, to the mall, and to the grocery store.

Our hotel apartment is working out pretty well, aside from a few unfortunate set back.  Plus side: has some kitchen equipment, fairly spacious, has a pool and a gym, and its right next to the grocery store and the metro.  Down sides: were are super far away from my school and ben's work, the internet has been really unreliable, the room keys repeatedly deactivate for no reason, the parking garage attendant cannot seem to remember us and will never let us in the parking garage.  So really the main downside is that its too far from where we need to be.  So we will be looking for some places that are in a better location.

Here are some pictures of our apartment:

The living room
  We have two small comfy couches and a TV.  Behind the window is a balcony that we off limits.  The balcony on the second floor of a hotel is too dangerous! Why did they build it?  We also have a breakfast table to the left (not in the picture).

Pretty nice bathroom

Kitchen/half of a laundry room
We have a sink, stove top, coffee pot, microwave, small fridge, some pots and pans (2 saute pans and two pots), minimal utensils (1 knife, 1 spatula, 1 large spoon); 1 clothes washer (but no dryer)

We were very happy to leave the cold weather!  The weather here is perfect.  That is, unless there is a sandstorm.   The first two days were 75-80 degrees and partly sunny to sunny.  Day 3 has been extremely windy.  A little wind on a 90-degree day would sound nice.   Until you realize all land that does not have a building on it has sand.  And that sand is very light and gets lifted into the air with the smallest effort from Mother Nature.  So the scenery today: not so great.  The skyscrapers are completely blocked from view unless you are up close to it.  Even the sun looked like it was hiding behind a cloud.  Walking to and from the metro I got sand in my eyes, my ears, my hair, my clothes, everywhere! It was not very pleasant.  Hopefully the sand storm will pass soon.  See the difference:

Burj Khalifa on a mostly clear day

Burj Khalifa on a sandstorm day
(and this was taken closer to the building than the other picture)

 

The ride over to Dubai

Have you ever flown Qatar Airlines? Well, I never had until this trip and I am impressed. They’re meals consist of an appetizer, main course, and a dessert. They give everyone hot towels, not just those in first class. They passed out candy and ‘refreshing towels’ multiple times. It also has free booze for the whole trip! They also handed out a pouch containing socks (how thoughtful!), sleeping mask, toothbrush with toothpaste, and earplugs. They give you everything you could possibly need! As an extra bonus, we got ice cream in the middle of the night!

The bag containing socks, toothbrush with toothpaste, earplugs, eye mask, and refreshing towels

I thought 13 hours on a plane was going to be the worst thing ever. But luckily, Ben and I both slept for most of the plane ride. Unfortunately, that does make it more difficult to get on the right sleep schedule in Dubai. I am actually writing this right now to keep myself awake because 5 minutes ago I was falling asleep watching TV. And now it is time to go cook dinner. We’re having chicken kabobs with rice and salad. Luckily we have some pots, pans, and a stove so we can cook our own meals.

The day has finally come!!!  Tonight, Ben and I leave for Dubai!  How does a person pack for a 3 month trip?  I found myself asking weird questions like "how many Q-Tips does a person use in 3 months?" Hopefully I have thought of everything, but  I'm not really sure how prepared a person can feel about going to live in a foreign country for 3 months.  Well, I am off to pack just a few more items before heading to the airport.  My next post will be made from my apartment in Dubai and , of course, will have some pictures!